Spiritual Practice
	Attitude Forward Spiritual Practice
	Levels of Spiritual Practice
	Progress in Spiritual Practice
	Time for Spiritual Practice
	Keys to Spiritual Progress
~Pearl of Wisdom ~ The Benefits of Group Meditation

Time for Spiritual Practice

Spoken by the Supreme Master Ching Hai
Lecture at Harvard University, U.S.A., February 24, 1991
(Originally in English)

Q: To take time for yourself to be self-fulfilling, is this truly selfish?

M: It's not selfish. For example, if you take time to eat because after a whole day's work for society you're tired and hungry, and need to regain some energy, it's not selfish. If for this body alone, so ephemeral and short-lived, we have to work so hard and invent so many things and cook so many meals to feed it, how much more must we take time to feed our spiritual body? It's not selfish; it's the right thing to do. It's because we are not used to it, we are used to doing things the hard way, the wrong way, and now we get the correct way and we think it's selfish. It's not true.

If everyone in the world never eats, but you feel hungry and eat, they will think you're selfish. [Laughter] But we should eat, inside and outside. It is because we don't eat this kind of spiritual food that we are hungry, we suffer, and we are ignorant. We don't know what to do next, we struggle so much, and we're always lost in this life. It's not selfish; it's absolutely unselfish.

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