Practicing Makes The World More Civilized
Columbia University, NY,USA. November 3, 1989.

If we kept the precepts, we'd be nice to our neighbor, we'd love our enemies, etceteras. Then the world would be in peace, be a nice place to live in, and would endure much more longevity. So if our world is peaceful, it would also affect our lives and we would also feel very peaceful. If we live in a house and the house is damaged or in not good condition, then our health and our comfort would be affected. Similarly, if we live in the world full of chaos and trouble, we'd have no peace. So to help the world is to help ourselves.

Now, that is only if we want to stay in this world. But if we want to go back to the Kingdom of God, to the Buddha's land or to become Buddha, there are more subtle conditions and rules which we should know. Apart from keeping these precepts, following a virtuous life, being tolerant, and helping others, we should also be connected with the Kingdom of God.

What is the Kingdom of God? It is very easy to see, provided you are willing to give your effort and time and sincerely wish to be there. You can find the Kingdom of God through your own purity, sincerity and one-pointed devotion. But the best way, the quickest way, is to find someone who has already the access into the Kingdom of God and then you just follow. They just hold your hand and take you up. Therefore Jesus Christ had to be born in this world in order to lead some of His contemporaries, sincerest ones, God's lovers, back to the heavenly mansion. Therefore Buddha had to descend to this world in order to take some of His devotees back to the Buddha's land.

In every nation, in every period of worldly existence, there will be always such personalities like Jesus or Buddha. This is very good news. We worship Jesus and Buddha, and that is very good. But rarely do we know we could become as great as Jesus, as great as Buddha. That is actually the sole purpose of their coming into our world. That's why Jesus emphasized in the Bible, Whatever miracle I do today, you can do even greater tomorrow. He promised us. We can become as great as He was, even greater. Buddha also said, You can all become Buddha. I have already become Buddha, you will become Buddha. No one has claimed the monopoly, the sole possession of Buddha-hood. No one can do that. If anyone ever does, he doesn't know anything about Buddhahood and Christianity.

A true Christ is a power which can be handed down from one person to another. Just like you earn a lot of money, you can give away as much as you want. As true as we have material possessions, we can also have spiritual power -the invisible possession which we can hand down also. It's not 'handed out' because we all have this inside ourselves. It only needs opening by an expert.

It is just like when we go into this room; we are not acquainted with the electricity board, with all the switches in this room. So we have to learn it by trying to discover ourselves, or we have to go the quickest way - to the manager. The one who is in charge of this room, he knows everything. He has been here everyday. He knows where the switchboard is, which light is connected with which switch. It's the best way. So he can open it in seconds, put on the lights, and help you to connect with all the things that you need for today's seminar.

Similarly, Christ or Buddha, they have known the Kingdom of Heaven. They have come and gone many times, if not many millions of times already. So they can help us to also go there and make us comfortable with all the things we need. Once we come into this room and find the manager of this room, we can find all the things we need.

Similarly, Jesus has told us that, we should seek first the Kingdom of God and all the things shall be added unto you. The Kingdom of God is the inborn intelligence which most of us do not use. Just like I've mentioned many times already - five percent of our brain power. Now if we have access to the whole brain power - one hundred percent, we can do great wonders. Using five percent we can make airplanes, we can make rockets to go to the moon, to go to the galaxies, do many wonders, cure many sicknesses, discover many great things, invent so many computers and machinery, and make fast cars and jumbo jets. Now, ninety-five percent is still there unused. If we wake this power of intelligence up, then we will know so many more things, we can do so many more things, we can invent so many more things, we can create numerous things.

That is what it means by the Kingdom of God, the Wisdom of the Buddha or the Buddha Nature. But apart from that we still have much more. The subtle power behind this brain power is what we call Soul Power. That is our real 'face,' our real person. We have no doubt about the existence of a real person within our body, that we are not this physical body. The physical body is only a house to live in while we are in this world - a hotel room. Otherwise, why when we die the body is still there and we cannot move anymore. So, it must be something else behind the body, behind the brain, that moves the whole machinery, thinks, walks, eats, and sleeps. That is our real Self.

The real Self is hidden behind the veil of what we call illusion or maya, in Sanskrit. Illusion is something of a play which makes us forget our real Self. It is just like when we watch television, films or theater performances so intensely that we forget ourselves. Then we cry, laugh, and feel sorrow and fear with the personages on the stage. We forgot that we are, maybe, the senators of the state, or the wife of a very important person. We glue ourselves to the screen, laugh and cry with those people, and get angry and excited. After the theater or the movie is over, we wake up to the reality, to who we are, and we go home. We do not stay in the theater anymore and we do not glue ourselves to the television screen anymore.

The theater, the movies and the television are only temporary things and they can even attract people so much. You know the television addicts' problem. Sometimes you switch on and you cannot switch off. It does not matter what it is, you just have to look. It's very fascinating, always changing, always making excitement, and always new. We sometimes forget our duties, our jobs, our work and we watch the television.

Our life is a greater stage and it's a longer performance. No wonder we forgot our real Self. Our life stage is more interesting even, more intense, more colorful, more dramatic and more enchanting than the theater performance. Therefore, we keep glued to this screen of life and forget who we are. That's all there is to the illusion play. Once the illusion stops, the play stops. That's when we are awakened.

When we are awakened, we are enlightened. If we are completely awakened and shake off all these impressions from the theater performance so that it doesn't make us feel sorrow, cry, laugh anymore, then we say we have become like Christ or become a Buddha. We know it's all a dream. At that time we are completely awakened. Then we are mighty. We can control everything we need to control, but then we let everyone free as far as they don't want to be controlled. We let everything go but we can do everything we want - not harmful things to people, just all good things.

Once we are completely awakened or enlightened, we have all the wisdom that is inborn within ourselves. With a little intelligence of our five percent brain power, we can create so many great things like the Empire State Building, so many advanced and wonderful apparatuses. With this inborn, new found wisdom, we can create heaven. We can create comfortable environments, life and all the things we wish.