The situation of the world is crazy. Many of the governments are not based on spiritual understanding, but based on power and political motivation. This is what brings the world into trouble. If all the governments' people tried to practice enlightenment, more true enlightenment, not just verbal prayer and traditional rituals, then I think we'd have a better world. Yeah? We'd have better governments. I think in the future they will do. We pray that they do.

All wars come from ignorance. If we are ignorant, we don't know how to stop hatred, we don't know how to stop aggression and possessiveness. The higher the position we're in, the more danger we may cause for humanity; so first, you'd better be enlightened, and then serve the world with greater understanding.

People in high positions in particular, should care more about their qualities. As an official, one should be honest and upright. A government servant must work diligently for the nation, sacrifice for the well-being of her people.

Ruling the country and pacifying the world are exactly the same as pursuing spiritual practice to save sentient beings. There is no difference. The ways are the same, the strategies are the same, and the spirit of serving others is the same.

If you go to take a look in hell, you will see that it is full of leaders of the world. It is horrible; just that they do not know this! It is because one person influences so many people, and in turn the whole world. If he leads people astray, of course he will incur an incredible amount of karma. So, if we are ordinary people, before we become very advanced in our spiritual practice, when we do not have wisdom or many talents, we still have a chance to be saved, a chance to attain eternal liberation. If we do not have any talents, morality, love and wisdom, and we climb up to a very high position and be one of those important persons, then we are finished! (Laughter) It is really very dangerous. Do you understand? Our karma will increase thousands of millions of times.

For us small people, how many people can we influence? The most we can influence is our children. We can only set a bad example for our children, or the wife or husband. Is that not so? And there are also friends and relatives, if they listen to what we say. Therefore, we do not have a big influence. If we were big people, of course our influence would be incredible. We would also attract the kind of negative and low level force that is similar to ours, making the whole world even more negative, more shaky, heading further toward that direction, and consequently increasing the negative force even more. The karma would become heavier. That is why hell is full of kings. It's terrible, very terrible!

If the government, the leaders of this world understood the power of love, they would never make war. They would just use love to destroy their enemies in no time. Just love your enemy, and then they will surrender. They will drop all their weapons and come to you on their knees. That's why Jesus said, "Love your enemy." Loving our enemy is loving ourselves. Loving our enemy means bringing peace to ourselves.

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Why is our world in such a mess? So full of misery and war? It's because the so-called leaders do not discipline themselves. They do not completely become empty. While they are serving, they still want others to know and to have results. They want appreciation and rewards. They want recognition, therefore, they struggle for fame and profit and forget to serve. They are too busy grabbing fame and profit, then they are overcome by greed, hatred and ignorance. Their hatred and contending attitudes become dominant and they can not do the right things.

There is a Chinese saying, "Discipline oneself, take care of the family, govern the nation, and then pacify the world." He has no problem governing nations no matter how much money you pay him or how many things you give him he will still serve others because he needs nothing! A person like that can truly govern the nation. If he still wants to govern, it is not good. When he has no desire to govern, then he can govern well. He does it naturally. If he is called upon to govern, he can govern. He does what he can do. He does when there is a need. He doesn't mind what kind of work. Whatever he does is to serve others. Whenever there is a need, he does it, whether it's sweeping the floor, mixing cement, laying bricks, or being a king. If one can achieve this level of doing for the sake of other's needs, not because of any personal intentions, then he can govern any number of nations, no problem. If one hasn't reached that level, he can not even govern himself, not to mention letting him govern a nation or pacify the world. Many people are eager to govern a nation or to pacify the world without first examining their inner attributes and abilities; such people can mess up this world.