My friends, let us have a few minutes to pray for your noble work, that you will fulfill your mission, and to pray for the peace that we all work for; and then, we will start. Please pray in your own way with your eyes closed; contact your God inside.
Thank you. I am very honored
to be here, the best place in the world, and to see the most selected
and intelligent people of all nations.
Welcome to the United Nations. I have told our president here that the United Nations is probably the best thing since "sliced bread", and she said that she had never heard anyone use that phrase before. I said I also don't use it except in the right place because I am afraid people would not understand, and also because there are not many things that are better than "sliced bread". But the United Nations truly is. I have read some of the work that you have done for the world, and I pray that God will bless you with full health, power and intelligence in order that you may carry out your work.
I do not feel like this is my first time here or the first time I have spoken to you. I feel very close and friendly, so please feel that way too, in case you don't. Before I came here, while I was in the car, I just closed my eyes for a few minutes, and then I saw the entrance. Yes! Because I asked the lady who drove, "Do you know where the entrance is?" She said, "Yes, yes. We should be there soon. It is in such and such a place." I thought it was her first time. I was thinking she might go to a wrong entrance. I just slept for a little while, and then I saw "visitor's entrance". Probably I have been here before or we have been in United Nations' conferences in many other lives. Who knows? I saw the entrance while in the car before I actually came here, so it might not be the first time that we are together.
Someone in the United Nations had invited me to come here to address the assembly and it was, oh, a long time ago. It must have been eight months ago, and at that time I wasn't thinking of coming here at all. When I was asked, I said, "Well, maybe. Let's see." Because then I was thinking, "Well, the people who work in the United Nations probably have different interests from mine. I am just a spiritual person, and the people in the United Nations are probably working in so-called politics." That's what I was thinking, in my "unenlightened" manner, you know? Please forgive me. Then I thought, the ones who work in politics would not be interested in what I have to say. But then later, I thought I could not think that way. Politics is not the sole issue of the United Nations. They have worked on humanitarian issues, as well as on peace and on many other kinds of relief for the world. They also practice meditation; this I heard afterwards. Then came the war of the Middle East, many issues about the Au Lac refugees and the policies of Au Lac. Some of the Au Lac refugees who didn't want to be repatriated committed suicide and things like that. So, I thought it would be a good time for me to come here, to understand more about your work and also to have a nice talk together.
It should not be that we let the United Nations shoulder every burden and responsibility, and put blame on them. Everyone should work together with the United Nations, because we are also citizens of the world. No one should just stand outside and watch the United Nations work, and then blame them or criticize them. We should come in and work together. That's what I think, therefore I've come here today. Whether I can help or not, that is another question; that is God's will, but my goodwill is with you.
Therefore, I've studied your books, your pamphlets and whatever I could get, so that I could be in the United Nations, be one of its members, an invisible member, a volunteer. You cannot fire me because I am a volunteer. (Master laughs) I will be here forever. I am the permanent member. You cannot sack a volunteer, you know? You cannot fire a member who volunteers to work forever. So here I am, you have a new member anyway. Welcome or not? [Master laughs] (Someone in the audience answered, "Yes.") Thank you.
Someone has suggested that we talk about war and peace, since it is the current theme of the world. I would like to be brief about war and be long on peace. You see, everyone of us knows about war, but we do not truly know what is the cause of it, and how we should eliminate it. It sounds like a novel, a fairy tale, but we can do it. We can eliminate it. Because after a while, people will be tired of war, whether they are the winners or the losers. Even those historic warriors, like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Arjuna of India, they all finally got tired too. So why wouldn't we, the modem warriors, not be tired and want to learn how to avoid these things? But if you want to avoid it, it's not only our will be done; it's God's will. We must act according to what God wants, and in order to know what God wants, we have to be prepared; prepared in our speech, in our body and mind, to listen to what God says and not to what we say. We always pray for peace, and we don't know what God is trying to say to us about it, how to get peace. Therefore, we do not understand how to go about even though inside everyone knows, everyone likes to stop wars and to preserve peace in the world.
The United Nations is the first agency to worry a lot about war, and to put most of its efforts into regaining peace. It has always been doing this since its founding day. I doubt if the world would be as it is today without the United Nations. We still have war, some famines or refugee problems, but without the United Nations, I think it would be worse. You understand what I mean? You couldn't do your perfect work without the cooperation of many nations. So it is not entirely the fault of the United Nations if we still have wars, other political issues and unsolved issues at the moment, because some members of the world just refuse to cooperate. I know it's very difficult for an organization like the United Nations to move the whole world when some of them just stay there stamping their feet like children and just don't listen,just do their own thing and want their own way. For that, I am very sorry. The work of the United Nations is very, very tough, very difficult and delicate, and needs a lot of patience, diplomacy and strength. May God bless you with all these any time you need them.
Before Alexander the Great died, he instructed his subordinates that they should put him in the coffin with both hands stretched out empty, to teach the later generations not to go into war, not to accumulate any possessions because when we die, we have nothing. But it is said that some members, some citizens of our world or some nations didn't fully understand this lesson. Let us hope they will.
Most of the people who make wars are the ones who are too well protected, who speak from their own chambers, from their own sofas, and who don't go out into the battlefields to fight in danger. Therefore they bring forth this kind of disaster to other people, including their own citizens, because they do not truly sense what danger in battle is and what suffering means when one is wounded or tormented by the casualties of war.
