"There
was a master, supposed to be very enlightened, and
one day he was sitting there in a very expansive
mood, so the disciples asked him about the stages
of consciousness that he had passed through. The
master told them that, one by one, God led him from
one stage of consciousness to another. He told the
disciples that God first led him by the hand and
walked with him into the Land of Action. There the
master dwelt for several years. God came back again
and led the master to the Land of Sorrow. There
the master lived until his heart was cleansed of
all the inordinate attachment. That was when the
master found himself in the Land of Love, whose
burning flames consumed whatever was left of the
self (meaning the small self). This brought the
master to the Land of Silence where the mysteries
of life and death were reviewed before his wondering
eyes.
The disciples asked him, "Was that the final
stage of your quest for the divine?
The
master said, "No, no. That was not the final
stage.
One
day God said to the master, who was at that time
a seeker of the Truth, "Today I shall take
you to the inner most sanctuary of the temple, to
the heart of God Hirmself. So the master, at that
time, was led to the Land of Laughter.
In
the journey to the Land of the Absolute, I think
we have to pass through many stages of understanding,
many stages of consciousness in order to understand
the complete Truth at the end. "
Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai at the 7-day
Retreat
In Cambodia, May 14, 1996 (Originally in English)
Extracted from "The Supreme Master Ching Hai
News" No.63
Five Lands Of The Spiritual
Path