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

Some of you would have heard of the miracle performers in India, China or maybe America even. These are nothing of wonders. It's just that they use that creative power. They know more than the average person about how to use their own intelligence. Just as we can make use of our five percent brain power to create airplanes, boats, rockets, scientific apparatus, etceteras, we can use more of this creative power in order to create much more advanced, more wonderful and more unimaginable, excellent things. That's all there is to heaven, all the comforts and all the miracles. It's all creative power, and we have all this within ourselves.

To use this creative power just to make some flowers, some oranges, candies is nothing at all. It's just a very little thing in the creative play of our brain power. The more we know, the greater things we can create. Scientists have created many wonderful machines and apparatus to serve human life; but if the scientists had more access into the Kingdom of Wisdom, they would create heaven out of nothing. Just as much as we use materials of this Earth to create spacecraft and all kinds of vehicles and apparatus, we can use invisible materials to create all kinds of things which we need for this life and the next.

Therefore Jesus said, Seek you first the Kingdom of God and all the things shall be added onto you. That's why Buddha forsook all the earthly kingdom, possessions and pleasures; because then He possessed much more property. He knew He was richer than any king on this Earth. Otherwise, how could one just live a life of a beggar for forty-nine years when the Kingdom of His nation was at hand? He could at any time go back to His throne, become a great king, rule over His nation, and enjoy all the comforts. But He didn't return, because He was richer than when He left.

He had anything He wanted. He could go to any heaven, any land, any planet, any galaxy; and had all kinds of treasures, all kinds of things that He wanted; but He didn't even want these. After we know all the secrets of the universe, after we possess all the treasures of the heavens, we desire nothing anymore. We become happy within ourselves; whatever comes, comes. We become like a child. We do not desire and the desires of this world will not burn our hearts any longer, will not have anymore control over us. That is the advantage of becoming enlightened.

Many people also have the wrong idea, that if we want to become enlightened or we want to practice, we must become a monk or a nun or go to the Himalayas. I did have that idea. I thought I must do it. But that was my stupidity. I wasn't enlightened then. You do not need to do that. We can live within our family life, carry on our worldly duties, and become enlightened at the same time. It is just like we can do so many jobs with our hands and our brain power. We can also do our worldly jobs and become enlightened.

With such a limited intelligence as we have now five percent of the brain power, we still can accomplish so many tasks. Just like if you are a physician, you still can grow your vegetables in the garden when you go back home, you help your wife clean the carpets even, or you can do all kinds of hobbies. Now fancy you have more wisdom, then you can just do more - cannot do less. Don't need to forsake the world in order to do the will of heaven. You can only do more and offer more; you do not have to decrease your responsibility.

That is the logic of enlightenment. But since I have become a nun like this, I'm used to it, so I stay like this. It doesn't hurt me at all. We do not need to do this. We can do many things with our wisdom. It encompasses many things. We can love God and love our family members at the same time. The love of God will not interfere with our love for family life and family members; because if God is love, if Buddha is compassion, then our family members have to be included, not excluded. We can include more people even. Instead of only loving our family, husband and wife, we can love also our neighbors, our enemies. That's how we become after enlightenment.

Jesus said, Love your enemy. He didn't only preach from the lips. He really experienced that. After complete enlightenment you bear no hatred to anyone and you see things in a better light. You see why people do this thing to you, why people do that thing to that person. You will not have any guilty feelings for what you do and you will not have any hatred towards anyone who harms you, because you see the cause and consequences of all things in the universe. That's how we can leave hatred. That's how we can love our neighbor, our enemy.

It's not easy to tell people to love their enemy and then they will love them. They understand the message, but to carry out the message is another thing. It's easy to quote from the Buddha and say, All beings are pure from nature. You have no sin. There is no bad, no good. But it is hard to convince someone not to feel guilty, because they do not see the cause and consequence. They cannot do things without the ego, and then they get blamed for it. Once we are enlightened, we see things from a higher point, from a higher intelligence, and we see nothing happens by accident, or nothing is by our own doing. It is hard to explain this to you. It's easier to get enlightenment than to explain enlightenment.

If we hear the name of Buddha or the name of the teaching in any scripture, we will have some merit, some virtuous merit, in order to be born in heaven again. Other-wise we go to hell. So people tell us, now I don't believe so much in hell, but there is hell nevertheless. Just that I would not go there, so I don't believe in it.

There is the law of hell and the law of heaven. The law of hell is a very low class law set up to catch people in their transmigration of this illusion. The law of heaven is that of gracious blessing and love, unconditional forgiveness, which will draw people back to the Kingdom of God or to the Buddha's land to enjoy their deserved happiness and everlasting joy. The law of hell, or of this world, is governed by the king of maya, which is what we call the 'director of illusion,' the director behind the stage of the illusionary game. The law of heaven and Buddha's land is governed by those gracious, loving, compassionate, merciful beings who are the co-workers with Almighty God or the highest Buddha.

When we call God by different names it is all right. You may call your wife "my darling," "my apple pie," "my sugar candy" or "honey pie," whatever you want. Similarly, we have to allow people of different mentalities and different preferences to call God by different names. It is so logical. I'm so surprised that most people don't understand this and fight over the names. It's okay if you call your wife "cookie" and if the neighbor calls his wife "apple pie". It's the same thing. If we call God by the name of Allah, Jehovah, the highest Buddha Nature, the Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodha, the Almighty, the Beloved, the Father, the Mother, the Creator, God or anything else, what does it matter?

Therefore many people think that I preach many religions at once. No, no.1 only preach one - the religion of Truth, the religion of wisdom, the religion of love. What we call God Almighty or the Highest Buddha, is our own wisdom, our own survival power, intelligence, which we could use at anytime, if we wish to do so.