Tonight my sermon is going to be rather long, so please sit and try to listen. Beginning tonight I want to speak to you about a very important topic.
I need to address this over several nights to explain it comprehensively. Therefore, every four nights I will come here and talk about this subject. I am doing this to make an essential and precious gift for the children of Đức Chí Tôn (God, Đức Chí Tôn ) - a cherished secret for them to keep at hand. With this, one day you may find out how to attain nirvana.Tonight’s topic is Con Đường Thiêng Liêng Hằng Sống (the Divine Path to Eternal Life).
What is this Divine Path? If our understanding is based on the teachings of God,
the Divine Path to Eternal Life is that path reserved for souls to travel after they have left their physical bodies. They make their way back towards the Ultimate Source by this path. These souls will return to their spiritual domain, rising higher or falling lower as their previous life’s merit dictates. If we want to understand this path according to Buddhism, then the Divine Path to Eternal Life is known as the path of reincarnation.This is a very difficult topic to discuss. It would need a massive book for all the children of Đức Chí Tôn (The Supreme Being, God) to completely understand the path. Such a tome would comprise several thousand pages!
Therefore, children of God, you must try to listen. You must come to the great divine temple to pray and make offerings and then come and listen to these words. Later on you won’t regret that you came or complain that I didn’t tell you about the revelations of Đạo Cao Đài (Cao Đài religion) in advance. The most profound and loftiest philosophies can only be revealed in Caodaism. It is by the special grace of Đức Chí Tôn, that there are a few young men available who have tried to learn shorthand so that they can write down these words as they are being preached. Remember! These words are not the words of Phạm Công Tắc, they are the words of the Hộ Pháp (Protector of the Dharma). Hộ Pháp is speaking on behalf of God, so the children of Đức Chí Tôn must hear this message. That is why these words are very precious.
I am extremely fortunate to have been selected by Đức Chí Tôn as His Ngự Mã Quân (assistant). On His behalf, I am working to form a religion—this Caodaist religion—the religion that will replace all previous religions. Today’s religions are no longer adequate for human thought and consciousness - in other words their paths of progress have been blocked.
I still remember some time ago when Đức Chí Tôn selected me for the position of Hộ Pháp. He taught me how to be a medium and, more importantly, how to practice chấp bút (automatic writing). Đức Chí Tôn taught me to meditate using chấp bút, slowly revealing nhập tịnh (higher meditation; mystic meditation; internal alchemy; nei tan). Mystical meditation is not easy—a simple mistake or omission can ruin your whole life. To under-practise nhập tịnh can leave you nodding with sleep; to over-practise can leave you mentally disturbed. When you practise correctly you need the divine beings on hand to help open your huệ quang khiếu (celestial eye; sky door; crown chakra; pineal eye). When this happens, you can xuất hồn, i.e. your peri-spirit can exit or your spiritual body can leave your physical body. The Divine Path to Eternal Life is the path on which your spirit returns home to Đức Chí Tôn. Đức Chí Tôn Himself has opened my celestial eye, enabling me to meet with Him and learn many secret and essential things from heaven.
Today through this explanation of the divine path to eternal life, I want to guide every soul of the children of Đức Chí Tôn back to Him by the very form of teaching you are now listening to.
The
path that takes you back to heaven is not easy to travel, and your return will
not be instant. As we want to travel home to God, we must pass through many
temples and many palaces. Strange things will confront us in every temple and
we will face a different mystery in each palace. Yet we must struggle to
understand them and pass beyond them.
There is no happiness equal to this return. Even after a lifetime of practicing Caodaism, there is no guarantee that a soul will return. A soul can never return if it doesn’t practise religion despite how many incarnations it experienced on earth. Brothers and sisters, you must try to remember this. What is cultivation? The Cao Dai religion has already explained cultivation to you. I have already spoken of it at length. You must uphold lập đức (doing charity work), do lập công (doing missionary work), and speak the words of lập ngôn (preaching Caodaism on the media).
Now I return to the topic. A little while ago I mentioned that, by the special grace of God, I was granted the favour of an audience with Him. Before this audience I met other divine beings in the realm of eternal life.
From tonight I am not really teaching you; I am only recounting what I saw, heard and learned when I met the divine beings in the spiritual realm. Telling you about this is also a way of allowing you children of Đức Chí Tôn to visualise the spiritual realm in advance. This will save your soul from confusion in the event of your return.
As I talk, you children of Đức Chí Tôn must listen and imagine we have a guide. Wherever we go, the guide will explain the scene to you, just like when a foreigner comes to Vietnam, they are given a guide to help explain the scenery.
When leaving their physical body, each soul on the planet must gather at this Caodaist Temple and go from here to other realms. Why must we enter this temple and not other temples? This temple is like a large examination centre. Just as the Government holds the baccalaureat every year, the location of our soul's elevation has already been decided. We must come here if we want to be qualified or valued. Đức Chí Tôn has had this temple built for his children to lập công, lập đức, lập ngôn and prove worthy of their return.
To enter this Temple means entering Hiệp Thiên Đài and moving from there to Cung Đạo. To reach the Cung Đạo, you must make your way along the Cửu Trùng Đài. At each of the nine levels of the Cửu Trùng Đài, the divine beings will confront and test your soul. On each step, one of the Cửu Vị Nữ Phật (nine female Buddhas) will appear to offer mercy and guide the soul who begs for salvation. Children of God, if you are unsure, re-read the prayers from the Đệ Nhứt Cửu Prayer then read all the prayers until the Đệ Cửu Cửu Prayer and the Tiểu Tường Prayer to the Đại Tường Prayers.
There are three methods of returning to Đức Chí Tôn and gaining a position in the spiritual hierarchy in the Cao Đài religion.
The first method. The souls inside physical bodies have to follow the ranking of Cửu Thiên Khai Hóa (the Divine Beings of the Nine Heavens), that is to join the Cửu Trùng Đài. This method requires us to use our talents and abilities to contribute to the religion, and thus to humanity, as a means to attain enlightenment. This path leads from Đạo Hữu (normal believer) to Lễ Sanh (student priest), Giáo Hữu (priest) Giáo Sư (bishop) and so on. We must serve from tiểu thừa (novitiate) to trung thừa (intermediate) and then to đại thừa (superior) on this path. The categories include practising vegetarianism from six days a month to ten days a month and then full time. One must cultivate firstly within oneself, then within the family and the country, and finally for all humanity. When we follow the ranking of Cửu Thiên Khai Hóa our soul must have confidence in its own spiritual direction so we can lead others towards their salvation. This is what makes the Cao-Đài Religion different from others. We must save ourselves, our family and people outside our family; only then can we save all humanity. We must study to understand the doctrine. When we already understand it we must teach our family, but not just our family, we must teach all humanity. Lập đức is to understand the doctrine; lập công is to teach it to one's family and lập ngôn is to save all humanity. These three duties must be fulfilled to return to Đức Chí Tôn along the path of the Cửu Thiên Khai Hóa.
The second method. To gain a rank in the spiritual hierarchy called Thập Nhị Đẳng Cấp Thiêng Liêng (twelve Spiritual Levels), we must follow Hội Thánh Phước Thiện (Caodaist Charity Body). We must use virtue to rise to a position, besides practising a vegetarian diet and following the Caodaist laws and the teachings of Đức Chí Tôn the Father. In order to lập đức one must start and serve from Minh Ðức, Tân Dân, Thính Thiện, Hành Thiện, Giáo Thiện, Chí Thiện, Ðạo Nhơn, Chơn Nhơn, Hiền Nhơn, Thánh Nhơn, Tiên Tử and Phật Tử. What is lập đức? It is using love to save humanity; as Đức Chí Tôn said, ‘Love is the key that opens the door of Bạch Ngọc Kinh.’
On this planet, souls incarnate through a life in turbulent waves of suffering, referred to by Buddha in the Four Noble Truths. To escape from suffering we must first endure suffering; by enduring suffering we can triumph over suffering. Those who follow Thập Nhị Ðẳng Cấp Thiêng Liêng show others how to endure suffering and triumph over it. We must endure suffering ourself to show other people how to endure it. Nothing is better than the virtue of love when we want to endure suffering. The first of the twelve spiritual levels is Minh Ðức (bright virtue).
Love enables us to endure suffering. Loving our parents means that we must suffer as we serve and protect them in their old age. Loving our children means that we must work hard to take care of them as they grow. Loving the disabled and the destitute means trying to find a way to help them; finding this way also means suffering.
Enduring suffering allows us to overcome it; but we must do this right to the end, not just for one day. For example, we must look after our parents throughout their old age, and our children until they grow up. These two things are easy compared with the task of helping the whole community. When we look after the whole community, suffering never stops. When you we finish taking care of one person, there are always others that we must deal with; this continues until the end of our life. By doing this, we can overcome suffering, and we will be able to return to Đức Chí Tôn by the way of the Thập Nhị Ðẳng Cấp Thiêng Liêng.
The third method comprises Tu Chơn or Tịnh Luyện, which is the
Caodaist style of meditation. After following the path of Cửu Phẩm Thần Tiên or
the path of Thập Nhị Ðẳng Cấp Thiêng Liêng and fulfilling lập đức,
lập công and lập ngôn, or enduring and overcoming suffering, those who still
feel able to progress in their spiritual quest can enter a meditation centre to
practise mystical meditation. At the meditation centre, adepts will learn the
methods of luyện tinh hoá khí (lian jing hua qi; refining the essence and
converting it into energy), luyện khí hoá thần (lian qi hua shen; purifying
energy and converting it into spirit), luyện thần hườn hư (lian shen huan xu;
refining the spirit and returning it to nothingness). This is the unity of tinh
khí thần (the three treasures); that is, returning to the void.
Now we resume our discussion of the Divine Path to Eternal Life. When we pass through the Cửu Trùng Đài and enter the Cung Đạo, suddenly we look up. We no longer see Bát Quái Đài, but a vast sea, which is so great it is unimaginable. At this point we begin to walk the Divine Path to Eternal Life.
If we follow the path of Cửu Thiên Khai Hóa or Thập Nhị Ðẳng Cấp Thiêng Liêng, we will wait until the end of our life before returning to Đức Chí Tôn the Father with both our peri-spirit and our soul. However, today we can travel back to the Đức Chí Tôn by chơn thần (the peri-spirit), as I have been permitted to take this shorter way by a special favour of God.
We look up and see a vast sea, but actually it is the sky of the universe. There in the distance, sometimes visible, sometimes not, we can see a magnificent, beautiful palace. The moment we see it we want to rush towards it. But we realise that we don't know how to move; we just feel that our Pháp Thân (dharmakaya; our astral body) is attracted to this palace by an incredible force. We aren’t propelling ourself, yet we come, moving as fast as an aeroplane.
When we arrive, we see innumerable beings, humans coming and going - too many to count. The crowd is silent, very ordered and secure. This palace is called Cung Thánh, and is the place where souls leave the spiritual realm to journey back for reincarnation. It is also the place where souls are welcomed back after they have left their physical body. It looks like an airport or a railway station; people are coming and going at an immeasurable rate. Leaving is sad, coming home is joyful; but the face of each soul, whether they are coming or going, carries the strain of a common worry. Those going down are worried, wondering if they can carry out the duties of the assignment given to them by God. Those coming home are also worried because they do not know if they have lost or kept their position in the hierarchy of the spiritual realm. They worry too much; there is so much worry, everybody is worried.
Next
time, I will preach on the Cung Thánh and the Cung Thừa Thiên Hành Hóa.
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