We've
gone halfway through the second commandment, which is, Thou shalt
not make any graven image; thou shalt not bow down to it. Why was
God especially concerned about these things? Because human beings
have intelligence, wisdom and the ability to do things. So if we worship
a piece of wood or a stone which doesn't move and has no consciousness,
aren't we being very dumb? Then why do some people still do it and
think that they're fine?
The father of our
nation, Dr. Sun Yet-Sen, was wise. No wonder people all revere him
as a national father. He broke a wooden statue and asked people why
they said that it was the Buddha, didn't he? (A: Yes!) I think that
he was great. A person who has wisdom possesses strong charisma. No
wonder he succeeded and is venerated by people until today. We can't
envy him, because he deserved it!
I
heard that he saw Quan Yin Bodhisattva when he went to Putuo Mountain.
This indicates that he had faith and was pure. He was a Catholic.
If he had been attached to the Catholic idols, he would have seen
only Jesus Christ. Since he saw Quan Yin Bodhisattva, it meant that
he had no discrimination and was really pure. Hence, the Bodhisattva
didn't discriminate against him, "It's all right that you worship
Jesus Christ. I'm just appearing to you to let you have a look." This
indicates that he was very pure and was a very good person.
Of course, he had
taken part in battles and possibly killed some people, but that was
inevitable. I've told you that you should apply the precepts according
to the situation! If you're a soldier and you have to kill the enemy
to defend your country or due to your national law, then you don't
commit a crime. Even if you kill a hundred people, you don't commit
crimes or break the precepts. However, if you only injure a person
due to personal animosity, you incur heavy karma. It's because of
your intent to kill. But soldiers are different; they're compelled
to do it, so they don't break the precepts.
Therefore,
you can't judge yourself by how many times or how badly you've broken
the precepts, how many people you've killed, or what your morality
is like, but by the situation and your intention. We can't only look
at actions. Sometimes, it's very difficult for ordinary people to
judge others. We have to be very careful distinguishing between good
and bad. Otherwise, we always misjudge. When we see that a person
kills, we say, "Oh! He's bad!" When we see a person donating money
to build a temple or a hospital, we say, "Oh! He's good!" It's not
necessarily true! We don't know where his money came from and what
the intention is of his donation. He may want to become famous or
get other things by donating the money. In that case, he won't gain
any merit by his action.
If
we worship an image, it means that our level is too low to be repaired,
that we have no wisdom and no ability to make a judgment, and that
we don't know that the image is only made of a piece of wood. If we
worship this piece of wood, it would be same as worshiping any piece
of wood. Then it'd save the time and effort of carving and painting
as well as the money. To worship an image means that we can't tell
good from bad, don't know where our wisdom is, and don't understand
what's recorded in the scriptures, that "The Buddha is in our hearts"
or "God is within us." We just ignore the scriptures, ignore the teachings
of all the masters, and ignore the words of God and the saints. We've
gone too far and been too ill! Even if we have a little bit of wisdom
left, when we bow down to an image, our wisdom is gone.
There
is an Indian story. A woman acknowledged a master. Once she saw her
master appear to her inside, and she was very happy. However, when
she mixed with other people, she forgot about it. Hearing people making
pilgrimages to mountains and rivers, she followed them. One day, she
was ill and wasn't healed after she prayed to her master. Perhaps
her master deliberately let her become ill in order to erase her bad
karma. But she blamed her master for not helping her. So she worshipped
images! There are many gods in India. If you go there, you can see
all kinds of big gods, small gods, medium gods, fat gods and thin
gods. So she just bowed down to them. Before that, she could see her
master appear to her for a while. But after she bowed down to the
images, her master disappeared.
When she came home,
she thought, "How strange! How could this happen? The master was there
a moment ago. But as soon as I bowed down, he disappeared." She felt
sad and kept thinking about it for several days. She didn't want to
eat, but meditated, demanding her master to appear to her and explain
why he had suddenly left her. (She blamed her master again.) Since
she was quite sincere, her master was moved, appeared to her, and
told her, "When you worshipped the wooden statues, you degraded me
to be even lower than they were! So I didn't have a place to stand.
Since it was too low for me to stand, I had to run away."
Why
are we called "human beings?" Because we're different than animals.
We can distinguish between good and bad, high and low, moral and contemptible.
We have the ability to make our own choices. Animals are different.
They'll become whatever they are trained to become. Even tigers can
be tamed to behave like cats by people in the circus. Lions and elephants
can also be trained to do whatever they're told to do and dare not
resist. In this respect, animals are rather stupid, and they can easily
lose their independence.
Human
beings aren't like that. Sometimes even when people are imprisoned,
they'll try to escape. When they're oppressed, they'll try to resist.
When they're wronged, they'll try to clear themselves. This is because
human beings have wisdom. If our great wisdom has been deceived and
becomes confused so that we worship the statues of ghosts and deities,
of course we'll become the most miserable and drift too far away from
God! It's stated very clearly in the Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha
is in one's heart, and you can't perceive the Tathagata (Buddha) through
tangible light and sound. Rather than worshipping tangible forms,
it's more meritorious to go home and worship our parents. This is
the truth.
If
you like to worship, go home and worship your parents. They're living
Gods and they have God's nature within them. If you break wooden statues
to have a look, you won't find anything inside them. Even if your
parents are ignorant and haven't recognized their God nature, at least
they have God's nature within them. It's just that they don't know
about it. However, there's nothing inside wooden statues! If you truly
want to worship wooden things, just worship trees. At least there's
a little bit of God's power inside living trees. Without God's power,
nothing can go on living. So if we worship dead wood, a material form
of a very low level, of course our wisdom and level will be degraded
to an inconceivably low degree.
Therefore,
God particularly reminds us to be especially cautious! Hes keeps telling
us not to create images and worship them. This is because Hes is very
compassionate and wants us to preserve the tiny bit of wisdom remaining
in us. If we keep on worshipping images, we'll be finished! Our tiny
bit of wisdom can be developed or be destroyed. When we're with spiritual
people and wise friends, our wisdom will glow more brightly and develop
more. But when we're with ignorant people and follow them to worship
images, we'll be contaminated and pulled down by them and our level
will be degraded further. The Lord wanted Hiers people to avoid this
undesirable situation, so Hes told them not to do such things; because
if they did, the tiny bit of wisdom that they had would disappear.
Suppose
you have a little money left. If you save it, you can use it to buy
bread. However, if you're cheated by people and use the money to buy
stones, you'll lose the money and then starve to death. Besides, you'll
have to carry the stones and become more exhausted. You're tired already,
and yet you have to carry the stones. How can people be so stupid
and be cheated to such an extent? How can stones be edible?
Therefore, your
parents advise you not to buy stones and save your money, because
they know that this is all you have. If you save it, you can sustain
yourself for a while and think of a way later. Perhaps when you have
regained your strength, you can find a job. But if you use it to buy
stones, you'll be finished. You're weak and hungry already, but you'll
have to carry the stones; then how can you survive? You'll die immediately!
Similarly, when we worship images, we're incurable! Unless someone
quickly pulls us up and imparts to us the superior wisdom, then we'll
be cured; otherwise, we keep sinking down.
Yesterday,
I let you watch a documentary film, which was about a group of people
in India, how they make pilgrimages to mountains and rivers, how sincere
they are when they bathe in the Ganges, and how sincere they are when
they worship gods. However, you can see that the population in India
hasn't decreased, but it's increasing, instead. And they're getting
poorer. This is because they apply their sincerity in the wrong place!
Therefore, before,
when I saw them doing such things, I got furious. I kept scolding
as I came down the Himalayas. (Laughter) I wasn't satisfied to scold
by myself. So I told some monks about it and let them scold with me.
(Master laughs.) I was angry with those gods! I pointed at their noses
and scolded them fiercely. Of course they didn't hear me; I was only
venting my wrath. They were made of wood, so how could they hear me?
I knew that very well, but it's just that I was really mad.
I saw that millions
of people were being deceived, and had wasted a lot of effort, vitality
and money, as well as risked their lives to climb up to the summit
just to make a bow. They didn't know whether they would be able to
make it home alive, because the road was very dangerous. Some people
were very poor. They could only borrow or earn just enough money for
the trip and they would have no money after they returned home. In
order to gain merit and to worship the wooden statues, they had to
come a long way. Sometimes, they had to walk on foot and their soles
cracked and bled. Some of them were too poor to have shoes, so they
had to walk barefoot on the icy road. I cried when I saw that! Innumerable
people were deceived. Even though they were sincere, it was useless.
If
we have no spiritual friends, our wisdom will become smaller and smaller
and gradually disappear. Then, we will transform into animals, plants,
stones or minerals. The less wisdom we have, the lower our status
will be; while the more wisdom we have, the higher our status will
be. It's similar in society. If you're more knowledgeable and more
intelligent, your work is more effortless, your social status is higher,
your job is better, and you can make more money. But if you have no
knowledge, aren't intelligent, and have no ability, you have to do
low level work. The lower level your work is, the more toilsome it
is and the less the money you'll make.
A
similar situation happens in the universe. If we have more wisdom,
we'll become superior sentient beings; conversely, if we have less
wisdom, we'll become inferior beings. Therefore, due to differences
in wisdom, there are all kinds of sentient beings in the world, including
insects, frogs, animals, cows, human beings, immortals, enlightened
beings and God. We should aim to go upward instead of downward, because
we'll suffer more on lower levels. It's not that we're afraid of anything,
but that if we have a choice, why choose to suffer? If you choose
to suffer for the benefit of others, like what I've told you earlier
today, I agree with you. However, if you choose to suffer not only
alone, but also involving your offspring of five or six generations,
I'd beg you not to do it!
I've
chosen this hard path and I'm willing to stay here, because of other
people's needs, and because I want to make them happy and encourage
them to pursue spiritual practice and rise to higher levels. Therefore,
I willingly take on this hardship. If I had chosen the hardship because
I liked it, it would be different, understand? (Applause.) Our world
is very painful already. So if you can choose happiness, just do it.
Don't say, "Since Master has chosen hardship, we should do the same."
Then you're being too stupid! If we can make many people happy by
our individual suffering, it's worthwhile. However, if we deliberately
look for suffering, we're idiots just like committing suicide, which
isn't good!
Master
Says
We've Gone Too Far Away From God If We Worship Graven Images Of Hirm
Keep
The Commandments In Order To Become Special Friends Of The Lord