Sharing Spiritual Merits
with the World

The best news is that we can share our spiritual merits with others; we have no private property. We are individuals but we all get the same thing. The sun shines without losing its brilliance, and everyone gets its benefit. The same goes for Quan Yin practitioners: Others receive our blessings without us incurring any losses.

Yesterday, a fellow initiate told me that he repeated the Holy Names while he made noodles. Customers love his noodles and this preference has never faded. His business is expanding (all laugh). He can hardly make enough noodles. Yesterday, he had to ask for a leave to come for group meditation. His business is so good that he almost couldn't make the trip. He said: "I have to come and see Master. I have to set the work aside!" He was afraid that he would be drained of his blessings if others ate his noodles. That is so cute! You won't lose your blessings. You just benefit more when others benefit from you! Because we are all one. My feet, for instance, are no better looking than my face. They cannot talk, but they are mine, nonetheless. If they get hurt, I feel uncomfortable all over. If they are fine, I am fine too. If they are uncomfortable, I feel troubled, too.

We are all one in this world. We may be at different levels and engage in different work, but each one is still a part of us as a whole. We are the same inside. However, since you are at the superficial level and haven't delved deeply enough, you see differences; as you go deeper, you will know that you are the same as I am. My level is yours. There is no difference between you and me. Now you are wrong because you think you lose something when you benefit others. No! We are all one.

I have told you this story before. The mouth, feet, and hands are quarreling. The hands and feet complain to the mouth, "You do nothing all day long, while we work so hard to feed you. From now on, we will stop working. We won't feed you anymore. Then let's see what will happen to you!" So the mouth gets nothing to eat. But after a while, the feet and hands become so weak that they can no longer move. They become sick. We mistakenly think that our spiritual merits belong to us and we don't want to share them. It is impossible to keep them to yourselves! Others will take them automatically. For instance, we have to pay interest to banks for loans. The interest is automatically deducted from our income. The food we eat, the roads we walk on, and the clothes we wear, all come from this world. Everyone has to depend on others to exist. So why don't we share our merits with others if we have spiritual blessings? You have to share them even when you are aware of it, let alone when you are unaware of it! All the blessings come from the Master. How can you be so stingy! (Audience laughs and applauds.)

Fulfilling the Duties of
a Spiritual Practitioner

Electricity running through cables comes from a power generating station, not from the cables. How can the cables retain the power, or lose it after it is conveyed? Of course, they cannot! It is the duty of the cables to supply electric power to every corner of the world. It is the same with each one of us. We should convey the highest blessing power to every corner of the world. That is our responsibility. I have told you already that everyone has his responsibilities. Farmers grow crops, builders pave roads, and we are the electric cables. We carry this blessing power to every part of the world. If we cannot do it, then we are not cables.

Therefore, if we don't practice spiritually and share our blessings with the world, we should not call ourselves spiritual practitioners or spiritual persons. We are at different levels and do different jobs, the way a professor has to teach students if he wants to be called a professor. If he doesn't, then he isn't a professor. The same is true for spiritual practitioners. Our aim is to bless this world. We must do our job clearly, not for the Master. We do it not for fear that we will violate the precepts. We do it not for fear that we will go to hell. We do it not for fear that we won't have merits. We do it because it is our obligation.

When you have practiced more, you will understand your mission. This mission is no mission (all laugh). We bless the world naturally. However, we need to practice well before we can have the power to bless. If the cables are disconnected, power won't be able to flow through them. Therefore, our mind, body and speech must be clean in order to protect the "cables." If they are not, they will be like torn cables. The power will leak out and the cables become useless. Again, a water conduit is not water; the two are not interconnected. They are of different qualities . But water cannot be transported to our house if the pipe is broken. Therefore, if others say that we don't need precepts for practice, they are wrong; that is just like water without the water pipe. Of course, water is clean and useful, but it won't reach our house if the pipe is broken. Do you understand? (Audience applauds.)

Previous