A Benevolent Government Begets A Bright Future

From USA and Canada, fellow initiates enjoying a reunion and group meditation with Master

Good People Often
Get Involved

I don't smell of drugs, do I? No? People told me that when you project something, you know, project some atmosphere, then you will attract the people who will think of you in a certain way, but I don't think I projected a "drug" atmosphere. Nevertheless, the policeman "smelled" drugs. I don't know where from, and they searched me all over, and drilled me for one and a half hours, and turned my luggage upside down. Not that I had so much luggage; I had only one hand-carry luggage. And I told them I'd stay only four days or so, maximum two weeks, so I have only a few pairs of clothes, and some socks, and underwear, of course. (Laughter)

They asked me, "What do you have in your luggage", I said, "Clothes, underwear, socks and medical records." He said, "Why do you take medical records with you?" I said, "Because I am sick." He said I wouldn't take my medical records with me if I were staying here only for few days or two weeks. I said, "Well, my doctor told me I should take them with me just in case. Because my allergies have come up anytime since the last few months, and he has not found the reason for it yet, so I have to take them. I have a X-ray of the lungs, so the doctor tells me I have to take it everywhere in case, because he can't find any reason." So I suspect this is karma, but I don't think the police official understands about the karma. So I was very sparing with my words.

Anyhow, he was worried that I came here to take money from the American people, take donations. I said I never take donations, not only in America, but anywhere for myself, so don't worry. But it was difficult to convince him.

Do people put drugs in their socks? So I had to take my socks out, have a look. I took socks out, but they still wanted to look at my sole. (Master laughs.) I wonder how can you put drugs under your sole? Can that be possible? I said to the officer, "I am sorry about the trouble I caused you, but I didn't know that I smelt of drugs, because we are too far away from all these things, we are vegetarians." He said the reason why, because I went to Bangkok, to Thailand, and people coming out of Thailand normally bring something more than just gifts. That's what they told me. I said, "We are too far away from it, that's why we don't know, we don't know what Thailand will do. We are vegetarians, we don't take any drugs or alcohol, we are not supposed to have cigarettes even. We don't do these kinds of things, we don't know, we don't notice all this."

Even then, so much trouble every time I want to come to see you. And then, you always ask me why I don't come to see you, and the Thailand people also asked me why don't I come to see them. So everywhere in the world now we have a lot of trouble. We are not to blame the officers in the airport. I just tell you, that for the minority people's bad deeds, the majority people have to bear the ugly consequences. We are the last people the police should search for anything like drugs, but it happens that they mostly search the good people. (Laughter)

And I thought I came quietly, I came for conference here, concerning the Au Lac refugees' issue, so just by the way I came to see you, because since I am already here. I have to confess, I didn't come exclusively to see you. That doesn't mean I don't like you, but I don't like the search at the airport anytime. It's not the first time that they search me. It's not the first time they search our people, and I guess they search everyone when they feel suspicious. But, I think if I were a police officer I would not search a person like me. I wear white clothes, white shoes, white umbrella, white hat. I don't think the drug people would do that. They would be more anonymous, right? They wouldn't stand out like that, and because of my clothes, three people recognized me at the airport already, just when I stepped out of the airplane.

So how a drug dealer would do this kind of stupid thing, to stick out like a sore thumb in the crowd of the airport, right? They would wear something more ordinary. Well I guess I could wear something more ordinary, but I don't have any ordinary clothes. I only have these few. This is convenient for going to the "White" House as well as going to the "black" market. (Master and everyone laugh.) It's very convenient because it looks good and dignified. I don't like to show my behind and my front too clearly; not at every occasion. So, I prefer clothes which cover something of my "nothing to hide body". But I feel more comfortable that way, and I don't like too many colors. Occasionally I do, but normally I like simple colors. One color or two colors the most. The clothes you wear really affect you and also show how you feel inside. So normally I feel blank, (Master laughs) white, whitewashed. So that's the way I wear. I don't think any drug dealer would be so stupid as to make him or herself stand out, right? And so brightly, inviting like that.

Experiencing The Pressure Refugees Undergo

What I mean is, I came with the invitation of the State Department, and I am a legal person, very protected. Especially I am not a very unknown person, and even then the police search and ask too many questions. I can feel the threatening atmosphere. They only do their duty, this is not to blame them! Even that, you can feel the shuddering atmosphere. How would it be for the people without protection, without any secure background and without anyone who they can rely on.

Like the Au Lac refugees, who were sent back to Au Lac and sometimes interrogated every week or everyday, or watched over for every move, and sometimes beaten up by the police weekly. Some of the letters I received are like that. It is very sad, very sad for them, and very sad for the government of Au Lac that they could not control every province of their country and let some of the local guards take control of the lives of the innocent people. Maybe the central government is not always aware of that, even then it is a sad affair that the central government cannot control the local governments, understand? That is if we make an excuse for the central government. I do not know if they work together. I cannot say what I don't know. So I cannot say for sure that the central government orders all these intimidating actions to frighten the people, to oppress the people who have no defense.

So, actually, the world is crazy. In every corner, there is something happening, and the only reliable source for us is the spiritual strength that we derive from our practice and from our faith which has been proved to us that it is efficient. Up to now, any of you who have practiced diligently since the day of initiation would have experienced this protective power which comes from the Almighty. And it is also within ourselves, because God dwells within you, Buddha nature is inside you. Every religious scripture would mention that. The religious scriptures are the experiences of the ancient practicing enlightened persons. So even if they were thousand years before, we can also verify now by our own inner spiritual attainment. Whatever it said in the Bible, we can understand clearly since we have practiced the Quan Yin Method.

Only By Attaining enlightenment Can One Truly Understand Religious Scriptures

So there is really no Jewish religion or no Buddhist religion, it's just the experiences of the spiritual practitioners throughout the ages and then different religions they call them different names or different groups. For example, we have many meditation associations, so you put my name on it for identification, "Supreme Master Ching Hai meditation Associations". Actually, "Supreme Master" is our family name, our Christian name (laughter), and "Ching Hai" is also not my name, it's the name of "the ocean of love". But since we all came from this ocean of love, we can claim ourselves Ching Hai number one, number two, number three, number one thousand and one. (Master laughs.) So that's just the symbolic name for the Almighty loving power. My name is different, but I won't disclose it to you. National top secret. (Master laughs.) Actually any name is just the name of the body, that's the vestment that we wear. Just like Christian Dior or Max Factor make-up and things like that, or the name of the clothing. But it's not the real person who wears it.

In the Jewish tradition they have a prayer shawl, which is very sacred to them. I read in the Jewish practicing story, one of the persons went somewhere and encountered a group of ghosts in the ghost city. And in the ghost city they also pray, do all kinds of things like people, but they pray in the reverse way. Instead of praying to God, they pray to the devil. And so that person who was a Jewish follower, he used the prayer shawl to dispel all this evil. And he was thinking it might help but did not help according to this story, because the shawl is not a sacred object unless a person transmits his spiritual power into it, unless that person who wears the shawl was the real powerful practitioner. Merely following the Jewish tradition and wearing the shawl doesn't empower you and less for the shawl.

Maybe in the old times a real Jewish enlightened person could use his shawl or her shawl to dispel evil influence because he used that everyday to meditate. Just like when you do the Quan Yin Method you use it to cover yourself, or sometimes it's cold you cover your head with the shawl to keep warm. Meanwhile you do meditation, and then, by your spiritual power, the shawl will be empowered somewhat, or has some influence because when you use it, your power extends out and expands to the shawl. It's not because the shawl itself, not because you are Jewish, or not because you are a Ching Hai follower, and then your shawl will have power. Not if you don't practice, understand? Even if now you call yourself Ching Hai follower, maybe you have a shawl, but if you don't practice everyday even yourself won't have power, never mind your shawl or your beads or your whatever.

Sometimes the people come to a spiritual person or a priest or monk to ask for blessing, then the monk will put their hands on the head of that person for exorcism perhaps or for blessing sometimes, but it's not the hand of the person or not because he is a priest that he has power, it is because he practices. He has a certain connection with the Almighty power, therefore when he places his hand on people's heads, his power will be transmitted through the hand, to that person. Otherwise, if you just wear a priest's robe and you do nothing then you don't have that power, understand? So it's not the robe, it's not the shawl, it's not the appearance, it is the inner achievement of spiritual practice.

And by the way, when we were talking about that, we were also discussing about different religious, leftover traditions, and it is just exactly like what we're doing, like in the old times people when they practiced they had fear of persecution, just like in Au Lac now. It often happens, it even happens now in the full view of international law, never mind the old times when we didn't have law at all. So people had to use some kind of secret sign to recognize each other.

As you know very well in some countries they discriminate between religions. For example in some Moslem countries you cannot practice other religions or at least not openly. In some more tolerant Moslem countries you can go to your own temple, but not to let the Moslem people come in. Or when I go to Malaysia to preach, the government or the police say we must write under our poster that Moslems are not allowed to come in our lecture. It is not me who forbid them, it's the government law that we have to write that - not for Moslems. But at least we can come in and preach to other people who are not Moslems and that is already very tolerant. But in some other countries you cannot have open lecture, you can only do in a temple or church belonging to your own affiliation. But that is already good. Maybe in some other countries you're not even allowed to bring anything in.

Even now in Au Lac, for example at this very moment our disciples are persecuted everyday in different forms, so this is very difficult for them to gather and do group meditation the way you do. And if I go back to Au Lac now I don't think I'm allowed to see them the way I see you now, so easily and free like this. So even though the policemen search me at the airport but at least I can see you, after the search is all over and cannot find anything that I couldn't find in the beginning. (Master laughs.)

But there is a difference between a duty policeman and the kind of oppressive regime that search people everywhere and do everything to make people scared and feel insecure. That's different. Even though the police will search you at the airport when they do their duty, when they doubt you, but this is still a free country. You're free to pursue your religion and your speech, and you can even criticize the president without going to jail. In Au Lac you can't even say anything. You cannot say even good things, never mind bad things about the government.

Because last time I went to Cambodia some of the Au Lac people came over from the border. Only some because not every can come, just a few. And then they told me about the situation in Au Lac, that they are still threatened and watched over, and sometimes interrogated and oppressed everyday. So it's very difficult for them to gather and do group meditation. And even for initiation, they have to do it in such a secret way. That's why sometimes it causes so much trouble for some contact persons in Au Lac. Because the people misunderstand them that they don't inform them long in advance if there's an initiation. How can they inform them? Sometimes they don't have telephone, sometimes they could not even see them, and it has to be done quickly and discreetly so as not to provoke the attention of the police and the government. Or sometimes it's not easy to inform other people who want initiation, and many Au Lac people misunderstand, like they're kept out of information and things like that. But this is not true. They should realize more.

The Au Lac people who go to Au Lac should tell them more about the difficult situation, and tell them to keep quiet and don't make more trouble than they already have. They should wait for their turn. If they couldn't do it this time, they should wait for next time. In Au Lac communication is not that easy. So, these persecutions still go on in near the 21st century. So that's why in the old times people must use a kind of secret sign to communicate with each other to let the fellow initiates know that they belong to the same group. So they devised many different methods to greet each other.

For example Jesus, when He broke the bread and said the prayer in a certain way, then the disciples immediately recognized it is the Master. You remember in the Bible, yes? It did say so. Sometime after His resurrection people were not sure whether it was Him and then He broke the bread maybe in some way and gave to some people doing some certain blessing or praying style that people would recognize is the Master. Similarly, in Jewish tradition they have many different ways to recognize each other. For example the prayer shawl. And in India there are certain religious sects from Sikh religion, they also have to cover their heads with cloth when they come into a Sikh temple. But nowadays it's only symbolic. They do not understand the significance of it. So sometimes they don't have a shawl, so they just put a handkerchief on the head like that. So what is the use, the symbolic? Without this you couldn't go in the temple. (Laughter) You put a handkerchief. You have something on top of your head that's fine. Or the Jewish they wear a small hat on their hair. Maybe just for recognition.

Religious Superstitions Cause Wars

And the enlightened Buddhist is the original Buddhist, the one who follows the true teaching of the Buddha and who also became enlightened like the Buddha, because the Buddha said, "I am the one who is enlightened, you will be enlightened, you will be the Buddha." And the real Buddhist is the one who found the Buddha nature inside. And the other Buddhists, also Buddhists, they call themselves Buddhists, we can't forbid that, but they have not found their own Buddhist nature inside. That's all. So no need to say I am your religion. There are so many religions already. We don't want to confuse the world by making another one. And then people will fight each other. That I'm afraid. But later, after our generation dies, we never know what they make out of us. They will build a big temple for me and put my bronze statue inside, a larger than life statue, and then call themselves Ching Haiism. You never know. The dead cannot talk. After we die, we just leave it.

So, sometimes I'm thinking any master who comes to this world has also good and bad sides. They brought people enlightenment and leave people to realize their own wisdom. This is fine. But after the master dies, it is inevitable that the teachings will be left behind and then the people will commercialize all these left-over teachings and make religion out of it. Religion is fine, but they will make commercialized items out of it, out of the teachings, and just build big buildings and take people's donations in the name of the Master and do anything with it. Make a hierarchy out of it and control people, manipulate people's way of thinking, way of life, and building an empire out of an empty shell of the left-over teachings of which they understand nothing at all. And even blindly leading people into superstitions, and blood thirsty religious wars sometimes. And this is a very sad side of any of the master's arrivals in this world.

We hope it won't be so in the future. We hope that the people will be more and more enlightened each time, each day, and then we will have no more of this kind of maya phenomena, illusion. But up to now, the king of delusion has been very successful in making the wholesale out of every master's teaching. Therefore, we have so many religions in the world, and so many wars. Many of them are religious wars, the Moslems in Bosnia, the Serbs, for example the Ireland bloody war for many years, and Iran war. Many middle east crises are fuelled by religious wars and even now still continue in different countries, in different parts of the world. A part of the wars are often religious, or religious behind-the-scenes-influence. Often like that. And it is a very sad affair for our world, huh? Religion is supposed to bring happiness and harmony for the people, but it does the opposite.

And very sad still, that sometimes the policies of the world also side with this, and make a miserable institution concerning religions. For example some of our monks and nuns in the refugee camps, we were supposed to take them out on September of this year, but then the U.S. immigration wouldn't recognize them. They said we are not a real Buddhist tradition, therefore these are not monks and nuns. And I don't really truly know what a real Buddhist tradition is. Apart from if you hit the wooden fish everyday and chanting some of the left-over Buddhist scriptures, I don't know what else the real Buddhist tradition monks and nuns would do that we don't do. In fact we do more than what the Buddhists traditionally do. We do charitable work, we keep the precepts, true precepts, and we meditate. We worship the Buddha nature inside and we are enlightened. So I don't know what a categorized Buddhist monk should be. If our monks are not monks, then I don't know if anyone else is a monk at all. Nevertheless, we already did all the procedures and we already paid the tickets for them, all ready to move. And the lawyers already cleared their case, that it is okay. Still, there is a block somewhere. So they'd rather send these innocent people go home to be persecuted by their so-called ex-opponents.

Communism Causes

The World To Regress

To cheat ourselves is the worst crime that we could ever commit to ourselves and to anyone else. Because that shows the nature of our ignorance, the lowliness of our spiritual level of understanding. We are not politicians so we don't talk about communism or other idealisms in a political sense. But in a spiritual sense and in the civilization sense, the idea of communism is not good for the world, because it shows no respect for family values, for motherhood or spiritual heritage of mankind. That's why religion is not allowed in any communist country. Religion is regarded the enemy of communists.

We have tried very hard to climb up the ladder of civilization up to now. That's why now we know how to respect each other, we know how to live a harmonious life in family, we know to respect our parents, our father and mother. But in a communist system a son can kill parents without being made to feel guilty, can persecute his own children without any sense of remorse, of repentance. This is a spiritual and civilization degrading sign of mankind. And this is a kind of thousands of years backward in evolution. It brings us back to the animal standard of consciousness in which we do not recognize any value of social order. We just eat, sleep, and take care of the body. And whoever does not agree with that, we can kill and persecute. That is the animal standard, not human standard.

And communism has been successful in bringing this standard into our present civilization. They destroy any spiritual values and social order and family loving relationship. They destroy all this. And this is very terrible situation for mankind to fall into. It's a very wrong decision to accept communism in any country. That's why when communism came to Russia, Russia kaput. Came to China, China fell into darkness. Came to Poland, Poland is out of order. Came to East Germany, East Germany is in a poverty slump compared to West Germany, the way I saw it. Even to get a toilet roll is a hard task. Have to stand all day long and all empty shelves. All the shops are empty and people don't smile. When I went to Russia, went to East Germany, people don't smile. People don't talk to you, don't talk to each other. There is a darkened shadow cast all over the country.

And everywhere the communism controls, there is no progress for that country. There's only poverty, suspicion, oppression and spiritual deprivation. So you can see that for yourself. And I think all the governments of the world have seen that for themselves. Nevertheless, through weakness or through, I don't know, ignorance, they choose to support some of the communist countries. It's all right to try to have peace in the world and try a softer effort maybe to bring the communists into understanding. It's all right. But not too soon, not too soon as to sacrifice the lives of the innocent people or their psychological well-being. Psychological well-being and mental stability of the people is even more important than their physical well-being. In such a controlling and manipulating country, peoples' psychological security is at stake. No one feels good, no one can sleep very well. They all look very haggard, poor and depleted, because their spiritual well-being, their psychological security is threatened daily. It's not the food only that counts.

It's not for food that the Au Lac people flee their country, because I told you many times, for 5000 years no one did that. Even Au Lac had invasions from China or from France, and they had poverty also before. No one would say that the Au Lac people have been rich all these 5000 years, suddenly become poor now, that they have to fly out of the country due to economical reasons. Even children will know, will not accept this.

So all this is not only political things, it's the spiritual well-being of the people of Au Lac and elsewhere, concerning communism. But some of the government's do not try, do not want to recognize this fact, and just drive the people home because they have planned to do so. Even though it is a mistake, even though it is no good, they still want to carry out.

All right, let's pray that this situation will become better. We pray that God will bestow love on these people, and that it will smooth out the situation so the forced repatriated people will not experience so much suffering anymore. Since they don't want to reverse their order, what else can we do? We cannot make war with governments since we are nonviolent people. We only practice spiritually and pray for peace of the world.

I just want you to know that the situation is not ideal, and sometimes, even though the people who say they are against communism do not realize the importance of their saying and do not carry it into the practice. "Words are cheap, actions are more important." It's very difficult for me as a spiritual practitioner to take care of these so-called mundane situations, mundane issues, without having to be affected by political environment and people. I have tried my best to make the governments who are concerned to understand the spiritual issues of refugees, not the political and economical issues alone. But it's difficult, difficult, difficult. Because governments are made up of many different parts of the great system. It is not only one or two persons, yeah? And I do also understand the difficulty of governments in talking together, in governing their own machine.

It's just like in Au Lac, even though the central government might not want the returnees to be persecuted, nevertheless the local government will carry this violent practice all the same. And that's what makes the refugees afraid to go home. And that's what makes the Hong Kong government face difficulties when they try to drive the people home. In Hong Kong they were beaten to go home, and in Au Lac, they were beaten when they were home. Too frightened to stay behind and to go home. So in both sides they were beaten, threatened, and they are caught in between. That's the situation of the people in camps.

Yesterday when we were discussing the problem, of course, the government representatives are very defensive. They blame it on everything. I also understand their point of view. I understand their position that they want to clear out of this and they don't want to carry on any further; maybe tired, maybe want to make a move, maybe promotion, maybe... anything, different policy.

And they told me that only 5% of the people who came back home would be persecuted perhaps. But I said that 5% is a lot (it means at least 10 of thousands of people). There shouldn't be anyone. Even just one person persecuted, it should not be. Because for that person it's terrible. For us it's no problem, we talk in percentages and numbers. But for the individual who has to endure this suffering it's a hell.

And according to international law, it's not lawful. It's against their own commitment to their international refugee agreement in Geneva, that they vowed to protect all the political refugee or religious refugees. And now the CPA programme, even though it sounds logical to them, and maybe no one wants to argue about this, but still it's against their convention, International Peace Treaty and refugee convention.

Nevertheless, when people want to enforce something, if they have government backup it's difficult for anyone to intervene, let alone those like us. But we will try our best to protect these people. We still do.

Politics And spirituality Are Inseparable

Then every government personnel is a Buddha, is an angel, a saint, and then we will take care of the world in a saintly way, according to religious standard and not according to economical standard or political standard. Then we will be fine. Then we will truly have a government, not just political figures who try to secure their position or to control, to take over the power and control the people. It's very difficult to separate the political issue from the spiritual issue.

What I have told you is not to blame any government. They only try their best, for what they know. Considering economical and political pressure, they think it's the best. But because lack of spiritual indication, inside direction, many times they make mistakes which could be avoided, that's all, that's what I mean. That's why all the government personnel should be enlightened before they become government instruments. That's a difficult thing to achieve. An enlightened government is very difficult to achieve. In the old times we had, but in the modern times we rarely see any.

Well, I have to add that for example the US government, along with the CPA programme, like forced people, orderly departure with force, if necessary tear gas as well, is welcomed. That is orderly departure, with tear gas and force; voluntary repatriation with tear gas and policemen, afterward. So, apart from this programme, the US government and some of European governments also have an aid programme to aid the refugees who return to Au Lac, with jobs and financial help. Well, this is very fine, this is a very good intention. From our part the question is, I told the people yesterday, the question is whether the Au Lac government does what the UN expects them to do or what we expect them to do. Like to treat the returnees with respect and human rights, that's the only question. And apparently, the Au Lac government don't do that. Well at least, not in every case.

So even then they admit that 5% are persecuted. Well that's a reduced size. 5% is a lot. Let's see, in case if 5% is an accurate figure, but I doubt it. But for any representative of the UN or government to admit that, it's already a lot for them, for their honesty. Let's say in case 5% is accurate, how many people will be maltreated? 5 over 100. For millions of people who return to Au Lac, thousands of them are persecuted. Alright? Thousands. That does not include our present disciples in Au Lac who are persecuted due to religious belief and spiritual practice.

If our Au Lac disciples have some kind of revolution, counter the government, then they can persecute them. But nothing, they only eat vegetarian, keep the nonviolence precept. They cannot even kill the communists, you know? Because they only practice nonviolence. So what is the reason to persecute them? So, let's not talk about religion. We accept that the communists are anti-religious. That we know. So, I never campaign for this religious issue actually. I campaign for the whole, you know. And now let's say five thousand of Au Lac repatriated people are persecuted. Isn't that a lot? Or not? Now, recently the US

government sent a lot of troops to Haiti, 15,000 strong, to restore democracy in that country. Just because there is a record that about 3,000 of the Haitian people were persecuted in different ways. 3,000 only! 15,000 strong US soldiers were dispatched in Haitian soil, in a matter of no time with a cost of millions, billions of dollars, in a few hours. According to the report, the Haitian military spent about 5 million or something for their entire army operation. The same amount, the US government spent in a few hours, for military issue. So now, for 3,000 cases of persecution, the US government are willing to spend billions of dollars and risk Americans' lives to restore freedom and nonviolence in Haiti, but turn blind eyes on 5,000 or more persecution cases to the refugees issue. So what is that? It confuses us, huh?

Not that I don't like President Clinton. Yesterday I told the people President Clinton is the best president for the United States, at the moment. And in the next election, I hope he stays there. Really, he is very good. You know, he tried the soft... many people don't agree with the lift of embargo in Au Lac, but I think he has tried his best, because he thinks 30 years of threatening force hasn't change the communists' attitude, so he tried a softer effect. Maybe it will teach them a lesson. And he thinks, maybe bringing a lot of money inside, then the government will change. Money changes people. That is a money policy, and we cannot blame him for that. If nothing else works, he has to try the other one. Even if he makes mistakes, it is allowed. And we don't know if it is a mistake yet. Maybe it's good.

Well, I also have to admit that Au Lac changed for the better, now. It's freer than before. Even people from one province can go to another province without having harassment and having to obtain a visa, an internal visa. Before, when you went from one city to the next, or one district to the next, you'd have to obtain permission, and why, the reason why you have to go there and how long you will stay there. And you are only allowed limited time. But now, people can travel freely. Even travel outside the country if you can afford it, and you have people to guarantee you. That's very good already.

I really have to praise the Au Lac government for this minimal effort to democracy. But still, there's a lot of violence and brutal treatment of the people still going on in the country and I hope the government will step further, move faster to learn from democracy, to learn from the unconditional help that the international body offers to Au Lac.

So, along with the repatriation programme, the US government as well as other governments have also financed the people who have returned. That is very good. And yesterday I have talked to many of them who came to the Au Lac and do some training programme there for the Au Lac refugee as well as the local people. What they do is, for one Au Lac refugee returned, maybe two locals who benefit in the same programme. You know? So that is also good. I have to praise this effort.

A Good Government Brings Happiness To The People

If the Au Lac government always boasts of "democractic country", "government of the people", "freedom of religion", they say, "everything is free", "even religion is free" - why do they persecute my disciples and confiscate all our books and tapes, and forbid them to gather together to practice? Just because I say the communists are no good, that's no grounds to persecute my people. If the communists are good, I will say they are good. It's just the true speaking things. I am anti-communist as long as the communists are no good. As long as communists don't bring happiness and prosperity to people and freedom to people, I will always be anti-communist. But when they bring all these necessary things to the country, I will not be anti-communist anymore. I will say communists are good.

So it's up to them to prove it. It's not up to me. I cannot change my speech as far as the truth is concerned. I will always speak the truth. If the communists are good, as they are improving a little bit now, I also praise their improvement. But it's not enough! They have to change their policy. They have to be more spiritual, more enlightened, more moral, more clean for the country to grow and for the people to be happy and free. They have to practice freedom, not just talk about freedom. Not to advertise for freedom, but have to practice it, to give people true freedom. Then I will be also pro-communist. (Master laughs.)

If communists are truly so good, we will praise them, we will cooperate with them. But up to now it hasn't been that good. It only brings disaster, and makes people homeless, makes millions of people become beggars in a strange land, where they are also brutally oppressed! That should bring shame on the government, that her subjects are brutally treated in another foreign land. This is no honor for any country to have that kind of event, right? If the police in Hong Kong beat the Au Lac refugees in Hong Kong's soil, that is a shame for the Au Lac government at home, because she couldn't take care of her people, and let her children wander out and become beggars, and subject to cruelty under foreign people's hands. This is a shame. How can I praise the communist government if they allow this thing to happen? (Applause.)

So that's no excuse for them to persecute my followers at all. Let alone non-followers, and beating them up and persecuting them, when they already returned home, when they already surrendered, with nothing more to rely on, when the free world turned their backs on them already. They have already kind of fallen from the horse. Any gentleman would not beat a person who has already fallen on his knees, right? So it is below the Au Lac government's dignity to beat up the surrendered opponent. This is below any person's dignity, never mind a national government. So this is what I criticize. This is what I say is "no good". And if a good government should accept my good advice, and change it, then it will be good. (Applause.) Otherwise, they just show their own lowliness, pettiness and revengeful attitude, and low spiritual understanding, and no manners.

So there's nothing to talk about when some people don't have manners, and don't have a sense of self-correction, and always revenge and take advantage of the weakness of the people who have nothing else to defend for themselves. Even the free world already turned them down and if the communist regime keeps treating people like that, how can I have respect for them? How can I say they are good? If they want me to respect them, they must be worth it, they must prove it. Instead of shutting my mouth up, or shutting my disciples' mouths up, they should prove their own worthiness and then we will shut up. I don't even want to talk bad about people, what for? You know what I mean? It's no good for me. I don't like it. I like to talk about happy things, enlightened things, about light, about peace, about enjoyment. They waste my time.

Now that's the reason why they persecute our disciples, because we are religious. They don't like religion. Besides, I say communists are no good. I speak truthfully and that's against communist rule. Maybe they don't like truth. That's the only sign that they don't like the truth. Because what I say is the truth. If I tell lies, they can persecute me, but I say the truth. And if they persecute me, that means they persecute the truth, that means they love lying. (Applause) And if a government who represents falsity, then it is not a true government. So that's why we cannot work with them, we cannot talk to them. That's why they don't like us, because they are the opposite of the truth. If they change and if they accept their failures, then we can tell that they represent the truth, but otherwise, we cannot.

Maintaining An Objective
And Unbiased Judgement

But President Clinton is more prudent, a prudent president. But when it comes to a real decision, he can make it. I knew he would. That's why before I always told you that he's okay. Not only today right? Yes. Because I know he's a genuine person, he is very good for America. I have more sympathy with him. I don't have sympathy with presidents, not often, but I think because many people scold him and criticize him, that's why he wins my sympathy, because I know he is not that bad.

Well, he probably had affairs with women that I don't know. I cannot tell you that it's true. But he is not too good at defending for himself. That's why he tumbles into a lot of problems. But let's face it, maybe he's too handsome and many women like him. Sometimes when a woman likes a man and a man rejects her, she will cause trouble, also. Not necessary that he likes her that he causes trouble. Maybe he did not like her. Sometimes it's like that. You know what I mean? And rejection makes a woman feel very wounded and hurt, and she turns around and makes trouble.

In a recent time there was a monk in Italy who was accused for having affair with a woman, and the monk kept quiet because according to monastery rules he doesn't publicize his followers' confessions and affairs. And afterward, after a long time, maybe 20 or 30 years, the woman confessed that it was a false accusation because she loved the monk and the monk did not love her, and therefore, she turned around and blackened his name. But because of the monastery vow, the monk did not open his mouth, and kept quiet. Because something confidential concerning other peoples' honor and confession, the monk could not open his mouth.

You know what I mean? If someone confesses to the monk, the murder or something that he has done, the monk cannot tell it out to the police. If the monk knows a secret of a follower, he cannot tell it to the police, even if to save his life or to save his honor. So 20 years or 30 years later on, the woman finally uncovered the secret that it was her who had love for the monk and was rejected by him, and she was angry, and turned around and harmed him in this accusation. But the monk kept quiet.

So, who knows? Sometime later, maybe these one or two women will confess to us that it was the other way around. Yes. Even if he had these things in the past, he doesn't have it now. The present is important. "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future." So we can only see what's the present situation, what the present offers to your country at that moment. That is more valuable than what he has done in the past.

Besides, it's difficult to prove all this, they have no proof of anything; about what he has done. He's not good at defending, he needs a lot of lawyers, I think. Oh, we have plenty, we can offer to him free of charge. We have enlightened lawyers who know better, who can talk better, in an enlightened and fair manner.

But never mind, he has to do it for himself, has to learn to defend himself. Nevertheless, I think he's a good president, politically speaking, economically speaking and human right speaking. And I think because of the lifting of the embargo Au Lac has become better, economically as well as manipulation is concerned. It has become better, freer. And who knows? In the future, it might become even a more democratic country, and true democracy probably will return in the very near future. We can pray for that.

The Haiti operation, everyone praises Mr. Carter. I praise him too. He's brave, eloquent, and very, very tactful, very good. He is also a very peaceful president which the American people did not appreciate while he was in office. Too bad. You still don't know with President Clinton. So try to learn the lesson. Now, everyone praises former President Carter. I do praise him also. But we forget, the main focus is President Clinton. He uses the strong arm tactic but at the same time, allows Mr. Carter to come with the soft tactic, to save a lot of lives, especially American soldiers' lives. And this is brilliant. People think Mr. Carter gets the credit, but if Mr. Clinton didn't use force, to threaten and to intimidate the ex-government, the military government of Haiti, I don't think Mr. Carter would have success. Because soft approach has been used for many years already on Haiti, and it did not work. So they needed some strong force, to intimidate them. And that's how the peace talks can succeed.

So actually the main credit goes to President Clinton. He knows how to use both: soft and hard, tough and tender, see? And he is very humble as well, because when he does that, the credit goes to Carter. But he doesn't mind, see? As long as people have peace, democracy and as long as his goal is achieved in a peaceful manner without losing Americans' lives, he goes for it. Otherwise he could just do it himself. 15,000 strong Americans will win, win the Haitian poor soldiers who are very limited in number and poorly equipped, already depleted with the embargo. Surely they'd win in the end. But he wanted peace, he wanted to save lives.

Only A Humane
Government Can Earn Its People's Faith