Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Hawaii, U.S.A., September 6, 1994
(Originally in English)
Q: Do good and bad come from our hearts?
M: The good comes from the positive
side of our nature; the bad comes from the negative side. Mostly, when
we come here we borrow the negative side from environmental effects,
influences, and the habits that we've learned from the people we are
with, the company we are in. Just like you are not born a smoker or
an alcoholic, you learn it from society. Once smoking becomes habitual,
whenever you see a cigarette, you want it. And when you don't see a
cigarette, it's still in your mind; you want to have one, or you want
to have one more glass of alcoholic liquid. It is because you get into
this habit; you are not born with it.
For
example, you see your neighbor hitting someone else when he is angry
and that person hits back. Then you keep seeing these images of your
neighbor in your mind all the time, or something like that. The next
time a person makes you angry or hits you, you will hit him back because
you have learned that; you have practiced that in your mind, or you
have learned it together with the people who taught you to hit other
people when they do not please you.
That's
why even in twins with the same DNA that are supposedly a split personality
of the same person, the same construction, who have the same day and
same minute of birth, or only one, a few seconds, or a minute apart,
one person grows up to become a star of a political or other field,
or a movie star, and the other grows up to become possibly a murderer,
a thief or a violent person. It is because each was exposed to different
environments.
In
learning this, we can easily forgive the person; otherwise, we will
think he is very bad. Actually, no one is so bad. He is just born with
the tendency to learn, and he learns things quickly - the good as well
as the bad. If he learns the good, he becomes good; if he learns the
bad, he tends to become bad unless he has a strong will to resist it,
and this is rare.
So,
bad things do not come from the heart, but from the habits. Good things
come from your heart because you are born with them. You are born with
heavenly qualities, you are endowed with heavenly tools to come down,
and then, coming down here you drop into this school with all kinds
of things to learn and to react to. If you happen not to be strong enough
and give in, then you will drown.
That's
why I tell you that in heaven they don't look at sins and virtues the
way we do. They are very tolerant, forgiving, and loving, but still
you, yourself, have to check up, and you will probably feel bad yourself.
That is the final day of judgment