You meditate because you want to be better; you want to know yourself now. And it’s good for you in many ways, many ways as you have found out. And then, besides, once you are meditating like that, you also become your own master. And you have more power. And you can help other people. You have eloquence. You can convince people. You can even maybe convert people to this path and help them also. You see what I mean? There’s no problem with liberation for one person; if he believes in the Master, he’s gone, done. […]
Because you still want to do something with your mind, you have to recite the (Five Holy) Names. While you are still in the mind, in this physical domain, you still have to do something so that you know you’re doing it. Because if you don’t recite the Five (Holy) Names, then you’ll recite some other names -dog-, cat(-people), whatever. Yes! That’s for sure. Money! Or your boyfriend. It won’t help you. Noodles, even. Right? So the Five (Holy) Names are just a replacement for all those chaotic turbulences and memories in your mind to keep yourself concentrated; focused. OK? It’s not a work. It’s a substitute for what you are working hard [on] anyhow, every day.
If I didn’t give you those Five (Holy) Names, you’d work even harder. “Oh, my God! My boss just scolded me this morning. When is he going to fire me? I don’t care! I’m going to get another better job! Ah, but I think I like this job. What is it that I like about this job? I think, on second thought, I don’t. Oh, but… The colleagues are so nice. Oh! The tea we have together every day is fabulous! But the boss is lousy. I think I’m going to quit. On the other hand, you don’t quit a job just because of the boss! I mean…” And then you’re on and on and on and on. And at the end of sitting, you’d be more exhausted than just reciting the Five (Holy) Names. I make it simple for you. Alright?
Everything is put into the five (Holy) Words. You have everything in there – all the arguments with the boss, and the girlfriend, boyfriend, anything, or compliments, all the problems – it’s concentrated in there anyhow. So when you recite the Five (Holy) Names, you summarize everything in one packet. And that is the same as if you sit there and think about whether this brand of coffee is better than the other brand. Alright? It’s not work. It’s a way to smooth out problems, to concentrate everything in one so that you’ll be more focused. OK? But when you are in the effortless state, that is when you reach there; there’s nothing to do. Nothing to do!
(In Your beautiful song, You say, “Follow me. Follow only me, and I will set you free.” By “free,” do You mean freedom from rebirth in this world, freedom from having a physical body, freedom from being bound by matter, space, and time? Does the attainment of freedom depend on how well I meditate?) Also, yes. Suppose I tell you, “Don’t meditate. I’ll do everything for you.” Would you like that? You like free lunch every day? You wouldn’t feel good even. But it’s possible also. The Master Power can do anything. But in that case, you must have absolute confidence in the Master. And that’s also an effort. I don’t know if you can afford it.
You meditate every day, and you still don’t have confidence. You try to think of Her every day, you think of Her teaching, you know everything about Her – you still don’t have enough confidence. How would you just say, “OK, that’s it! She will save me – no more to do. She said that in the song.” If you can do it, if you can believe it, it works – no problem with me. You have a problem with yourself only. You are the one who has to believe or who has to meditate. If you believe absolutely that I can set you free, so it shall be. I’m just afraid you won’t believe it. That’s why you’ve got to work – do something so that you feel you earned it. Right? This is the psychological feeling. This is human psychology. You give them something free, they doubt you. They think you’re going to cheat them or get something out of them even though they are beggars. Yeah! So, let them work a little, then they feel good about it. They feel confident, dignified; they earn their own bread and their own worth. That’s alright.
Besides, when you’re sitting in meditation, it’s good for you – good for your psyche, good for your mind, good for your body. Everything is put at rest. Your heartbeat is slower, your brainwaves become beta, theta, whatever it is – very, very low and very relaxed. See? It’s also good for you. And your emotions are stable, your mind’s clear, whatever problem in a day, you can solve it, or you can think. You see? That’s good for you. Otherwise, the Master doesn’t need you to meditate to set you free. Really, you can believe in the Master, and He[/She] will set you free. Many people… I told you many stories – just looked at the Saint once, and at the time of dying, the Saint came and took him Home. No problem, honey. Just no problem.
Yeah. People pray also to the picture of the Saint; that’s even enough. Watched once on television and believed in it – enough! There’s no need for your meditation, but you meditate because you want to be better; you want to know yourself now. And it’s good for you in many ways, many ways as you have found out. And then, besides, once you are meditating like that, you also become your own master. And you have more power. And you can help other people. You have eloquence. You can convince people. You can even maybe convert people to this path and help them also. You see what I mean? There’s no problem with liberation for one person; if he believes in the Master, he’s gone, done. There’s no need to do anything. Does the Master need you to sit there [for] two and a half hours so that He can take you Home? What kind of Master is that?
(Thank You for the initiation into the Quan Yin Method. Master, my concentration is very poor. Please allow me to serve Master in total unconditional love and surrender.) Who? Who is that? What do you want to do with me? Go Home? Then you just do your job. What are you doing? (I beg Your pardon?) What are you doing? (I’m not working at the moment.) So I don’t know what kind of job I can give you. (I’ll find something that I will serve You in South Africa, in God, either way.) You serve Hirm inside. Try to do as best as you can in your Center, where you live. Help other people. (Yes.) Talk to them, help them. Yeah, yeah, I don’t know, really, … You can write to… I don’t know where else they need help.
If you want to help in any way, then you can write to the correspondence address, and then I think I will ask them to keep a file of the people who volunteer. And then, in case, if we need help in any way, we can notify you. That would be also a good problem (solution). Registered already? Wrote letters there already? (Yes.) You have to state also your skills, your time. Everybody. Anyone who wants to do that. And then maybe if any Center wants you, then they can send you there or ask you to go there. What are you doing? (They bite.) Oh, they do? Tell them to bite the man next door. Yeah, it’s not fair. He has more blood. He’s darker; that means the blood is richer, more iron.
OK, next. (What is the best timing for saying the Five [Holy] Names? One [Holy] Name every five minutes?) Make it five and a half. I told you already. Your own space, your own pace. You say it as slow as you want but not too quick because we are not in a hurry. When you say it too quick, you feel excited. Just like when you talk fast, you feel excited, and your breathing is faster. And it is not our purpose to be too excited and rushing. So we recite Them slowly so that everything calms down. Right? Calm. But there is no set time. You do it as you feel comfortable. You try different ways – maybe three minutes for one sentence, or maybe two minutes [for] one, or five minutes [for] one – at your own pace. It’s OK.
Next. (Master, that was the last written question.) Yeah? Good! And this guy wants… Is anything inside there for you? (No.) OK. Create your own. Yeah, make it short, simple, (OK.) to the point. (I wanted to ask You if… A lot of people have been trying to get the Buddhist chanting tapes, and they can’t get them. Is it possible to have them rereleased?) Well, you have to write to the audio team. You write, and then they will remember. OK? (Yes.) You just say to the book department, or book team or video team or audio team: “We,…” or how many people (Yes.) and listing the whole army to support you, “…we need the Buddhist chanting, and where can we get it? Or will you send it to me?” If they say yes, then you ask them to send to whatever Center. (OK.) Buddhist chanting, why do you like them? You don’t understand them. (It’s…) Don’t care, huh? (Yes. Thank You.) Yeah. Good. Buddhist chanting – at that time, I still had the voice.
(I have two questions. The first one is: When serving other people, how do we know when it’s God’s Will or when it’s our ego? Because ego is ever-present in varying degrees. And God’s Will is maybe…) Subtle. (…the right way to go. How do we know which is God’s Will in this case?) It’s not always that clear, huh? But I would suggest that whatever is beneficial to other people, you try to do it spontaneously and don’t expect the outcome or the reward. That would be nice enough already – whether it’s God’s Will or it’s ego.
(So, if we have a choice of two different ways of serving people, but we’re wondering which is less, maybe choose the lesser-ego path? Or something like that?) Oh, if you have two ways to serve people? (Yes, yes, yes.) Wow! OK. If you don’t know, then just write them on two pieces of paper and pick one. (OK. OK.) At least that’s egoless because you don’t choose it yourself. Pray to God, “OK, You pick one for me.” (Put them in a hat and just pick out one?) Yeah. Close your eyes and pick one. (Let God decide.) Or toss a coin or whatever. That’s what people do when they can’t decide things.
(The second question regards a meditation experience.) Yeah. (Once, while doing the [inner Heavenly] Light meditation… Somebody was speaking in my right ear while doing the [inner Heavenly] Light meditation, talking to me, telling me about myself. But because I wasn’t doing the Quan Yin, I decided, “OK, just focus on the [inner Heavenly] Light. Maybe it’ll go away.” It did go away, but I’m wondering maybe if I should’ve listened.) What, what? Depends. Was that the answer to your question? Was that right or something?... (Yes. Well, what should I do? Should I, in this case, if it happens again, should I listen to people speaking from my right side while I’m doing the Quan Quang [meditation on the inner Heavenly Light]?) No. But what is it about? Are you asking something, and then that person answered you or something? (No. I was just…)
Talking about yourself? Like what? (This person just started talking smoothly about me; he was just telling me things about myself.) Like what? (Like… well, from what I can remember, it was like, “Oh, you’re doing very well,” or “You’re…” Something kind of like compliments.) Oh, that’s the devil. God never compliments. (How did it get in on the right side?) Did I ever compliment anybody? No. (He past my right ear?) Right or wrong. You were not doing the listening and he tried to interfere. (OK.) Yeah. Besides, if he said you are good, that means be careful. (Yes.) “You’re doing very well.” Tell him, “If I do it very well, I know already, no need for you to bother.” OK? (OK. Thank You, Master.) “Besides, my Master tells me all compliments and praises are poison. So get out. Get behind me.” You know what (Lord) Jesus was doing when He was in the desert? The devil came to Him and said, “If you just bow to me, I’ll give you everything.” That’s even more compromising. But He said, “Get behind me.” See that? We don’t care.
We should never, ever bother about anything because we don’t meditate for compliments. Right? We don’t meditate to know that we are good or we are bad. We meditate to know God. Alright? And if we do it well, God knows, and we know. It doesn’t matter. We don’t meditate for any purpose like that, to get information and all that. Only when sometimes we are in trouble, and we can’t solve our problem, then maybe in the meditation we pray, “Master, maybe when I meditate, let me know the answer. Or any time, let me know the answer to this problem that I’ve tried my best, and I couldn’t solve. It’s important to me.” And that’s it. Just one sentence and meditate. But there is no need for anyone to come and praise you. We don’t ask for this advice. They’re testing your ego. Yeah, you feel comfortable, and you feel like, “Oh, what else? What else?” And then you forget the wisdom and the (inner Heavenly) Light and everything else. And he will try to talk to you all day long. Then you’ll be in more trouble. Really. (Yes.) OK? Cut it out. Forget the communication; cut the telephone line. Say, “I don’t need you. I don’t need you.” And then he’ll go away. (Thank You, Master.)
That is one of the traps. That’s one of the 52 ways to get into trouble. Yeah. That’s one of the 52 ways that the Buddha warned the disciples [of]. One of them is praising. The devil will come to you and praise you that you are good. Because at that time, he probably knows that you’re craving for it. You need some compliments, you need some reward, you need some reassurance that you’re doing well because nobody else has seemed to do it. “Master’s too far away. She doesn’t even know what I’m doing. I’m working my head off for the Center, and She never says anything. And all the people seem to ignore me, don’t even realize my existence here. You know, I sacrificed everything to come here and do a lot of things, and nobody says anything to me.” And then he will come. He’ll say, “Ah, ah, you are very, very, very good.” And then, if you believe it, you fall into that vanity trap. Vanity is the devil’s favorite catch.
