We Are Stepping Into The Golden Age
Portland, Oregon, USA. December 4, 1993.

There shouldn't be any master; there shouldn't be any teachers; there should be only spiritual friends, spiritual brothers and sisters; because we inherited the same portion of great wisdom from God. There is no difference between any master and any of the audience who sits here, and no difference between him and any child or any older citizen; because we all have the same portion of love and power within ourselves. If we don't use it, it's the greatest waste on Earth. It doesn't matter how much we recycle materials, we still waste. The greatest waste is that we don't know we have wisdom, we don't know we have God's power, we forgot that we are the children of God.

It's okay, you say you know it already, you read the Bible, everyone knows they are the children of God. But, what makes the difference whether you know that or you don't know that? Because you are just the same as yesterday, you don't truly know. You only intellectually heard about it and that makes the difference.

If anything I said today makes sense to you, it is because I recognize this wisdom within myself and I know you have that within yourselves. It's just you don't want to use it. You reject it, you deny it, or you feel too inferior about yourself. We didn't do anything that wrong. If you did or if we did, it was because we did not know. Now it's time to know what is the righteous thing to do, so we can change very quickly. How much time do we spend everyday in order to take care of this body? We know it won't last long, but still it's necessary to take care of it. Now, if we don't take care of our real body, then we are in even more trouble.

Most of the suffering in this world is due to ignorance of the greatness of our position. No other reason! Because we're ignorant of it, we identify ourselves with the habits that we learned from maybe TV as a youngster, or maybe from neighbors, from books. We do many things that our conscience within us tells us that this is not correct, but we still do it because many people do it. Then we run into many problems. Sometimes, we know we shouldn't take drugs, for example; but we feel empty within ourselves, we feel frustrated. Sometimes we have talents, we don't know how to use them, or where to use them. Society sometimes rejects us for some prejudices - race problems or our appearance doesn't please them. So, we fill this void with all kinds of cheap substitutes which, in the long run, ruin us mentally, physically and spiritually. It is because we do not know that we are great, or how to make use of our greatness.

I'm not here to collect your money, tell you what to do, or make you into any condition that is difficult for you. I just want to help you find your great wisdom, your greatest ability again, in order for you to better your life. Because when you better your life, I better my life, too; and my children, my friends' children, my sisters' and brothers' children, we have a better and better environment to live in because we are all connected with each other.

Suppose you don't keep America clean and safe. Could I sit here and talk to you? So, we owe each other everything. Suppose the farmers don't grow any crops. Even if we have money, can we fill our body with nutrition? No! So, we owe each other everything. I can not say that I come to teach you anything. Please don't have this notion despite all this supreme what... Never mind, because we are all supreme.

We came from the supreme source before we descended into this physical body and we'll go back to the supreme source when our time comes. There is no denying our supreme status. If you don't want to acknowledge it because you are humble, or because you feel you are not up to it, it's up to you; but I don't want to deny my status because I know. There's nothing arrogant about it. It's just admitting you are, without any pride, without any fuss, without false humility; because false humility is also false, it's not true.

We should be true, beautiful and virtuous in spirit, speech and actions. That is a perfect human being. Even if we don't want to follow this method of immediate enlightenment, we can try other things; at least to think, so that we can focus back again within ourselves, to remember who we are, and to truly understand the sentence that we are the children of God, or for Buddhist, we all have Buddha Nature within ourselves. That means we are equal to the Buddha, instead of worshipping the Buddha.

We should worship in the right way - to recognize ourselves so that the Buddha (enlightened Master) has less work to do. If we truly want to worship a Buddha or any saint, we should become one; so that they have less burden, less worry and one more companion to uplift mankind.

That's why some people don't like it when I say, "Don't worship the Buddha. Be one!" And I can show you how to be one. I can make a Buddha. Not by sculpturing or carving, but by pointing into your own Buddha qualities; and you have to recognize them day by day until you're fully convinced. There is a way to recognize them; face yourself until you're fully convinced that you are Buddha. That is the time when you are equal to all the Buddhas (enlightened beings) in the ten directions and three periods of time - past, present and future.

We are stepping into the Golden Age, so we have to change. We have to leave behind all these old useless conceptions of how a saint should be; or we should leave behind the dark thinking, the negative expectations of the world and ourselves. Do something!

We start from ourselves, we clean our house. If our house looks filthy, we clean it first. If there's anything we don't like about ourselves, change it! Replace it with more positive, more virtuous qualities. For example, before, when we saw any homeless person we didn't bother about him. He could stand there on the highway for hours under the sun, wanting to work for food. You'd say, "Oh! No! I can not take a stranger into my house. That's dangerous!"

Yes, but we could give him food. We don't need to ask anything from him. Then sometimes we pass by a homeless person, we feel nothing. We don't want to help because of our slow reaction habits, so we don't help him. When we get home, we feel something is wrong. "I should have helped." But then we cover it up quickly, "No!" and watch television or do other things.

We don't want to listen to our conscience, that's why the world will never get better. If it is the case, whatever we think makes the world better, at least a more comfortable place for ourselves and neighbors, we can share. Begin with sharing, then we will feel a subtle change in ourselves more love will pour into our consciousness.We will be aware of something, that is the beginning.

That's why the five precepts are just a suggestion that we should change some of the corners of our life which we do not like. It's not that we should feel so guilty or blame ourselves, should we fail some of it; but it is a goal so that we go forward. For example, we try to be more loving instead of violent or angry; be more giving instead of trying to take; we should be more faithful to our partner instead of having another mistress, or it could be mister. (Master and audience laugh.)

You always blame the man, I don't know why. There are women also, who want to play Madam Butterfly (laughter), flying from one flower to the next. There are two kinds of flowers - male and female flowers. You know that! These brighten our world more and create a more calm atmosphere around us so that makes us better. That is all good, also a kind of meditation. We meditate anytime anyhow in our life. We just meditate mostly on the wrong things. So now, we just use that meditation power, switch to the right thing, that's all. When we think too much about how to make money at the expense of others, that is also meditation; we meditate on money. (Master and audience laugh.) We use all our concentration power, or our mighty thinking power in order to get that piece of paper, and on that piece of paper is printed "In God we trust." (Master and audience laugh.) Isn't that paradoxical?

Our God is money sometimes! (Master laughs.) You see, "In God we trust" means we have to know God. If we don't know God, how could we trust. It's very easy to say, "In God we trust," but how? Who is Hes? What does Hes look like? What did Hes do for me? What will Hes do for me that I have to trust Hirm? So, we must know that is what enlightenment offers. We have to be enlightened in order to know what God is, who Hes is, and what does Hes do to help us everyday in all details of our activities. That is the thing we know after enlightenment. We know more and more.

If we did know God before, in some of the blessed incidents; then we'd know Hirm more and more everyday through a meditative attitude, through a very scientific way of maintaining our enlightened awareness. If we are enlightened once or twice, we still feel not yet there. If someone is hungry for a long time now, and you give him just a little bit of water and bread, will he be satisfied? Of course not.