Forgive yourself
Fremont Hindu Temple, CA, USA, November 25, 1993.

Many people don't like to study holy scriptures, why? Because they don't understand. So I hear that many of the holy men from churches, or from temples, they complain that the young people or the people of today do not like to study scriptures; do not like to study holy book. It is because most of the holy scriptures are too profound, too sophisticated, too deep, sometimes too difficult for the modern man, for the layman to understand. But we have one solution, first, we have to open the understanding power, then we can understand the Bible or the scriptures. Anything you get into your hands, any book, you will be able to understand. I also could not understand much of what is said in the Bible or in the Bhagavad Gita or in the Buddhist scriptures or in the Lao Tze books and all that. Kong Tze and Lao Tze book I read. I understood somehow but not as profound, not as deep, as I do now. After our power of understanding is open, the wisdom is made to be useful again, then we can understand many things.

So if we do not understand the scriptures, and the best thing is first to get enlightenment. Enlighten means you open the power of understanding, and then the heavenly light, Godly light, will shed all understanding upon any object that we wish to study. So that's why even now in college, people teach the students many kinds of meditations, at least to calm their turbulent minds. And if they have a better meditation, the good kind of meditation, which can even open the seat, the door of wisdom, the power of understanding, then so much better for them. Therefore many of the students who study in college but at the same time meditate, they find it easier to master any subject that they want to study. And they are always very good at school. This is a fact that everybody knows by now.

Why is there reincarnation? It is because we do not know the real Self and we chase after the container of the Self. Therefore we chase after one to another. For example, the water in the sea is all one. If we happened to put it in a cup, or we put a cup into the sea like this and then we seal it, then the water in the cup is separated from the ocean. But as soon as the cup is broken, it become one with the ocean again. And if the water inside the cup is attached to the container and then after it's broken, it goes to seek another cup. Then it will forever be separated with the ocean. Similarly, our real Self is not contained in this body, never! It's because it's all pervading, and this is just one of the station, one of the things, that contain a little bit of ourselves. Therefore, when we broke this limitation, we will be one with the whole. We don't have to break the body to go out, (Master laughs) there is a way to go out. For example, we don't need to break the cup to free the water in the cup; we can just, you know, where it is leaking or there is a hole somewhere, and so even the cup is still there and the water is still inside, but at the same time the water is in and out all the time and connected with the whole ocean.

Similarly, our cup here, the body, has a hole, and it is blocked. It's made blocked so as to keep the soul, the water of life inside, but we can open it. Similarly some of the cups, you know, are all made like this (Master takes up a cup.) but there is a hole in the bottom and then they use a plastic cover to cover it, right? Or sometimes medicine bottle also. We just take a little cap, plastic cap or something, and then we can connect with the content inside. So there is a place where we can be connected with the whole Universe while still keeping this instrument, the body. That is the third eye center, the seat of wisdom, the seat of the soul. If it is opened, by any mean at all, by our own perseverance, power of desire for liberation or through a master, then we will be connected right away with the whole Universe, with the Most High, which is all over the places. The power of the Most High is not only contained in this body but it's in the air right now. It's everywhere. It's in every blade of grass and the leaves of the trees, in all Creation. It is easier to open it if we have an experienced guide, you know, who has already been connected with the whole Universal Power. Then he is very powerful because he doesn't use individual power anymore. He uses the whole Universal Power, because he is already connected. Just like the water in the cup, even though it's still in the cup but it's always connected with the ocean water through the hole; and there is always fresh water coming in and out, even though it is still contained in the cup. Therefore a master, or an enlightened person, is like that. The initiated person is the one who has this connection, has the button open, and the master is the one who realizes the Universal Power.

Even though we all have it, the master is the one who realizes it. It's just like if two persons have the same amount of money inherited from the father, but the one who knows it, who knows where it is can use it. The other one, even though he has it but he puts it somewhere or he never knows where it is, can he use it? He cannot! Similarly, we are all the same, but if we know where to use our Universal Power, then we will become masters of ourselves, masters of our destinies, and we can lead many others to become masters of their own destinies as well. Otherwise, even though we are equally great, we don't know our greatness and that's a waste of time. Therefore, we have to come back again, again and again in search for this treasure, until we find it, then our journey ends. Very simple! We are here to search for this forgotten treasure and we never give up until we find it. That's why our lives are never satisfactory because we always know there is something else, something greater than what we have right now. We always somehow know that we are not this container, the flesh, because after we so-called die, the body is still there but we cannot move; we cannot do anything; we cannot love any person; we cannot open our mouths; we cannot do anything at all! That means we are not the body. Something in the body is there to make the body move and work while we are living. Something in the body left when we die, so we cannot move any of our bodily instruments. So somehow we know; very deep in our hearts we know. Well, I know! I don't know if you know. (Master laughs.) Do you know? You must know.

That's why sometimes when you have time, when you are in trouble especially, you sit down and you don't want to be with anyone; just want to be alone. Then you think, and then you feel better and better, because you thought there is something there, something that sometimes comforts us in silence. I used to be like that before I know the Quan Yin Method. I used to pray a lot. I pray to Buddha and I pray to Jesus. I am afraid that one of them cannot hear. (Master laughs) So I pray to anyone I know. Sometimes I pray to Krishna, Hindu God. (Master laughs) There is no Hindu God; there is only God, actually. Just sometimes God resumes an Indian form or a Chinese form, so we call this Hindu God or Chinese God, actually there is no such thing.

So sometimes when I was in deep sorrow, before I know the Quan Yin Method, I prayed very deeply, just to be alone; not to pray very loud, but to truly lament inside. Then I felt like something lifted me up, and I felt so soothing and so smooth and I felt that there was nothing to worry about. That is the time when we realize that something is greater than life; something is always there to listen to us.

Most people pray, and they say they don't have any response. It's because they don't pray deeply enough. That is why we have more response when we are in deep sorrow because we are truly sincere at that time. We pierce through all the layers of pretending of hypocrisy and we pierce through our false self and we get in touch, somehow, even briefly, with the true Self. That is when we get the response. But I suggest that we don't have to wait until we are in deep sorrow to do this. That would be too traumatic. Yes. We have a better way to do it. We practice it even when we are not in sorrow; that would be better.

We practice before we die; that would be better. So when we die, it is just like walking from one room to the next. No problem! And we can walk out forever. We can break the whole cup and be united with the whole ocean, or we can keep it; we can seek another cup in order to satisfy someone else's longing or to help someone else. It's like the master, sometimes the master reincarnates again and again, into different bodies, in order to help mankind. Some masters just like to enjoy Heaven, enjoy Nirvana and never want to go back again. Some masters never, never ever incarnated on this Earth, with no intention to do so. Some masters incarnates again and again in order to help the children who are suffering, who have the great treasure but don't know how to use it; therefore, being very poor, poor and miserable.

In India people appreciate the masters very much. They worship the master even more than God because of this reason. They say, "Oh, if both the master and God appear right now, I would only worship the master. I don't care about God." (Master laughs.) It's just a kind of adoration and gratefulness to the master. Actually, they worship the master because of God; they worship God because of the master. Without the master, they don't know that true God exists or not. Yes. Without God power, the master is also nothing, understand?

So we all come from God, whether masters or not masters. The master is the one who knows God, and the non-master is the one who doesn't know God yet, but they still have God; they are still from the same. I told you about the story of the cup, the ocean water in the cup. So at the time of initiation, you know already, the button is pushed open so that we can get in touch, somewhat, to God, at least for some moments. Then we continue to do that everyday, until we completely realize that we are one with God; there is no separation.

You see, there are many things that the initiated persons understand and know, but it's difficult to put them into words. Me also. If nobody demands anything from me, I would not even think of God. Do you know what I mean? He is just kind of always standing around or He is just inside me. So I don't even think of Him. I don't talk about Him. I don't miss Him. I don't seek Him anymore. Just for other people's sake I talked about God. I talk about these things. Sometimes it's difficult for me to talk about God. Maybe that's the reason why I don't desire to go for lectures or anything like that, because I am just satisfied wherever I am and whatever I do. The initiated people are mostly like that. Many of them have this satisfaction right away at the time of initiation and continue forever.

Some of them have to wait sometime to realize that they have found the treasure. Why is it so? Some people's curtains are thicker than the others, because we are obstructed by intellectual understanding and by many of the knowledge that we have accumulated during our lifetime, and we are proud of it and cling to that. That's why we have forgotten that we are greater than this knowledge, greater than the Ph.D. certificate, greater than the name that we are proud to have, like Dr. so and so, or such and such position. We are greater than this, greater than any king on this Earth. Sometimes we don't even realize that we have this ego and that we are trapped into this ego, the Maya net. We don't even realize it until we practice more and more. And the more we practice, the more we realize that we are obstructed by our own habits, by our own collections of garbage, of a lot of nonsense thinking.