In this concluding episode, Supreme Master Ching Hai explains the relationship between belief versus enlightenment, veganism, karma, and spiritual causation.
And the second question was… (Enlightenment and belief.) He said what he thought about enlightenment is that you only have to believe in the Buddha, and to read the sutras and have faith in the Buddha, that’s enough. So I said, “No, it isn't enough.” Because you have to also become Buddha – a higher level – in order to understand the Buddha’s meaning and His Wisdom. Because the Buddha said, “If you believe me but you do not understand me, that is disrespectful to me.” Is that right? The Buddha said so, yes. So therefore, we cannot just believe; we have to prove it by our own experience and knowledge through enlightenment. That’s why it’s necessary to see in order to believe.
Also, he asked, if we need to eat vegan in order to get enlightenment. I said no. To eat vegan is to cut out the karmic connection with animal (-people) in this life, so that we don’t incur any more burden, so that we won’t be bound anymore to this world again because of this debt. Also, it is to develop our compassion and equality to all beings in GOD’s creation. It is not because you eat vegan, you become enlightened. Otherwise, the cow(-people), the horse(-people) will become enlightened. That was our answer and questions. Anything else? Five o’clock already. You still want to ask? Oh, my God. Come.
(I see picture of Buddha is fat. How come He was fat if He was vegetarian [vegan]?) He was fat, and why He became vegan? (No. How come He was fat if He was a vegan?) Oh! You tell your wife to come up. (Where is my wife? My wife was skinny, and we changed. We were not...) (We were not vegans before May 30.) You listen to the true story about getting fat or getting skinny. Come, you tell. Come up! (When we met [Supreme] Master Ching Hai in California, May 29th, we were not vegans. And that’s my wife. And we changed that... Thank you. We converted to a vegan [diet] because [Supreme] Master Ching Hai convinced me scientifically, and also mentally and religiously. And so, overnight, we changed; we converted to veganism.) Overnight, yes. (My wife gained 15 pounds [~6.8 kilograms] since then. It’s only six months.) Only six months, gained 15 pounds. (Only six months.) Yeah. But do not worry. Not everybody is like that. (Thank You.) Gained 15 pounds, my goodness. (Thank You.)
You see, not everyone gets fat or gets skinny by vegan. We have to consider your chemical reactions to these foods. Because before, she ate animal(-people) food, then she had always diarrhea; she never got very, very fat. And now after becoming vegan, her body doesn’t react violently like that anymore, and she becomes calm and peaceful and assimilates all the food that she eats. Therefore, she gains some weight. But that doesn’t mean you will gain weight. I cannot guarantee these physical changes. I can only guarantee mental equilibrium, calmness, and a more loving change. I cannot guarantee the physical change. But it’s not necessary anyhow. We have many vegan people who are fat, who are skinny, who are beautiful, who are young, who are old, or anything, anything.
Anything else? Oh! You don’t leave me alone. Yes? (I’m sorry. My last one. I’m a scientist and do research here on mental illness.) In mental illness, yes. (And there are many questions that still need to be answered, such as why there are like families, which have schizophrenia passed on in the families. And how is that explained by karmic actions?
The second question is: Is it rightful for scientists to ask, after enlightenment, that there is a quicker answer from somewhere above to these questions? Or do they still have to stick with their scientific methods and try to answer these questions?) There are quicker answers than scientific research. (And that is expected to happen? Or they can expect…?)
Yes, directly intuitive. You see, we have a brain, which we use only 5%. That everyone knows, including scientists. So, there is another 95% lying dormant with a lot of power and information and capabilities. So, when you awaken this full power of the brain, then you get all the answers, which you would have to do research for many, many, years in order to get, and might not even be correct sometimes, after many years of research.
Therefore, the scientists, sometimes they prove like that, and say it’s correct, and then the next year, they prove it a different way, and next, next year, another different way. Because we use the limited power instead of using the whole power. So, the method of enlightenment is nothing new and nothing mysterious. It’s only to awaken your full competency, full power of intelligence.
Ninety-five percent is still there, so you get answers quickly from meditation.
(Yes. The other question I was asking is that we know that there are diseases which are inheritable. And how is that explained by the law of retribution?) Oh! Yes, yes, yes. The people who inherit these diseases are connected with each other in previous lives, through some common goals, common deeds, togetherness: together doing something, together thinking something, and together inherit something. And because of their passion for each other, they also stick together and come back as sons and daughters, and they also inherit the past fruits. It happens through their love and attachment for each other, and also from the past lives that they have done things together, the same things which bear the same fruit. Everything is through karma, nothing exceptional. Yes?
(I’m not sure I follow some of what You’re saying. You just came from two countries in Latin America: Brazil and Argentina.) Ah, no. I will go there. (No, She is going.) (Oh, You’re going.) (From New York City.) (I’m sorry.) I went there six months ago. (May…) (In June, yes.) It was long ago, and I’m going now. (Oh, OK.) So, what is the connection with them?
(My question is: there’s both tremendous wealth and tremendous poverty in both Brazil and Argentina. Am I following, that what we are saying is, if a person is living in tremendous poverty, it has something to do with their karma from a past life?) Yes, of course. What else can you explain? Is GOD so partial? No, we create our own things. But one day when we are tired of everything, then we are awakened. We will go back to where there’s no poverty, no richness, nothing – just happiness and bliss – and we have whatever we want. But it’s not like that in the material sense. What I told you about Amitabha Land is only for those who are not completely enlightened. Those who are completely enlightened are Teachers of devas and humans, of Heavens and humans. They are out of all these kinds of questions: whether happy or unhappy, whether rich or poor.
But those who are not yet enlightened have to suffer under the Law of Karma. Whatever poverty they get is due to the past lives that they did not give to charity. The material welfare of people depends on their charity during their existence on Earth, in the world. If they always give to charity… It doesn’t mean you have to give a lot. For example, in the Buddhist sutras, there is a story about a monk. He was born with a golden face, shining, and born in a rich family. Because in His last life – many lives before, hundred lives, 900 years before – He had given a donation of one penny to the Buddha, to the Living Master of that time. And for 99 lives, He enjoyed richness, respected position and intelligence. And on the last of the 99 lives, He met the other Buddha and gained enlightenment and became a Buddha Himself.
Because of ignorance, people have to be born into poverty and suffering. If everyone knew how to create their own life, that would be much better for the world. But do they believe you? The time will come when they have to believe. When they are tired of all the drastic circumstances, they will turn back to the Buddha Nature, they will believe in GOD, they will look for an Enlightened Master. There’s no other remedy. We have to wait.
Any other question? (Me?) Yeah, you. (Well, I find it hard to believe that a whole country is impoverished because of their past life behavior.) Yeah, that’s right. (Do You follow?) I follow. (But that’s what I mean. And I’m talking materially.) Yes. (That is what You are saying?) Yeah. (So, the people that live in this country, the United States, which is the richest country in the world, have lived very enlightened lives in the past, whereas people that...) Very charitable lives in the past. No, not necessarily enlightened.
Richness and enlightenment are different things altogether. You may be rich but not enlightened; you may be poor but enlightened. Well, that’s just true. But this, you can believe when you see it, after you practice some time of meditation or some kind – not necessarily my kind. And then you will gain access to those past memories. You will see for yourself the whole karmic structure of the world, and why some places are poor, why some people are rich. You’ll see clearly, like you read a book or you see a movie. Everything is recorded in the history of time and space. Nothing is destroyed; nothing disappears. Everything is manifested and concentrated in a form of energy and is recorded in a different level of consciousness. And we can see that for ourselves. Then you’ll have no more doubt. Now if you argue with me until tomorrow, you’ll still have doubt because you don’t see it. So my proposal is: I invite you to come into the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Invisible Knowledge, and find out for yourself.
I do not force you to believe what you do not see. I only offer you a chance to prove it to yourself. But you need faith and practice. You can’t just know everything overnight. Like any science, you can’t learn to be a doctor in one night or two nights. You have to truly want to be a doctor and study with other doctors in a medical school, and then over the years, you will become one. But immediately you’ll know something about medicine in the first days or first week. That’s for sure. Just like you come to an Enlightened Master, you have some instant glimpse of enlightenment, some particles, some parts of it, and then you develop further.
So, I’m sorry. We will leave, and wish you all happiness.
Photo Caption: “Beware What You Run After, It Might Look Good, but Not Really Good”
