Please wait
MEDITATION : Nourishment for the Soul
Extract of Lecture by Master Vi-Kien
(17-February-1991 in San Diego, Tet Tan-Mui)
Only when the vibrations of our brains and body are in harmony, will we achieve happiness.
During the Tet Lunar New Year, we live happily and want to understand ourselves better. Since decades, from youth to adulthood, we only investigate external matters, and do not try to investigate ourselves. So, how can we know what it means to nurture ourselves for a better life? What should we nurture for a worthy life?
What should we nurture in order to attain an eternal state? Only by perfecting ourselves spiritually! When we develop our spiritual consciousness, we will understand the energy of our organism clearly. We will understand that our spiritual consciousness is indestructible. However, humans keep holding to their physical bodies, they cling to their riches, they cling to their social status on earth, and continue to live with their intransigence, and forget their own innate abilities.
We live on this earth, but we have not yet understood what is nurturing us, what is keeping us alive? We don’t know! Instead, we fight each other even for a morsel of food, we remain agitated, and we have to wait till the Lunar New Year to be joyful.
Why can’t we rejoice on any day, at any time? We are a part of lightness and purity, and the Divine Light is governing the energy of this human body, but we do not know how to nourish ourselves with the Great Divine Food. What has nourished us on earth in order to become who we are today?
We are a part of lightness and purity which is controlling this physical body, but we are unable to understand this point. Thus, we fall into rivalries and intransigence and only turn outward. Then, we wait until Tet to rejoice ourselves. So, for 365 days, how many days would count as happy ones? We don’t know how to be happy at each day and hour. Since we are born, we must be happy. We must know how to be joyful and extremely happy! The whole universe has served us, nourished us, so that we shall become a complete human being with a brain, hands and legs, and the digestive system. We have everything. We are able to walk, stand, sit, or lie down, but we remain unaware. We only destroy ourselves unknowingly through our intransigence and rivalries!
So, today, we are reunited here to search for what? We search for the greatest novelty that we may find! We revitalize a new path in order to investigate our existing energy. The whole humanity possesses this energy, and not only the Vietnamese people. The whole humanity has spiritual energy, but they have forgotten it. They abandon their spiritual consciousness, they are unaware of their colon, they don’t know what their spiritual consciousness is. They don’t know how the colon delivers energy to the brains. They only harm themselves more instead of helping themselves.
They clamor about a nutrition for a better life, but they do not change their character. We must nurture ourselves for a better life, i.e., we must utilize the pure energy of the whole universe, and look at our human structure to comprehend that we and the Universe are One. The energy vibrations inside our organism and that of the Universe are ONE. However, we forget it and turn toward the external world, rivalries and intransigence. We believe that we are smarter than the other people.
To be smarter than others means that we must understand ourselves better. The successful spiritual people are those who know themselves better. The Buddhas do not talk. The Siddhartha Buddha has preached for several decades, but if being asked what did he say eventually? He would say nothing. He only remained silent. Eventually, we must return to the pure light and resolve our own impurities in order to elevate ourselves and attain the sphere of eternity. The physical body must return to dust. We descend on earth to learn and evolve, and no one can escape this law.
The suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death is inevitable. We have seen it and we have heard repeatedly lectures on this subject. But we still do not understand that our spiritual consciousness is a pure light. Everyone wants purity and lightness, but they forget about purity and lightness. Instead, they use their consciousness to serve their habit of rivalries and intransigence, to obtain wealth and social status, which only cause them to suffer more and more each day.
We are causing our own suffering with our ignorance, but instead, we are blaming others. We blame our husbands, we blame our children, we blame our wives, but in reality, we are the sinners and we must be punished. As sinners, we must redeem our sins in order to become pure and light. If we do not redeem ourselves, how can we become pure and light? We must look back at ourselves! Our eyes are used to look at the external world, we listen to external matters in order to awaken our consciousness, and not in order to be superior to others!
However, on this earth, people fight each other to be superior. I am satisfied when attaining a high position, I am content to be able to belittle my adversary. This is wrong. When we belittle our adversary, we also belittle ourselves unknowingly. We should rectify our spiritual consciousness to evolve toward infinity. What are we lacking now? We have a brain, hands and legs, and our organism is complete. We are One with the universe. The energy vibrations of our organism bring us serenity and contentment, and they are complete. You do not lack anything!
However, we get lost in intransigence and rivalries. But once we eradicate our intransigence and rivalries, we will be able to see, that we descend on earth to have an opportunity to evolve further. Before, we were toiling miserably in hell, and we were unable to elevate ourselves. Thus, we pray to be reborn as humans. Once born as humans, we do not know how to love and forgive. Instead, we nurture our intransigence, rivalries, anger, and hatred. Where will we go eventually?
Eventually, we must return to our true consciousness, which is our soul. Our soul has been subjected to many tribulations, sufferings, and countless reincarnations on this earth, but what did we achieve? We keep returning to our old habits! We continue with our intransigence and rivalries! If we do not know how to love and forgive, how can the world achieve peace? Wars break out everywhere because humans lack compassionate love and spiritual virtue. They lack forgiveness and compassion. This is the fundamental nature of a human being. But we do not know how to nurture it, how to enjoy it. Instead, we forget it, and walk on the wrong path. We only betray ourselves, but wrongly believe to be smart!
All this is wrong. Therefore, we must have a meditation method to achieve nutrition for a better life. Why do we perfect ourselves spiritually? We perfect ourselves spiritually to remedy the shortcomings in our brains. We do not understand our own self, and we do not know where we come from and where we will go. Therefore, with the Vô-Vi method, we will rectify ourselves to become purer and lighter each day. When we were born, we were light and pure. But now, we become heavier and more impure due to our intransigence and rivalries.
Similarly, when we do business, we generate heaviness and impurities with our rivalries and intransigence, then we become ill. However, we do not understand the cause of our illness. We are responsible for our own illness, but we do not understand it. Improper nutrition alone is enough to make us sick. For example, at the Lunar New Year, we celebrate and eat all that we can afford. The more we eat, the more we harm our body unknowingly. We wreak havoc in our colon, our mind is unbalanced and we cause discord in our family. All this is caused by our improper nutrition.
Therefore, we must understand our direction, and we should examine ourselves. We should know ourselves in order to achieve nutrition for a better life. Without self-knowledge, there is no better nutrition. Even if we are taking supplements to improve our nutrition, we are only nurturing a spirit of dependence. Only when we understand ourselves, will we truly achieve nutrition for a better life. We must know why we descend on this earth? We all have some clarity of mind on this earth for what purpose?
When you do business by selling goods and so on, you also utilize your clarity of mind. You use your intelligence to serve all beings in order to generate profits. However, today, we do not understand that we are a spark of light and refuse to develop ourselves toward infinity and return to our true consciousness. Similarly, a spiritual adept must understand where they come from and where they will go. We come here to learn and evolve, and we should develop our light in order for it to become eternal and infinite. We should not depend on anyone. If one is still dependent in one’s spiritual cultivation, it is worthless.
As spiritual practitioners, we do not depend on anyone. Spiritual cultivation means to nurture and rectify our mind. To perfect oneself spiritually, to cultivate our family, to govern the people, to restore peace to the world means to strengthen and correct the shortcomings in our brains. “To cultivate our family” means that all five organs must be balanced. Self-perfection, cultivation of the family, governing the people, bringing peace to the world – all these principles must be achieved. To bring peace to the world means to utilize our consciousness of equality to harmonize with everyone. Only then can we prove that we are a spark of light.
Human beings are lights on this earth. The human brains are lights on earth. If the brains do not cooperate, we won’t have a building, where we can listen to my lectures. We are able to discuss among ourselves thanks to our brains. The clothing we wear is available thanks to our brains. Everything is created by our brains. However, we possess a brain, but we are needlessly busy with our intransigence and rivalries! We should no longer hold to rivalries and intransigence!
As Vietnamese people, we have the tradition of celebrating TET and to forgive all on that day. We must avoid bad luck. We must speak benevolent words. People are compassionate with each other only on the first day of the Lunar Year. On the 2nd day, one starts gambling and arguing. This is wrong. We should continue our love and forgiveness. Every day should be like the first day TET. As human beings, we are well-balanced. We have everything we need, a brain, hands and legs. We do not lack anything at all. What else do we need?
Even if we reside in a confined space, even if we are oppressed under a dictatorship, if our spirit is turned toward the world above, we can resolve everything. We will not have any trouble. A human being is truly fortunate and has infinite blessings. They would not suffer if they were willing to look back at themselves. If they look back at themselves, they will see the waste, and they do not need to spend a lot. As newborns, we only need a little bit of mother’s milk to survive. Now, we eat all kinds of foods, we could have 3, 4, 5 meals a day, but we would only harm ourselves, and we would only suffer more each day.
Therefore, to understand nutrition for a better life means one must take care of one’s body. Also, in order to understand the celestial mechanism, one must care for one’s body. When our body is unbalanced, and our mind has impure thoughts, it’s useless to talk about celestial events without knowing oneself. The celestial mechanism means that our physical mechanism must be balanced.
Only when the vibrations of our microcosm harmonize with the vibrations of the universe and become One, will we feel purity and lightness. Money is not the most important thing. Only when the vibrations of our brains and body are in harmony, will we achieve happiness. If the vibrations of the body do not harmonize with the vibrations of the universe, we will be unhappy. Money comes and goes. One blow of the wind is enough to catch a cold. Therefore, if the vibrations of the body are not in harmony the universe, one cannot achieve equilibrium.
Therefore, we have a meditation method to achieve equilibrium. The concentration of spiritual energy, cyclical breathing, meditative contemplation, all these exercises restore equilibrium in the individual. They rectify the vibrations in our body, so that they may harmonize with the vibrations of nature. We only need to cultivate ourselves spiritually and improve ourselves, we will only invent new things, and no longer be dependent. We will attain a greater clarity of mind each day. We will truly cultivate our spiritual heart. We will realize that a human possesses a spiritual consciousness. Only a person with a spiritual consciousness is a true human being on earth. Once we are aware of our spiritual consciousness, we will easily love and forgive others.
A person without a spiritual consciousness only harms themselves and others. We only harm ourselves first. When we think that we are superior and belittle our adversary, we already harm ourselves. Consequently, we also harm the others. There is no benefit. Therefore, when we are aware of our presence on earth, and that nobody can create a human being, we will only do what is necessary and not do what is unnecessary.
Necessary tasks mean to examine oneself, to understand oneself, to determine whether one’s actions are good or bad, to rectify oneself to progress further. If we refuse to correct ourselves and maintain our ego, we will only further pollute our spiritual consciousness and hinder our evolution. Thus, we must develop our consciousness of harmony.
Right within the family, among our wife, children, grandchildren, if we lack the consciousness of harmony, we will be unable to live peacefully in the family. However, if we open our consciousness of harmony, we can live anywhere, from within a small household up to a large society.
Thus, we have to perfect ourselves spiritually! Spiritual perfection means to correct oneself, then to examine oneself again to continue the spiritual cultivation. If we do not see our character, we cannot perfect ourselves spiritually. Our errors happen at each second, minute and hour. If we do not have a method to perfect and rectify ourselves, how can we maintain our life on earth?
We only destroy and betray ourselves. Regardless of our achievements, we are still betraying ourselves. What causes this betrayal? Our eyes, nose, ears, mouth are cheating us. There is always something happening when we open our eyes. Thus, the practitioner closes his eyes during meditation in order to regret his mistakes and rectify them.
One negligible but misspoken word can sow discord in the family. This is due to our hot temper. Where does this hot temper come from? It comes from our eating. There are foods that irritate the liver, the brains. One becomes more and more agitated each day. This seems insignificant, but a spiritual adept often encounters this hurdle. Even for a spiritual practitioner with a very high level, they can still encounter this problem unknowingly. If one does not have a method to rectify oneself every night, one will never be able to develop oneself spiritually.
In my case, even though I have practiced for several decades, I must still rectify myself every night. I examine my body to understand that all mistakes come from one’s own fault. Whether we go to hell or heaven depends on us only. We do not listen to any alluring words other than self-cultivation and self-progress. We perfect ourselves with our own efforts, we practice to advance further. Meditation – better nourishment for the soul – restores our equilibrium. “When the ocean is calm, the Pearl of Silence will appear, When the heart is serene, the soul can truly leave the body”
At that time, our soul will be calm and light. You should not be hasty. Your results should come naturally. It is needless to worry as we cannot take what belongs to others.
On the Happy TET Day, you may play cards and keep gambling but eventually, you would lose everything! You can’t undo it! You can’t win back! Thus, we do not spend our energy in winning games! In contrast, we must dedicate ourselves in rectifying our spiritual consciousness. Only the spiritual consciousness is important, in order to safeguard peace in the family.
When our spiritual consciousness is not lucid, our family can never have peace. When someone in the family becomes sick, the other family members are also sad.
Therefore, from our eating to our meditation practice, we gradually awaken our consciousness and educate ourselves accordingly. If tonight, I see light during meditation but I lose that light on the next night, it means that I may have eaten the wrong foods or I may have had the wrong thoughts. Only then may I awaken my consciousness. A meditation practitioner is not a foolish person. He started by being foolish, then he would search for a method to undo the harm to himself, i.e., he would dedicate himself to spiritual perfection through meditation. When I meditate, I feel more energy, I become more open-minded. When I meditate, I am nourished by the vibrations of the universe. The energy of the universe brings strength to my body and helps me to develop myself.
Today is a joyful day. We have the opportunity to be reunited and rejoice on the New Year’s Day (Tet day). But during this Tet, during the few leisure days at the beginning of the year, let’s review the mistakes that have harmed ourselves. Then we should repent ourselves and practice meditation to open both our spiritual heart and mind.