Excerpts from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lecture:

Whenever we love someone else, we love ourselves. We really boost our glory! It's not that we help anyone; we help ourselves! Please remember this: Whenever you do something good, it's the will of Heaven; it's good for you. You should do better, be more loving, try to strive inside and use your wisdom. Don't be a sheep in the crowd. Try to remember more the promise that you made to the Father and Heavenly Hierarchy before you came to earth.

Because you'll remember through meditation and through contemplation of the wisdom from the Light and Sound what you are and what you're supposed to do to advance yourself. Because you contact the supreme wisdom again, and then you remember what your mission is or what you're supposed to do. That's why you change! That's why you always change for the better! Because you remember the Heavenly being that you are! That's why you change! You become better and better. You become more angelic, more Heaven-like. That's all your work. Of course, the Master and Heavenly beings always stand by and help us, but if you don't do it yourself, it doesn't matter how many help you. We have to do it ourselves first, and then the Heavenly beings help us. The Master power always helps us.

We're sometimes put into unfavorable conditions to see how we can love our enemies, but we often fail. We often fail to "love thy enemy," or our enemies. We often give in to our flesh, our desires and also the temptation of the surroundings to hate our enemies. It's just the way we're taught, the way we're used to, not the way of Heaven. And the more successful we are, of course the higher our position in the hierarchy of the universe. And we'll be given more opportunities in the Heavenly system to do better work, more interesting work and more universal work so that we can develop the immense talent that we never knew we had even in our wildest imagination. We'll be given leading roles in Heaven like teaching a lot of Heavenly beings and things like that. Or when we go to this earth, we'll become like Masters, Teachers of spirituality or have some special position, leading humankind into the Kingdom of God.

Before we're born, we choose our environment, our parents, our trials, our tests, the friends we're with and the situation we'll be in. But then when it becomes too much we cry. It's all right. You can cry, you can pray and help will be there to help you overcome this weakness, or to go quickly, to comfort your soul a little bit, to go through the test. That's why we pray and why we meditate. It lessens the pain of our test and makes us pass it with flying colors.

And so, there are so many pushing opportunities from Heaven like a disaster will befall you or someone else will be behind you pushing you, or some situation will happen so that you suddenly feel awakened. Or some friend will come along, even a beggar on the street to remind you of the ephemeral nature of this world. So beggars are also angels! Yes, sometimes the suffering ones are there to awaken us! Some people come to do some great mission, and some people come to do a small mission in order to earn the merit of being humans so that they can be in school and earn the merit, so that they can advance in Heaven and have another opportunity, perhaps, to advance again.

It's not that earth people are difficult, but they jump into this situation, they inherit all this DNA, all these egos in their cells. When you die, your cells die, but your babies go on with the DNA, with the cells that you have and all the information is written in the cells, as well as in the brain. So it never dies. The brain dies, but the cells go on. That's why people very much emphasize having babies to continue their lineage. It truly is the continuation of the lineage! All the information passes down. That's why you see many traits in the same family. But of course it's not to stay like that, so that the society will have a lot of varieties. Because even though a person inherited all his information and traits from his father, he goes on and also develops his own. And he learns from a different mixture, and becomes another individual, apart from the information that he already has. So it becomes another individual again. He has the traces of his father, but also his own traces.

1. Recovering the memories of being in Heaven and remembering the purpose of our lives.
2. Master strongly emphasizes that human life is very precious so we had better make use of it in every way. We came to this world to learn how to love others and serve the public, and right now we have an opportunity to study in the school of life. If we miss the opportunity to learn well, we will be deeply regretful when we return to Heaven.
3. Practitioners view the universe from the perspective of Heavenly beings; hence they initially undergo no problems in the world; all experiences are simply tests and trials. But only through these events can individual souls make progress. And the harder the tests the better; also, the more glorious and honorable the levels reached will be.
4. Even in Heaven there are different classes. So while we are there, do we still have the opportunity to continue advancing from the class we are in to the next?
5. God is not a person from whom we can be separated; Hes is omnipresent. And the more we feel a sense of separation, the more we desire Hirm, and the more bliss we receive. Very soon you will feel that Hes is close by because God will never ignore you. Hes hears you, Hes smells you and Hes even knows what you're going to ask before you ask it.
6. In the process of searching for God, occasionally our will is weak and our body can not take it. Sometimes, we want to meditate a little bit longer but our body is very weak and our will power is as weak as our body. Because of this, we have to learn again and again to be firm and unwavering, not yielding after many setbacks. "OK, today I failed, I didn't meditate very well, but tomorrow I'll make more effort!" Incessantly struggle for firmer willpower. Only through this, our practice, can we make progress and become a person of more strength and more wisdom in Heaven!
7. Master says that the so-called ego is actually all habit. So in what way can our egos help with the mission we came to Earth to accomplish? In the opening chapter, Master explains in details the true facts about the ego and teaches us how to break away from it.
8. God is omnipotent so why there are so many unanswered prayers? What is true prayer?
9. There is no God who stays there and passes judgment. If we don't practice, don't truly repent and don't truly lead a virtuous life the way it has to be, at the time of death we'll see everything that happened in our whole life. And at that time, we'll understand everything we've done, what's right and what's wrong. And then at that time, we'll know that we've done wrong. But you won't be given another chance. You'll have to wait for a very long time because so many are waiting to come to be human beings, and you're a long way down on the waiting list. Because you've already been given the opportunity. That's the so-called "eternal hell."
10. Master explains the meaning and benefits of reciting the Five Holy Names during meditation.
11. Before we descend into this mundane world, we choose our parents and the most suitable environment and then we can be born. All our choices are made for the sole purpose of improving our spirituality. Therefore, it can be concluded that abortion is against nature and that's exactly why there should not be abortion.
12. Why do we need precepts? Master explains their true meanings for us in depth.
13. Once you reveal your intention to become a Master, all types of blessing power, tests, ordeals, temptations and hardships descend upon you because you have to experience all situations. Even the Masters who came to the world to elevate people's spirituality also have to overcome habits gathered and deposited in the genes of their bodies.
14. How can we overcome fear?
15. Why do we sometimes become angry and feel it is difficult to restrain our tempers? In reply to this question, Master says, "Forgive yourself and try to be as loving as possible. It's difficult, sometimes it's your trial, it's your lesson that you have to learn. And the more you meditate, the better you'll be. When you get angry sometimes it's justice. But the thing is, you shouldn't carry on with it. And don't bear hatred afterwards but try to reconcile with each other right away, or as soon as possible. Try to think of the good side of that person, and make up with them. And that's how you come to feel more peaceful within yourselves."