Initiates Who Drop Out
of Spiritual Practice

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Hsihu, Formosa, July 4, 1995
(Originally in English)

Q: What happens to people who have been initiated but then leave the practice?

M: They will have to come back again to do their homework. They choose it. Unless, during the course of their life, they are so bitten by retribution and all kinds of karma that have come to them that they turn their mind and pray to the inner Master for help, and then return to spirituality; or in the last moments of their life, they truly, one hundred percent, one-pointedly, sincerely, want to be liberated, then the Master will come and take them. Otherwise, such people who have failed are normally tempted by society, go back to their old habits, incur even heavier karma than before, and don't even think of the Master, pray or things like that, anymore.

If you don't ask, it is very difficult to get help. Especially if you want to sink yourself in the ocean of suffering, then it's your free will. The Master has the duty to take people to liberation, but people have free will also, and that must never be interfered with. Even God doesn't interfere with people's free will, and it is that free will that causes us a lot of trouble. If we don't control our free will, we will get into a mess all the time. The Master just stands by, because free will is the most privileged, the most honored gift that humans get, and no one should interfere with it.

We can reason with them. We can say, "Look here, you come back. It's better for you." But if they choose to fall, then we must let it be. They can come back one time, two times, until they are fed up, until they truly want to go Home again. Then another Master will come - same power, different body, and they will be rescued. Don't worry about that. Those persons never truly lose touch with the true Master; He/She always keeps an eye on them, but just lets them run around for a while.