To
comply with your request, I'll explain more about the commandments.
The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me.
When people follow Buddhism, they need to keep a similar precept.
The master will demand the disciples to vow, "From now on, I follow
the Buddha, the noble teachings and the practicing assembly. I won't
follow any immortals, celestial beings, gods, ghosts or any other
beings." That means the same thing! Following the Buddha is the highest
level, that is, the level of supreme enlightenment or the level of
God. The noble teachings come from the Buddha, as only the noble teachings
spoken by a Buddha are the true teachings. So they are also the supreme
teachings. The practicing assembly is also developed by the master.
People in the practicing assembly are the children of the Buddha or
the children of God. Therefore, they're the supreme sentient beings.
Of
course, it wouldn't be good for us if we go in the direction of an
inferior level. For instance, if we want to make a friend, we should
find the best person; or if we're going to elect a king or a president,
we should go for the best, the most virtuous and the wisest person.
If a bad president is elected -- we wanted the best president but
we voted for an inferior person -- it's of course no good for us!
Similarly, if we want to worship, we ought to worship the supreme
and the highest God. It's not right if we worship demons and deities
such as local gods, water deities, mountain deities, a sun god or
any other gods, because their powers are all limited.
Only
the Supreme God has the supreme and boundless power. No matter whether
you venerate Hirm as the Supreme God, the True Lord or the Buddha
power, Hes is the highest. You should understand inside that Hes is
the supreme power of the universe. So you shouldn't bow down to local
deities or local gods, or it would be no good for you. Therefore,
the Lord said, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me. Hes wasn't
being autocratic, but only speaking the truth.
For
instance, since we have a president in our country, we may just as
well respect him. Why should we pay respect to a false president or
a presidential candidate as our president? Even if such a person claims,
"I'm the president. I would like to be the president," but he hasn't
been elected. If we pay respect to him as our president just because
he says that he would like to be one, is that appropriate? If we entrust
our feelings and our political opinions to him and ask him to manage
the national affairs, for sure it's not appropriate! We already have
a president who was elected by the people. We know that he's the best
and superior. So we may just as well support him. Therefore, when
our president tells us, "I'm the president, the chief official of
the country. Don't listen to any other president. Listen to me only."
Is it appropriate for him to say so? (A: Yes) Similarly, God also
told us to worship Hirm only.
In
fact, God is the inner Master, the highest power. Hes had been taking
care of those Israelites' ancestors for many lifetimes until the time
of Moses. This was because their ancestors practiced the Quan Yin
Method, which had incredible power! Even after many generations, God
still continued to take care of their offspring. Since Hes had been
taking care of them so meticulously, Hes had the right to say, Thou
shalt have no other gods besides Me. When the Israelites as well as
us happen to meet God, the inner Master, who takes good care of us,
of course we should worship Hirm only and not seek elsewhere. When
the Lord told Hiers people, Thou shalt have no other gods besides
Me, it was not for Hiers own benefit! Hes knew that it was good for
the people who worshipped Hirm. The more the people worshipped Hirm,
the better they would be. It was not due to Hiers arrogance, but Hes
told the truth for the benefit of the people.
Similarly,
those who have children take care of their children in every possible
way every day. The children get whatever they want, including an allowance
for school. Their parents also take care of their physical health,
cook nutritious food for them, and prepare sufficient clothing for
them. If the children then take the people next door as their parents,
there must be something wrong! Those people have nothing to do with
the children and they didn't even give the children a dime or a set
of clothes. They don't love and care for the children. So the children
can't just take whomever they like as their parents simply because
of a similar outward appearance. Only their real parents are their
parents!
Therefore,
if our parents tell us, "You should only take us as your parents,
not anyone else," they aren't being arrogant. They are saying this
for the good of their children. If we always go to our neighbors,
today this neighbor and tomorrow that neighbor, to take them as our
parents, what will happen to our physical health? What will happen
to our identity? Then even our real parents can't take care of us,
because we aren't around. So this won't be good for us.
God
loves Hiers people just like parents love their children. So, Hes
tells them to recognize Hirm, and believe in Hirm, and only then will
everything be fine. This is Hiers intention.
Sometimes, a master
tells us to believe in him, and pray to him in any situation, but
not pray to any other gods. This is for our own good and he knows
that he can give us everything. If we go to someone else, we won't
get anything but will waste our time and miss the opportunity for
the master to take care of us. That's why he tells us, "It's enough
for you to believe in me only. Don't believe in anyone else." He isn't
being jealous. Why should he be? The whole universe belongs to him.
He can get anything that he wants. So why does he have to compete
with other people and be jealous? Whether we believe in him or not,
he won't lose anything, because we're his in the first place, just
like we're our parents' children. Our parents don't need to compete
with others for this, because it is the fact! However, if some children
don't recognize their parents, they may have hard lives, which is
no good for them. They may not get the legacy, and their parents may
not be able to look after them. If they're never around, how can their
parents take care of them? They don't know the children's whereabouts.
So it's bad for the children, but not for the parents. (Applause)
When
we follow a master, we know that he'll take care of all our major
and minor things within and without. Therefore, when he tells us to
believe in him, it's easily understandable. The more we believe in
him, the more opportunities he'll have to take care of us. He tells
us so only for our own benefit. If we're ignorant, we'll think that
we belong to ourselves and have nothing to do with him. However, he
knows clearly that he has affinity with us. We're just like insensible
children.
Sometimes when parents
are strict with their children, their children will get upset and
run away, thinking that their parents don't care about them and don't
love them. This isn't true! Parents are strict only for the good of
their children. They know that their children are related to them.
They know that they want to take care of their children out of love.
They wish their children to be brought up well. However, children
may not understand this. So they may run around, blame their parents,
and do strange things that make their parents worry and make it hard
for the parents to look after them.
The
same thing applies to God (or a master) and Hiers disciples. God clearly
knows that we're Hiers children and Hes ought to look after us. Hes
will do anything that we want Hirm to do. But it's us who don't understand
this. We think that we have sovereignty and we take care of ourselves.
So we make a mess. The more we do, the more trouble we make. We're
just like a child who tries to take care of himself when he hasn't
grown up yet and has no wisdom, intelligence and ability. The more
he messes around, the more upset he'll feel and the further away he
is from his family. This will only make his life more dangerous and
difficult, and make his parents worry more about him. Therefore, we
should recognize God and believe in Hirm, because Hes is our supreme
wisdom! Hes is no stranger; Hes is our most beloved kin. If we reject
Hirm, go out to worship wooden Buddhas, mountains, deities or ghosts,
we'll only become more upset. This is all because we have forsaken
Hirm, rejected Hirm, and won't let Hirm take care of us.
I
teach you meditation to find your own nature. I want you to recognize
your own God and wisdom, and let Hirm appear to you so that Hes has
opportunities to guide you and make your lives more bright and comfortable.
That's why I tell you not to worship the outer deities, ghosts or
Buddha statues. All statues are useless! The Buddha is in our hearts
and God is within us. If we don't look for Hirm inside, where else
can we find Hirm? All methods of seeking outside are wrong. (Applause)
So I don't have to tell you a lot to get you to understand.
Here
the Lord said, Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me. Hes was right!
Worship "Me," the inner wisdom, not any idols. What Hes said was correct!
Hes didn't try to intimidate people. Hes is indeed the supreme, the
greatest and the highest. Hes doesn't need anyone to worship or admire
Hirm. If we recognize Hirm and believe in Hirm, it's only our good
fortune. Hes teaches us only because of our suffering and our sincere
prayers. So Hes says, "All right! If you want to feel good, want comfort,
and to be wise, intelligent and relaxed, believe in Me and worship
Me only. Then you'll be fine."
God
didn't force anyone. Hes only spoke the truth. Apart from the truth,
what can you tell your child? You can't, only out of politeness, tell
your child, "All right! It's fine whether you recognize us as your
parents or not. You can go next door and take the people there as
your parents." Can you tell your child that? If he does what you tell
him, he'll go astray, live a difficult life, wander around, and have
no money and no food, and no one will take him as their child. People
usually don't take care of other people's children. Although he may
get food and clothes in an orphanage, he won't have a comfortable
life, family feelings and the pampering love of real parents. Humans
not only need food and clothes, but also the love of the parents.
If children are brought up by their neighbors and have no relationship
with their parents, they'll look dull when they grow up.
Due
to love for their child, parents should clearly tell him, "You're
my child. If you leave home, you'll have a hard time. If you want
to have a comfortable and nice life, just trust us and let us take
care of you!" Do parents have to be polite or feel embarrassed to
say that? When we tell the truth without being arrogant, we shouldn't
feel embarrassed.
Sometimes when you
hear what I say, you think that I ought to feel embarrassed, but I
don't. I would feel afraid and embarrassed if I were deceiving you.
Could I deceive so many of you? No way! Some of you are teachers,
doctors and business people with high IQs. I couldn't deceive you
for long. So I just tell you the truth. Since I tell you the truth,
it's all right whether you believe me or not. I won't feel embarrassed.
If we want to be good to a person, we should always tell the truth.
Only when someone has a bad intention for others, then he will speak
cautiously.
Master
Says
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Besides Me
Keep
The Commandments In Order To Become Special Friends Of The Lord