News 88, Bible Stories
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Tien-Shan Center, Hong Kong • April 1, 1994
(originally in Chinese)

Once Jesus was speaking in public, and suddenly many so-called reputed, intellectual and learned people came with some highly esteemed people in the church, like priests, for example. They dragged behind them a woman who had committed adultery. At that time, any woman who committed adultery had to be stoned to death. There were about three ways of executing sinners at that time: one was to stone them, another was to throw them into the lion’s cage, and the other was to crucify them. Jesus was crucified, but this woman was supposed to be stoned to death.

Those honorable men challenged Jesus by asking, “According to Moses’ laws, this woman should be stoned to death. What do you think?” Jesus said nothing, just wrote on the sand with His finger, “A group of liars.” Those people kept pushing Him, so He finally said, “Any of you who has not sinned and who considers himself the purest and holiest may cast the first stone.” Upon hearing this, everyone slipped away silently and quickly. (Master and the audience laugh.) At last, Jesus was left alone with the woman who had sinned. He asked her, “Where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?”

She replied, “No man.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I want to condemn you. You may go home now.”

(Master sighs.) This story reminds us of something. There is no one in this world who has not sinned. Besides, whether one has sinned or not depends on the situation, background and your level of enlightenment. The so-called morality and ethics of this world are different from what real saints perceive. Those who have attained the highest level of enlightenment see no such things. They do not even imagine or think about these words. I don’t know how I can describe this level to you.

When you first begin spiritual practice, you see the difference between good and bad. But the distinction gradually fades away as you practice more. This is very strange and hard to explain to other people, but you just know it. And you won’t think so much about what is good or bad, except when you teach your disciples because they are at those levels that you have to explain to them in those terms. Otherwise, you don’t really want to talk about such things, and nothing really matters to you, because you have a different point of view.

You look from the top down and become very tolerant, like seeing a movie. You won’t be scolding the bad guy angrily, because you know he is only playing his role. And you won’t be praising the good guy profusely, because you know he is playing his role, too.

What we call good or bad in a person is the habit or the behavior, not the soul in that person. Our souls can realize a lot of things, but I can’t name them all; and they are hard to describe, although I know them very well. Regarding the so-called very serious crimes in our society, I have a different point of view, but I can’t tell you every detail. Many people would not understand, and I could not put it very clearly either.

That’s why I told you to meditate every day, and then you will realize it on your own. I just gave you an overview to direct your spiritual realization. As you go further, you will gradually understand why I said we would not discriminate between good and bad when we have had more results from spiritual practice.

When we are free from this discrimination, we will forgive our enemies easily, and then we will not be very angry about those who hurt us. We will forget about the whole thing very quickly and will not feel so bad. Even if we do feel bad, it will be for those people instead of for ourselves.

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