The eternal life and the law of the universe
Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A. October 27,1989.

Every great Master does that. Jesus also did the same. He walked barefoot. He had nowhere to lay his head. Now in our days, in these modern days of our time, we couldn't follow exactly like Buddha or like Jesus. But we could follow it in our hearts their ways of living. We have to feel a detachment for this world, and that is also renunciation. We live in the world, but we live without the world. We shouldn't crave so much for the material comforts. We have them just to sustain our life, but knowing in our heart truly that the greatest ones like Buddha and Jesus never care for them. We follow Buddha in this way, by detachment, by desirelessness. We follow Christ in this way by detachment, by desirelessness, and also by love for our people.

Now, the American people have shown some of their Christianity love, of the Christ love in some of the world's interactions with other countries. For example, the American country has accepted many refugees from different nations. That is a part of Christ love. That is how we follow Christ. And as for the Au Lac people, I also have to thank the American sisters and brothers who have open their arms and received some of our truly in need refugees from Au Lac. That is also a part of Buddha's compassion. Therefore, I believe that if you are a good Christian, you are also a good Buddhist. There is no difference between a Christian and a Buddhist, as long as we do good to others.

Therefore, I never discriminate between the Buddhist believers and Christian believers. Christian people did good to mankind in many ways, and Buddhist people did good to mankind also in many ways, just maybe different ways of doing and working. Take care that I do not go too far into this political situation. But I cannot help not to express my opinion. Actually because if we cannot make use practically what we learned from Christianity or what we learn from Buddhism, then what is the point? Is that right? So, we show our religious mind through our own actions. Therefore if we say something about the world's situation, and the amnesty, and the compassion of the American people or other countries, that's also very fit! This fits in a religious lecture.

But, what I want to express is something more concrete than just like that, because some people want to know God, not only to serve God in human frame, but also want to know the God, the transcendental God, the transcendental Buddha nature. We see that Buddha became Buddha by what way. We see Christ how he had become so great. There is a reason, there is a way to achieve this greatness. Just like any science. Just like you want to study in university, you have to have such and such condition; you must have some money, some qualifications from high school; you have to pass some exams. Now if we want to become a Buddha or Christ, apart from this great love that we show to other human beings, like in human work, in amnesty work, in social service, we have to know our real nature; we have to know where we come from; we have to know how great we are.

Now, we have been great in the past. We have come from the kingdom of God. If we haven't come from God, then where have we come from? God created all things. If we haven't come from this Buddha nature or the Tao, then where have we come from? We must start from there, from that greatest source in the universe. So, therefore we have been great always. It's just that we forgot, that is the Truth that we forgot. Now, there is a way to remember these things again by walking backward to the higher source, where we have come from. Just like you follow the river down to the sea. Now if you want to go back to the source of the river, walk backward. So, the kingdom of God is within us, so walk inward. There is a way to see the kingdom of God within, to see the Buddha within. That is what we call the enlightenment method. Go back to the original. The Buddha had followed this method to become Buddha. Jesus Christ had followed this method to become the son of God.

Now if we say we are all sons of God, we are already Buddha, so why we need to practice? Yes, we are. But we forgot. That is no use for us now. We have to remember again through diligent effort to go back into the past, to our own deep memory.

That is what the scientists call 95 percent dormant intelligence. In that 95 percent lays many things. Now, with only 5 percent, we can already go to Mars; we can already go to the moon. We can already make airplanes and rockets and all kinds of comfort to life. What much more if we could use the 95 percent? The kingdom of God is ours, if we know how to use it. We know we are Buddha. Everybody tells us we are Buddhas, or we are the sons of God, but we don't know where that greatness is. We only know that we are miserable everyday, or not everyday but I mean most of many days. I'm sorry if you are happy, but I see the majority of people. Though they have money, have good family, status, everything is ephemeral. Look at our country, the Au Lac country, it had been glorious, peaceful. We had many things; we were very rich in minerals, in agriculture, in culture. But then suddenly, we have nothing. Suddenly, all is turned upside down, everything destroyed. People had to leave the country, so dangerous on the sea, and they had to fight for survival. Many people who came to your country have been heroes in our country, have been generals, top leaders, millionaires, billionaires in our country. They are not just all poor. They are not just all illiterate. They are not just all useless, helpless people. They have been in the glorious past, they've been the men of wisdom, of social standing, of rich, of culture. It is just the ephemeral life turns sometimes and makes people become nothing that humiliate our people.

Maybe it is good for them, I do not know, that we have to learn sometimes to come down, to be humble, and to know there is a greater force than our own hand and human brain can control. Then we have to turn back to God, to turn back to practice to become Buddha, to rely on this great force of the Buddha nature or Kingdom of God. That is maybe the reason why we have to learn sometimes through disasters to know God. Otherwise we keep having success in our life and being so successful, we are carried away with it, and we forgot where we come from. We forgot that we are greater than just a lawyer. We are greater than just a president, we are greater than just a millionaire. We are God's children; we are Buddhas. So this birthright we have to claim. It doesn't matter through what. Through happiness, through longing, or through disaster.

We have to be awakened through many means. Therefore, I said earlier, there are many ways to find the wisdom within. If we don't long to find it ourselves, sometimes the Creator will send disasters to wake us. So we see that many times, in time of stress and disaster, we pray more honestly, more sincerely to God than when we are well-off, than when we are in happiness, or in stable condition. Is it not so? So, when we have pain, or our family have people died, or some disasters, then we pray. At that time we remember God very clearly. "Please, please, please ...." So many prayers. Now, we do not need to wait until a disaster befalls us in order to remember to practice to become Buddha again or to be like Christ. We should do it when we have time, at leisure, and good conditions. So that we do not have to have experience disaster. What we call in Au Lac: To prevent is better than to cure. We all know this. Every nation will say the same thing. But we just don't do it. We just don't prevent things. We just do things, and then reap the result and then we cry. Now we have been through life, 30, 40, 50 years now. We should have known a little bit more about this ephemeral nature of life. We should turn back to God now, so that the day we leave this world, God open the kingdom for us, Buddha welcome us. Not the darkness, not the evil plane of existence what we call Satan power, or the Negative power, or the power of Maya.

So I'm here like everywhere else, just to offer you a way to find your own Greatness. With God, well and good. With Buddha, it's also well and good. Without God, without Buddha you still can find your Greatness. Because you are that, you are born from God. You are bound to go back to God, whether you believe or not believe. You are that, you cannot escape anyhow. So I just want to offer you what I have found as a treasure, hidden treasure within myself. And I know that the hidden treasure is within you as well. I would like only to help you to know your greatness, your self-worth. And then you live in the world as king, as saint, as Christ did, as Buddha did. And not having inferiority complex, and not doing your work well, and not sleeping well, having guilty conscience, having sickness, disease body and mind. That is my purpose. Now I will end my lecture. Thank you!