Spoken
by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Cape Town, South Africa, November 27, 1999 (Originally in English)
For
everything in this life, we can prepare. We must prepare a long
time for everything we want to enjoy or experience. We even prepare
for a 'rainy day.' We work hard and then spend some, and we put
some in the bank and some in a savings account for emergencies.
And we even save for retirement; we prepare for the funeral service,
but we forget to prepare for the road after.
Every
one of us knows we don't live here very long. We are not here to
stay. But the worldly demands and the struggle for survival have
always tried to make us forget what we are here for, and that we
won't be here very long at all.
Anyhow,
all of us will leave this physical world one day, but not all of
us are prepared for the final departure. That's why most of us feel
very uneasy and fearful about that day. Even though some of us are
still very young, like me, we already worry about this fearful day
of departure. That is because we have not prepared very well for
it. We prepare insurance for sickness, for the house, for the mortgage
and for everything else, but we have not prepared for the day that
we will depart from this world. In the Bible it is stated , "Forsake
the flesh for the spirit; learn to die so that you will begin to
live." We might read this every day or even more than once
a day. But many of us do not know how to die daily so that we can
know life as it truly is. Of course, that's all right also. Because
we all have Eternity to make our choices, again and again.
I am
not here today to show you how to live your life. I will show you
how to die. Because it's only when we learn how to die and face
death squarely that we will no longer be afraid of the unknown.
Once we die, it's the same as living now, except with much, much
better conditions. We are freer. We can move anywhere at a speed
faster than light. We can have anything we want in an instant. We
are freer than a bird. And we can have access to God anytime, because
we will be one with God. But that is only if we have prepared for
it. Because our thoughts are very powerful. In everyday life, whatever
we think or desire the most will come to us. Suppose at the time
of departure from this world that our thoughts were dwelling on
something, and it had not come true yet, then we would return again
to this physical planet to live out our desires or to fulfill our
wishes. So for anyone who does not wish to come back here again,
or who would like to master the destiny of their future existence
after this one, there is a way to prepare for that.
At the
time of our departure from this world, if our thoughts are very
powerful about something, we will be drawn to that thing, that event
or that desire. This means that when we are alive, we should train
our thoughts in a very positive way every day, as much as we can,
until it becomes second nature, until it becomes us. Then at the
time of death, we will go where our thoughts lead us. We are the
essence of God and we have God power within us, whether we are aware
of it or not. So our thoughts are, practically speaking, very, very
powerful.
If,
during our lifetime, we are brainwashed into believing that we are
sinners, that we are unredeemable wretches who are not worthy of
God's love, that we will go to hell, and we have been told how terrible
hell is--then at the time of death, if we believe what we have been
told, we will go to the so-called hell. Even though hell doesn't
exist, we create it or other people create it for us. Since the
old times, fear has been injected into our genes, into our brains,
into our way of life, so that certain groups of people could have
control over us and make us submit to whatever their purpose, which
was not always very noble. Therefore, in order to free ourselves,
we have to re-acquaint ourselves again with the true teaching of
all the Masters since ancient times. This teaching is that God--or
Buddha or Allah--is ever merciful.
We are
the children of this highest power, and we will be forever loved,
forgiven, and helped in any way possible in this life and the life
after. I have seen that myself. I have seen God power at work. I
have seen only love and mercy in the realm of the invisible as well
as the realm of the physical. There is no such thing as damnation,
hell or revenge from God. Because even if our mortal parents love
us and forgive us time and time again, our God Father or God Mother
will be infinite times more loving and forgiving. The only problem
is that we have long been brainwashed into thinking that we will
be punished for whatever mistakes we may make in this world. We
will do so--we do all the time, because our physical brain, the
physical body and the physical environment force us into making
mistakes. But it doesn't matter what mistakes we make, God can always
repair them. So Hes would never condemn or punish us in any of the
ways that we have been made to believe.
That's
what I have discovered. So I would like to share it with you. And
I hope that from today you will keep this in your mind, whether
you want to study further with us or not: Remember that God is merciful.
And have no fear whatsoever, either here or hereafter. At the time
of departure, there will be beautiful beings of Heaven waiting for
us immediately as the soul leaves the body. The reason that many
people have not been able to see this, including at the time of
death, is that they have not prepared themselves. Or perhaps they
have prepared themselves in the wrong way, such as thinking they
have done wrong in their lifetime, for example, like breaking some
of the Commandments. Maybe these people have prepared themselves
in a negative way because they thought they did something wrong
in their life. So they expect damnation or punishment, and that's
what they get.
Whatever
you believe shall be materialized, because you are God. You are
one with God, always, even though at the moment, due to physical
hindrances, some of us do not realize this. We truly have nothing
but God within us and without us; we are nothing but God's essence.
There is nowhere else we could go but to be within God's embrace,
all the time, 24 hours. We are separated from God because of our
thinking and our deep-rooted beliefs that we are mere mortals. In
order to remember that we are God again, we must train ourselves
backward again. The way we have trained ourselves to think--as separate
from God--we have to retrain in the opposite direction. We will
do that until finally it becomes automatic. And then, because we
contact God every day through our diligent and pure intention of
practice, we will know for sure that we are one with God. So at
the time of departure, there's nothing but God surrounding us, or
heavenly beings that come and greet us to the higher dimensions
of Love.
Some
dead people do not see this phenomenon. Even though Jesus stands
by and Buddha is near, they do not see Them. Also they don't realize
that they could manifest anything at will, that they have the power
of creativity in their hands. Especially after leaving this physical
body, the whole power will be returned to us again. It's not really
returned, but without the hindrance of this physical body we become
all-powerful again, just like in the days we were with God, before
we descended into this world.
But
some of us depart from this world without knowing this secret; we
did not learn it; we did not learn to master our thinking while
we were in the physical body. So at the time of death, we forget
even more. For example, you have probably heard about people who
died and "came back" complaining that they were in hell,
they need help, they need prayer, etc. These examples are true but
only for those people. They are not true in general--not true for
you and not true for me.
For
those who have learned the secret of the universe, who have learned
the power of creativity, and have learned to be one with the universal
mighty power, they know everything before and after they die. They
are masters of their own destiny--anywhere, now and hereafter. But
to arrive there, we need some practice. It may take a few days,
a few weeks or a few months. Not only do we practice to remember
our own creative power, we practice so that we also enjoy Heaven
while living; we enjoy contacting God's intelligence while we are
still here on this planet, so that we can make use of this power
to enhance our life and the lives of the people that walk on our
path. But this takes some discipline, even though it's so easy.
We would rather work for money, for a car, for a house or for a
beauty, than work to re-earn the Kingdom of God. Why? Because it's
become a habit. Whatever we have been trained to do since we were
young, we continue doing that.
The
brain doesn't like change. The brain likes everything settled, simple
and fixed, with the same routine every day. Whether bad or good,
the brain likes that. It becomes very upset when change takes place.
Because machines are like that, and the brain is also only a machine.
Even the power behind the brain, the mind, is not very highly qualified
for the purpose of attaining Heaven. The mind is just like the electric
power behind the computer. So we have to return to the source of
all wisdom and Truth. If we do not train ourselves now, at the time
of death it will be too late.
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