reincarnation QUESTIONS& ANSWERSQ. How do I know if reincarnationexists?
M. We can know it, if we get to a certain levelin our wisdom. For example, when we pass the second grade of highschool, we know many laws of physics. We could experiment withthem ourselves in our laboratory. Okay! If you practice the QuanYin Method, or sometimes another type of method, you can get tothe second plane, I mean the second plane of consciousness. Thereare many levels, the second is not the best, it is one of theworst. There are the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,ninth, tenth, eleventh, etc. The higher the wiser, then you'llreach the highest. Now if you get to the second plane you mayknow the past lives of yourself and of many people. Then you knowreincarnation really exists. I can't prove it to you. Your eyescannot see further than a hundred meters. But I can help you todevelop your heavenly eye, then you can see further, many generationsbehind and ahead, and then you can prove it to yourself. Okay?But I tell you, this is not a good motive to meditate, becauseto know the past lives is not so good for you. Suppose you knowthat your wife was a tiger last life, then maybe you might havea nightmare. Yes? [Laughter] You would be thinking: "My God,what if she becomes a tiger again [Master and all laughed], orsuddenly changes back to a tiger?" Yeah? It's no good. Outof God's mercy, He draws the curtain between our life and thepast, because we have enough to deal with in this life. No?
..... Q. How can we know reincarnationreally exists?
M. I've told you already. Inthe Bible Jesus also said He is the reincarnation of such andsuch great past Master. But anyhow we couldn't believe Him unlesswe ourselves go to the second world's sphere and see the libraryof the book of lives, and then we have no more doubt about that.Therefore there are many people, Buddhist monks or Catholic monks,and some of them know of past lives. But the trouble is, we havedifficulty believing them, no?
..... Q. Do I have a soul? If not, how is reincarnation possible?
M.Well, the Bible says you have a soul, so you must have one. (Masterlaughs) In reincarnation, it is not the soul that reincarnatesactually. The soul lives forever; doesn't die, doesn't live, doesn'treincarnate. It is the experience of life, the integrating processbetween the physical and the spiritual when we are experimentingin the so-called life here and which attaches to the knowledgeof our existence, that reincarnates. And if we do not detach ourselvesfrom this kind of experiment that we call ourselves, we reincarnate.Actually, we don't reincarnate, we don't die, ever. We are justsick; we are just diseased with these incidents, with these disastersthat happen to be attached to us. If we don't cut ourselves asunderfrom that, then of course, we are forever connected with that.The cause and effect keep changing, keep moving, keep adding,keep diminishing; and that's how we say we reincarnate. If weare not enlightened enough, that's it.
..... Q. Master, why don't we remember our previous livesand death?
M.Because it is too much for us to cope with, too much burden. Wehave enough to do today, with taxes, wars, children, and withour immediate problems and karma. Should you know that you havebeen such and such, very bad or very good, or very noble in alast life, it would be more confusing and you couldn't conquerthe tasks at hand in this life. So God, the natural law, drewa curtain. You will know it when it is necessary. You will knowit in time. And in meditation, sometimes you know it too, if itshould be necessary for your progress. If it should not, thenyou won't know. Jesus also said, "Do not worry about tomorrow.It is enough that we take care of today." ' So if we don'twant to know about tomorrow which will affect us, which is importantto us, how much less should we know about the past which is alreadygone. You understand?
..... Q. If people are reborn, why is the world populationincreasing?
M.Because people are reborn! (laughter) Because most people arenot enlightened and not liberated, therefore the world populationincreases. Because there are people in hells that come up to bereincarnated as human beings. There are animal kingdom beings,and after paying their retribution as animals, they come backand become human. The more beef, ducks, chickens and pigs we eat,the more overpopulated the world will be. Also there are someangels, some people from paradise who, after some period of manythousands or hundreds of years, will reincarnate again as humanbeings. Therefore, the world is always overpopulated.
..... Q. Why do the Christian churches not accept the ideaof reincarnation?
M.Because they misunderstand the Bible, and also because the Biblehas been cut and censored many hundreds of times over. I'll tellyou an example. When Jesus was asked, "Are you the reincarnationof such and such past saints?" He didn't say "no."Saint Paul also said "I live, but no, not 'I' but Christlives in me." Okay! Now, if you don't believe in reincarnation,why are you waiting for the second coming of Christ? (laughter)Ask your church, then see how they answer you.
..... Q. Is reincarnation a choice of the soul or spirit,or is it something that will occur without choice by the controland devotion of the Higher Power?
M.We have choice and we do not have choice. For average people,there is no choice. For Buddha, Saints, Christ, they have a choice.They consciously chose their parents, date of birth, place ofbirth and date of death, of leaving the world. They were consciousbefore they came to the world. They came by choice. They cameto save the world, to help some of their friends, to help thosewho prayed to them for their help. But other people are compelledto reincarnate by their own deeds, their actions throughout pastlives. Our thinking and habits form themselves into an energy,and this forces us to come into an environment to fulfil and toeradicate, if necessary. This already-formed concrete energy hasto be diluted.
..... Q. Is it the soul that carries karma from life to life?
M.It is the mind, the power of memory. It is a kind of energy force.When you do something, you create a form of energy that is invisibleto your physical eyes. This energy creates a pattern that thesoul experiences in this world, your ups and downs, etc. And aftera long period of time, the soul identifies itself with this patterninstead of realising that it is free from this pattern.
..... Q. We are a product of evolution and thus I do not acceptthe possibility of coming back at a lower level, as an animalfor instance. So that would be involution and not evolution, right?
M.Yes. It is evolution, but sometimes it stops for a while and thengoes back up again. It is always going up but sometimes we slipdown. If you want to go to the top of the mountain and your footslips, you might fall down a little. But you will climb up becauseyou know that you have to go to the top of the mountain, and howhard it is. It is always evolution. So if a man behaves as ananimal and not as a human being then in his next life he willhave to learn the animal's lesson because he has not done well.Then, he will be scared of it, will have enough of it, and say"Okay, no more. I will go back to a human life, I will behaveas a human. I will know what to do next time!
..... Q. I know of the law of cause and effect as a universallaw. Could you tell me more about other universal laws? Are theremore than one?
M.Yes, there is a higher law than the law of cause and effect. Itis the law of grace, the law of forgiveness which comes directlyfrom God. The law of cause and effect is appointed by God to regulatethe universe, but there are higher laws above this, such as thelaws of love, forgiveness and grace. This is what Jesus broughtdown to us when He was in the physical body. And this is whatany great Master would bring to people, whomever comes to themfor refuge and help. This is the law of love and grace.
..... Q. Master, how can I remember my past lives, so thatI can retrieve the knowledge I learned then?
M.No, no, it's enough to learn in the present. Because in presentlife, we haven't even learned enough yet. The past life is gone,and God has drawn a curtain between the past and present. It'sfor our own benefit. Therefore, it's not always necessary to tracethe past. If we know too many things about the past, without havingenough power to handle it, or to improve it concerning the present,then we will be in trouble. That's why people sometimes come intoa possessed kind of state of mind. Or knowing too much of thepast, they will be miserable living in the present. Suppose youknow that in the past life, you were the sultan of such and suchcountry, and now you are driving a taxi. Would you like it? Orsuppose that you know that last life, you and your wife had somekind of bloodshed with each other. Now every time you see her,would you be afraid that she killed you last life? Can you everbe loving again to her? It would affect very much your familyharmony, your personal relationships, as well as your own happiness.Is that not so? Therefore, we don't need to know the past. Wetake care of the present, and the future will come beautifully.Meditate on your inner self, or choose whatever method you like.But I would only recommend the Quan Yin Method, because I knowafter all the studies, that it's the best; that it's the highest,the quickest, the safest. So we offer that to you, in case youwant to gain more knowledge in the present, and for the future.And the past takes care of itself. The past is gone, the pastwe can just forget it.
..... Q. Master Ching Hai, I have two questions. One is, whatworld do past life memories come from, if you were to have thememory of the past life. And secondly, how do past lives relateto karma?
M.To your present, right? To your karma?
Q. To the present karma and to one's present understanding?Are they part of the excess baggage?
M.Yes, yes. They relate very much. First question, where does thepast karma come from?
Q. Past life memories. Yes.
M.You can read the past life record, that's for sure. And the pastlife records, as I have told you, came from the akashic record.Yes. And this is a kind of library in the second world which isaccessible to anyone who can reach there. Not everyone can goto the United Nations' library and have accessed to it. But Ican, for example today, because I'm invited to talk in the UnitedNations. Right? Not everyone can come in, but you can,becauseyou are a kind of residents here. So, similarly, when we get accessto the second world, we can read the past life, yeah! Also whenwe access into the first world, some of it, we can have some glimpseof the past life of a person. But that's not very high and notvery complete record. And how do these past life experiences relateto the present karma? We can say that these are the experienceswe have learned in order to cope with this present lifetime. Youunderstand? What you assimilated in the past, you will bring intopractice at this present lifetime. And similarly, too many unpleasantexperiences in the past would make you frightened, when you seesome symbol that is very much similar to the past life... Forexample, if last life... just now, you drop off from the staircase,yeah, by accident and then hurt yourself badly and in the dark,and nobody helps you. And now when you walk down the staircase,you would feel a little frightened, especially when it is deepand dark underneath, you would feel a kind of struggle whetheryou go or not. Or if last life you have already studied and researcheddeep into some scientific field. This life you will find yourselfstill very interested... interested in... This is Chinese tongue-twister(laughs). I'm sorry. Is my English still clear enough? Yeah? (Audience:Yes) Okay. Thank you. So you still feel very... you have kindof a pull to any kind of scientific research, even though youare not a kind of scientist now. Any kind of thing like that.That's why Mozart, he was so..., a genius when he was four yearsold. He went straight to the piano and he became famous up tillnow, still. Yeah? He was a genius because he had practiced inmany other lifetimes until mastership, but then he died afterthat. Understand? Before he reached the peak of his career, hedied and he wasn't satisfied just to leave... to leave his careerbecause he loved music. So he came back and all his learned experiencefrom his past musical talent came back to him, because he hadso strong desire to continue when he died. Understand? And someof these people learn many things from the astral world or thesecond world before they are reborn in this world again. Thereforethey are fantastically gifted with science, or with music, orwith literature, or with any kind of inventions, which other peopledon't know. You see, kind of very extraordinary inventions thatother people cannot understand it and cannot even dream of inventing.Okay? Because they have seen them, they have learned them. Therefore,two kinds of learning in this world or in the world beyond. Thosewho are gifted and excellent, like genius, they are the expertsfrom the world beyond, like in the astral world, the second world...sometimes from the third world, if he choses to come back. Yeah?They are excellent. These are geniuses. Okay? Yes?
..... Q. Master Ching Hai, I want to know... that becausewe are in the body now... could it be that we could have a fallenfrom being liberated from this body before? Have we always beenin this state or have we been in a better state before, or justin this state? What is the good attitude or a good dispositionto quickly move ahead?
M.To quit the body and move ahead ah huh. Yes, we can if we knowhow. Yes. There are many different methods for leaving the bodybehind and go beyond this world. Some go not far, some go veryfar, and some go to the end. So according to the comparison thatI have made with my different research since I was young. Eventhough I look still young now, but I was young then, you know.Our method here is the best, yeah! Goes to the farthest one, thefarthest one, the far end. There are many other methods, if youchoose to experience, you can choose. There are many in the market,some go to the astral world, some go to the furthers..., the thirdor the fourth, but not many can go to the fifth, yeah. So, ourmethod, our practice is to take you to the fifth before we setyou free. Understand? Let you go alone. And beyond that we canapproach a different aspect of God, beyond the fifth plane, butit's not always pleasant, yes. We always imagine that the higherthe better; it's not always true. For example, sometimes we gointo a beautiful palace and we were invited into the living roomof the master. We sat there and we were served with cool drinksand beautiful eating and everything. And then we thought we shouldgo a little bit deeper into the house, have a look. And we wouldventure into the garbage place and you know many other thingsin the house. It's not always important. Yeah? And also into apower house you know, we went into the electricity house whichis just behind the house, beyond the house, and we got shockedso then we die there. So it's not always necessary or recommendableto go into deeper, but we could do that for the sake of adventure.Yeah, Okay.
