It is true that we are indebted to all the inspiring teachers whom we are honored to learn from throughout our lives, especially the teachers who impart the moral values as you mentioned, and a virtuous way of life; who help to nurture the citizens of the world to do good deeds selflessly; who treat others with kindness and fairness; and take care of the weak and the less fortunate. If we had more such teachers, our world could become a Heaven. As the famous American historian Henry Adams said, I quote him: “A teacher affects eternity.” Even eternity, not just one lifetime, a good teacher.
(Our final question for today comes from Ms. Julie Johnson, a teacher, adult educator, and former Coordinator of Environment and Sustainability Programs at an independent boys' school in Canada.)
(Supreme Master Ching Hai, I’d like to say hallo from Canada. My husband and I are visiting from Canada and I know there are lots of Canadians helping out with the conference today.) Hallo! (And we’d like to let You know that You’re a climate hero in Canada, as well as here in the States, so thank You for that.)
Climate hero, I like that. I like that, but I would like to save that title for all the people in the world who are doing more than I do and who are trying more than I do in their own way to save lives. By the way, I also thank them from the bottom of my heart for this opportunity. Thank you, all of you, for being heroes. Yes, thank you, all of you.
(Supreme Master, there are so many inspiring teachers in this world, from many walks of life and these educators treat children as whole beings, and in addition to teaching skills and knowledge, they also instill good values in our children. And I’m wondering, how will noble, loving education help to usher in the Golden Era?)
Good, noble education. Hallo, Canada. I’ve been in your beautiful country and met the kind people of Canada. Very safe country. Also, because your country is peaceful, makes no enemies anywhere. When you don’t provoke people, then you are at peace. That’s a good example, you see? Canada is a good example of, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Your country only helps people and is being friendly to all nations, therefore, your country is always at peace and the people are happy. But it’s cold, very cold. Even then, people are happy. They’re not going anywhere, they stay there.
So now, I like your expression very much: “noble, loving education.” And it is true that we are indebted to all the inspiring teachers whom we are honored to learn from throughout our lives, especially the teachers who impart the moral values as you mentioned, and a virtuous way of life; who help to nurture the citizens of the world to do good deeds selflessly; who treat others with kindness and fairness; and take care of the weak and the less fortunate. If we had more such teachers, our world could become a Heaven. As the famous American historian Henry Adams said, I quote him: “A teacher affects eternity.” Even eternity, not just one lifetime, a good teacher. A teacher affects eternity; that’s something to think about. The best way, I think, is to start with a spiritual foundation, because spiritual practice includes the basic moral and social standards. I think all the schools on our planet should include spiritual and moral standards in our school curriculum. Because that’s what’s lacking, deeper subjects. Not just saying, “OK, I go to church or I give a little to charity,” which don’t always even mention in the schools.
Now, the basic moral and social standards, we must instill in the children at a young age and provide the inner support they can always lean on throughout their lifetime. A study in Canada, your country, showed that children who have spiritual faith are happier. Furthermore, meditation helps children to become calmer and more focused. For example, in the US, some studies were conducted in schools that taught children how to do simple meditation, and they reported very good results, such as less anxiety, better mood, more attention span. Such kids grow up to be the helpers and strong leaders of our societies.
Now, another important part of a noble education, as you mentioned, is to encourage the children’s already God-given loving nature.
Actually, all the children, not just the Indigo or Crystal children, are born very sweet and loving and innocent; and they do have a connection with God up to the age of three or four. There was a very touching story, the true story; a mother told the story of her two children talking to each other. One child is a girl, she’s four years old, and the other is one year old, laying in the crib still. And the four-year-old girl asked her younger sibling, “Please, can you tell me what God is like, what God looks like? I began to forget already.” That made me cry so much when I first heard about it. “Please tell me what God is like, I began to forget already,” the four-year-old tells the one-year-old.
And now, we come back to Earth. We have to teach the children to be protective and loving to the innocent lives, like the animals, the helpless, the defenseless, the innocent. The blessing, actually, to our planet, are the animals. This gives them a close affinity with animals since a young age. We have to teach them the value of loving kindness to others, especially to the animals. It is up to us to not suppress or deny them their love for the animals.
When we feed our children animals’ meat, the children, of course, become anxious and restless, because it goes against their natural instinct. We put violence into their tender bodies when we should teach them the best example of loving kindness and compassion. It’s not just the physical, but subconsciously, in being given meat, they learn something very conflicting with their own care for the animals and love in their own hearts, and clashing with everything else they are taught about being loving, being kind, not harming others, not killing others if we ourselves don’t want to be harmed or to be killed, treated badly in the same way.
We teach our children to be kind, to be loving, to be non-violent, but we feed them the very symbol of unkindness, of violence. That is the piece of animal flesh that we force into their tender bodies, by force sometimes. If you notice many little babies, when you feed them meat they often spit it out, and then we take it back, forcing them again, again and again until they get used to it and cannot do without. And then they grow up teaching their children the same way. Isn’t that a pity? Very sad affair.
But it’s not really the parents’ or the teachers’ fault; it’s not our fault, because we ourselves were taught the same, as I have told you, from generation to generation, one leading the next, because we have no time to do the research on the reality of the harm of the animal diet and the benefit of the vegan lifestyle. See? Now, we must take time to do it. This is truly a tragic education that we have been passing on to us and we have been passing on to our children. We shut off our sensitivity to the suffering of the animals and let ourselves forget that we are degrading ourselves, our true God-like, compassionate and innocent selves. We damage our bodies, our intelligence and we are killing the planet.
Now, all it takes is a noble teacher, a parent – one noble role model – to nurture in our children what they were born knowing: that we love and care for all living beings as we would ourselves. That is the only philosophy. And that is the only true, noble way of living our lives. If we cannot teach that all life has inherent, precious value, then we may wonder what is worth teaching. Jesus said that above all else, we must love one another as ourselves. The Talmud said, “The greatest wisdom is kindness.” The Buddha taught us to uphold compassion, and the Qur’an reminds us to show mercy to all creatures.
The Prophet in the Qur’an stated that “Allah will not give mercy to anyone, except the ones who give mercy to other creatures.” It’s very clear. Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, also told His cousin, “Oh Ali, don’t eat meat, don’t eat that.” So, since human history began, we have been reminded by the great and compassionate teachers, like Mahavira, Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, Guru Nanak, etc., etc., and many other great teachers who have helped to uplift us already, time and again, to a more civilized way of living with one another.
And if we study carefully Their message, and Their own practice even, at the basic core of the civilized life They taught is the peace-loving vegan diet. That’s the beginning of everything else: that’s the beginning of the moral building block; that’s the beginning of spiritual upliftment; that’s the beginning of a peaceful society. If we can provide this same most basic spiritual and moral foundation for our children, then we are doing our part in “noble, loving education” that you mentioned, and it is certain that we will usher in a Golden Era. Thank you and all Heavens love you for being vegan! And your husband. OK. Thank you for being so patient. Everybody’s still there, I’m surprised! You have not gone home to sleep or did not doze, or anything. My God, what a good people you are! God bless you. Thank you!
(And thank You, Supreme Master Ching Hai, for Your answer. And we want to say that You are one of the most inspiring teachers in this world!) Thank you. Thank you.
Thank God for blessing me with such privilege. I really thank Heaven every day that I’m in the position to be able to contribute some humble goodness to the society. And thank you for being a good audience, thank you for your good questions.
(That completes our formal question-and-answer session. Supreme Master Ching Hai, is there anything else You would like to tell us?)
Well, if people are not sleeping yet, I just want to say goodbye. A few words of thanks and goodbye. You see, I am grateful also for the questioners because their questions are very, very thought provoking, very enlightened, very concerned, very loving. Their enlightened questions, their sincere attention, support and love for the planet gives me the inspiration to give a good answer. They said “good answer” is because of good question. And most of all, I appreciate all of your willingness to join hands in helping ensure the future, for our world. If we act now and together, while we still have a chance, and we still have some time, we can step into a world of our most splendid dreams, and beyond. Thank you for the good questions.
I would like to thank again all the inspirational speakers, dignitaries, and participating guests for your many and valued contributions to the world. I also send my appreciation to the organizers for making this conference possible and successful.
I can imagine how much hard work, dedication, and loving kindness has been put into this conference in order to make it as beautiful as it is. And because of that we have all the beautiful supportive, lively, good-looking audience. Thank you.
And I salute the gracious hosting nation, America, as well as the capital of this great nation, Washington, D.C. As the speakers have said today in so many ways, we must all rise to what is needed by the planet now, and to what we know we can be. The time has come for us to change, evolve, grow and stand tall as the rightful crown of creation, the benevolent rulers and protectors, and Heaven’s children on Earth.
I pray that each of us may walk away from this important event much more encouraged, much more knowledgeable, and readier than before to go forth in the direction of righteousness, justice and love. Together, let us make the unprecedented leap to the Golden Era, to the time of compassion, harmony, kindness and true peace that awaits us. I know that we can do it. Yes, we can, right? (Yes, we can. Yes, we can!)
I am positive that we can do it and I believe the Americans will be standing as one, blazing the trail to our shared wondrous destination. God bless us all. God bless America. God bless our world. Love you. Splendid people, wonderful people, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I’m also standing for you. Thank you, thank you so much. You know I am standing but it doesn’t look much different. I’m not American, you see. Please be seated.
(Okay, and now, let’s celebrate with some entertainment.)
“(I heard a lot of inspiring talk from the speakers as well as Master Ching Hai. The key message from this conference is, well, everybody can do something about it. And also it's really about considering the next generation. The impact is not just for developing countries or some far away problem. It's actually something very much… much closer to us than I think most of the people are aware of. So that's even a more powerful message: that everybody has to do something to be a contributor.)”
“(Tell me your impressions of the conference tonight.)
(I am most impressed with the interaction between the questioners and Master Ching Hai in that the interaction helps us to become more intimate with Her. She was very explanatory about Her own pursuit of Her own divinity and Her sharing herself with the audience tonight. I think one of the great messages early on, expressed by Ching Hai, is that it starts with us, the individual, and the collective individual action would perhaps have the greatest impact. We have our own mandate to spread that message amongst our own, but also to those whom we contact wherever we should find them.)”
“(In the sense that I did not know the effect of how we gather our food to eat, mostly the animal stock, how much effect that has on the climate.)
(What do you think about, like, making diet change? Is that something people can do all over the world? What do you think?)
(I truly think so. Most of us are not aware about the effect of our lifestyle on the system, so to a point where we realize that it could help us if we turn vegetarian or if we change our diet from not eating that much animal. And of course, I'm of a belief system that mankind is not meant to eat meat, to start with.) OK. (The original people, according to the history of the African continent where I come from, that the original people who dwelled on planet Earth were Twa people, which are in modern day, Uganda. They never ate meat. They were pygmies, short people. They think it was the climate change that forced them into eating meat, and ever since then mankind started to eat meat.)”
