refrain
FROM TAKING THE LIFE OF SENTIENT BEINGS
(INCLUDING BY BEING A VEGETARIAN)
Refraining
oneself from killing also means not eating animal flesh because although
we do not kill it ourselves, others have to kill so we can eat it.
This is indirect killing. If we cannot keep the five commandments
we cannot be born as human beings again.
Whenever
we eat meat, it is unavoidable that some of the hatred, anger and frustration
in the animal's heart caused when it departed, will be imprinted upon
our consciousness, and then we will feel uneasy inside. Therefore, when
we sleep at night we have nightmares, when animals see us they are frightened
of us and run away. And when we are sick, it is difficult to heal ourselves
because of all this hatred, this angry atmosphere which hangs around
the meat that we eat.
..........
We
respect all lives in the creative Plan of God. We can see by ourselves
that all lives resist suffering and resist death. Therefore, when we
kill or see animals being killed, they are suffering and they try to
run away. That means God empowered them with the instinct of wanting
life. If we interfere and force their lives away, we interfere with
God's will. We should treat every being in the same way as we ourselves
like to be treated. Then our lives will be blessed with grace, with
longevity and with wisdom. 'As you sow, so shall you reap.' Then we
will never blame God for any misfortune. The more we cultivate, the
better we become in speech, in body and in mind.
..........
So,
we are all from God. All of creation are from God, including the trees
and animals. This is beyond argument. No philosophy can argue this truth.
Who else except God, the Lord of all of creation, could have created
us? Therefore, we are very precious.
Since
we are all God's children, we have more reasons not to torture our brothers
and sisters, including the animals. They are our younger brothers and
sisters with weaker and younger souls. They have not yet developed themselves
to the level of humans. We observe a vegetarian diet out of compassion.
We cannot bear to see them suffer. Though we do not slaughter them ourselves,
we can imagine their pain...
God
said: "I created many beautiful plants and fruits to please your
eyes and nourish your body. These are food for you. "Didn't Hes
state clearly that these are our food? Right on the first page of the
Old Testament!
The
old Testament Bible also didn't tell people to eat meat. The Catholics
should be clear about this point. God didn't state: I created the animals
as your food. Hes said: "I created the trees, fruits, vegetables,
and these shall be your food." Hes also said: "And for each
type of creature on earth, I have created different kinds of food for
them."
The
food for humans are the plants, flowers, herbs and vegetables. Hes said,
"We should teach the animals, take care of them, and educate their
souls to grow." Hes never said that we could kill the animals to
eat; the animals are not listed in our menu!
..........
Try
to be as much as possible a vegetarian, it will help you. Even to be
a vegetarian in a polluted area will help you be more immune, you must
know that. Vegetarian people are less sick than the meat-eating people.
It gives you protection, your mind will be calmer, and you will be thinking
less. This is the good thing about a vegetarian diet. It is not only
for its mercy quality. We forget that by not taking other lives, our
life will also not be at stake. It is the law of karma, of cause and
effect. If we forgive others, others will forgive us;
It
is nice to have dinner without thinking that someone else had to suffer
for it. This is the main reason for a vegetarian diet. You chose your
own way of life, and chose less suffering for us, as well as for others.
..........
Q.
Could you please explain your precepts against killing. Specifically
against abortion.
M.
Wa! You get me into trouble. Ah, Thou shalt not kill is the precept
of all religious scriptures, not only Christians. It's even in Jainism,
Hinduism and other religions also. If they truly take this thou shalt
not kill in a true sense of the precept, abortion, of course, should
be avoided. And the doctor should be very precise in determining what
is the special situation that people should undertake this. Because
maybe sometimes it's dangerous for the mother, yeah, or dangerous for
both. So, the doctor should be fair in determining that situation. Otherwise
I think we should save life in any way we can. Whatever special circumstance
with you, that you have to answer, your self conscience, and the doctor
has to determine that. Okay? I am not here to condemn anyone, because
I know life is very hard, and very difficult to say which is right and
which is wrong. Because we are also all under the sway of karma, of
the law of cause and retribution, and sometimes it is very difficult
for a person to go above that, to be saintly, and to be decisive about
anything in life. But, bear in mind that if you have faith in God, and
in all our wisdom and if we are enlightened, no circumstance is difficult,
no situation is hard to handle. So, I just propose enlightenment, and
no condemnation for anything.
..........
Q.
Why is being a vegetarian so important to enlightenment?
M.
It is important to you, hum? You can get enlightenment also without
being a vegetarian because I don't require you to be vegetarian before
initiation but after only. You get enlightened all the same through
the grace of the Master. But we have to keep a loving attitude towards
all beings, because they are ourselves. If you eat all your body's members,
afterwards you realize you have nothing left, understand, yeah? And
also we should not be so sinking into the material taste, but to be
emerged in the bliss of heaven. Every being deserves life. Therefore
we grant them the happiness of survival.
..........
Q.
Why must we keep a vegetarian diet in order to cultivate self realization?
M.
Yes! Because we all know God is love and merciful, and Buddha is compassion.
If we do not learn to become like them, then how shall we become one
with God, how shall we live in heaven which is a place of love and mercy?
Yeah? if we want to learn something, we have to become that. Animals
desire life, they love life, they would run for life. So we know they
desire life, they know, they love to live, like us. We have no right
to take away their life. By all means, even directly or indirectly,
we should not.
..........
Q.
Must one become a strict vegetarian to become enlightened?
M.
No, you don't have to. You can experience enlightenment without a vegetarian
diet. But to be completely enlightened, and to keep the state of happiness
all the time, we should grant happiness to all beings as well, in a
complete way, give them no fear, have no threatening atmosphere around
you. This is a more complete enlightenment. Being a vegetarian alone
doesn't bring you enlightenment, or help you become a Buddha. All the
cows and horses are all vegetarians, but that doesn't mean that they
are enlightened. Vegetarianism is a great way for us to achieve complete
enlightenment.
..........
Q.
If I continue to eat meat, will I still have enlightenment after initiation?
M.
Meat is the cause of all wars and suffering in this world, as well as
in your personal self. To refrain from meat is to contribute peace to
this planet. If we terminate the cause of killing, we will not reap
the result of being killed or being wounded. Also, to refrain from eating
meat is a non-direct action towards the 'Thou shalt not kill' precept.
Also, it nourishes our compassion towards all beings, so we can treat
them as equal creations of God. Therefore, it is best that we refrain
from animal products. Even if you are enlightened after initiation with
a meat-eating diet, you will suffer a lot of heavy karmic burdens because
it has to be cleansed out. And sometimes if you reach a certain height
in spiritual attainment, you will experience some side-effects of your
physical impurity when clashed with the absolute purity of Heaven. You
understand! It is not always easy to withstand the intensity of power
within yourselves, while having an impure physical and mental state
of being.
..........
Q.
About Your vegetarian diet, and what if somebody has the willingness
to follow and unconsciously or not knowing eats meat, how would that
affect?
M.
That probably would give you a little bit of a stomach-ache. But you
meditate a little bit more that day, and that would be no problem. We
can't always avoid. The vegetarian diet is only to propagate more loving
kindness which already exists in us. To polish it more, to bring it
to full extent to all beings, including our younger brothers and sisters.
Yeah! But if you, that is, just to show our love and also to polish
our compassion. But if we do something unconsciously, no one can blame
us. God would not.
..........
Q.
Could you speak on vegetarian eating, and how this could contribute
toward world peace?
M.
You see, most the wars which happen in this world are due to economical
reasons, prompted by the lack of food in different countries, and the
lack of equal distribution of food. Now, if you care to read magazines
and the results of research, then you will find out that to raise cattle
and animals for meat consumption brings about an economical state of
bankruptcy in all aspects. It causes the state of hunger in the third
world. This isn't my conclusion. It is you, the American people, who
researched and reached this conclusion. Read about food processing and
the book called DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA. The author is the son of an
ice cream millionaire, and he gave it all up in order to be a vegetarian,
and write a book against his family tradition and business. Such a stand
means not only loss of money, but also prestige and business to him,
but he did it for the sake of truth. But there are many more magazines
and books giving you a lot of information and facts about vegetarianism
and how it contributes to world peace. You see, we bankrupt the resources
of our planet to obtain flesh food, by feeding cattle so much protein,
water and medicine. We use a lot of manpower, cars, roads, etc., and
many hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been wasted before
a cow can yield one meal. If all these resources could be distributed
to the underdeveloped countries, then we could solve world hunger. When
a country is in need of food, it will probably invade another country
just to save its own people, but in the long run it creates bad causes
and retributions. Remember what the Bible says, 'As you sow, so shall
you reap.' If we kill someone for food, then we will be killed because
of food later. It is a pity that we are so intelligent, so civilised
and yet most of us do not know the cause of the suffering of our neighbouring
countries. It is through our palate. In order to feed just one body,
we kill so many beings and starve so many fellow human beings. And this
guilt, consciously or unconsciously will weigh down our conscience and
make us suffer with incurable diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis,
including AIDS. Ask yourself why the United States has the highest rate
and suffers the most of cancer. Because we eat a lot of beef. We eat
more meat that any other country. And ask yourself why the Chinese or
other communist countries don't have such a high rate of cancer. They
don't have meat. That is the conclusion of your research, not mine.
So, do not blame me!
..........
Q.
Is fish okay to eat?
M.
It is all right if you want to eat fish, but if you want to be vegetarian,
fish is not a vegetable. (laughter)
..........
Q.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus fed thousands of people with fish
and bread, and also at a wedding, Jesus turned water into wine...
M.
So what is the question? You want me to know about this? I know. I have
been asked a thousand times, and even if I didn't know, I would have
to know by now! You mean that I say do not eat fish, and in the Bible
it is said that Jesus fed fish to the crowd? But you must consider what
kind of fish this was! He used two fish to feed five thousand people!
It was a magic fish, made with air.
..........
Q.
Do you feel that there is more aggression in societies that consume
meat than in ones that consume less?
M.
Yes. You can compare India with other countries that eat more meat.
You can also compare the rate of aggression in religious communities
that eat more meat than others, and then you will see the difference.
You will also notice that animals that eat meat are more aggressive
than herbivores. Even in the animal Kingdom, one can see the connection.
..........
Q.
Dear Master, my wife is here today for initiation. She has been vegetarian
for a long time. I tried, but could not. Please tell me why and how
to.
M.
Maybe your wife should go and learn vegetarian cooking more. The poor
husband cannot just eat when it's not tasty. So actually, enlightenment
begins here too, (Master points to Her stomach) not just here. (Master
points to the wisdom eye) (Laughter) When I first met my husband, (my
ex-husband, he already remarried) I was a vegetarian, he was not. He
was a doctor, very practical, very down to earth. He's a Taurus kind;
he belongs to the bull in the zodiac of the orient, so he is a double
bull. So he doesn't believe any nonsensical things, but because I cooked
very nicely, he ate every day with me and he had nothing against vegetarianism
at all. After I left him for "to save the world kind of idea,"
(Master says jokingly) he gathered all my recipes and cooked for his
friends. He always advertised, "My wife used to do this, my wife
used to do that, and all the vegetables are very rich in vitamins."
He cooks exactly like the recipes I left behind.
If
even a Westerner, a German, a scientific-minded doctor like that, could
be a vegetarian, you could be too. If all the wives cook very tasty
meals, you don't miss anything. For example, you eat a bowl of soup,
like Chinese soup, you have noodles and some pieces of meat in it. Instead
of those meat pieces, you can have like gluten meat, tofu meat, or vegetarian
ham meat, everything, all kinds. even fish. Everything can be made exactly
like the non-vegetarian, so it's a matter of skill. The way to enlightenment
goes through the stomach, I believe. So you wives, please take care
of your crafty fingers, make it nice and tasty so your husband will
be able to eat with you. Women are easier. Truly. Once you believe something,
you just eat anything. (Master and all laugh) But men they are more
scientific, they are more practical not too sentimental like a woman.
A woman can live by sentiment, affection, emotion, so she believes,
then she eats and she doesn't care how it tastes. (Laughter) But men,
they're more critical, so they please their taste first, and then enlightenment
comes. (Laughter)
..........
Q.
Master, I was thinking. Because how you said don't kill sentient beings,
does that include pests, bugs, termites and mosquitoes?
M.
Well, we have to do what we need for the environmental care. But then,
we have to pay for that. But they are small bugs. They are not so big,
bigger of life, then we meditate for them, and they will be all right.
The important thing is not the act of killing. The most important thing
is that the violence in your heart that must be terminated, you know
what I mean? Some people, they don't kill actually with their hands
but they kill with their thoughts. That is more important than even
the act of killing. So what we try to minimize is the violence in our
heart, the tendency to want to destroy other beings. But if we have
to do it for environmental hygiene, we must do it. And pray for these
in our meditation. But it is best when we avoid it. Like we keep our
place very clean, so that the ants and other insects won't come around.
And if you spray around so that they will leave, they will not die.
There are some ways to avoid not to kill. You have to take care of that.
The less killing, the better, even the small insects! But sometimes
they are too harmful for the children and babies, then the mother has
to do it. Because after all, human beings... human life is more precious.
We don't do it because we are bad or we are malicious. It's just the
situation.
..........
Q.
Is eating vegetables a form of killing, because they also have life
like animals?
M.
Yes it is true, but the life in vegetables is very much less. The soul
is sleeping. You know all things are composed of many elements, yeah.
We human beings are composed of the most elements, including soul, ether,
earth, metal, wood; all kinds of these substances together. But the
plants consist of water, ninety percent water. Understand that? And
the other substances are very much less, and the soul is almost dormant.
But then we still take life if we eat vegetables. Therefore the Buddha
said that if you eat anything, even vegetables, you have to consider
it like eating your own child's flesh. But what shall we do if we live
in this world and can not eat anything. We can do that also but it's
against the needs of our bodies. It would take us tremendous will power
to overcome the material needs of our bodies. Some people don't eat
anything. There exist such people, but I do not advise you to do so.
First, people would look at you as a, how you say, coo-coo, or how you
say, some kind of nut. Or if people stream to you, only because they
are attracted to your non-eating diet, then they will overlook your
spiritual qualities and the highest goal that you want to set before
them. You understand that? Fancy me, Ching Hai not eating anything,
and then I advertise in the paper "Master Ching Hai doesn't eat
anything". So many people will flock here, and all day they will
ask me bow? why? how long? You know, how long since? And that's it.
And I would have a lot of trouble to tell them to please convert their
attention to God and to my topic. It is the Quan Yin Method. It is life
and death. It is serious. You have to meditate two and a half hours,
and be vegetarian. And all these things, they wouldn't listen a bit,
because all their attention is diverted to the non-eating diet, and
that's it. I know all about it. I know in Formosa there is one who hasn't
eaten anything for twenty years. And everybody comes there and asks
the same question, including myself. [Laughter] So even if we eat vegetarian,
we also have some karma, meaning the influence of the bad effects. So
we have to practice this method in order to cleanse out this even minimal
karma, so that we can be free and purified.
..........
Q.
But the vegetables also have life. How is it in this situation? What
about the vegetables?
M.
They also have life but their consciousness is very, very low. They
hardly feel much. So actually when we eat vegetables we also collect
some so-called "karma". "Karma" means As you sow,
so shall you reap. If you kill, you will get killed, that is the meaning
of "karma". If we hit someone, later we will get beaten. That
is called "karma". Now when we eat the plants, we also have,
but very minimal "karma", very little, and when we meditate
every day for two to three hours we will clean it out. If we do not
meditate on God, it's difficult to clean this even minimal karma. Therefore,
the practice of the Heaven of God, of the Kingdom within is necessary
because even before eating vegetables, we have already killed. We breathe,
we walk, and we wash our hands, and all these are killing. So it doesn't
mean if we eat vegetarian we are free of sins. Even if we don't eat
anything we sin. We sin from our past life's karma, what the Bible calls
"original sin". We sin from breathing in and killing so many
invisible insects. We sin from washing our clothes and washing our body,
disinfecting our body, and killing many insects, invisible insects,
from walking on the earth, on the grass and everywhere. Therefore, no
way we can escape except using the greatest force inside and cleaning
everything out. That is what we called the grace of God. We can take
the grace of God out every day to cleanse our house. Without this, there
is hardly any chance to go back to the Kingdom of God. That is what
I want to share with you, how to clean ourselves every day from the
inevitable sins and unavoidable sins. Okay?
..........
Q.
Why can't we have products with animal fat? We can eat cheese, and there
is fat in cheese?
M.
Because cheese is made with milk, but fat comes from an animal that
has been killed. And taking milk, we don't have to kill the cow, and
from milk we can make cheese, butter, etc. This is the difference.
..........
Q.
Please explain the reason for not eating or using eggs, and how do eggs
represent life and death?
M.
Because egg is a symbol of life and death. In it contains life, yeah.
And many of the black magicians or white magicians they use eggs to
withdraw some of the negative possessive spirit within some people,
yeah. Therefore, if we eat eggs too much we tend to attract this negative
force toward ourselves. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why we should
not eat eggs, hm.
..........
Q.
May we eat unfertilised eggs?
M.
No, because the egg has half a life already, and if you give it a chance,
it will become a chicken. Also, eggs will attract negative powers, ghosts,
so if we eat some, we might get contaminated by these negative forces.
As you may know, many black and white magicians, use eggs to cure people
who are possessed by spirits. So it is very logical not to eat eggs.
..........
Q.
What if someone has the willingness to follow a vegetarian diet, but
unconsciously or unknowingly eats meat? How would that affect him?
M.
It would probably give you a little bit of a stomach ache. But if you
meditate a little bit more every day, and that would be no problem.
We can't always avoid. The vegetarian diet is only to propagate more
loving kindness which already exists in us. It is to polish it more,
to bring it to its full extent, to all beings, including our younger
brothers and sisters, to sow our love, and also to polish our compassion.
But if we do something unconsciously, no one can blame us. God would
not.
..........
Q.
If I stop eating meat, doesn't my body weaken if I do not have the proper
conditions for preparing vegetarian meals?
M.
No, but you must select a protein-rich diet to replace the missing animal
protein. In my English sample book, you know I talked about the vegetarian
diet, and there I told you what foods you can eat, and which have enough
nutrition. We will try to translate it into Portuguese later. But you
go home and find an English speaking friend and tell them to translate
it for you. English is international, so you'll be able to find anywhere
some people to translate. Meat is not all that good, we all know already
by now. You see the hospitals are full of meat eating people; vegetarian
people hardly go to the hospital. The more civilized, the more meat
we have, the more hospitals we build. if you feel that the vegetarian
diet has not enough nutrition, look at the elephants, look at the horses,
look at the cows; is there anything stronger than an elephant? What
does he eat? He doesn't even care about protein I tell you. Don't cheat
yourself. The vegetarian diet is very healthy. Even Mohammed Ah the
boxer, he is vegetarian. So don't tell me any tales. If you want to
eat meat, then you eat meat; nobody says anything. Just don't make excuses.
Meat is not good, very filthy; all kinds of bacteria in it, all kinds
of poisons in it, all kinds of hatred, fear, and terrifying feelings
in the magnetic field in the meat of an animal when he is killed, and
it remains there. when you consume the meat, you consume all these "energies"
within it. It is a very heavy energy, so you couldn't climb up back
"home
..........
Q.
What about chemicals on fruits and vegetables?
M.
Oh, my God! You are fanatic. Wash them with salty water, yes, and eat
them. Otherwise, you will die, Hmm?
..........
Quan
Yin Method