Selected Questions and Answers

Balancing Spiritual Cultivation and Worldly Life

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Videoconference with Korean initiates August 24, 2002 (Originally in English) Videotape #748

Q: Master, I have difficulty balancing spiritual practice and worldly life. How can I balance them well?

M: Try! Try hard, OK? Just be natural. What do you mean by difficulty balancing? What’s the problem? This is too general a question. What exactly is your problem? Be precise. Give me an example, and then I can help you.

Q: According to Your teachings, it’s more important to develop our wisdom than worldly knowledge. So should we just focus and concentrate on gaining wisdom rather than gaining worldly knowledge?

M: No, it’s OK. For example, if you want to study something to further your career, it’s OK to do so. And if you’d like to read a book about something interesting, then you can do that. If you want to see a video about something that you’re interested in, that will make your life more colorful and nice, then you can do that.

But you can also study Master’s teachings and do meditation at the same time. I don’t want you to forsake everything just to study my teachings or any Master’s teachings and just meditate all day long. We don’t do that. We do everything that we have to do, that we used to do or that we’d like to do. As long as it doesn’t harm anyone and as long as it doesn’t poison our intellect, it’s OK. We have to do it.

I meditate and do group meditation with you, but I also sometimes read a scientific magazine or follow the international news in case something happens in the world and so on. I also have to be knowledgeable about many things. And sometimes I read interesting books, take care of my dogs and so on; I take them out for walks sometimes. I feed them and play with them, doing my duty.

So we have many things to do, just like you have to wash your face every day. It’s not that because you’re a practitioner, you can forget to wash or to wear new, clean clothes. It’s the same: You do what you have to do. But you also meditate and understand that everything is transient in this world. It’s just that while we’re doing it we shouldn’t be attached to it. ....Next