Enlightenment

To Ask Enlightened Master
Tathagata a Question
Visit the Main Question Page



If you like this article then help others find it by bookmarking it with one of the above social bookmarking sites.

Teaching of Tathagata - 10.12.06

You should listen to me with the focus on how you will see this world. I told you about the ideal and reality and I took Cambodia as a good example, where I travelled a few weeks ago. As you know Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. However I've never seen such a country blessed with nature. I went to Phenom Pen from Bangkok by bus and it took 8 hours from the border to Phenom Pen. There were endless rice paddy fields and I could see only a few small mountains and several villages during bus travel. Because they didn't cultivate their land properly people are poor and hungry. When I walked in the street children came to me and begged for money. They are used to follow strangers. I scolded them 'You live in the country that is blessed with such a wonderful land. I came from Korea which has only mountains and a heavy population. Who begs to who?'

As I explained to you in last class the tragedy of this country is caused by Pol Pot who had his idealism but no eye to understand the reality. His idea had some reason but he only gave suffering to his people and destroyed the society. He did not know humans nature. He was ignorant about the principle that operates the world. He failed because he did not know what he was doing. This is what I always warn to people in this era. I try to awake people and help them become aware as they are. They should realise the gap between ideal and reality and the danger of faith without verification.

I visited a big Buddhist's temple in the city center and met a famous monk who was introduced by a professor in Royal Phenom Pen University. I asked him "Do you have any teachings in your Buddhism?". He answered "Yes". When I asked what are they, he explained about the five precepts. I laughed and said "You speak a lie from the time you get up in the morning everyday but you think you keep the precepts, because you don't know when someone who is blind speaks something that he cannot realise, it becomes lying."

"You speak something about Buddha and his teachings everyday. If you have any one truth of your words show me the proof."

This is very important point. When I asked for proof of their truth, the mood of conversation changed.

Here, I emphasise that you also can speak a lie if you speak something carelessly without view or without confirming it by yourself.

Here is something I am always very anxious about. There are some people who come to me by the guide of gods. They obtained those gods from their hard pray toward stone buddhas or wooden buddhas. If they earn my mind even once they can get what they want. But the problem is that once they solve their difficulties they never come back to me.

Soyun had a friend who was in an extremely difficult situation because of her husband .
Finally she came to me and I taught her how to control him. From my view he was not normal and his terrible behavior was a kind of habit. She applied my advice to him and the effect appeared so rapidly. The position of two was reversed . Now she is a cat and he is a mouse. It took 30 years for her to have her freedom from her husband. And she herself changed as well. She never came back to us and is not willing to meet Soyun either. Most of the people are the same as her. When they find no way they come to me once or twice, but I hardly see them again after they solve their problems.

Then why does this happen? I told you many times. In order to gain good you need a bond. We associate with one another as we have fate.When I travelled west of India, sometimes I saw the peacocks. There were always one or two, they never played with the crows or other birds. The peacock was alone, so looked very lonely. Even though he visits crows and begs for company, they don't allow. If he displays with his tail to attract them, they will be upset. The more he tries the more they hate him and are jealous.

One day I was in a bar with my old acquaintance and his friends. He praised me and showed high expectation of my role for this society. Then a women requested me to have a chance to meet me. She wanted my phone number. I told her "I may seem somewhat great here now, but you will forget me soon." Because she had little bond with me. Birds of a feather flock together. Different kinds of origin cannot be mixed. Lots of people came and left when they solved their difficult problems. They never come back. I was nothing more than a public toilet. Few of them remain. A long time ago Gautama had the same condition as me. He walked the long long way until his age of more than eighty, not for showing off himself but for finding people.

Here I 'd like to point out one thing you should know regarding Gautama Buddha's way to teach. Today so called meditation has become immensely popular. Buddhist monks say that Buddha was enlightened through meditation, but that is absolutely wrong. It is true when he did not find anything to do he sat down during the period of his practice. He practiced asceticism and he fought against himself through the practice. Since he was born as a prince he had lived in comfortable condition. However he threw himself into extremely bad condition of starvation, cold and hot weather, attacks of insects,etc, and fought against himself and finally won. It was a fighting to find good self. But modern meditation teaches how to leave yourself.
These days most of the meditation instructors teach people to concentrate on their breath. You shouldn't think anything and should leave everything. So I asked them," Is that what Buddha taught?". They said "Yes, it is.".They claimed that Buddha instructed those practitioners to do like that. That's totally wrong.

When a group of people gathered without any particular things to do, they become to wander and to get lots of useless thinking .Moreover, if they loiter here and there with illusion they are likely to commit some mishaps. That 's why he let them to sit calmly and try to meditate and observe about what they saw, what they heard. They were guided to search the way to reach the truths of what happened to themselves. They were asked to survey what was in them and to see what causes create such things. After a close examination they should allow themselves to accept the reality only. That was the best way to cultivate humans. In short, Buddha taught them to think deeply and observe in order to save themselves from falsehood through confirming the truths of what they heard or saw.

On the contrary, the existing Buddhism requests you to leave everything. Buddha gave you the way to save yourself, while today's religion guides you to leave yourself. The other spirits cannot invade someone who tries to save self, but if you leave yourself the soul of the dead that was roaming in the air enters to you immediately. You are like a deserted empty car, so other's soul occupies your seat and may tell you, "Have a rest and let me drive your body." . If you have a weak soul it will suppress you completely and drive you on his own.

I always learn from my travels. I say that I rather learn from you and I myself am a guidance of you. I help you to see the world carefully by explaining things as they are. In fact, you teach me. The best guru in the world is the world itself. What exists in the world is the best teaching. People are the elements that constitute the world, so I have been learning a lot from them as well.

Recently I was agonising on the matter of how to treat people. I became to wonder how much of truth is allowed to tell regarding personal destiny. You cannot come to me with bad destiny. Even if you came to me by a kind of bond, you will find it difficult to change your destiny unless you cultivate the bond well.

The way of the present life is fixed by your karma of last life. We call it as a destiny. This destiny creates various phenomena when it meets with the reality of life. And the karma becomes a 'motae' (origin) which creates your disposition, nature and vision and so on. I always tell you that nobody can be free from their karma which they have done .The ordinary people cannot understand this at all. Moreover when they learn this without any previous knowledge they cannot distinguish my words from a minister's or monk's. Especially those ministers who are the experts to deceive people. They pray for someone who they never met before and it sounds really grateful. Their well trained voice is flowing like the instruments. The ministers, monks and mediums do the same job. But only people cannot separate them because they do not understand them as they really are.

When I travelled Thailand a few weeks ago I underwent the same hardships as usual. No matter how hard I tried to meet people and awake them they doubted me, avoided me and didn't listen to me. Several years ago I printed 200 sheets of my message that introduced myself but I still have 100 sheets of them left, because I don't find someone who I want to give it to or who wants to read it either. In my message I told that I was the Supreme Enlightened being and have been travelling endlessly to be helpful to mankind. I appealed that I earnestly required your confirmation on my claims. However nobody is interested in my words, nobody tries to verify it. The only thing what they can do is doubt and guard. Why does it happen ? Because of their karma. They became the monks as they did not have any merit in their past lives. That's why they always deceive people and are greedy. Greed is what you should leave in life because it leads you to being easily cheated by others. If you are greedy you are not helpful to yourself or others as well. You are suffered with ill-fortune. When I see what modern religion does, they always teach people to forgive. They never teach the way to live on the right way. What on earth do you have to forgive ?

The most essential teaching is that how people live on the right way. In order to lead people to the right way you should reveal the world. The best teaching is to reveal things in the reality. The world itself is the best teacher. You know how you missed the bread when you were hungry. Someone who has experienced starvation does not waste money because they had learned suffering. The world taught them to save money.

If you depend on the other's help, you are in danger to be trapped. If you ask gods' help by a prayer you may get a temporary response but you have to pay back with your soul. What is the result of that ? Your soul will be ruined. It means you have to give yourself to the ghosts and it is too miserable. Therefore, learning what is in actuality is most worthy for your life.
 The greatest worth of life is to awake yourself and be aware of true yourself. You can bless yourself through a righteous and grand life.

Why is this class precious to you? Because you are the blind one. Because you need someone's guide for your wishes. A good guidance lets you open your eye by teaching things what are in reality. Because everything in the world is fixed.