Selected Questions and Answers

Dying Daily

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, October 27, 1989
(Originally in English) Videotape #101D

Q: Since the purpose of living is to remember who we are, what’s the purpose of dying?

M: The body is created for us to use for only a period of time. So when it’s worn out we have to get another that’s more suitable to use for the new learning.

Q: Is there dying in terms of the body and also dying in terms of the soul?

M: No, the soul never dies. We just change clothes. For example, today you might wear a blue shirt, but if you wear it for two days and it gets dirty, then what do you do? Wash it, or maybe if it’s too worn out, throw it away and put on a new one. That’s all; we just change bodies like changing clothes.

Q: Do we have control over what we want? You talked about karma. Do we control what we want to be in the next life or is it that someone tells us who we’re going to be?

M: No one tells you who you’re going to be. It’s your own actions and the fruits thereof that tell you who you’re going to be. If you want to control your next life’s incarnation, you have to have wisdom to get through the process of finding the way back to your own path and regaining your own greatest wisdom and strength, and then you can control it. But for now we’re very weak.

Q: So we have consciousness and control even when we’re dead?

M: Yes, but not controlling power if we’re not enlightened. If we want to have control again we have to be great.

Q: Have you experienced death or do you remember a death experience?

M: I can die every day.

Q: How do you mean?

M: Well, I die and come back.

Q: Can I do that?

M: Yes, you can. I’ll teach you how. Saint Paul said, “I die daily.” When you’re in samadhi you can sever your ties with this world.

Q: By dying, do You mean cleansing?

M: No, not that. It’s not only cleansing, but also physically.

Q: Physically dying?

M: Yes! You sever your ties and connections with this world; that’s when you die. But when you come back, you reconnect again.

Q: Why do you want to die so many times?

M: I don’t want to die! I just have to die in order to live.

Q: When you say “die every day,” is that through meditation?

M: Yes, that’s right. You sever your connection with the physical world for a while, maybe half a day, maybe many hours, and then you come back and resume your work again because it’s not yet your time to die. We must go back and finish our job here, and when the time comes we truly sever the connection and never come back if we don’t want to. If we want to, we can come back again and do good work for humanity. But we can control our destiny; that’s the difference, and then we know what we’re doing.