But the self-hypnotism of the highest order is that: you use your own judgment and your own wisdom to acquaint yourself with the Higher Realms of existence, and you become more and more familiar with a higher kind of living, higher kind of thinking, and higher kind of power, that you become greater each day. And whatever you want to accomplish, then your own inner power will accomplish it for you. At that time, we know God, and we can say that God has accomplished everything for us through our body. Because at that time, we and God are one.
Everyone tells us and from the Buddhist Bible, they say that human life is the most precious; and the Catholics also say the same. And then, in the Mohammedan scriptures, I mean the Muslim scriptures, it is said that we are guests on Earth only. So, it means our Home is not here. It means we are greater than just a human shell of the body.
Now, everyone told us that we are so great, but where is our greatness? What is so great about a human existence? At most, we know our greatness only through our mortal understanding. It is like what kind of position we have in our company and that measures our greatness; or in society, how successful we are, and with that, people would measure our greatness. That is the most, from our human point of view, we can judge how great a person is. But then, if we think carefully, these things are not permanent. Even, excuse me, the presidency is not forever for anyone to hold, and the presidency for a nation is the highest position, the most prestige.
But then you can’t hold it forever. And so many millionaires, so many world-famous persons, have gone out of sight, and we do not know where they have gone. We can know; we can know where they have gone, if we practice the method laid down by ancient and present Masters. They all have the same and one method. Whoever says that they preach the Truth, really, then they must teach the same method. That is the method that helps one to realize how great one is and what the relation is between us and our Father God or the so-called Buddha Nature or the Tao.
The different names from different religions indicate the same Power. It’s the Almighty, the ever-present, everlasting, all Love and Mercy. This is what we call God, or the Most High, the Almighty, the Tao, the Buddha Nature or the “如來” – Tathagata. Why is it that many people call Hirm by different names? It is because of different traditions and different ways of expressing. It is also because of the language barrier, and people do not often translate the real meaning into the local language.
For example, everybody knows Buddha and thinks He’s the only one Buddha. No, Buddha is only a title for an enlightened Saint. You may even call Him Christ. It is like Christ is a title for an enlightened Being in the Hebrew language. Now, we don’t translate it into English, and then we keep calling Him Christ or Buddha, and then we think They are the only two famous Saints and They’re the only Ones in the world ever to come and ever will be. And so here we confuse ourselves. Now, in modern times, we have another word – guru. Yes, so now everybody becomes a guru, even I myself. I was so surprised to see on television: “Guru Ching Hai comes.” I said, “Jesus, now I became a guru.”
It is good for the Americans, because they are now acquainted with the name guru. If the television or newspaper would say Master Ching Hai, that means the Chinese title for guru, then people would shake their heads and say, “What is that? ‘Master’?” Or if the Sanskrit person says “Ching Hai Buddha” or whatever, then people will think, “No, there’s only one Buddha in India and He died 2,000 years ago.” And people would fight, thinking I am boasting about myself to have become a Buddha.
Actually, to be a Buddha is nothing so terribly out of reach. It is just like you learn for many years and you became a doctor. So, you can learn many years in many ways and become a Buddha, and so, do not make a big deal out of a Buddha and then make a small deal out of ourselves. That is unfair and very self-detrimental. Self-disrespecting. Because the Buddha also said, “We all can become Buddha and we all have Buddha Nature.” That means we and He are equal. But the only difference is He had discovered His Buddha Nature – that means His inner Treasure – and we haven’t. Or some of you might already have. Yesterday, I also disclosed to you how to find your Buddha Nature, and some of you have found some of it. Yes. So, that is a way to become a Buddha.
It’s so simple and so scientific, nothing mysterious and nothing hushy-pushy that cannot be reached by the average person. But why is it that we have heard so little about the method of how to become a Buddha? The first reason is that, we are so cheated into believing that the only Buddha is Shakyamuni, is Gautama Siddhartha, the Prince. We are made to believe this way. The same – we are made to believe that Jesus was the only Christ on Earth, and there was no one before, no one after Him. But Jesus Himself has declared that before Him, there were other Prophets, and He, in fact, was the reincarnation of those ancient Ones. In the research about Jesus, we have read about this. And the Buddha also says the same – before Him, there were countless, numerous Buddhas, as many as the Ganges’ sand. No? Did He say that? Yeah. Are you not Buddhists? No. OK. Never mind about the Buddhas. We are talking about our own Buddha. I’m just referring to this for your reference, for your information. No need to believe in Buddhism or any “ism.”
You should believe in your own innate Heaven, because the Bible says, “Heaven is within us.” I have found it and so can you, as it’s easier to verify the Heaven within us than to blow your nose. To blow my nose, I have to first find a piece of paper, and if there is no paper, it is difficult. But to find the Heaven within is a matter of seconds and minutes.
And I have just told you the reason why we have not heard so much about the Buddha’s teaching or Jesus Christ’s, and that the majority of people could not believe that they can become Christ, that they can become Buddha. It is because we are made to believe we are so ignorant, we are so stupid, we are so small, we are so helpless. We are nothing. We are sinful. We are so, and such and such, and so. We are nothing at all – absolute. And then, from generation to generation, we are brainwashed; it was forced on us, this kind of false belief.
But we forgot the Bible says, “All beings are God’s creatures,” and then, “God made man in His own image.” That means we are god, we are the same. And Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” When He said, “I and my Father are one,” then we and Father also are one. If we can realize this, then all our misery will disappear. This is a simple thing. But to realize these things is not a matter of talking and believing that I say so, but you must take some self-training. It’s a kind of self-hypnotism.
Some people can hypnotize themselves into doing something, or somebody can hypnotize someone into doing something out of his own control. But this kind of hypnotism is not a very high order. Because when you are out of the trance, you are back again to your ordinary misery and trouble and vexation and ignorance; and even worse – you lose some of your self-control under the hypnotist’s influence. And I should not think that is a very advisable thing to do.
But the self-hypnotism of the highest order is that: you use your own judgment and your own wisdom to acquaint yourself with the Higher Realms of existence, and you become more and more familiar with a higher kind of living, higher kind of thinking, and higher kind of power, that you become greater each day. And whatever you want to accomplish, then your own inner power will accomplish it for you. At that time, we know God, and we can say that God has accomplished everything for us through our body. Because at that time, we and God are one. It’s like Jesus’ status, “I and my Father are one.” Then we have no more human loneliness and the human struggle, effort to achieve something by our small power and limited wisdom. Now, scientists use only a limited part of their brain, and they can accomplish so much. If we use the whole of our really working brain system, of course, we can accomplish more, and this is nothing difficult to believe. It is the question of how to use it and there is a way to use it.
Because for the ancient Masters, it was very difficult to move about due to transportation and communication problems. Therefore, in ancient times, most people were ignorant of Their teachings and Their liberating Way. And now, we have a lot of good communication and transportation advantages, therefore, we can convey the message easier. But then, I have found out that humans are mostly the same, also very skeptical and very self-doubting. They don’t doubt the Master, they doubt themselves. Whenever you doubt a Master or His words, know that you doubt yourselves – doubting that you could ever become a Buddha.
Doubting [that since] you are so small and helpless, how can you become as great as Christ? Doubting that Christ is the only One who is commissioned by God on Earth. Doubting that God is not so Merciful, that each period, each era, Hes would send another Son or Daughter to come out to fetch you Home. This is a great doubt of the human mind. Not that they doubt the Teacher or the teaching or the method – they doubt themselves. Because they are so let down, so put down, so looked down upon for hundreds, billions of years of incarnation after reincarnation, and they’re brainwashed into believing that they are nothing; that they are only sinful beings, and they could never become anything. And this is not the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus said, “Whatever I can do today, you can do also.” No? Didn’t He say so? Yes, He did? Yeah! What does that mean? He didn’t say, “I am the only one that can do all these miracles, and all saving or preaching and liberating work.” He said, “You will do the same; you can do the same; you might even do better.” I think He said something like, “you might even do better.” Yes? Oh, that’s great! I praise Him. I praise Him. I love Him. I worship Jesus. That is what He was teaching, and we forgot all about that. We believe in what the Church and the priests tell us – we are sinful; without Jesus, we will go to hell. If Jesus comes back again, He will cry His soul out, because His teaching is being distorted and tortured into such a sense, into such a shape. And He did cry.
