The Secret Defense of
Spiritual Practice

 

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Six-day International Retreat
Young Dong Center, Korea
May 12, 2000 (Originally in English).

 

Disciple: I was initiated last Sunday at the Hsihu Center. After I received the Holy Names, I started to practice the Quan Yin Method. When I heard the Inner Sound, I was so surprised that I told others. Since then, even if I try to concentrate on the Sound, I can't hear anything. So, since that time, I hear nothing at all, because I was so excited that I talked about it.

Master: You told people?

D: Yes, there was a sister beside me...

M: Oh, yeah?

D: So I spoke about it to her. She said you shouldn't say anything. So I was to blame.

M: Congratulations! (Master and audience laugh) Yeah, now you have to work very hard.

D: Is it going to take time before I...?

M: Yeah, it is going to take time.

D: Yeah?

M: Yeah, so that you learn to keep your mouth closed. But I don't blame you guys, because it's so new. The first day of initiation, sometimes it looks like your whole head is full of thunder, or the whole ocean is contained in there. It's never happened like that before in your whole life. Anything that you hear is so new and so loud. And of course you feel very excited. But you should learn. I told you, everything I tell you is good for you, not because I forbid you, or anything. So next time, whomever, before they get initiated, tell them, "Please, please keep your mouth shut." Otherwise, they might lose the experience, lose the thought transference, because they leak it out.

Even the Holy Names, the reason I tell you not to recite them at random or not to give them to people is because you should not leak them out. During initiation, they are protected. All the guardian angels stay outside, so the negative force cannot get near. They love to hear the Holy Names! So if you recite them out loud anywhere, or tell people, you attract the negative enemies. They love it. It is fine, they love to come near, but when they come near, they don't observe also, and they trouble you. They are attracted to you, and you are not strong enough to withstand them. Sometimes, you have a little trouble. And even if I just recite them out loud to you only sometimes; I don't do it all day long. This world is like that. The positive attracts the negative; not attracts it, but they like to go near. So whatever is good for you, you should keep it. Keep it for yourself. The quieter you keep, the stronger your experience. If you say it when in front of the Master and when you are protected, it is different. But if you talk at random sometimes, it is not good for you.

Because this method we learn is from Heaven; it is not from earth. The power is from God and is meant to take us Home. But this world, although it's also a creation of God, is only a reflection of God's creation. It is the world of maya, of a different domain, different control. So we are like spies here. We are like in the "Enemies of the State" (a movie's title). So we have to keep ourselves, our identity and everything, quiet. Like we are all the same, but when we walk out on the street, people don't know. That's the best. If they know you, some of them will make trouble for you. And they have made trouble for all the masters, in the past and present, because they know they are masters. They have the motive to make trouble for them. But because they don't know who you are, they don't make trouble. That's why we keep quiet. Since ancient times, many masters, many openly teaching teachers, all have had trouble. But as a practitioner, if you keep quiet, you are okay. It's the same for you. If they know too much about you, they can make trouble, too.

But because you just say you speak for the master, they don't really take you seriously. If they know all your experiences and everything else, then they know you are highly developed, and they can make trouble, too. You know the maya force, so we keep quiet. Everything from Heaven belongs there, belongs inside; everything outside, belongs outside. Just like if you go into the enemy's country to work for your government, if you reveal your identity and your power from that government, like you are the trusted secretary of the president, or a secret agent of the FBI, to go into a different country to do research for something, if you reveal your identity, you're in trouble. All the spies, the powerful spies, work quietly. They have all the information that could change the world in a second. But they don't ever let anyone know, not even their wives. You read sometimes in the newspaper that some of the spies have been discovered, but their wives do not even know anything! This is true. They don't tell their wives. They don't tell anyone. They work alone. Sometimes, the same agents work together, but they do not even know each other, because they are so secretive. And that is the way it is for us; we are in this world like that. We have to work quietly.