Q: According to the Book of Matthew of the Christian Bible, the year 2000 will be apocalypse and Judgment Day. Please let us know your view on this, Master.
A: Apocalypse could occur at any time; Judgment Day could occur at any time as well.

Q: Most people in Hong Kong now are worried about their future. May we ask you to give them a sense of peace?
A: They should think about what they had done in the past instead of thinking about the future. Their past affects their future. Only fools worry over nothing. Good things happen to those with merit and virtue. Disasters and danger occur to those without merit and virtue.

Q: This country is over-populated. Does the present birth control policy violate the law of cause and effect?
A: Being over-populated is the same as being under-populated. I think a national policy such as "one child only" is wrong. Since each family can only have one child, eventually everyone will be male. How can a country of only men and no women procreate? This policy will mean the extinction of a country and the human race in the future. To really manage a country well, [the government] should allow each couple to have two babies. Two kids can keep each other company and they can be a boy and a girl. If they were both males, one can be exchanged for a female from a family with only female babies, and vice versa. It is perfectly all right and legal to adopt a son-in-law into the family. However, if people were to have too many babies the way pigs give birth to hoards of piglets at a time, people would experience a shortage of food.

Q: Please explain to me the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity.
A: They both teach you and me.

Q: How does one control a thought as it arises? How can one not follow an unwholesome thought?
A: "One is aware of that thought as soon as it arises; and as soon as one is aware of it, the thought disappears." Once you realize that it is an unwholesome thought, it vanishes. Nobody can help you if you do not consider your thoughts unwholesome and pursue them. Again, "One is aware of that thought as soon as it arises; as soon as one is aware of it, the thought disappears." Idle thoughts have no origin. It will be fine as long as you don't follow idle thoughts and try to work with them like they're your business partners.

Q: Master, will you please tell us your life experiences?
A: My experience has been to do no business. That's my experience.

Q: The four elements are empty and all dharmas are impermanent. What does the true self look like?
A: Like a ghost.

Q: Why can't we control ourselves and get upset even though we know we shouldn't get upset?
A: Why do you eat even though you were told not to eat when hungry?

Q: Lu Shengyen has over 10,000 disciples in Malaysia (in 1988). Please tell us if what he preaches is true or deviant. Please answer this question frankly.
A: There's no difference between true or deviant dharmas during the Dharma-ending Age. You should see if he is greedy, likes to fight, likes to seek, is selfish, is into pursuing gain for himself, and cheats others by lying. I don't know who Lu Shengyen thinks he is, but I call him a demon-child. When you look around this world, you see so many drug dealers. People take drugs even though we all know poison is bad for people. What are the reasons for that? Lu Shengyen is one of the reasons.

Q: Why does my student shiver when bowing to the Buddhas?
A: The bad karma that follows him is telling him to be immoral and hence onto a worse path.

Q: There are 84,000 Dharma doors. Are other religions such as Hinduism, Catholicism and Christianity considered Dharma doors?
A: Every dharma is the Buddhadharma, and none can be obtained.

Q: Which thoughts should we tame?
A: The thoughts of sexual desire.

Q: The Master always says "to truly recognize our faults and do not discuss the faults of others. Others' fault are simply my own, that is great compassion." However, the Venerable Master often criticizes others (in the Vajra Bodhi Sea). Doesn't that mean you don't practice what you preach?
A: If what I say is true, then I'm not finding fault with them; if what I say were false, then I would go to hell. You know the person who said, "Great cultivators are not affected by cause and effect," had to face the consequence of being a fox for 500 lives. I would go to the tongue-pulling hell if I were wrong or have twisted the facts by treating black as white, white as black, true as false, and false as true. If what I say is correct, I am not guilty. Why do I talk about how others are right or wrong? It is because there is too much gossip in the Buddhist community, calling this one the Black Sect, that one the White Sect, Yellow Sect, Red Sect_ There are so many colors that they blind people's ability to tell them apart. They can't tell that black is black and white is white. Therefore, I must say what others dare not say.

Q: Is there really a Dharma ending Age?
A: If you think the Dharma will be ending, it will. If you don't want the Dharma to end, then that is the Proper Dharma.

Q: Please tell us which line of the Shurangama Mantra will develop our wisdom?
A: I only know the mantra for ignorance: "Lazy, lazy, swo pe he."

Q: My grandfather is seriously ill, please Master…
A: Only Guanshiyin Bodhisattva can change the Registry for Birth and Death.

Q: What can we do to make Buddhism prosper?
A: By cultivating, holding the Five Precepts, and practicing humaneness, justness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. This way, little by little, Buddhism will prosper.

Q: What is self-nature?
A: Self-nature is the Buddha nature. The Buddha nature is rounded and illuminating; it is free of others, self, and living beings, and has no lifespan.

Q: What is the reason for the war in the Middle East?
A: Reincarnated asuras insist on killing and setting fires.

Q: Master, would you please beat me over the head a few more times?
A: Don't be greedy.

Q: What is true?
A: Anything that is true helps others and not us. This applies without regard to profession, faction, sect, or school of religion. To be more explicit: too often we appear to help others but really mean to benefit ourselves. If we were not interested in money, then we're interested in sex; if not sex, then fame and fortune. In so doing, we are always haunted by a shadow.

Q: How do we get rid of the mark of "self"?
A: "I" is a misleading pronoun. The true "I" is the original Buddha nature. If we consider humans, living beings, and those with a long lifespan to be the same, then we will be reducing our egos.

Q: Have monks and nuns (literally "left-home people" in Chinese) really "left home?"
A: Lay people who can leave behind defilement and impurities while living at home, are the same as left-home people. Although they are physically in the midst of defilements, their minds and hearts transcend such defilements. Like flowers planted in a well, they are not touched by dust. Monks and nuns whose minds are tainted by dust are no different than those of laypeople.

Q: Why are there so many earthquakes nowadays?
A: Because people have bad tempers.

Q: Buddhism talks about how things are "unspeakably unspeakable." Exactly why are things unspeakable?
A: Why are you speaking now?

Q: Master, which Dharma Master do you most respect in this lifetime?
A: Venerable Master Hsu Yun.

Q: Out of the 84,000 Dharma doors in Buddhism, which one is the best and most wonderful?
A: All 84,000 Dharma doors are the best. None of them is second place. Why do I say that? The 84,000 Dharma doors treat the 84,000 kinds of shortcomings of living beings. Every living being has shortcomings; therefore, the best practice is the one that cures one's faults.

Q: What is the difference between false thoughts and vows? How would we know if our vows are false thoughts?
A: If our vows benefit others, it's okay even if they are false thoughts. Beyond that, you should get rid of false thoughts.

Q: How did wars come about?
A: Wars occur because we are violent within. Wars occur because our minds are not at peace.

Q: Who is Hussein (the Iraqi president)?
A: He is a member of the demons' family in the heavens.

Q: How do we stop warfare?
A: Being gentle and kind is the most fundamental solution to the ending of warfare.

Q: Confucius had 3,000 disciples, and 72 out of which were conversant with the six arts. What abilities should one possess in our society today to be considered a paragon of virtue?
A: "Truly wealthy are those with virtues, and the most impoverished have no virtue." A paragon of virtue does not kill, does not steal, does not indulge in sexual misconduct, does not lie, and does not take intoxicants.

Q: What kind of resolve for Bodhi is considered solid?
A: The kind where we vow to cultivate the Way, regardless of what hindrances we may encounter and no matter how hard it is. Don't ever change our past vows. Do not change our minds or positions. We act in accord with conditions but not change, and we do not change yet accord with condition. Despite poor or excellent conditions, our resolve for Bodhi shall remain firm.

Q: Master, what are the special features of the Weiyang School? How can we expand it?
A: The Weiyang School is very ordinary; there's nothing special about it. The Weiyang School doesn't have any plans to expand. . . We should just have strong moral characters.

Q: How are the Schools of Weiyang, Lingji, Caodong, and others different?
A: There is no real difference. All these practitioners are average people who have not become Bodhisattvas yet.

Q: Why shouldn't cultivators be emotional?
A: Emotions represent selfishness. If we let the seven emotions control us, then we are being selfish and are straying from the path to Buddhahood. The path to Buddhahood is about being altruistic and impartial.

Q: What can I do to help Buddhist temples?
A: You help the temples by not destroying them. You help the temples by supporting them.

Q: Why should we meditate as we study the Buddhadharma?
A: So that we can study a countless number of sutras and boundless wisdom inherent to our self-nature. There are countless Dharma doors in our nature, but people tend to disregard the foundation and chase after the superficialities. We look for answers outside of ourselves, failing to realize that we should reflect.

Q: Do we create unwholesome karma in our dreams?
A: What occurs in our dreams is not karma. The important thing is for us not to create unwholesome karma while we are awake. Of course, we can't generalize. For instance, if you were to wish to dream about doing lots of awful things, then you would be creating unwholesome karma. If you were to dream about doing bad deeds though you didn't think about them beforehand, then it has nothing to do with you. It is because of delusion, and not karma, that we have unwholesome thoughts but no unwholesome action while we're awake.

Q: The Amitabha Sutra tells us to make vows to become reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss where there are no three evil paths. If human beings were all to be in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, would that mean that no one will rescue and take care of living beings of the three evil paths?
A: Others will take care of them if you don't. Once we become Buddhas there, we could come back and take care of them like Amitabha Buddha.

Q: Can we be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss by reciting Guanyin Bodhisattva's name, Great Compassion Mantra, and the "Chapter on Universal Worthy Bodhisattva's Conduct and Vows" in the Flower Adornment Sutra?
A: Yes. The "Chapter on Universal Worthy Bodhisattva's Conduct and Vows" directs us toward the Land of Ultimate Bliss.