Lecture by Master Luong Si Hang – Vi Kien at the Vi-Kien Meditation Center, 17 April 1986

We should learn Courtesy first before learning Literature. To forget courtesy means to forget our fundamental nature, our spiritual root.

We should learn courtesy first before learning literature.

We will all soon return to our residence with the vow to guide and save humanity.

But we must first learn about courtesy, we must be humble, we must eradicate our ego.

When we treat everyone with courtesy, they will treat us with harmony.

At that time, we will be able to relate to them and give them the key to march on their own.

Therefore, even though you are now elderly, even though you have become a father, a mother, or a grandparent, you still have to learn about courtesy today. What kind of courtesy? Courtesy toward Heaven and Earth!

Courtesy toward our beloved Divine Father, our compassionate Divine Mother from whom we have been separated since a very long time.

 Since we have forgotten courtesy, we descend on earth and become more and more impure. We are attracted by the external world and completely forget our fundamental nature.

To forget courtesy means to forget our fundamental nature, our spiritual root.

When you possess courtesy, you will truly love our Divine Father and Divine Mother who have brought us to life and nourished us, who have sacrificed for us.

Today, we have become agitated and lost all our serenity. We are unable to cultivate our inner compassion. Instead, we turn outward. We welcome a fleeting romantic love, then we argue against each other and cause separation.  Therefore, today, we return to the profound and sincere love of our Divine Father and Mother. We are living in the ocean of love of God, but we don’t know it! We betray ourselves, we fight against God, and we do not understand the wise guidance of the World Above to help us toward our spiritual salvation.

What are you practicing today? We have spent half of our lifetime already, but what have we learned? We have learned all the books, we have graduated, and earned a good living. But what do we need to learn? We lack courtesy, so we become aimless, and wander here and there. We are not humans living solely on this planet. We have our Divine Father and Mother who take care of us at each hour, minute, and second. They care for us with all their efforts, but we remain aloof, and wrongly believe that our life is a success, but in reality, we are not yet successful.

We live in two spheres simultaneously, the material and spiritual spheres within this physical body. However, we are not aware of our own life. We do not understand courtesy in life, we do not comprehend courtesy in the spiritual domain, so what are we doing? We have lost our equilibrium. What do you think when an Immortal descends on earth and loses all equilibrium? It is an infinite misery. We are unworthy of our beloved Divine Father, Who has spent thousands of years, millions of years to build our present organism, but we thanklessly forget Him! 

Now, thanks to this occasion, we must return to serenity. We must return to the parallel practice of social and spiritual life. We have a soul, a physical body, we possess a complex and subtle structure as granted by the Divine Father. We do not lack anything, and everything functions in a very orderly manner. You are living with a very clear reason for life. We should restore our inner calm and return to our responsibility, the same way that our Divine Father has guided and blessed us.  We see that the responsibility of The Lord is heavy and we also have an equivalent responsibility to provide for our micro-universe, to develop our micro-universe. This micro-universe is caring for the twelve viscera, it is caring for the thousands of sentient beings who need to equally awaken within this micro-universe. Each muscle, each nerve, even each virus, all are our brothers and sisters, they all follow our governance to evolve according to their evolution cycle. However, if we hold on to our ego, we will only abandon ourselves and cause conflicts and agitation to ourselves only!

Fortunately, today, as brothers and sisters, we recognize each other, we love each other, and we accept to learn in order to evolve further. We do not accept to learn in order to blame and criticize others. There is no lecture that criticizes others, there is no lecture that can harm the consciousness of our spiritual friends. Even when the spirits from the World Above descend on earth, they beg us, they love us, they guide us, they sacrifice for us, they are guiding us to advance further! They do not want us to lose this spiritual opportunity and bear more calamities in the future. What kind of heart is so brave and generous? Only the hearts of God and the Buddhas are so brave and generous, only those hearts are rich, only those hearts can touch our hearts, and only those hearts can bring us completeness.

During your meals, you should also be attentive to increase your awareness. You must see the sacrifices. A vegetable, a grain of wheat, a mouthful of water, they all sacrifice themselves for our survival, to nourish our consciousness. Do you see it clearly? When we eat, we must remember. We must remember the sins of our brothers and sisters. Their sins are innumerable, therefore, today, they have to endure thousands of cuts. Their head is chopped, their feet are chopped, but who can help them to reincarnate? Who can assist them? Who can help them to evolve further?  They need help from this micro-universe. This micro-universe is taking the place of God to work for God. We are practicing spirituality in the name of God! During your meals, during your sleep, you are currently taking the place of Heaven to work for Heaven. In fact, you have no time to rest. Your heat keeps beating 24/24 and it keeps working in accordance with the evolution mechanism of the Creator. The law of constant birth and rebirth never stops and is ingrained in your mind. You may not be aware because of the darkness of your mind, but your consciousness is constantly under trial through the celestial mechanism. God provides the four windows: The eyes, the nose, the ears, the mouth, to determine whether we are looking into our inner consciousness.

If you can open the windows, and keep looking outside, while forgetting inside your house, then your house will be completely dirty. Therefore, today, we have the occasion to turn within. We have seen the magical landscape. The natural landscape is so magnificent. But do we also possess these sceneries? We must quickly turn within to look at our own beautiful sceneries. Our own inner sceneries reflect the outer sceneries. You cannot be far from the universe. When you feel the flux of energy pulling on the top of your head, it means that you are harmonizing with the whole universe. Your universe is this physical body. Your straight spine represents the universe! You do not lack anything. You only lack serenity, so you fall into blind passions and agitation, and become arrogant. Actually, each unit has a task to accomplish. Each person has a mission on earth. Every human currently lives thanks to the pure air. What is the pure air/energy? It is harmony. What is harmony? It is courtesy, but without courtesy, how can we attain pure energy?

Therefore, in the future, you must accept to be humble. You must take the role of bowing before the profane people in order to guide and save them. We must bow in front of the profane people to give them the key to march on their own. Only then will you truly have the heart of a Boddhisattva.