Selected Questions and Answers

Seek Ye First Inner Peace and World Peace Shall Follow

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Videoconference with initiates from San Francisco, California, USA, August 25, 2002 (Originally in English) Videotape #748

Q: Master, on one occasion You said that we come here to bless and beautify the world. And on another occasion You mentioned that some of us come to this world to play an evil role for the purpose of knowing God. So my question is, as long as duality exists in this world, how can world peace be achieved?

M: I don't know. You ask for world peace. That’s a very difficult question, of course. The people who haven’t been enlightened and who still play evil or ignorant roles are like that. They’re playing that part. And the people who came to enlightenment immediately were born and searched all their lives; and they came to see a Master to get enlightenment. These people, like the Masters and their highly enlightened disciples, came purposely into this life to bless the world.

When I say “we,” I’d like to include myself with you and all the other Masters, enlightened beings, high level disciples and less high level disciples just because they aren’t yet very highly enlightened. I don't want to sit here and tell you, “Look, ‘I’ have come here to bless the world, and you’re unholy people,” or anything like that. So when I say we came here to play an evil role, I also include myself. And when I say we came here to bless the world, I also include myself because in the world of God, we’re all one. So if you’ve already become very highly enlightened in this lifetime, it means that maybe you took a vow in Heaven and came down here again for the purpose of blessing the world.

So you came and got enlightened quickly, and other people who haven’t fulfilled their purposes yet still continue to wallow in ignorance because their role is not yet finished. Or that’s the vow they wanted to take. And because this world exists for that purpose, maybe world peace isn’t always complete. World peace exists within us, within saintly people all the time—within our group, for example. World peace doesn't have to be complete. World peace can be complete at one time or another, but because of the evolution of humankind, we’ll always have some friction between one group or another. And we’ll sometimes experience the peak of the Golden Age, and sometimes plunge down into a dark age again. This is the process of evolution.

We’re reaching world peace by being peaceful within ourselves and within our world, and because of that the world also benefits. And the other people who are still wallowing in ignorance will wake up due to our up-pulling energy. That's how we’re going to have world peace, maybe in the year 3000, maybe in another thousand years. Maybe we’ll have it one day, but then again we don't always have to have it. And even if we don't have complete world peace in every corner, we have world peace in some corners or in part of the world, or in two thirds of the world. And that’s already wonderful, don't you think? (Q: Yes.)

It’s better than hell, altogether better than hell. Actually, I’ll tell you the truth: World peace already exists. It’s just that people’s perceptions and concepts are different. For me, world peace exists. For you, world peace exists within you, in your family and your group. But many people in this world perceive it as hell.

Q: Yes. So we have to do our own part.

M: Yes, we do our own part. We each perceive the outside world differently according to our level. So some people are living in Heaven right now and others are living in hell right now in the same world. Some people have peace of mind in the same world and some people struggle every day with all kinds of negative thoughts in their heads. For these people, even if world peace exists, there are never any peaceful moments.

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