On February 18, Golden Year 4 (2007), Supreme Master Ching Hai, Association members and other guests in Hsihu, Formosa, rang in the Chinese New Year with an important message of peace, love and preservation of our beautiful planet, mother Earth. A delightful song composed by Supreme Master Ching Hai permeated the atmosphere of this festive occasion and filled everyone’s hearts with love, compassion and peace.

The Immense Blessing of a New Year’s Wish

Wishing you all good fortune, a prosperous year, and most importantly, a peaceful year! I have changed the lyrics a little to suit the occasion of Happy New Year. And we shall sing it like the “Happy Birthday” tune:

Happy New Year, Heaven.

Happy New Year on Earth.

Happy New Year, all beings.

Happy Peaceful New Year.

Can you remember already? OK. Let’s sing together. (Master and everyone sing.) Very good! We wish the world can be in peace: peace in Heaven, peace on Earth, peace for everyone and all beings. At least this year! If our wish is sincere, it might come true.

It seems like we are going to have peace, and pretty soon, according to all the news that we have nowadays. Even though we still have a little friction here and there between some previous-life incarnation enemies, they are ironing out their problems. But it looks like we have more peace now than ever. Is that not so? (Audience: Yes.) Yes!

We are going to have more and more peace. That’s the way it has to be, if humans are to survive, because we have already done a lot of damage to this beautiful being called Mother Earth. And I hope that we still have enough time to redress it, to correct it, to repair it somehow.

So peace must be, because in peace, we can rebuild countries. In peace only, we can rebuild human relationships. In peace only, we can attain Heaven. There’s no other way we can ever live with each other, except in peace. There are more important things to do in the world - everyone knows that - than to take up a gun and shoot someone. This is the least thing we could even think of. We should never even think of anything like that in all our whole lifetime!

But our brothers and sisters have kind of awakened somehow to this urgent, important and ‘must-be’ cause, the cause of peace. Everyone talks about peace, but we must do something to contribute to it: by loving our neighbors, by stopping from doing anything that we think and know is wrong. Anything that is wrong, we stop right away. Anything that is right, we do it right away.

This is a very simple kind of living. There is no need to look anywhere else for Heaven unless we are at peace with our neighbors and within ourselves. As I’ve told you many times, a young man and a young woman grow up from the love of their parents. They have been loved since they were born, before they were born, after they were born and as they are growing up, they are thriving and growing in the love of the parents, dear friends, their beloved spouse and children.

That’s the way they should grow up and live their lives, in love and then in peace. There’s no one on earth who should turn that love into hatred and make people go out somewhere to destroy that love and to destroy someone else’s love, who has done nothing to him personally. That is wrong! That is absolutely wrong, even in the eyes of human beings, not to talk about in the eyes of God. We have no need to bring God into any discussion before we start doing something right and living peacefully among each other.

We have many urgent things to do: We have hunger to resolve; we have children who have been starved to death; we have elderly people without care; we have animals who have been neglected and abused. We have all kinds of little problems here and there, and big problems here and there that we should take care of, so that life on this planet will be more beautiful.

We cannot afford to waste our energy, time and money in killing. We have to spend our time and energy in love and in building peace. Because if we don’t stop the war right now, everyone knows we have no time for anything else. Maybe the winners in war and the losers in war may die sooner than the war ends, if our planet ends. I’ve told you many times already, so there’s no need to repeat here anymore.

Be the First to Protect the Earth

But there is one thing: I have to thank you, our Association members, over all these years, especially these years when we have had lots of man-made and natural disasters around the world. You have been very, very compassionate and very diligent in helping your brothers and sisters in need. So I have to thank you very much, and I’m very, very proud of you.

We should seek world peace. If we continue to have war, then we will not have time to fix our beautiful world. Our children, our future generations, will not have a place to live. The whole world may be destroyed. Its destruction may cause no harm for us Quan Yin Method practitioners, for we have found God and are secured. However, we should preserve this world in order for our brothers and sisters to be elevated as well. If one suffers a tragic and sudden death, it is more difficult for one’s soul to wake up and be liberated. So we have been waiting.

While we are waiting, we should fix anything we can repair. We, in particular, should be the first to do so. For example, we will try to conserve energy wherever we can. I have often asked you to use energy-saving light bulbs and we have done that. Now, if cars with no hazardous gas emissions are available, then buy one. If you can form a car pool for work, grocery shopping, taking kids to school, etc., by all means travel in one car. In this way, we can conserve energy and reduce hazardous gas emissions.

At home, try to recycle everything that can be reused. For example, try water conservation. Water may be readily available, but we need electricity to bring water to the house. Therefore, supplying water to the house consumes a lot of energy. So does supplying electricity. We should save energy wherever we can. This is not just a money problem. It is to save this world as well. Don’t wait for your neighbors to do it first. We do whatever we can do first.

I came back to Hsihu in a taxi. The taxi driver asked me many questions and I gave him my explanations. I told him how I conserve energy, like using cars that do not emit any hazardous gas, which are an innovation. I said that I am a vegetarian. Now the United Nations has announced that animal husbandry causes the most hazardous emissions, so it is good that we are already vegetarian. I told the driver that love is the primary reason why I am a vegetarian.

He said, “What good will it serve if you are the only one eating vegetarian and ten others are eating meat?” I said to him, “I can only take care of myself first. If everyone thinks the way you do - each one waiting for the other to take the first step - then when could we reach the goal? I see what is right and what is proper to do; then I do it first. If my neighbor agrees with me and follows my example, it’s great. If not, at least I have done my share and fulfilled my obligations. If I don’t do what I think is right, and everyone else thinks the same way, then no one does what is right. Many people do not do what is right and what is proper, because they wonder what purpose it will serve if they are the only ones doing it and ten other people are not.” Will it serve any purpose? (Audience: Yes.) Yes.

I said to the taxi driver, “For example, it is better to have two or three lights in a dark plaza than to have none at all. When you enter a big, dark house, and you light a candle, aren’t you able to see many things then? It doesn’t matter if the big house has been very dark for thousands of years. Once you come in and light a candle, you can see the surroundings. Then, when another person comes in and sees how the candle has lit up the surroundings, he or she follows suit and lights another candle. Then it will be even brighter with two candles. That’s what we do. One after another, step by step, we influence others. We don’t have to say anything. In fact, sometimes we talk a lot, yet no one listens. Sometimes people don’t understand clearly, and sometimes few people listen.”

Now you produce the Supreme Master Television, which broadcasts videos of my lectures dating back a long time. I have watched some of the programs. “That person speaks quite well,” I said. “But who is She speaking to? Why is She traveling everywhere and speaking about things that few people seem to care about?” However, we have to care, because we are still in this world. When we’re still in this world, we must try our best to protect this world and all sentient beings of the world. When we ascend to Heaven, then it won’t be necessary to speak about this again. However, while we are still here, we have to fix and protect the world.

Similarly, if you have sold your house to someone else, then there is nothing you can do. But while you are still in your house, surely you have to repair and maintain it, not just for your own but for your friends’ safety as well. It’s not right to invite guests to a house that is broken and may collapse at any moment. It’s not that we care so much about the physical things. But wherever we are, we try to fix the place, not only for our own sake, but for the whole world as well. Actually, this physical world is not so important to us, because we already know the way Home. Even if this world did not exist, we would know there are billions of other worlds we could go to. But a lot of people don’t know that. So we have no right to destroy this world. Right? (Audience: Yes.)