Master
Says
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
International 3-day Retreat
Cape Town, South Africa
November 28, 1999
(Originally in English)
When
we hear of Africa, we hear of sweating, a scorching sun blackening the skin
in one hour, lions running around, and all that, but this is really beautiful.
Your country has developed so fast and so impressively. When we drove through
the city, I thought we were in New York or Los Angeles. Now you know why I brought
you here - so that you are not scared anymore by the African legends. They make
very funny advertisements about your country. We see in all the films that were
made in Africa - always jungles, lions, Tarzan. This is really nice. I have
been in Africa before and those countries I was in surprised me too, but this
surprised me even more. South Africa is really modernized, really too modernized.
Well, at least here it is a mini-jungle so those of you who expected Africa
to be a jungle won't feel too disappointed.
This
is cool and beautiful. The oxygen from the trees will make you feel good and
your skin look good. I look younger today. [Applause] We could live forever
in this physical body. Yes, practically speaking we could, because God made
this physical body very durable, for eternity. It is just that we damage our
environment; we damage our body by overworking, by poisoning it with different
kinds of intoxicants, and overtiring it with unnecessary activities and wearing
out the mind by all kinds of nonsensical schemes and plans and negative thinking.
When you are in such good air in a good environment with a lot of trees and
the trees generate oxygen as usual, then you feel that your skin looks better.
Look at yourself. The skin looks younger, smoother and the pores are finer.
The skin is more refined and your wrinkles disappear. You feel better here,
fresher, energized and invigorated and your skin looks smoother, younger and
you just feel good. You feel like you have just bathed or taken a tonic or an
elixir or something. That alone already makes you feel good and if you meditate,
of course, you feel much better.
We
really could live forever even in this physical body and in this physical world.
That's why when we read the old stories, we have heard that some people live
until 800 years old and things like that. In China, Peng Tzuu lived until four
or five hundred years old. Some people still do in the remote regions of the
world where they do not have too much contamination and pollution in the air
and their lives are simple and their way of living is even. Every day is uneventful
and not stressful, their demands are few and their contentment is great, so
more or less, they live in the heavenly world in the physical body and so they
live longer. Some people who live in the remote areas of the Himalayas still
live until four or five hundred years old - not too many, but there are some.
And even in some of our countries in the plain and ordinary places, sometimes
you read in the newspapers that some people live until 200 something years old.
Yes, there are some exceptional beings who live that long.
My
grandmother, my father's mother, lived to over 100 years old. She was 105 when
she died and she was still healthy. She was still strong when she passed away.
When she was 100 years old, they took a picture of her and gave it to me. She
was wearing beautiful clothes, like a lama's dress. She looked so good and smiled
so brilliantly. I remember her life was very simple and she had thirteen kids,
can you believe that? My grandmother was good, but my grandfather, I was told,
was a big, big butterfly. He loved flowers, the mobile, running-around flowers;
so actually, I probably have more cousins than I could ever know. He was a high
officer, a district chief, or a provincial governor, (I forgot to check it out)
so many people liked him, especially the women. In the old time, if you married
or were a mistress to someone like a high official in the government, then you
were "somebody," very prestigious, so of course, you can't blame him.
It's not that he wanted it; they volunteered. And in the old time, if you had
many wives, it was okay. It was just a different tradition than now. Also in
the old time, we had a matriarchal system, like the Zulu people now. Do you
still have this system here? (Audience: The traditional people.) The traditional
people do. Are most people still traditional? (Audience: No.) No, they are modernized
now; they have become patriarchal. That's bad; that's the worst mistake they
could make, really. I was hoping that some corner of the world still retained
a matriarchal system because that is the best system you could have for our
planet.
In
the old time we had that system everywhere. The women were in charge; they took
care of the state affairs; they decided great events for the country; they made
decisions in the house regarding all the big issues for the family and the children.
And the husband just hung around and helped - helped produce babies. In the
old time, that was your job, (Master addresses the male disciples) doing nothing
but pollinating, fertilizing, to multiply the race of human beings.
Sometime later, many, many
thousands of years later, you became wiser - not really wiser, but you learned
from your wife, the clever woman, how to govern, how to concentrate on things
at hand, and how to manage the state affairs. I don't mean to offend you guys.
Don't get mad at me. I am just telling you historical stuff. I am very aware
of your fragile male ego. I am just trying to give you a piece of purely objective
information of what I know. If you read history, you will know that what I say
is the truth.
I
don't know about your culture or European culture but in my culture, in Aulacese
culture, in the old time the women were in charge. I think that some countries
scattered here and there still have that - like in Tibet, they still retain
this matriarchal system. And in your country here, some of the traditional Zulu
tribes still remain that way, and it is good so. If you study the genetic system
of men and women, the way men and women behave, and the way men and women take
care of things, you will understand why. Women are more delicate, more attentive
to details, and whatever they do, they do it more correctly, more refined, and
in more detail. That is why God entrusted the biggest, noblest task of being
a mother to women. It is a very difficult job. If men had to bear a child for
nine months, I don't know if they could endure it. It is a very difficult job
to raise children.
So,
in the old time, we had this different system of the women taking care of everything
that is important to the physical comfort of the whole family and the state,
and the men doing physical jobs like helping the women with heavy tasks - doing
anything that requires muscle and strength. Men are capable of that; therefore,
you can see that men developed more and more always. Genetically speaking, they
are always stronger than women, bigger, and more muscular, and the women have
always been more delicate, more refined, more attentive, and more concentrated
whenever they do things. We even have a saying nowadays to admit it, "Behind
every great man, there is always a great woman." Even now. [Applause]
A
long time ago, men and women were very content to live alongside each other,
doing whatever naturally came to them. For example, women are more delicate
and brainy, so they took care of intellectual issues and men are more muscular,
stronger, and protective, so they did that, and also men have the ability to
fertilize women's ova, eggs, and so they worked together fine and there were
no problems at all. The world was in a much better shape. Not talking about
physical comfort only, spiritually and emotionally speaking, the world was at
that time a better place to live because women ruled with more common sense
and love. Women were the symbol of love, and they still are. That is why thousands
of songs are written in the name of the mother and hardly any for the father.
And all the songs about wars encouraging soldiers to march ahead to death are
all written for men. Most wars were started by men. We have only had wars since
men began to rule the world. You trace back in history and you will know that
I am right. Anyhow, it is not to look down upon men or anything. Men today are
different; I am just saying how things have changed during all this historical
time and have changed our world, too.
In
the beginning, everyone thought of God as a mother because, it is very simple,
women give birth to children and so it was natural for all of us to think that
our God was a mother. It is okay also if Hes is a man, who cares? But what I
mean is that in the old time we automatically worshipped God as a Mother-Goddess.
And the men also accepted that; everyone said, "Mother God," but as
usual men sometimes are stubborn and sometimes they are jealous and egotistical
so they began to wonder why women should rule everything, why women should be
a superior race - just like now women wonder why men should be the superior
one and why women should be treated as second best in the society nowadays,
like getting a lower job or lower pay even though it is the same work. This
happened before, but oppositely; in the old time men were not paid and women
took care of everything. The men just helped out with whatever was required,
mostly in heavy labor. Now, some of the men were not contented with that, especially
the men who were not so good looking and had no woman who loved and chased after
them. Before, the woman chased after the man. She would be the one who proposed,
who picked out who would be the one who fertilized her eggs, for example. She
would pick one and then she would marry him and give him all the things he needed
- dowry, jewels, tools, shovels so that he was happy, and build houses for him
- just like now men do for women.
But
some men began to feel frustrated and wanted to rule, so they began to inch
their way into power by different means and finally they succeeded. And ever
since then they have waged war against women, trying so hard to tell women that
they are bad, they are inferior and cannot do much, they cannot even become
Buddha, for example. Even in Buddhahood, they stand superior. I don't know why
it is like that, and many of us still believe that, including women. It is a
very nonsensical theory but nevertheless our society and our world has become
worsened spiritually, emotionally, and morally because of this belief, because
of discrimination, because of saying men are better than women, or even women
are better than men.
In
the old time because men were physically fit they were assigned to do heavy
labor, and that's all right. Women were more delicate, they were more for thinking,
so they did the intellectual work; it's also fine. But then to say that men
are better than women is not true because even chemically speaking, we both
have the same brain and the same stuff, but most of the time women are more
delicate, they think deeper, in more detail, and have more common sense. That
is normal because men develop in a different way than women. God made it even
like that. God gave men strength and muscle and God gave women intellect. Because
they are weak already, if they don't have intelligence and more intellectual
power, they will be very, very disadvantaged. So if men and women combined their
strengths, this would be a perfect match. It is not that anyone is better than
anyone; it is just a different job, like someone is assigned to work in the
office and another who is stronger and has more building talent is assigned
to outdoor work for building houses. Someone has to do something.
It
is not because men ruled that made the world worse; it is just because they
have tried too hard to put women down and not utilize the intelligence of the
feminine aspect and that is why the world has been short of a lot of things.
Instead of looking down upon or suppressing women, our society should encourage
and make use of their talent, their intelligent powers, and their love - the
limitless strength of love from the woman, in order to take care of this planet.
Then our world would have been a much, much better place to live.
Women
are more capable of enduring than men - enduring hardships and difficult situations,
and they can think of solutions better than many men. They are just born like
that and men are born more strong and protective, more giving. Each one is different,
that's all, and we in turn can become men or women again and again. It doesn't
mean that this special race has been women forever and this special race will
be men forever. There is no need to say that women are better than men or men
are better than women. Whenever you are born in a body of a man, you are like
this and whenever you are born into a body of a woman, then you become like
that. You will take turns to exercise the power of the intellect or the power
of the muscle.
So
actually, we are all us, men or women. It's just the ego that comes in between.
The male ego comes in between now as well as in the old time. The man, being
so strong, protective, and muscular, feeling bad when a small woman tells him
what to do, feeling that he should be telling her what to do but he could not
because he cannot do too many things at once. Someone must organize and someone
must carry out the orders; it would be better like that. So the woman being
lacking of physical strength would be more concentrated on the thinking process,
therefore she came up with more good ideas. Men who are busy moving objects,
building houses, protecting the children, fighting with the bears and the tigers,
of course, don't have time to think so they do not develop much in that area.
God
gave men strength to do these kinds of things - protecting and building jobs,
and women who are weak stay home and think - think of a plan what to do and
then use the man's power to carry it out, and both work perfectly. Now, the
men want to do the opposite, want to do the thinking, so who is the one who
will carry the objects, build the houses, or fight the tigers then? You see
how ridiculous? We make use of our weaknesses instead of strengths and now the
women have to be fighting the tigers, protecting the children and guarding the
caves while the man sits there and does the thinking and wastes his muscles.
So the world became topsy-turvy. Things have not been done the way they should
have been done.
So
you can imagine, slowly, slowly our world has become retarded. You have heard
of the "Golden Age." The Golden Age is when things were done, carried
out, and obeyed the way God intended. But never mind, it is okay; men can also
have power, but they should not underestimate the strength of the woman's fineness
and intelligence. Women are the greatest help to men and men are the greatest
help to women; without one or the other, we cannot live. But it is too late
now, and I just hope that the world will change for the better and we will go
back to the Golden Age again. Maybe we will have more queens, more women presidents,
more lady prime ministers. We look down upon some countries as third world,
underdeveloped countries, like Pakistan and Nicaragua for example, but they
have had a woman Prime Minister and President already. And Pakistan is a Muslim
country. I cannot believe it! A Muslim country elected a woman Prime Minister!
It's a wonder of all wonders in this world. We should follow that example. In
Muslim countries, they normally treat women very strictly - you have to cover
yourself, you can't go anywhere without a man, you can't do this and can't do
that, but they elected a woman Prime Minister! She's wonderful; we must have
more of this. Anyhow, it is not about competition between men and women. I am
telling you this in order for you to see that we should not change the way of
God's intention, and then our life will be heaven.
Now,
why is it that since men ruled, things became different? It's not only the physical
change of our world and planet, it is the intention, it is the thinking process
that has been changed as well. The Mother Goddess became a Father God. The father
is a stern father who punishes, who makes rules, who gives precepts and commandments,
and who creates hell - the way fathers, the way men do. Men are stricter and
sterner; they rule more than they teach and encourage, and women are more tolerant,
more teaching and encouraging. If the children do something wrong, women tend
to have more patience and take more time, again, again and again telling the
child what is wrong and never giving up on him or her, and men usually do not
have this equipment of patience. It is the way God made us. It is not your fault,
it's not anyone's fault. God made men and women different for different jobs.
It's just that we do it the opposite way; we make use of our weaknesses now
instead of strengths. Women's weakness is muscle; men's weaknesses are intellect
and patience. But now men make use of their intellect and patience to rule the
world, and women try to use their muscles to go out and work and compete with
men; so of course, our world cannot be the way it should be.
Anyhow,
it is not only that; it is the thinking that changed everything. As we know
already, what we think we will get sooner or later. Everything is created by
the thinking only, because we are God. If God wants it, so it will be. God thinks,
therefore, it manifests. This is stated so in every bible. Now, the thinking
process has been changed dramatically because men wanted to rule the world the
way they wanted. They have tried to change it gradually over hundreds of thousands
of years to make it become a male society. They have tried many ways to press
women down and make them feel inferior to the extent that women today believe
it is so. Many women still believe that they are inferior to men. They have
even included this in all the religions. They make sure to add this kind of
inferiority complex to women using religion to put them down. And because of
this detrimental thinking, our world has degraded from the Golden Age to the
state that we are experiencing now.
The
thinking is very important; the thought is very important. When we think, for
example, that God is a mother, that automatically gives us the impression that
God is tolerant, God is forever loving, like the way the mother is. Fathers
were always very, very strict to children, and they still are like that. It
is just the way we are. That's why most children are closer to the mother than
to the father. That's just the way we are. When we return and are reincarnated
as women, then we are different. No one is always perfect or always a woman.
There is no need for jealousy here but human beings did not know that and they
still do not know that. Everyone tries to grab power, and men, being stronger
and more muscular, have taken full advantage of that to enslave the woman into
their control. Since then, we have not changed this system. Maybe we don't have
to change, but we should include the woman alongside and have respect for her
wisdom and make use of her strength of intelligence. It would be better for
us. It's not that women should be better than men or rule over men; it's not
that, but women have limitless strength of power and limitless endurance and
stamina. That's why they can bear and raise children and can endure a lot of
things for the family. That's why the mother has been loved, respected and praised
since time immemorial. These things we cannot force the children to do. They
just do it because they know the mother is good. So even if the father brings
money home, the children still love and respect the mother more. It's not fair,
is it? Too bad! Who told you guys to go out and bring money home? You should
stay home; you should do what the woman wants. [Laughter] Instead of insisting
on going out and ruling, just be a partner; it would be better.
Since
the change of the political system, we have always believed more in a male God
and since then we have degraded because we have lost the belief in an eternally
loving God. And what we believe, we get. We believe in a punishing God; we believe
in hell after life; we believe in sin; and we believe in an intolerant God.
It was not like that before. God has made us human; God has let us descend into
this world and do whatever we do to learn to become God again, to learn to appreciate
God again. In this physical world and in this physical body, we become powerless.
We are already very helpless; we already suffer enough, so there should be no
more punishment, no more killing of each other, no more abusing of each other,
mentally and emotionally. Nothing should be worse than already being in the
physical body and struggling for survival. But since we changed the system,
we changed the belief as well.
We
use fear to control each other. I mean, those who are in power, those who are
the negative, bad and frustrated ones, use fear; they create a fearsome God
to control other people, including men, too. They cannot say God only punishes
women, so they just have to say that God punishes if you are bad, and so men
also believe in that. We have lost the power of positive thinking; we have lost
the power of believing in a forever loving, unconditional God, which He or She
is. Because we think that God is fearsome, God has hell for us, God punishes
us and all that, it becomes true in our life. Because of our fear, for everything
we do that is supposed to be wrong or that someone told us is wrong, we have
fear and guilt, and then we worry. We think, "Okay I am going to be punished;
I am going to hell; I am going to have this and that," and that is how
we will have it, and that is how we did have it all this time.
The
more people fear, the more this negative thinking congregates together, and
the bigger the devil becomes. He has more power even though he did not exist
at all in the beginning. Everyone has a devil now alongside with God. It was
a necessary figure for control and to have physical power on this planet. So
you see, that is how we have lost heaven. That is how it has been so difficult
to go back to paradise again. Free will has been abused by a handful of frustrated,
ego-oriented males and then they changed the world. So if we complain about
the terrible condition of our planet today, we should know why. God did not
create it. Hes gave us free will and then some of us abused it, changed it around,
and made the whole planet think negatively and forget God completely.
Anytime
we believe that there is a devil, that is the time we forsake God. Every time
we believe that we are guilty and are going to be punished, at that time we
have forsaken God. Any time we think that anything God has created is dirty
or filthy, including sex, at that time we forsake God. I don't mean sex in the
sense of abusiveness, but in the way that two people love each other. But you
have been taught that even that is bad. It is for control. It is the most powerful
experience of humankind so they make it bad so that they can control people.
To
make this world into a paradise again is not an easy task but at least now we
know what is wrong. Among us, we can change that. The woman should look upon
herself as a Goddess, as the guidance of the family; the man should look upon
himself as the protector of the weak, of the loved ones, and not feel inferior
about his inability to think in minute detail the way women do. The woman should
not be made to fear the man because of his muscular strength but to love him,
also to protect him with her love, to protect his emotions and feelings, to
love him and make him feel a man that he is. We are both human beings; we are
both intelligent; we are both wise and strong in different ways and we should
work alongside each other instead of competing with each other for supremacy
like some of the families do.
As
soon as a man marries a woman, that's it! He thinks he's superior to her, and
I don't know why. Suppose we don't believe that women are endowed with more
intellectual power and intelligence to manage things. Suppose we don't believe
that, we should believe at least that men and women are equally created. If
a man thinks he's superior to women, I don't know what the difference is between
them. There is only a little difference; it's not much, and nowadays we can
change that, too. [Laughter] We can go to surgery and make a man out of a woman
and make a woman out of a man, so I don't know why all this discrimination about
jobs and things like that. In many countries nowadays, women are still paid
less than men. It should not be like that. Everywhere women are kind of looked
down upon. That is why our world is not as good as it should be - because of
the thinking. So at least among us, I hope that we remember from today that
God is all-merciful - be It male or female, I don't care. There is no such thing
as a vengeful or jealous God. If a God is like that, we don't need to worship
Hirm. Aren't we like that ourselves already? Do you need to worship another
jealous human being? No!
Because
thinking will affect the whole planet, even if our group is maybe small compared
to the population of this world, our thoughts are not small. Together we can
make a difference if our thinking is concentrated in the same direction. And
this so-called concentration of thought power can help defeat the other concentrated
group of negative power and then we can better the world. That's the purpose
also of us being here in the retreat because we can change the future. It doesn't
matter how bad the present is, we could change because we have the free will
to change the future.
Destiny
is only for the present, and still we can also maneuver it to make it different,
to make it appear only in dreams, to make it appear only in illusions. This
is the magic of God, not black magic or white magic; it is the magic of changing
the illusion, not to make an illusionary object out of thin air or anything
like that, but changing the existing illusion to make it different. We have
this power to do that by just thinking it up, by just knowing that it will be
so. It takes time. To some of us, it's easy; to some of us, it is still very
difficult, but we can do it.
A
Message for the New Millennium