Q. Please explain the nature of consciousness.

M. Nature of consciousness, okay. It's hard to explain but you could use your intelligence to imagine. It's a kind of wisdom, you know, like you know something better than you ever did before. Yes, you know something that is beyond this world, and you know something in this world which you did not know before, and you understand many things that you do not understand or you did not understand before.

That's the consciousness. And also when you open this consciousness, or the so-called wisdom, you will understand truly who you are and why you are here and what else is beyond this world, and who else, beyond or apart from our worldly citizens. Understand? There are many things. So the level of consciousness is a kind of different degrees of understanding, just like a graduation in college. The more you learn, the more you know, until graduation. Are you satisfied? It's difficult to explain something that is abstract, but I have tried. It's a kind of awareness, you know. It's difficult to explain awareness. When you go to different, higher levels of consciousness, your awareness is different. You know things different, you feel different. You feel just absolutely in peace, tranquil, blissful. You have no worry, and everything in your daily life becomes clear to you. You know how to handle things and how to take care of problems better. Hmmm? Even it benefits already in the physical level. And inside you, how you feel - that only you know. It's difficult to explain these things. Just like you are married to the girl you love, how you feel - that only you know. Hmmm? No one else can feel it for you. Yes.

Q. Can satori be achieved without a master? Is it possible?

M. Yes, but there are many different levels. There is vegetable satori, there is stone satori, there is dry satori, there is wet satori, there is wisdom satori, there is Buddha satori. Sometimes you think you have satori, but you are just like dry wood, or just like a stone, and you derive nothing from your satori. You just sit there and feel happy, feel..., you feel nothing, you don't move, you don't have life. So the highest samadhi you obtain is through a master, through studying with a master. If we can do it alone, God has no need to send Jesus, to send Buddha to us. Why couldn't we do it alone? It is because we have so much burden of karma, of preconceived ideas or prejudices. Our brains are full of garbage. We have been brain-washed for millions of years with so much garbage. It's difficult to overcome, to wash them all out, so it needs God's power. It needs someone who has developed more wisdom than us, more power than us to help us when we are beginners.