Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Panama, January 30, 1991 (Originally In English)

Q: If we get everything from our Master, is practicing our meditation the best way we can compensate?

M: Yes, that's the only work you can do for the world, for yourself and for the Master. The more you meditate, the more wisdom you have, the more peace you feel, and the more detachment you grow into. You live in the world, but you don't feel attached to the world. And you forgive people easily, because you're contented within. Before initiation or before practicing meditation, if some people scolded you once, you felt very upset or angry, but now sometimes you don't care that much. Sometimes you just smile away. Maybe you react, but not with anger like before. Sometimes you might pretend to be angry just to suit the circumstance, but you're not truly very deeply hurt like before. Sometimes you might cry, you might laugh like before, but your crying and laughing are not the same anymore, not so deeply emotional. We cry and laugh just like it rains -- it must rain or it must shine -- without attachment. Even if we have anger or an emotional upheaval, it's just very short. Not so long, many days like before. If you feel this, that's the mark of your success in meditation. That's a great improvement. Not vision, not magical power, not riches, not healing powers and all those sorts of things. No, these are not important. Love is important. If you feel your love inside that emanates toward all beings, you feel peace within yourself, that's what's most important.

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Surabaya, Indonesia, March 19, 1997 (Originally In English)

Q: In one of Your video cassettes, I heard about Emerson, an American philosopher. He said, "It's a difficult thing to reach God-hood on this plane." I don't understand if this is against what You're talking about.

M: No!

Q: Then You said, "Let God do the business." And "let God do everything for us, through us." What I need is Your guidance. Thank You.

M: He said "difficult". He didn't say "impossible". Of course, it's difficult to reach God. That's why we need the guidance of a master and blessing from the Master power. And after that we should let God bless and guide us, and do everything through us, instead of doing things with the ego. Everything is correct the way I said it; there's nothing contradictory. It's just that you understood it differently. It is not that it's different. Emerson said, "A big burden will fall from our shoulders if we let God run the universe." Most of us run the universe. We worry about this, we take care of that, and we don't rely on God's power. That's why we exhaust ourselves without much success. So, if we do things to our best ability, and let God arrange whatever the outcome will be, then we won't feel so hurt, so disappointed, and so tired. That's what he meant. Are you satisfied?

Q: This is confusing to me, Master. I have a lot of expectations that God should run all these things. But I facing all these troubles, and it has not been lightened, and it is a burden for me. I'm expecting God to do that for me.

M: Oh! It's not that you're expecting, you're dictating to God what to do. And Hes won't listen. Obstacles and troubles are there for you to overcome. But God will dictate the outcome. You have to always try your best. But don't expect anything. That's the best. That's the proper way of expectation.

If you expect and say, "God, I'm putting one hundred dollars here, and I want to get one thousand dollars tomorrow." That won't do. You expect too much. Most of the time, we do things and we expect the outcome to be like this or that. But it doesn't come out like this, it comes out like that. Then we feel disappointed, sad, hurt. But it may be that this is good. Maybe the third outcome is better than the first or the second that we expected. We don't know. We should just try our best, and when our conscience is at peace we can say, "Okay, I tried my best." And if the outcome doesn't suit our taste, just let it be. Then that way, you don't feel burdened. You don't feel exhausted. You don't feel hurt. You might still feel hurt, but in the end we realize it's best for us whatever happens.

I've told you many stories about surrendering to God's will. Remember the Indian story about the person who came to take refuge in a house, during a wartime bombing. And the family members -- the owner and the other members -- just pushed him out into the street again. They didn't let him stay in their house and take refuge. So he had to get out and meanwhile blamed God for not protecting him. But as soon as he got out of the house, the house exploded. A bomb dropped right onto the house. He was the only one that survived, after being kicked out. So we never know what's good for us. It's better to just try our best and accept whatever comes. But you always have to try your best. In that way you'll rest in peace and you'll know you have tested your strength and wisdom.