Q. I am a Roman Catholic. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. I have begun chanting in a Buddhist practice. Is one in conflict with the other? Is the chant in conflict with the Father's name JAHWEH?

M. I understand. No, you have not, you have not done a bad thing. God will forgive your earnestness for enlightenment. It is because you want to look for God that you go from door to door. It isn't that you want to do bad things. I don't believe in any so jealous God. If He is so jealous, I will put him down the drain. [Laughter] But anyhow, anyhow, the practice is of the Jih Lien sect. It is a lotus sect. Jih Lien is a Chinese word for a lotus sect, so you are practicing the lotus Sutra method, and they are repeating the name of the Lotus Sutra. But from what I understand and what I realize it's repeating a name of a scripture, means nothing to God. God is within us, not in the scripture. So when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, what did He see? He saw the light from heaven come down like the dove, no? Yes! So if you repeat the names of the Lotus Sutra and you don't see any dove coming down, that means you are practicing in a wrong way, whether you call it Buddhist or Catholic, I don't care. I am a Buddhist by origin, but I feel that, I know that most of the Buddhist methods even contradict the Buddha's teachings. They only talk and talk, repeat by words, and have no inner light or inner experience.

So now I tell you, do not abandon your Catholicism, but I will tell you a method to acquire the light within, and that's all. Do not worship me, and do not become Buddhist, and do not go to any Buddhist temple, and do not come to me even. I don't care about all of this. I just tell you how to go in yourself and see God, and see what you want to. You always long for that God, that JAHWEH, or whatever you name Him. You can call Him another dozen or hundred names and He would not mind. He has no name, understand? He has no name. He takes on whatever is the name of the master on earth at that time. Therefore when Jesus came they worshipped Jesus as the Son of God, or as even God. Yeah? When Buddha came they worshipped Buddha as God. Understand that? Because the God power manifests in that Person, in that human pole. The human is just like an electric wire, carrying electricity inside. Understand that? So if it is red or yellow, it doesn't matter. The important thing is it has electricity inside; otherwise you don't call it an electric wire, maybe an empty wire, yes? So all kinds of methods, if they don't give you electricity, if they don't give you lights or God or the heavenly sphere to look at, then it is an empty wire, it's not an electric wire, and it's not Jesus' method. it's an outer method. I don't care if it's Buddhist or Mohammedan or whatever; all empty, just an empty shell. Understand? So therefore you feel in conflict.

If you learn this method from me, there is no need to change to become a Buddhist, no need to repeat anything. You just see the light every day, feel joy, and be in the presence of God. And then you call Him whatever name He tells you to call Him, and you will know Him by different names, hundreds of names, or no name. You just feel He is so much love. He is loving and merciful and He takes care of you every day, in every minor detail. Then at that moment you really feel thankful to God, you really know Him, you really know Him and worship Him, and that's the real worship of God. If you don't know Him, it's not the real worship. You don't know how great He is and you just blah-blah-blah, "Oh, you are so great you are so merciful!"

In fact every day you are so miserable. What does He help you with? Nothing. Then you tell lies. You can only say, "God, you are so merciful, you are so loving, you are so compassionate," when you know how compassionate He is, where, how, and in which way He helps you, how he takes care of you every day, only then your word is true and your worship is sincere. Understand? And you throw yourself at His feet and become one with Him.

And that's the true way to God; it's no religion, it's no dogmatic thing, no blind belief, no blah-blah repeating, but knowing, realizing, seeing, contacting, and that's the real path. I have no Catholic path, no Buddhist path, no lotus path, no, how to say, "lily" path. [Master laughs] I have only one path - it's God's path. If you know the light, you know God; that is the true God, true way.

Yeah! That's all. Okay? And don't feel any conflict. Even if now you believe in the lotus sect, God would not punish you. It doesn't mean you betray Him. He would only feel touched at your devotion, at your blind search for Him. He would only help you, because of your sincerity. Therefore He sent me here to tell you how to find Him, not through the Lotus repeating, not through the scriptures, but through your own-self realization. Understand that? Yeah. He will not punish you. You've not betrayed any God. It's your sincerity that counts. It doesn't matter where you go, you only carry God in your heart, no? You only want to know Him, and that's why you come here, you go there, you ask this master, ask that person, "Do you know God?" and he says, "This way, this way," and then you follow. And then you find no God, and so you feel a struggle again. And you go in a different way, and again say, "Do you know how to find God?" And they say, "Yes, yes!", and this is again only an empty promise!

You must know that when Jesus baptized people, He gave them light. And when Jesus Himself got baptized from John the Baptist He got the light from heaven like a dove. So you have to see that. If you see that, then it's a proof that you practice the same way as Jesus did. Do you understand? Otherwise this is all wrong, this is all misunderstanding.

Q. I was taught in my fundamental Christian church that we were to pray only to God, not to Jesus, not to virgin Marry, not to the angels, not to anyone or anything but only to God, the Father of Jesus, the Creator of the Universe. Why then are people praying to You as a master, or to any master?

M. I don't know. That's their problem. (Master laughs.) Just like before, somebody asked me if he doesn't want to get initiation, that means he doesn't want to get direct contact with God, can he pray to Master Ching Hai? What can I do about that? Well, if she prays, she gets the response, so she continues to pray. But I always advise that you go for initiation, and get contact directly with God and pray directly to God. That's the best way. But if somebody don't want to choose that way and want to choose the second way, easier way, no vegetarian, no two and half hours meditation, no rules, nothing, just want the benefits, then she will pray to whoever give her something. And it happened that probably she prayed to Jesus or Buddha and didn't get any help, so she prayed to Ching Hai. When she gets help, she keeps praying again. People are like that; they like profit. Yeah! You know, the truth is that any living master will respond to our prayer.

But then when that Master passed away, people continue to pray because they learned that from their parents, from their ancestors. They continue to pray and they forgot the difference between a living master and the past masters. So they continue to pray to the past masters and sometimes they blame that they don't help them. But, actually, when you pray to any master that means you pray to God anyhow. Do you know what I mean? Because the master is connected with God, you just pray to God. What is there inside except God? You think you pray to Ching Hai? Who is Ching Hai? When you think of her,who is she? What is that? Only God resides in her body; nothing else there! So you pray to her and she is connected with God, then it's the God that you pray to, understand?

Q. Some religions are saying the end of the world is coming. What is the true meaning of this saying?

M. No religion ever says that!

Q. Only the Christian Religion, right?

M. What? Christian religion says so?

Q. I mean, the Bible.

M. The Bible doesn't say that we end at 2000. The Bible just have some revelation about some kind of destruction of the world, but that is one man's experience only. And we, some of the people, sometimes have this kind of experience. When you enter into some kind of destructive past, when you have seen it before in your previous life, and now you saw it and you thought it would be this time for this Earth. It is not true. Maybe you see the end of the other galaxy, the other planet, and you mistaken that for this world. Or sometimes you see it in the past, mistaken for the present time. Sometimes you see it in the very, very, very remote future and you miscalculate the time; you think that it is now. That is why many prophecies never come true.

Just recently somebody in Keeth has predicted the end of the world and she shifted three or four times. Supposedly it should be on Friday, then Friday was holiday, so it became Sunday, then on Sunday it never came. But never mind, the end of the world comes when we die anyhow, so make preparation for that day. Be prepared so that when we leave this world, we go with God, instead of going with the angel of death. That would be the end of our world.

Q. What do you think about the Old Testament and the Jewish religion?

M. It is good. But do not wait for the Messiah, because He comes all the time. Pray that you recognize the present Messiah. The one that you are waiting for will never come, if you expect Him the way you do. Just like when Jesus came, people were also expecting a Messiah and they killed the one at hand! We do all the same stupid things. It isn't that the Jewish religion is bad, it is that we are ignorant. Even Jesus promised to send us a comforter, that means someone that is equal to Him, no? But two thousand years later, we are still waiting and many prophets came and left the earth. We hear that Jesus will reappear, right? How do you think He will look, with wings, with a beard, or on a cross so that we may recognize Him? How could we recognize Him, if He would come? We do not even know what Jesus looked like! We weren't there, or maybe we were, but after two thousand years who has such a big memory to remember! Jesus comes not in appearance but in spirit. He can come to anyone who is perceptive enough, who opens the right door to let Him in. Then we become like Jesus, then He comes back again. He comes whenever we are ready. He comes through any Master who is capable to house His almighty power. That person is also Jesus, different hair style maybe, but it is still Jesus.

Q. Could you tell us more about the true teachings of Jesus, compared with the Christian teachings of today?

M. Christ's teaching and the Christian teachings of today are both all right. Maybe the present teachings of Christianity are missing, have been censored in some parts, but this I dare not say in case I'll get in trouble. And the other teachings of Jesus, when He was alive, were more recorded. You see that in the Dead Sea Scrolls that I have read. They are supposed to be very ancient, even while Jesus was alive. Some things are missing in the Bible, but on the whole, the teachings of Christianity are okay. The only missing part is that Jesus is not here. That is the greatest missing part. So now we replace it with a direct line to Jesus. Should you want to see Him, you can see Him, you can talk to Him, you can learn directly from Him because He never dies. If the Church or any Christian organization can help you to get in touch with Jesus, and get a direct line to God's telephone number, then it is more correct, more fulfilling, more complete. If not, then we can supply this missing part for you, and that's all. Okay?

Q. Master, why does Christianity as a whole tend not to believe in reincarnation? Does the Bible talk about reincarnation?

M. It does, but it has been censored. When someone asked Jesus whether He was Elias, whether He was so and so, the past Master before Him -- that meant whether He was the reincarnation of those past masters -- He kept quiet. That was a part of the Bible that people forgot to censor. Suppose reincarnation did not exist, then Jesus would have said, "No, no, there is no such thing as a master coming back. I am me, alone, one time, never again, never before, never after." He kept quiet, and in those times, quiet means okay, agreement, acceptance. Otherwise, Jesus would have explained, so as not to mislead His disciples. He kept quiet.

Q. Why do the Christian churches not accept the idea of reincarnation?

M. Because they misunderstand the Bible, and also because the Bible has been cut and censored many hundreds of times over. I'll tell you an example. When Jesus was asked, "Are you the reincarnation of such and such past saints?" He didn't say "no." Saint Paul also said "I live, but no, not 'I' but Christ lives in me." Okay! Now, if you don't believe in reincarnation, why are you waiting for the second coming of Christ? (laughter) Ask your church, then see how they answer you.

Q. Why are the leaders in Christianity falling? Why do they emphasize the negative and punishment?

M. Yeah! I have told you. It is also because of ignorance, lack of enlightenment. They have not practiced anything at all. What is the difference between a priest and you? Can you tell me? They also eat meat, drink wine, and some have women, and you also do the same. And they read the scriptures as you do, every day. So what is the difference between them and you, or any other people? They do not realize that. That is their mistake. Therefore of course, they can only think negative and punishment, because they have not reached to the love power of God by practicing quiet contemplation on His mercy quality. They only preach and talk. They repeat the Bible only, every time you come to the church or to the temple. I don't mean only Christianity. They take out the big book, then they say "Saint Matthew such and such says so and so", and then you chant together, and you go home. How can you find God so simply like that? And then they are called priests and father and mother or master, or... [Master laughs] So easy to become a priest and master? Why don't you all become one? I am surprised to ask myself. I wonder myself. It is so easy to become a missionary. No? You still also can marry even. The Protestant priests can also marry. So why haven't you become one, I wonder?