News 90, Master Says
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Hsihu Center, Formosa • June 24, 1990
(originally in Chinese)

Respecting Our Parents Is Respecting God

The next commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother. Perhaps, in Moses’ time, children were not filial, so this commandment was necessary. If everyone was filial, no one would know what “being not filial” is. If people are all beautiful, we wouldn’t know what “ugly” is. If all the people in a country are rich, no one would talk about poverty. For instance, this is a Buddhist country, so there are monks here. However, people in some other countries have never seen monks, so they don’t know what monks are and won’t talk about monks at all. Similarly, people then were not well disciplined. The Bible describes the chaotic situation at that time. After Moses was away for only forty days, the people gave up the Lord and worshipped a golden calf. They were low in spirit and lacked morality, so they changed their master in only forty days.

Of course, we’re becoming more civilized and more advanced. We used to live in caves and eat raw food and live animals. We had no fire, no houses, no airplanes nor any civilized tools. Now we’re more civilized, because throughout the ages, extraterrestrial beings have been coming to impart modern knowledge to us and make us become more intelligent and our children more clever.

For instance, you’re now following me to practice spiritually and the children that you bear are also different! Those who were vegetarians since they were in their mother’s womb look plump and rosy. Have you ever seen their arms? They have at least three to four folds of flesh. I wonder where they get the nutrition from. They only drink milk! These kids will definitely grow up to become more intelligent than we are. And those who’ve been initiated in their mother’s belly may become even more extraordinary when they grow up! And their children, of course, may be even more outstanding, being morally stable, emotionally steady, mentally happy, and more developed in wisdom. So our offspring will become better and better.

Look at the time of Moses. It was really chaotic. People’s wisdom was very low. God had given them a lot, manifested Hiers magical power many times, and protected them in every way. Yet, after the master was away for only forty days, they abandoned God and worshipped a golden calf, instead. Can you imagine that? In modern times, some people are also like those who worshipped the golden calf, but they’re relatively few in number. Few people who follow me will regress. This means that you’re more stable and you have more wisdom. It’s possibly because I have more merit so that God sends me the best disciples. Don’t take my word for it before you check your own hearts. (Master and audience laugh.)

Why must we respect our parents? Because God’s love takes care of us through the law of cause and effect and through the love and physical forms of our parents. Respecting our parents is respecting God. In fact, it’s not the physical forms of our parents who look after us; but it’s God’s love that does so. We should understand this point clearly! Life after life, the Supreme Mother through our physical mother and the Supreme Father through our physical father have been taking care of us, teaching us the basic virtues, compassion and love. Because our parents love us, we know what love is when we grow up. This is a fact!

If we’re raised in a stable and loving family, we’ll become more loving, and feel more secure when we grow up. Sometimes, we see that some children do evil deeds, become scoundrels, or are accused of being criminals and imprisoned. Don’t blame them too quickly! It may be because they lacked loving care and education when they were young. It may be because their parents died very early or were too busy to look after them. Or it may be because their parents were not loved by their own parents before so that they couldn’t treat their children with love.

As the sequence repeats itself, people will have less and less love and will make more and more trouble. When they go out into society, they may be treated unfairly or oppressed and lose their sense of security. Later, when they’re bullied or misunderstood, due to their inferiority complexes, they’ll resist, revolt, and resist society more and more. The more they resist society, the more they’ll lose themselves and their love, and the more their hatred will grow. Eventually, they’ll end up miserable in jail.

For the above reasons, we should be filial to our parents. If our parents don’t treat us well, we ought to think that it’s our retribution and unfavorable destiny. Perhaps we owed our parents something in our previous lives and didn’t repay it. Perhaps we were bad parents in our previous lives so that we have to have bad parents in this lifetime to learn our lesson. So we have to endure it and be filial. This’ll be good for us as well as for our parents.

In Costa Rica, there was a fellow initiate who was a little more than twenty years old. Two or three days after she was initiated, she came to me crying! I asked her why she was crying. She said that she couldn’t get along well with her family, especially her father. Her mother had passed away and her father didn’t treat her well. He was cold, stern and hard to communicate with. He always oppressed and dominated her. So she couldn’t bear it.

I asked her, “Have you ever thought that you might be just as cold and stern to your father and that you’ve shelved your love for him? Have you ever thought that your father also needs your love. It’s not only that you need his.” She was stunned and then said, “What should I do? It’s possible that I’ve never expressed my feelings to him.” I told her, “When you go home today, buy a most beautiful red rose. Then kneel down in front of your father and offer the flower to him, hug him, and tell him, ‘Although I’ve never shown my love to you because I forgot, I was young and not sensible, nevertheless, I love you very much.’ ” So she did what I told her. As a result, the two hugged and cried together. Since then, they have become very good to each other.

So one of them has to open his/her heart first. Parents work outside. They’re often exhausted physically and mentally. They have many worries and many debts. In addition to heavy family responsibilities, they can hardly laugh when they’re home. However, children may not understand the hardships of their parents. They may keep demanding and expecting a lot but don’t realize that their parents also need some support and love. On one side, parents may be stern: “We’re your parents!” They may be strict because they worry that their children won’t respect them; and in addition to their heavy work pressure, they can’t laugh out loud. On the other side, the children think, “Our parents are very strict. They don’t love us and don’t give us this and that.” Then the children may get upset or harbor enmity. This will deepen the misunderstanding between both sides and broaden the generation gap. In fact, both sides are anxious and eager to hug each other. They love each other very much, but they can’t express it.

You can just try to express your feelings; you don’t have to feel embarrassed. They’re your family members. If you really can’t communicate with them, try this method, that is, hug each other first and talk later. When you tell them truly out of sincerity, your words will be touching. You’ll gradually communicate with each other and understand that the other side also has feelings and love, and then you’ll reconcile with them. Family members always love each other. But sometimes they’re too proud to be the first to speak out. So both sides lock themselves up and wait for the other to knock. However, no one ever knocks first. (Master laughs.) And then both sides become anxious.

Sometimes this happens to husbands and wives, too. They want very much to reconcile, but both are waiting and no one takes the initiative. As days go by, the atmosphere remains tense and stern. Although they’ve forgiven each other inside, they can’t put aside their pride but worry about losing face and what the other party may think of them. “Will he/she ridicule me for giving in?” In fact, that won’t happen. It doesn’t matter even if your husband laughs at you; he’s your partner! It’s also fine if your wife laughs at you! In fact, she won’t. She’s only waiting for you to apologize to her. Now you understand!

Why do we have to respect our parents? Because they work hard for us. The precious bodies that we are able to have were given by our parents; not by the physical entities of our parents, but by the grace of God’s love acting through them. Therefore, we should respect them in order to respect God. Everything is created by God. Hes gives us birth through the bodies of our parents, but not that our parents do that themselves. However, since our parents have God’s love within, that is, since they have God inside them, when they love us, they have God’s loving power. They’re very noble, gracious and superior beings. So how can we not respect them?

The Subtle Meaning Of “Thou Shalt Not Kill”

Now the next commandment is, Thou shalt not kill. It means to refrain from killing. I’ve expounded on this millions of times. However, don’t always think that it’s good enough if we don’t kill; sometimes when we try to save a life, we’re killing. Have you heard me tell the story about two nuns trying to save a centipede? I don’t have many examples to cite on this; I only remember that story.

One day when I went to take a bath and brush my teeth, I saw a centipede in my cup. The cup was covered with a piece of cloth. When I lifted off the cloth, I saw a centipede in it. I was frightened, of course. The centipede was also frightened. (Laughter) So I screamed, “Ah!” (Master laughs.) That was a natural reaction. Since the centipede couldn’t go “Ah,” it jumped. So both of us were scared. Hearing this, two attendants outside quickly ran in and asked, “What’s the matter, Master?” I said, “I’m all right. There’s a centipede.” (Master and audience laugh.) Then they said, “Okay. Master, you may go out and let us handle it.” I said, “Okay. Be careful! Handle it if you wish!” There was a basin outside. So I brushed my teeth there.

A long time after I had brushed my teeth, I still didn’t see them come out. (Laughter) So I asked, “Are you done with it?” They replied, “Not yet!” I said, “How can two of you not be able to handle only one centipede?” (Master and audience laugh.) I went inside to have a look. Well! I heard a noise, “Tze, Tze, Tze, Tze.” I asked, “What are you doing?” They said that they were trying to drive it away to with the shower head, but the centipede wouldn’t move! I said, “Of course, it won’t. It’s surrounded by water.” (Laughter.) If I spray you like that with the shower head, wouldn’t you drown? The centipede was very small and was surrounded by water. It could hardly breathe. How could it possibly run away? It didn’t know where to run!

Well! The centipede almost drowned. I saw it going “Hu, Hu, Hu.” It was calling for help. So I said, “Stop! Stop! Stop! Let me handle it myself.” They were really great and compassionate for “not killing it,” but trying to drive it away with water, flushing and surrounding it with water... Even if we were the centipede, we would have drown. The centipede was very small. When they kept doing that, the centipede couldn’t withstand it! So I said, “Forget it! Leave the centipede alone!” So that was how they were trying to save a life.

Therefore, it’s not good enough to just refrain from killing. We have to be cautious. When we walk, we have to be careful and watch out for insects. The sink where we wash our faces and brush our teeth should be covered up or be drained to prevent insects from drowning inside. The oil lamps in temples are also professional killers. They’re supposed to be offerings to the Buddha, but they’re filled with corpses of insects. Since the oil lamps are uncovered, insects are killed instantly as soon as they fall in.

When I lived in a temple before, each morning when I wiped the altar table, I always saw the lamps filled with dead sentient beings. I supposed that the Buddha wouldn’t be pleased with it! In ancient times, since there were no other kinds of lights available, people had to use oil lamps. But now we have electric lights, yet people still stubbornly insist on using oil lamps. In ancient times, people used oil lamps and fragrant oil to make offerings to the Buddha.

Why did people light oil lamps to make offerings to the Buddha? Because oil lamps could illuminate the road for Him. In addition, they were to lite up the face of the Buddha to let people see. They were also used to light up the hallways in the temples, just like our road lamps here. However, in ancient times, people covered up oil lamps. Shakyamuni Buddha also instructed that when oil lamps were lit or put out, they should be covered up to prevent insects from being injured or burnt. Nowadays, people use big pots of oil as oil lamps. In the temples in Tibet, hundreds of oil lamps are lit all day and all night. First of all, they waste oil. Secondly, they kill lots of sentient beings. When we pursue spiritual practice, we’re supposed to refrain from killing and deliver sentient beings’ lives, but we actually harm them, instead.

Therefore, we must be careful. Refraining from killing includes a broader sense. Not only killing with a knife is killing. Of course, we should avoid killing if possible. We don’t intent to kill by lighting oil lamps. However, we can avoid it, by not using oil lamps. The Buddha didn’t say that we must make offerings to Him with oil lamps. In case some places have no oil, how can people make offerings? Whatever we offer, the most important thing is our intention. Besides, the lamp actually refers to the lamp within us! Of course the scriptures point out that all temples should light lamps or fires all the time so that people can see the paths and go to meditate. It’s the same in our ashram! When you come at midnight, or during a seven-day retreat we get up at three or four o’clock. If there were no lamps in temples or ashrams, how could you see where you are going? You might step on other people’s heads, or some male practitioners may go to sit in the females’ place and some females may go to sit in the males’ place, causing embarrassment. So this is the reason for having lights. It’s not that the Buddha needs any lights!

For instance, when I sit here, you always shine bright lights on me to let people see me, but it’s not that I need the lights. So all kinds of lights are fine as long as you can see me. However, as to the wooden Buddhas, no one comes to see them at night. Visitors only come in the daytime. So no lights are needed at all in the night. Besides, all the temples have electric lights now and it’s easy to turn them on to allow people to practice their morning and evening services.

What I mean is that we should avoid killing if possible. There are many other things, but I can’t go through all of them. As to any insects or bugs, we should avoid killing them if possible. Similarly, we should avoid cutting grass and trees if possible. If there is no other way, we can cut them, of course, to build houses or for hygiene. We can do it when necessary. However, it’s different if we destroy them with a vicious heart for no reason.

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, Not Steal, Not Lie

Another commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery. That is, to refrain from having more than one husband or wife. I’ve explained the reason. If you have too many husbands, you won’t have any next time. Suppose you have seven husbands. Then in the next seven lifetimes, no one will marry you, because you once had too many! For example, you make ten thousand NT a week. If you spend it all in one day, of course you have no money left for the rest of the week.

The next commandment is, Thou shalt not steal. This everyone understands, and I’ve talked about it many times. There are many kinds of stealing, and stealing money is only one kind. It’s okay to steal if you’re starving, but don’t do it if you have money. Stealing also includes casually receiving offerings from people. As well, you must not hint at people to offer! Sometimes when we talk for too long, we’re also stealing, that is, stealing people’s time. When people are impatient with you, you still keep on babbling. That’s also stealing.

If we sell something for ten dollars when it’s actually worth only two dollars (if we say that it’s very good when it’s actually not and only worth two dollars, but we sell it for ten dollars) and cheat others to buy more, this is wrong and is stealing, too. Stealing doesn’t only mean to go out and steal. When we go to work and see that the boss isn’t there, so we slip away and go home early, it’s also stealing. If we take home something from the factory that the boss didn’t give us, it’s stealing, too. When we live in a group, there are many things there for the public, not only for us. It’s stealing if we take something that isn’t given to us.

The next commandment is, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You understand this one already, and I’ve also talked about it many times. It’s explained at the time of initiation, too. There are many kinds of lying. The worst kind is that, our spiritual level is low, but we cheat others that we’ve attained a higher level by saying some mysterious things. We coax people into believing that our level is higher than theirs by talking about mystical things. We hide our real level and make people think that we know many things that they don’t know. To cheat people in this way is the biggest lie. For another instance, after a Master passes away, some people like to become masters and then cheat people that they’re the successors. By doing that, they incur the worst karma.

Sometimes we make a mistake. And when people ask us about it, we don’t admit it but let Master or our boss punish the whole group. This is also lying and is bad, too! If we admit our mistake, it’d be fine. Don’t involve other people in it. Sometimes, I have to punish those people. It’s okay if they make a small mistake. But they don’t admit it and the issue becomes worse and involves the whole group. They wouldn’t be punished because of the small mistake, but since it involved the whole group and made a lot of noise, I have to punish them. They didn’t admit it, but forced me to bother the whole group and question people one by one, and still didn’t confess, of course I’d have to punish them. I’d punish them for lying, but not for the trivial matter.

Don’t Covet Other People’s Belongings

Another commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, ... Of course we shouldn’t covet other people’s belongings. We wouldn’t accept them even if people gave them to us, not to mention coveting other people’s things. I’ve told you that if we accept other people’s offerings that we don’t deserve, we’re only taking their karma. However, we don’t know whether we deserve it or not, so we had better not accept any, unless people really force us to accept it. If we have no alternative, we should just accept it and then give it to someone else or give them something in return.

I think that the Chinese understand this rule very well. During the Chinese New Year, people give gifts to each other. After gifts are passed on too many times, the gift that you gave earlier may come back to you. Is that not so? This is also fine! At least we won’t owe others anything. The Americans have a tradition, that is, when two people go out for coffee, each one will pay his own bill. This is also good! They don’t have to display false courtesy, and then fuss about who drinks more and who drinks less, (Master and audience laugh), or they may feel embarrassed.

There is a very funny Au Lacese story. Two people went out to eat a kind of food called jackfruit. It’s a kind of fruit that has spines outside and looks very ugly. It’s this fat and this big with many seeds and sweet knobby flesh inside. These two people reached an agreement, “We don’t know who will eat more and who will eat less, of course. So we’ll count the seeds, and then we’ll know how much each person should pay.” After they both agreed, they went out to share a big jackfruit together.

One of them was very honest, but the other swallowed all the seeds. (Master and audience laugh.) Seeing that, the first person didn’t say anything. After finishing eating, the first person suddenly screamed, “Oh! My stomach hurts very much! My stomach really hurts!” He rolled on the floor and kept on screaming. The second person wasn’t done eating yet. While eating, he asked, “What’s wrong with you?” The first person said, “I accidentally swallowed a seed. Now it’s growing. Oh! It’s getting bigger and bigger. Oh! It has grown up to here now! (Master points to Her chest.) Oh! It’s up to here now! (Master points to Her throat.) Oh! Quickly think of a way to save me! Why is it growing so fast?” The other person was frightened to death. He asked, “You swallowed only one seed and it has grown this big. (Laughter.) What will happen to me since I’ve swallowed five seeds?” (Master and audience laugh. Applause) So don’t swallow any fruit seeds! (Master and audience laugh.)

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