we ARE GOD
Universityof Montreal, Quebec, Canada. April 17, 1993.Turn Inward AndListen To The Heavenly Teachings I am very honored to be in this great country. Thiscountry of prosperity, of peace, of loving kindness and humanitarianism;because your country has what many countries do not have - thewarmth and the human love between each other, as well as veryelevated spiritual standards. I was very touched to know thatin your country there is no death sentence. That shows that inthis land "love" rules above all things. Let's hopethat other countries will learn from your example, to let Godrule justice and not to take revenge.
I had the opportunity to speakto some of the people who live in this land - the immigrants -for example, the Au Lac refugees who have been welcomed into yourcountry with love and nondiscrimination. They're all very happyin this country. I am sure this will add more merits and blessingsto this great nation that you happen to reside in. Only a veryspiritually elevated country can possess such qualities of lovingkindness, of non-racism, nondiscrimination. If every nation waslike this, at least our world would become a small paradise.
Unfortunately, there are manyother things that prevent people from understanding the basictruth - that is love is the greatest law in the universe; andtherefore, many people do not enjoy life the way they should.
The more we cling to life ina forceful way, the less we can enjoy the flavor of it. Therefore,the enlightened persons are happier and more contented. Even then,from this very stable state of mind, they can do many wondersbecause they are quiet enough to understand where their wisdomlies, where their greatness is, in order to make use of it.
When we are very busy, arein a panic, or in a hurry, most often we forget what we want todo. Or we do things in an incomplete way. Therefore, the tranquilmind of an enlightened person can see things more clearly. That'sthe only logic of this science.
Be still and know that I amGod. Who is that "I am"? That is the "one"that resides within us. That is the true "self". Therefore,we are God. This realization doesn't come through hearing peoplesaying that or through believing alone, but through self realization.Just as in any other science there must be a special
technique.Everything we learn and masterin life is all done through self experimentation. Similarly, enlightenmentcan be achieved through some perseverance, self experience. Therefore,it will be lasting. That's the reason why we have heard a lotof saints and sages of all times saying that, we are God. Godis within us. If God is within us, that means we and God are one.If we and God are one, we are God. But even then, we have heardthis so often, we have read so many bibles and so many statementsfrom such great men, like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etcetera; butwe do not truly believe that we are this, and we cannot find theGod that is supposed to dwell within ourselves. It is becausewe lack self experience; we have not known it by our own discovery,but only by hearing.
In the old times, when sciencehad not reached the heights of today, we had many problems. Eventhe rain troubled us, the snow bothered us. Anything, any smallthings, big things, obstructed our daily activities. For example,now we have umbrellas, we have raincoats, so we can walk in therain. We can even enjoy the rain and work in the rain. Betterstill we have cars, we have buses. We have all the things that protect us from the differentweather changes in nature. Therefore we are very comfortable.
In the ancient times, if wewere to hold a meeting like today, many of you who live at a very,very long distance away would not be here. Not because of thedistance only, but because of rain, because of weather, and allthat. So in the ancient times people hid themselves in caves,in mountains, under the trees, to protect themselves from naturaldisadvantages.
Manypeople still do today, in some of the undeveloped countries. Sothat must not be. Enlightenment is like that. It's just like weadd more comforts into our life, and be happy in whatever condition.Suppose we don't have a raincoat, we don't have an umbrella, wedon't have a car; if it rains today, we are stopped from doingall of our activities, from all the things that we love to do,and want to accomplish.
To Change The World,Change Yourselves. Similarly, life is fantasticif we have enlightenment. There is nothing "terror"or "trouble". Only because we lack protection that itseems to be so; because, take the example, the rain. If it doesn'train, we don't have water and all the trees, the flowers cannotgrow. All the crops that we need for survival would never be there.Therefore, rain is not terrible in itself. But it is if we don'thave an umbrella, and we walk miles in the cold. We will shiver,we will catch cold, we will be ill, and we may lose our life eventhough it is such a very harmless and useful natural phenomenon.Even a very natural, beautiful phenomenon becomes harmful to us,if we lack equipment to protect ourselves. Therefore, many peoplewant to change the world. To change the way we live our lives.But the sages of enlightened spirits say: "No! Change yourselves,"because if we change ourselves, we change the world around us.Even if the world still stays the way it is, we are not affected.If each person changes in this way, there would be no need forany wars and there would be no disasters. If everyone had an umbrella,a raincoat, what is the need to change the season, to stop therain, or to make magical power to control the rainy season, likemany people would like to learn and possess this magical power?It can stop the rain, can make it last longer, can push it toanother direction. And it takes a long time to learn this magicalskill. But why bother? We just wear the raincoat - it's cheap,it's simple, and everyone can use it.
Once the Buddha wanted to crossthe river by boat, and the boatman did not want to take him becausehe had no money. At that time he was, of course, a renunciativemonk still, who possessed no property, so the Buddha had no choicebut to walk over the river. These days, quite a few yogis in India,Tibet and elsewhere still can do that.
Many people ask me about magicalpower because people are curious about things that they can'texplain, and also about things that they scientifically think"are impossible". So I told them, "Yes! These thingsdo exist, but nevertheless, they are not to be used at random,and also not to be done for show." Even Jesus, He possesseda lot of magical power, but He didn't always use it. He was veryreluctant. Therefore, He raised only one dead person to life.He cured only two or three blind persons, and did not run aroundall the time and raise all the dead back to life. That will bringthe natural law into a chaotic situation. That is a thing an enlightenedsaint would not do.
Each one has to learn to yearnwithin his heart to know himself, to know God; and then the Kingdomof God will come, the Master will come to help that person. Ifwe use magical power, or any other supernatural ways to convincepeople, we unknowingly lead people astray; because, we limit God'spower within these magical skills, which could be learned by someexperts. Also, by doing that, we interfere with the flow of nature.And of course, we bring some disasters upon ourselves. What weseek are the eternal things, like wisdom, love and the greatnessof the universal power, not the small corner of these low levelgains.
Greatest MiraculousPower Do Without Doing When we possess the great wisdom,we also possess numerous miraculous powers. But at that time,we have so much, too much, that we might not even know how muchwe have, and things just come out from us automatically withoutus intentionally doing anything. That's why the saints do thingswithout doing, without even thinking, without even wanting todo it. It's just like a very, very rich person, he has no ideahow much he has. He can never count. He can never see all of histreasure.
Therefore, the enlightenedpersons are always happy. At least most of the time they are happy.And even when he encounters unhappiness, which is brought to himby his very close contact with someone he loved, maybe, then heis affected. Because of the love for that person, he may sharethe sufferings or unhappiness of that person. But even then, heis very, very calm inside. He knows that the unhappiness is onlyof an ephemeral nature. He is not, kind of dragged and sunkeninto this unhappiness, like most of the people are. Therefore,if we even want just to be happy in this life, we should get enlightenment.
Of course, I should tell youthat you have to seek God for God's sake alone, not because ofthe happiness in this life. But I do think that these things cometogether. If you are enlightened, you are happy. And the morehappy, the more you believe in enlightenment, and the more youwill appreciate God's nature anyhow. What is the use of expectingan everlasting happiness in heaven, while we grovel here in darknessand in misery every minute of our life?
An enlightened person enjoysboth worlds; enjoys heaven at the same time as enjoying the world.Why? Because he knows that whatever is manifested in this world,is also the will of heaven. It's also a copy of the real manifestationin the higher Kingdom of God. Because he is very relaxed, hasno fear, no anxiety, so whatever he enjoys, he enjoys it to theutmost.
Many people think that afterenlightenment, maybe you don't know how to love your wife, yourhusband or children anymore. It is the opposite. Only when youare very happy, and know your true worth, can you truly love anotherperson. Because you see her reflection is within you and yourreflection is within her. You will respect that person and loveall the good qualities that God has endowed that person, becauseyou have realized what God has given in yourself. Then you knowGod gives all beings the same amount of qualities.
But we choose sometimes togo in the opposite direction. Therefore, we suffer; and then weblame God. We say how come God has such almighty power and cannotturn this world into heaven. The power doesn't lie in God's hands,it lies in your hands. I know all these through experiences, notthrough books, not through any bible. I know these also throughthe experiences in the life of my disciples. That is also thereason why we see each other today.
Sharing The BlissOf Enlightenment It is due to the kindness ofmy disciples. They want to share with you what they have discovered.So they have gone through a lot of trouble, expense and time toorganize this day's congregation. We do not do this with a veryburning ambition to convince you into our path. But we do it witha very happy attitude of just a happy person. Therefore, we don'tcare to wear very special renunciative dresses to impress you.We do not try to make a very holy appearance of ourselves to convertyou. We do not try to give anything to you, or any other kindof magical power to let you come into our circle. But we do itas a duty of one brother to another. We just do it for the sakeof doing it. Actually, we're happy whether you are convinced,or not. We will be contented whether you come, or you go. Becausenothing is that deadly serious to us anymore. We do it or notdo it, it is the same thing to us.
I could be sitting pretty onthe top of a mountain in Formosa and enjoying my samadhi power,or I could be sitting here knowing more of the people of the Earthplanet. It is the same to me. Therefore, if you feel that you'reready for this happiness, which is the true happiness becauseit comes from the root, because you know the whole thing fromheaven to earth and hell. You know
everything. And then you choosewhat you would like to enjoy. Therefore, your happiness will betrue and lasting. Otherwise, most of the so called enjoymentsin this world we are not free to choose.Sometimes we are dragged alongto a party and we try to enjoy it. Sometimes we are forced toget married because of some political or business reasons, andtry to make the best out of it. Sometimes we drag along with abig family and try to feed them. Working from morning to night, wethink that we are great because we are taking care of the family.But it's not always a choice. Therefore, we do
not feel happy in many thingswe do; because, somehow, we feel that we are not the one who controlsall this. We are not the host, we're just like a guest. We areblown with the wind, and we go along with whatever the situationis. We lose many interests and joys in life through not knowingwhy we are doing all this and
that. But after enlightenment,it's different. Whatever we enjoy, we truly enjoy. We understandthe values of life, as well as the values above this life.There are two lives in anyplanet. One is of the material existence, the other is of an everlastingnature. If we know only one and we lack the other, just like mostpeople in the world -- they enjoy only the material existenceof so called life but they do not know the real picture of thisprojection; they know only the shadows. So they only enjoy thematerial life, and fear losing it. But the truly enlightened personknows both - the everlasting and also the copy of it; and he canenjoy both at the same time, he can choose to enjoy one or theother. But I think that while we are already here, we might justas well enjoy. There is nothing in this world that we should notenjoy, really. Except those things that are harmful to the livesof other beings.
Therefore, we just suggesta vegetarian diet, so the fish can always swim in the sea as muchas they please and the cows can graze in the pasture until naturecauses them to go back to where they belong. We can enjoy them,and they can enjoy us.
Some of the enlightened persons,I don't know how, to which degree, but they choose to live inthe inside, on the other side of life, the spiritual side of life.And therefore, give the impression to the people that all theenlightened persons have to be like that - have to go into theHimalayas, have to go into the cave, have to forsake all the beautifulthings about this life in order to be an enlightened being.
But that must not be so becausewe will be too aloof from this world and many people will findit difficult to associate with us. If they find it too difficultto associate with us, how can they help themselves? How can theyknow what we know? Of course, it may be more pleasant for a saintor an enlightened person to stay away from the hustle, bustleof the world and to be carefree in his or her own way. But onthe other hand, there are many other brothers and sisters whoneed our assistance.
