News 88, Bible Stories
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Hsihu Center, Formosa • July 7, 1990
(originally in Chinese)

People liked to listen to Jesus Christ speak. Jesus often used short stories to explain the Truth to the audience. The following is one of these stories.

Once there was a farmer who went out and sowed seeds to grow corn. As he was sowing, some seeds fell by the side of the road, and then birds came and ate them up. Some seeds fell upon stony places, and when the sun rose, they were scorched. Some seeds fell among thorns, and as the thorns sprung up and choked them, they couldn’t grow big. Yet other seeds fell onto good and fertile ground and they began to germinate and gradually grew into stalks of corn.

Jesus Christ explained that this story was a metaphor for the teachings of God. Upon hearing God’s teachings, some wicked people might obstruct the teachings and not let other people know them.

Some people might like to listen, but after a while when they experience difficulties and trails, they might lose their faith. These people believe in the teachings when they first hear them. However, after a period of time, they might feel that the worries in their daily lives or the feelings of the husband and wife or their families are more important than God’s teachings. Therefore, when they are oppressed by their worries or bound by their feelings, they forget God’s teachings.

However, some people are like the corn seeds that were sown on good and fertile soil. They clearly listen to and understand the teachings, develop the teachings that they have understood, and make the teachings a part of their lives. We know this by looking at how these people live, because they’ve made God’s teachings a part of their daily lives. That is, when we look at their lives, we can tell whether they meditate or not; whether they keep the precepts or not, or whether they’re enlightened or not. It’s very clear and there’s no need to explain much!

Many people have come for initiation and only a small percentage of them have lost their faith. Whatever I sowed has grown, and very few of them have fallen by the wayside and been eaten by birds, or very few have fallen on stony places and are unable to grow. Most of you grow quite well, while some of you grow slowly but are trying to grow. (Master and everyone laugh) You can’t be seen since you’re blocked by your taller, initiated brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, you still try to compare, “All my neighbors are taller than I am. (Master and everyone laugh) But that’s okay! Some people who come after me are shorter than I am.” So you just grow happily and slowly.

However, those who grow very slowly give me a lot of headaches. No matter how much I water them, they can’t grow taller and hence make trouble for me. Sometimes I get fed up with them and then stop watering them. I say, “You just grow by yourselves!” (Master laughs) Some of you are like seeds that fall on stony places or by the wayside and are eaten by birds or dried up by the sun, unable to grow.

Similarly, upon hearing the teachings of God, our lay or monastic disciples sometimes understand right away. Their souls realize and their minds also suddenly understand. However, after a while, due to their carelessness or ignorance, the newly germinated sprouts will fall when blown by the wind or will dry up when the sun rises. Worldly worries and any suffering and trials are like the sun, the wind or the rain. If you aren’t strong enough and don’t grow up, you can’t pass the trials.

Sometimes I’m very surprised to see that some people change their minds very quickly. Today they are very faithful, enthusiastic and have the ideal, but tomorrow they just go “Pu, Pu, Pu,” (audience laughs) like a leaking balloon that is pierced by a needle. When a balloon is pierced by a small needle, it’ll go “Tzz, Tzz, Tzz” and becomes very small. The balloon looks big originally. But since it’s empty inside, when it’s punctured by a needle, it’ll go “Tzz, Tzz, Tzz” and disappear. If a big piece of bread is poked by a needle, it won’t be affected.

Many people like to boast about big things. They talk about something before they actually do it. They criticize others for not being able to do it and boast that they can do such-and-such. However, as soon as they encounter obstacles, they just go “Tzz, Tzz, Tzz,” like a leaking balloon. This surprises me sometimes!

Do you know why these people are like that? Because they’ve accumulated too many impressions in their previous lifetimes. Among them, there are too many bad seeds and very few good ones. This is just like the story that Jesus Christ told. Some seeds fall among thorns, so they’re choked and can’t grow. Even if they sprout a little, they can’t compete with the thorns, so they just die!

As to our lay or monastic disciples or anyone who comes to get initiated by me and follow me, I treat them equally and give each one of them the same thing, just like a farmer who sows seeds with the same effort and the same expectation. However, some seeds can grow while some can’t.

Here’s another story about a farmer. This farmer cultivated his land and planted wheat. However, an enemy of the farmer destroyed his work. When the farmer and his family were sleeping one night, the enemy went to his land and sowed weed seeds without letting anyone know. When the weeds started to sprout and grow, the servants of the farmer came to ask him, “Should we remove the weeds?”

The farmer said, “No. You can’t tell which are weeds and which are wheat plants. I’m afraid that you may root out both.” He then said, “Just let them both grow until the time comes and we can root out the weeds and gather our harvest of wheat.”

After Jesus finished telling this story, people left. Then His close disciples asked Him, “What does this story mean?” (Master laughs) The closest disciples understood Jesus “the best,” and that’s why they could ask such a “bright” question! Everyone else understood the story and went home! (Master and audience laugh)

Jesus Christ answered, “I’m the farmer and the field that I cultivate symbolizes the world! The good seeds are those who belong to God and believe in God and me. The weeds are the negative and satanic power that belong to the enemies of God.”*****

Nevertheless, the time of harvest will come eventually. Although the two kinds of seeds grow together, look similar, and mix when they are just growing, it’s no problem. When they all grow up, we can tell which is which.”*****

After some thought, I think that our initiates or spiritual practitioners all look similar when they first start to practice. In the beginning, they don’t feel its significance hence don’t have much faith. They believe in the Master for one day and don’t believe for three days. They’re just like a mixture of one corn seed and three weed seeds. They follow the Master for one day and then follow the world for three days.

Today they want to become monastic disciples and follow me, but tomorrow they want to go home and get married or be with their parents, sons or other lovely debtors, et cetera. They’re just pulled around and struggle hard inside. They don’t listen to me but argue, “I believe in Master. Master is a saint. But anyway, I have to leave. (Master laughs) I’m going to do what I want to do. It is right only when I think by myself. I know how to take care of my life and know what I should do.”

They’re all like that. However, after a while, they’ll regret it and come back again. But then they’ll leave again and come back again, wasting a lot of time. However, after struggling for a while, they’ll settle down and realize that we’re different than worldly people who don’t do spiritual practice. When they know this clearly, they’ll become very stable, and then even lightning can’t shake them.

If you read the magazine that was published in Tainan, you’ll see an article about a person who isn’t our initiate but does spiritual practice. Many people did spiritual practice in their previous lifetimes and also practice other methods in this lifetime. So they have some experiences. Not to say whether their experiences are the ultimate or not, they just have some experiences. One can have experiences if one’s sincere.

So when that person read my books, he saw bright lights. And when he came to listen to my lecture, he saw many heavenly beings coming down onto the stage with me in the venue where I was lecturing. He also told an interesting story. He said that he noticed a big difference between those who were initiated and those who were not! Those who were initiated all had light, whether bright, dim or in different colors. (Master and audience laugh)

Why are you laughing? Do you think that those who aren’t initiated have no light? They do! Some of them are brown or black colored (audience laughs). But only our initiates had light of different brightness and vibrations. We all had light, but some of those who were not initiated had no light at all. That was what that non-initiate person said and this happened in Tainan.

Although we look like ordinary people and are similar to them, our invisible power and invisible light are really different! I look no different than you, but some people say that I have tremendous power. For instance, yesterday, the Au Lac person who played the zither said that he couldn’t sit too close to me, because he felt a great power, like a great electrical current, which was unbearable to him (but not to others).

There was a person in Penghu who did spiritual practice quite well, not just ordinarily. So he was very arrogant. He was never initiated by anyone and never listened to any discourses. When I went there, he knew it in advance and had seen my light. He liked it and then came to listen to my discourse.

One day, he told me, “Master, Your Power can kill!” I asked him why. He said, “There’s a cloudy thing around You. When I come near you, it feels like it can kill and it’s oppressive.” I told him, “If you have no bad intentions, you won’t have any problem. It’s because you aren’t pure.” So the invisible power is protective! He could feel it because we two had different vibrational levels. If our vibrational levels had been similar, he wouldn’t have felt anything.

When we people sit together, we feel comfortable. But what do we feel when we sit together with animals? For example, can you imagine sitting alone with goats, pigs, cows and chickens around you? You’d smell different things and the atmosphere would be different, too.

So if our spiritual practitioners truly practice the Quan Yin Method for a long time, we don’t have big egos. When our levels are higher, our egos can’t exist. Even if they did exist, we wouldn’t feel how great we are. We look like other people. Gradually we’ll know that we’re different. However, we don’t have anything to grasp, to prove, or to tell others. That’s why in the Heart Sutra, it states, “There’s nothing recognizable nor can we tell that we’ve attained the Truth.”

When we meditate to a high level, we don’t even have bodies, speech or thoughts. So how can our egos exist when our bodies don’t exist? And how can we possess anything if our bodies do not exist? Therefore, it’s not bad to practice this method. (Applause)

The more we practice, the less ego we have; the more we practice, the less we get. However, it’s not that we don’t get anything, but that we don’t have anything to feel proud of. The more we practice, the more relaxed we become; the more we practice, the less burden we have; and the more we practice, the less we have to talk about. Those who don’t practice much talk more, while those who practice more talk less. That’s why Lao Tze said, “The one who has wisdom doesn’t talk, while the one who talks doesn’t have wisdom.” Therefore, it’s very safe to practice this Quan Yin Method. Besides, this method is very simple, not complicated.

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