Q: I work for a poultry farm and can't change my job right away. How I can emulate Earth Store Bodhisattva and turn the poultry farm into a monastery, thus liberating those chickens?
A: This is a dilemma. The best solution would be for you not to raise chickens but to raise human beings instead.

Q: Is the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss the world that we now live in? Or does it exist in another place?
A: You can go and check it out for yourself if you want to know.

Q: I have been a Buddhist for four or five years now. Why do demons and ghosts still follow me?
A: Because you are not sincere when bowing to Buddhas and that you have sown [unwholesome] causes for this effect that you now face. One can't escape the law of cause and effect. Even though you believe in the Buddha, you still have to face the consequences of what you have done. This is also why demons have come to punish you.

Q: Your disciples in the Gaoshong area really need your guidance. May we ask the Venerable Master to build a monastery at Gaoshong?
A: I do not have the capability to build a monastery. If anyone of you will be building a monastery, I can be a construction worker.

Q: Someone said that it's best to recite the Shurangama Mantra before 5 a.m. Is it so?
A: As long as you recite the mantra, anytime is 5 o'clock in the morning.

Q: Please talk about awakening to the views of Buddhas.
A: To awaken to the views of Buddhas is to know how Buddhas became Buddhas and to have wisdom like that of Buddhas. This is nothing too esoteric. We awaken to the views of Buddhas by imitating the Buddhas and practice the four qualities of the limitless mind: kindness, compassion, generosity, and equanimity.

Q: Not too long ago, one of my relatives passed away. What should I do to help the deceased become liberated so that he can be reborn?
A: I recently read a news article about a Colonel in Thailand who had died and returned to life three times. According to his experiences, the merit from donating to the Triple Jewel is limitless and it can help to liberate our immediate family and extended relatives. Therefore, we must, first of all, not do any evil and do only good deeds. This is the only way to liberate our family members and other relatives.

Q: How do we cut off our worldly desires for fame, fortune, and sex?
A: They are cut off once we're dead.

Q: All conditioned dharmas are like dreams and illusions, bubbles and shadows. So, what are Unconditioned Dharmas?
A: For a detailed description of the six Unconditioned Dharmas, you may check the Shastra on the Door to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas. The one hundred dharmas consist of: eleven Form Dharmas, eight Mind Dharmas, 51 Dharmas Interactive with the Mind, 24 Non-Interactive Activity Dharmas, and six Unconditioned Dharmas.

Q: How can we cultivate to escape birth and death?
A: Eat, dress, and sleep.

Q: Venerable Master, since becoming a monk, you have persevered in maintaining a life according to the precepts such as "eating one meal a day" and "sleeping sitting up." Is it necessary for you to suffer so much?
A: I want to save my food and my clothes for other living beings. I had made a vow: may I bear the sufferings of all living beings in the Dharma Realm.

Q: Master, since you still reminisce about China, why did you establish your monasteries in the United States?
A: I have always been the one to take what others had abandoned and to go where others don't want to go. There are plenty of temples in Taiwan already.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most serious issue that Taiwan faces?
A: People here are too extravagant! Extravagant and wasteful! They have too many "wants." How will they be able pay those things back in the future?

Q: Everyone is very curious about your supernatural powers. We hear that you often cure the illnesses of your followers.
A: Real cultivators do not talk about supernatural powers. Monastics only talk about the pursuit of great wisdom.

Q: It is said that Bhikshunis have more precepts than Bhikshus. Isn't that inequality?
A: I will answer your question bluntly. At the most fundamental level, Bhikshunis are women. Women can give birth while men can't. Do you understand now?

Q: Please tell me how to deal with karma that obstructs and controls me.
A: You can surrender to that obstructive karma.

Q: After taking refuge with the Triple Jewel, could we still visit night spots and the like? A certain Dharma Master said that it is okay as long as we pay for everything. Will the Venerable Master please let us know if we violate the precepts by doing so?
A: Why do you still want to find your way to hell after you have taken refuge?

Q: While doing the morning ceremony, I would recite Guanshiyin Bodhisattva's name. My body would sway left and right or back and forth spontaneously. In this situation, is it okay to meditate at home?
A: When your body sways like that, you are in danger of being possessed easily by flying spirits.

Q: Venerable Master, why do I experience headaches, dizziness, the feeling that my body is swaying, and shivering while reciting the Great Compassion Mantra or Shurangama Mantra?
A: Even the Great Compassion Mantra becomes ineffective because you have something wicked on your mind.

Q: Why does my body move and why do I feel as if I am short of breath while reciting the Buddha's name and while meditating?
A: You are experiencing a demonic state.

Q: Goodness or evil depends on one's thought. So when we do unwholesome deeds, they may be wholesome instead.
A: This could be a combination of good and evil. Some people do bad deeds with good intentions, such as the likes of Robin Hood who try to help the poor by killing the wealthy and fighting for justice. Although what they do is illegal, there is some goodness in what they do. There are many cases where wholesomeness contains unwholesomeness and vice versa.

Q: Would it be wholesome or unwholesome if I were to steal from or swindle some people for money to donate it to the Master for building monasteries?
A: That would be an impure seed. "Unwholesome causes bring about warped effects." The temples built with this kind of donation of yours would collapse very quickly.

Q: But I would have been the one who had stolen the money, the Master did not do anything bad.
A: We cannot deceive the law of cause and effect.

Q: The cause and effect would be mine.
A: You can't be deceptive even if they were yours. Also, precisely because they would be yours, you shouldn't try to be deceptive. [An example would be] to build temples with your winnings from gambling. Also, as Confucius had said:
Everyone wants to be wealthy and aristocratic;
But one should not keep what is gained illegally.
Everyone loathes poverty and lowliness;
But one should not desert what one has for illegal gains.

I would not forsake poverty and lowliness through illegal means; I would rather stay poor but content and at peace.

Q: Some people say that we can only recite the Shurangama Mantra before 7 a.m. Is it okay to recite it after 7 a.m.?
A: I don't know what time it is in America when it is 7 a.m. here. What should we do since 7 a.m. in the United States is different from 7 a.m. in Taiwan?

Q: Is the practice of the mind-seal transmitted by Dharma Master Qinghai correct?
A: Many people are misled by her because of their greed. If they were not greedy, she couldn't have held them spellbound.

Q: How do we become enlightened and realize Buddhahood?
A: We will not have this thought when we are falling into the hells.

Q: Venerable Master, please tell us what to do with deviant thoughts.
A: Don't entertain idle thoughts and you will not have deviant thoughts! If you keep having false thoughts, of course deviant thoughts will come one after another. You actually need to ask this question? You should reflect and ask yourself why you can't bring forth proper thoughts and enjoy deviant thoughts so much.

Q: Can lay people become paragons of virtue?
A: Both members of the laity and the Sangha can cultivate to become paragons of virtue.

Q: Will animals be reborn after they die?
A: This is the same theory as the reincarnation of people. We may be Chinese in this life but will come back as Americans in the next life, and Japanese after that; we are all capable of transmigrating anywhere. The spirits of animals also transmigrate; but each to a different life due to different karma, thoughts, and behavior.

Q: Will children of divorced parents become successes?
A: Right! Don't you see that there are children with problems everywhere? Their parents are to be blamed for not being responsible enough to teach and discipline the kids. Children become wayward because there's no coordination between education at home and education at school. Both sides have failed. Kids are so controlled by television and computer that they lose their freedom. Freedom is widely touted in the western society; but in my view, this type of freedom is superstitious, misconstrued, unreasonable, and totally not free.

Q: Our parents gave us our bodies. But should I be filial though they were cruel to me when I was young?
A: "The more they love you, the more they criticize you." Both of them had hoped that you would become a success. They were afraid that you would take the wrong path.

Q: As human beings, what is the most important behavior for us to do?
A: It is to get rid of sexual desire. Don't indulge in it at such a young age. In the contemporary western society, most children aged seven or eight already know about sex. They will all become ghosts who are short-lived because their budding sprouts are cut before they become physically and mentally mature. Bad seeds can't be harvested.

Q: Why are women underprivileged?
A: Who says women are underprivileged? All the men in the world love women.

Q: The abnormal phenomena of homosexuality and unwed mothers are causes for concern. How should parents educate their children and themselves in the midst of such social disorder?
A: This is a very good question. The reason that the society is like this now is because "Fathers do not act like fathers and mothers do not act like mothers." Nowadays parents have children because they enjoy sex, not because they consider kids a priority. They only know how to make babies, but not how to teach them. Couples divorce on a whim; therefore children become fatherless and motherless. The real cause of these problems is that married couples don't know how to be married and parents don't know how to parent. The world would be free of these problems if parents would educate their children by following the example of Mencius' mother. She moved three times to find an environment suitable for her son's education.

Q: How should laypeople learn to sleep while sitting up?
A: Laypeople should not prefer new things to old things. Just learn not to be naughty first.

Q: How did negative karma come about?
A: It comes from the greed for wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep. We create karma by being greedy for money, for sex, and for fame. We create even more karma by being greedy for food. We create the karma of stupidity by being greedy for more sleep.

Q: Isn't it greedy to be humble?
A: It does not hurt to have this kind of greed.

Q: Is the Buddhadharma that you talk about inclusive, embodying all the various sects/schools of Buddhism?
A: That's the way it is if that's the way you think. If you want to exclude them, they're excluded; if you want to include them, they're included. This is not fixed. "The Buddha proclaimed Dharma with one sound, but different living beings understood differently." "Wise ones tend to see wisdom occurring; humane ones tend to see humaneness occurring. Profound individuals tend to see profundity while shallow individuals tend to see shallowness."

Q: If education were really significant because it's about precepts, which are inherent to our minds and wisdom, then is this idea the same as the Confucian idea that human nature is good?
A: You are inherently good if you don't do anything evil. If you do any evil, then, "Though our natures are similar, our habits are by far dissimilar."

Q: How do we improve our relationships with people, especially not having others talk behind our backs at the workplace?
A: If you didn't do anything bad, then the person who talks behind your back is wrong. But if you did do something bad so that it's a juicy topic for gossip, then the more they talk about you, the better.

Q: Dharma Master, what do you think of this prediction: the human race will become extinct as a result of a major disaster at the end of this century or the beginning of the next century?
A: Well, you should not come back in the next century. Why are you bothering with this? You may remember the events of this century, but you forget by the time that you are born in the next century. For instance, you remembered to ask this question now, but you will forget what you know in the next century. How is that useful?

Q: The number of calamities in the world is on the rise. How do we eradicate them to help others and ourselves?
A: There would be no calamities if we were to not get mad, not fight, and not cheat and not hurt each other.

Q: How can I possess the ability to select the right Dharma?
A: I don't have the ability to select the right Dharma either, so how can I tell you?

Q: Which is the best practice out of the 84,000 Dharma doors? Which is the most supreme?
A: The most supreme Dharma door is one that you find most suitable; the weakest Dharma door is the one you find most useless.