Master's Words

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Tainan, Formosa February 21, 1993 (Originally In Chinese)

That is how most of you fail. You withdraw when you are faced with responsibilities; you find an excuse to slip away, talk about something else, or pretend not to understand. People become annoyed and drop the idea of using you, just for instance, and then you succeed in escaping. However, what have you escaped from? You are not only avoiding doing the job, you are also missing an opportunity to learn. Sooner or later, you will still have to learn the lesson, and it will be more difficult then.

Suppose you do not study well in elementary school, then it will be increasingly difficult for you to study in high school. You will fall further behind in your studies and become unhappy. That is why some students take their lives by jumping from great heights or into the sea. They play truant and run away from home because they cannot keep up with their studies.

This is why people suffer in this world. Instead of working hard to help ourselves clear our obligations and karma, we always want to slip or run away. But we can never escape! We will come back in the next lifetime, when we will find the lessons more difficult and we have heavier interest to pay. We will be more frustrated, troubled, and agonized. We will not be able to handle it, and will bring harm to our body, our life and things that we cherish and like.

Do you understand why life is so painful? You are the one who created the miseries! The saying "we create our own frustrations" is so true. We not only bring trouble to ourselves, we also cause trouble for anyone who is related to us. That is why we have individual karma as well as collective karma.

If we truly love the world and want to deliver sentient beings, we must first perfect ourselves. Ancient sages were correct in saying: "Cultivate yourself, stabilize the family, manage the country, and then pacify the world." They did not elaborate in detail, so you just read and recite the saying without realizing anything. You do not digest and absorb the powerful truth behind the statement. Therefore, although people recite the scriptures, chant the Buddha's name, or whatever, they still remain ignorant.

This is also true with my teachings; if you do not cherish and practice them sincerely, you will remain the way you are. Maybe you will be a little bit different -- now you cross your legs every day and have become a vegetarian. Perhaps your thinking has become a little bit arrogant, "I am a spiritual practitioner." That does you more harm than good. You must be cautious. This is not good enough for spiritual practice.

You must truly be one hundred percent honest with yourself. We have to know our faults, but that does not mean feeling inferior or miserable. Once we recognize our faults, we should rectify them as best as we can. To make a mistake once is enough; do not repeat the same mistake. This way, we can get rid of a fault each time. By eliminating one or two faults each day, we really could become faultless one day!

Faults are not that bad, but they hinder us from becoming a perfect being. If we keep making the same mistakes, there is no time for us to practice our good points. This is the problem, not others' criticisms. We are the masters of our own life, and it is up to us to be good or bad. So we should choose that which is better for us. If we are busy making mistakes and then correcting them, that is, if one mistake needs to be rectified several times, then we will be completely occupied and have no time to learn better lessons. This is why faults are detrimental to us. I wonder if you understand or not. Sometimes you understand at the moment, but go back to your habits the next day. Just try your best!