Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Six-day International Retreat,
Bangkok, Thailand, December 30,1999 (Originally in English)
Videotape No. 677

I want to tell you one more thing for the last time ever again: You are not bad. Even if you have a lot of bad habits, you are not bad. It's your brain, your computer, that records all these things and plays them out again. Don't ever identify yourself with all those bad habits. Just kill them, and say, "It's not me!" Whatever you like about yourself or your way of living, you should keep; whatever is not good for your spiritual development or even your physical reputation, you should kill. Because they are your enemies; that's it! But you are not bad.

Number one, you have to know that you are not bad. It's just your acquired habits that are bad, because you have been associated with some bad people or bad environments. Just like if you come here next to me and I give you some candies, if you go into a fish shop, even though you don't want to buy any, they just touch you or brush against you, and then you feel smelly like a fish.

So that's all there is to your so-called bad self. Don't ever blame yourself. Just get rid of your bad habits whenever you can, one by one. Make a promise that you're going to get rid of a bad habit, like smoking. If you can't do it immediately, give yourself a week or a month to do it. And if you fail, try again. It doesn't matter. You are very good already. You couldn't harm a living thing; you couldn't harm an ant now. You are so sweet, like an angel; you're a walking angel already. So whatever else is there, it's doing no harm to anyone.

For example, before you liked to kill or hit people, and now you don't anymore. So that's all right. Even if you still think about it, it's OK. You are really fine. As long as you do what was instructed at the time of initiation and meditate every day to nourish your soul, that's all you can do. Everything else is just on the surface. The ocean doesn't have waves. The waves come from the wind and the shifting of the planet. You are the ocean. It's always calm and beautiful. So don't blame the waves on yourself. Blame the wind or the shifting of the planet. As long as the ocean is still on this planet's surface, there will always be waves. If you get rid of one wave, another wave will come. So today you think you get rid of this bad habit, but tomorrow you discover, "Hey! What is this? I never knew this before! "

You will always discover things that are not you, which you have recorded. For example, when you were young, you saw your mother become jealous of your father, and then you learned, "Oh, when father does that, it's no good." So the brain recorded that. Then, when you grow up, you have almost the same situation, and the brain tells you, "Get jealous now. It's the time to be jealous. This is a situation where you should be jealous." But it's just on the very surface. All these bad habits are on the surface. They're not you!

You are never anything other than pure beauty and Light. That's what you should know about yourself. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying, deeply. Intellectually you understand, but one day you will realize that you are truly perfect. Even if you do something wrong, it was perfectly wrong! (Master and everyone laugh.) It's just the thing that was wrong. But maybe even those wrong things are meant to be, so that something else will come up. Sometimes you have to go through some so-called wrong situations in order to meet the right person or the right thing. It's really like that.

So just give yourself into the hands of God. Try your best, and that's all. Never blame yourself, and never think anything bad about yourself. Because you are God. They're just some bad habits. (Applause) If you don't like them, get rid of them. You see, you are very beautiful. You have to realize that one day - that you are perfect, just as I did. That's why I am so proud. No matter if you like me or think negatively about me, I still like myself very much. I do not believe you, that I am less than perfect. I don't care how many thousands of you think I am less than perfect; I still think I'm perfect. I not only think it, I know it. And that's freedom; you feel very beautiful about it.

Back to Contents