Good morning everybody,

Let's sincerely pay homage to our Lineage Master, Living Buddha Lian-sheng, all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors. Om Mani Padme Hum.

On behalf of the Lotus Light Charity Society, welcome everyone! I am glad to have this opportunity to be here with you here today. Thank you for coming.

Today's subject is "Science and Buddhism". Two years ago, I gave my first English teachings on Buddhism in London. This will be my first English talk on this particular subject. Since this is the first time, I have planned it for forty-five minutes to see how the response is. The audience is bigger than what we expected and I am not too sure how it will go today, but I'll try my best.

Speaking of human history from the British record, I think we have a lesson for the "Di Chang Ye" and I think the ancestor is from China and India. Three thousand years ago, before the western and eastern culture met each other, both had theories about heaven and hell. If I were to ask you to name three countries that have the most advanced technologies, what would you say? Boni, what would you say? "The U.S." (answer from Boni). It seems that most people would also say the U.S. about ninety nine percent of the time. In their conquest to become technologically advanced, they follow the motto, "In God we trust". Therefore, even in the most technology-driven country, they have religion. In their pursuit for technology they believe in religion. This means that they believe human beings have a spiritual life and not just a historical life.

Think about the most primitive countries and there seems to be many we can think of. In many underdeveloped countries or in very primitive tribes, do they believe in spirituality? Yes, they do; so is this really a coincidence? No matter if it is three thousand years ago, western society, eastern society or even today in the year two thousand and two, the present society, the most advanced and the most underdeveloped countries still believe in a spiritual life. So is this really just a coincidence?

These days, science and technology are very advanced; and it is really profound compared to years ago, like comparing twelve hundred years ago to twenty years ago. Just look at the aeroplane - its technology is less than a hundred years old, and think about how many places we can go, like the moon or even to mass now. Although technology gives convenience to your lives, can it bring us all the comfort we ask for? To a certain degree it does, but go home and ask your parents what they think. We have so many products and gadgets, but are they really making our lives easier? Can you work fewer hours and have less mental stress compared to the last generation?

Keep in mind three thousand years ago, as Grand Master always likes making reference to this period of time. Most societies back then classified people into three categories. Some were very wealthy, some were well off and others were very poor. Think about today, is it the same? Recently I read an article; I don't know how true it is, but they said in this whole world, eighty percent of the property is owned by twenty percent of the population. Some famous people we know of, like Queen Elizabeth, maybe she doesn't even know how much she owns. Bill Gates or Hong Kong's Lee Ka Shing, to name a few.

So this article mentions that eighty percent of the land on the earth belongs to twenty percent of the population and it may be true. I was once a really good encyclopedia salesman in Canada. I read some articles about the insurance business, life insurance business and financial business, that said the top twenty percent of salesmen make eighty percent of the money and that the rest of the eighty percent share twenty percent of the profit. So far it seems only the rich stay in control of everybody, but think about how things are now, is it true that some people are very wealthy? There are differences, but does science improve our lives? I think it does.

Two thousand years ago, there were many illnesses that could not be cured, but what is it like today ? How many illnesses still cannot be cured? Don't think about the ancient illness of cancer; what about HIV? Do we have a remedy for that? What about migraine headaches? I remember two years ago in Vancouver the Education Board in Richmond invited me to teach because they have western people who wanted to learn yoga and meditation, and they did not have a master to teach them. In Vancouver I'm one of the few masters who can teach using English, that is why the Richmond Education Board invited me. "Master, would you like to give us instruction in meditation and yoga ? " I accepted, but told them I would try my best. At that time, there were about fifty people who showed up; all were Caucasians. The class was handled in four sessions. In the first session I taught them yoga, followed by physical exercises and then meditation. First of all, I want to say the word "yoga" is originally a Sanskrit word and that yoga is not just used to keep fit, since the original meaning is to merge yourself with the Supreme Self. This is the original meaning of Yoga; that is why there are so many ways to control yourself with breathing.

After the four sessions, I got some feedback from the students. I remember one student named Beth, who is a secretary at the Richmond General Hospital who has had migraines for more than ten years. She always took painkillers, but would say that the painkillers were not a treatment, they just killed some cells from her body. She said that every day she would have a migraine, but after she learned yoga and meditation, two or three weeks later, she felt that her migraine pain had improved. I always stress to people the importance of learning yoga and meditation because when you do yoga and meditation there are no side effects. It is not like taking medications, because yoga and meditation are trying to teach your body to return to its original state. Lots of medications don't function well inside our body, but when you are doing yoga and meditation, it allows your body to heal itself. It really has no limits.

There was another lady who works for Workers Compensation Board. I think you have one of these here in Calgary too. Lately, the government is always trying to cut the budget and it is always the worker, never the top management who gets laid off.

I remember reading a joke - it is only a joke, but I think it is quite interesting. A recreational park needed some gardener, so they hired one. Later, they said the gardener needed someone to supervise him. Then they hired a supervisor to supervise the gardener. Well the supervisor did not coordinate well with the hierarchy, so they needed a manager and hired one. Later, they find out that they are over the budget and cannot afford to pay the wages, so they start laying people off and they lay off the gardener first.

There was also another lady but I can't remember her name. I'll call her Mary. Mary said that in her job there are usually three full time jobs and one part-time job, but since the lay-off, they are always laying off the lowest worker first. Right now, she is the only one doing the duties of the three full-time and one part-time jobs. Because of this, she is really stressed and tense, so she cannot go to sleep at night. When Mary does manage to fall asleep, if a car happened to park on the street, or if her husband comes in and dresses in the bedroom, she wakes up and cannot get back to sleep, which creates even more stress and tension. I taught her meditation, how to relax and it helped her a lot. She said to me, "Oh Master, this is the best!". I think at that time the School Board charged her thirty five to fifty dollars per course. Mary said that it was the best hard earned fifty dollars that she spent in her whole life. I also remember there was another Caucasian guy who had a stroke and he said it had been very serious, but after the first time he came to this yoga and meditation class he held his coffee cup and his hand was shaking. After he showed it to me, he said, "Right now, eighty percent is there, and it's improving". So what I'm saying is even though we have so many technologies, can we still say science and technology are helping people?

When I was at Simon Fraser University, I was taking a course called political communication. I found a very interesting article that said when we talk about nuclear bombs, not many people know how many nuclear bombs we have, and maybe we do not even know. Let us say that at one moment all the nuclear bombs on earth were to explode at the same time; do you know how many people they would kill with all the nuclear bombs on earth ? Everyone would die four times over, meaning the total explosive power of these nuclear bombs can kill four times the population that we have now.

The last time I was watching TV, I think it was the Discovery Channel, they were talking about the US doing nuclear bomb testing on an island. The data, after the nuclear bomb tests, showed the radiation remains there. Do you know how long it takes for that radiation to go away? We let people live on that island after the bomb testing and the radiation is still there on the island ? Can you guess how long? A Hundred years? (answer from audience) A hundred years would be an underestimate. When I heard the result, I was really shocked. It takes twenty five thousand years before the radiation will completely return to normal levels. Twenty five thousand years ! Do we really need that many nuclear bombs that can kill four times the population we have? Imagine if we used the money spent on nuclear bomb research on medical research instead, to find a remedy for AIDS or cancer. When it comes to science, it depends on how you use it. If you use it correctly, it benefits all human beings, but if you use it incorrectly, it will take twenty five thousand years before the radiation disappears.

I remember Albert Einstein made a very famous statement saying "Science without religion is like a blind person, religion without science is like a crippled person". You might ask what does it mean? I finally understood that he meant Science without religion which is when you develop a technology without a conscience. You might hit your head onto the wall. It means you may easily make a mistake when you develop science without the conscious thought of the bad effects it could have on others. Why would anyone want to do that?

Three years ago, I was in London and Paris giving Dharma talks. A few years ago, in London they had problems with hoof-and-mouth disease. Do you know why they have hoof-and-mouth disease in the UK ? The Dharma brothers and sisters told me all the farmers and businessmen want to make a quick buck or a fortune. The businessmen were trying to think of how to shorten the growing stages of cattle. Let's say it usually takes two or three years for a calf to mature to a full grown cow. One would want to find something that will speed up this process to make their growing stages from three years to just a single year. The solution was to use cow bones mixed with a certain kind of chemical and then feed it to the cows. Imagine these cow bones and beef mixed with certain ingredients and then fed to the cattle. Now think about what the cows would naturally eat. They eat grass since they are vegetarian animals, but those business people found that if you fed the cattle with beef and a certain kind of ingredient, you could speed up the growing stages and they would not need to wait three years to sell the cows. You would really cut down the costs and you would make a huge profit. A few years later, they discovered a "cow disease" called hoof-and-mouth disease. What Albert Einstein meant science without religion is science without conscience. It's like a blind person who may hit their head very easily.

Religion without science is like a crippled person. Many religions mislead people by giving them blind faith. Sometimes when we devote ourselves to a certain religion, we need to use our rationality and our wisdom to make a judgment. You know it seems like once a year in the US, there are stories about a certain group of people or a church that do regrettable things. I remember there was a church that had over four hundred people die in it. Once in a while these kinds of religions appear, so when you are dealing with religions, you cannot just have blind faith in them. You must use your wisdom to make a judgment so you can recognize it. Last October, or November, I was in Maryland, which is about a three-hour drive from New Orleans, and (after the September eleventh incident) there was a museum holding a religious conference. They invited different religious people to share their feelings on the September eleventh incident.

They had some Christian, Catholic, Buddhists as well as two Muslims there to share their thoughts. I knew about this discussion an hour ahead of time but I had attended just to listen to everyone talk about his or her religion. I remember a comment from one of the Christians who said if all human beings from the earth believed in God, then for certain we would not have all these kinds of incidents happen. Everyone there talked about the good parts or the compassion of their religion. I was the last one to speak and I made this statement, "For myself, I feel if it is a true and great compassionate religion or a profound religion, it shouldn't just benefit its own members. If it is a profound religion, it should talk about how we can benefit non-members and how we can contribute to society by benefiting all beings. It shouldn't be only if you are a Buddhist that you only help other Buddhists. A profound religion is trying to help those who are not even a part of your religion. This is how I define a religion." In religion, we shouldn't just learn the ritual or simply to benefit those of the same religion.

I remember when I was young, my mother took me to the temple and I would tell her, "Oh, this is only a superstitious thing, but I'll go with you anyway." I told my mom, "I'll go with you, but don't expect me to burn the incense and don't expect me to do the great bow." When I grew older, I learned that there is a hidden meaning in Buddhism.

Earlier, Reverend Lian Fong said homage to the Buddhas and homage to the Bodhisattavas. When we pay homage to Buddha, we pay homage to Buddha's wisdom because the Buddha's wisdom teaches us how to handle our life and how to handle things when difficult issues come up. Just imagine when things happen; if you had more wisdom, you would know how to handle the situation better.

Then, we pay homage to all Bodhisattvas (this refers to the Bodhisattvas' great compassion). We pay homage to the Dharma Protectors (this refers to the Dharma Protectors' strength). I finished eleventh and twelfth grade of schooling, in Vancouver (Canada). I also finished my college education in Vancouver but when I was in Hong Kong I went to an English high school or college. Sometimes when people talk about black magic or Buddhist related things I would say, "Oh, it's only fiction."

When I became a Master, in Malaysia a person came to me and asked me to give him a blessing. After I gave him a blessing, his whole body started shaking and he spoke in a different language. He was Chinese, but he spoke Malaysian, and I did not understand what he was trying to say because I do not know Malaysian. There was a student who translated and he said, "Master (this student said Master), help me, help me, please help me" in Malaysian. He spoke Malaysian but in Malaysia, the Chinese speak Malaysian, so I was not that surprised. After I gave the blessing to this student, he passed out right in front of me. He was only thirty or forty years old, but he passed out. Later he said that he was intruded by some people, so he asked me for another blessing, which I gave him and he spoke in another language again, but this time he spoke Thai. The Thai language is not Malaysian and a student called out, "Master, Master, he is speaking in Thai language." After I gave him another blessing. At the end of the whole event, I asked him what he had said. He told me, "If you kept blessing me, you would have been in deep trouble." I said to him, "You should have warned me earlier, so I would not have kept blessing you". (Laughter from the audience).

Sometimes these kinds of things happen; that's why in Buddhism we have Dharma Protectors. In Chinese, we say that the Bodhisattvas have great compassion to meet all sentient beings, but sometimes even the Buddhas need to change into Dharma Protectors to look at the dark side as well. Sometimes there is black power or black magic and then you need to fight it off. Just like in society, we have social welfare and we have teachers to help with people, but we need the police to supervise gangs and gangsters from doing harm. It is the same in Buddhism, so we pay homage to the Dharma Protectors and to their strength.

Next, the half bow is very important. If you did not realize what we are doing when we hold our hand with the big thumb (half bow), it means paying homage to the Buddha inside our body. Everybody has this Buddha inside, but not many people realize it, which means that Buddhas and human beings are equal. That is how we should treat ourselves. In Buddhism all human beings are equal, but why are all humans equal? Two thousand seven hundred years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha was the prince of the a country and he had his maids, his faith and many pretty mistresses too. He was the prince and at that time in India, the people were classified into four classes. You may have learned about this from your history studies.

The people were divided into four classes. The first class was at the top with the nobleman, who are related to the king or the prince. The second class was the clergymen or the priests. The third class was the ordinary people and the lowest class was the slaves. If you were a slave, you could only marry another slave and all your children would be slaves. You had to work for just bread and butter because they were very serious about the classes in India at that time. Let's say there was a nobleman on the street and there happened to be a slave. If the slave by accident stepped on the shadow of the nobleman, the slave could be killed for their actions. You can see the classes in India at that time were really strict and you couldn't even talk about the marriage of a slave to an ordinary person. If a slave were to step on the shadow of a nobleman the slave could be executed instantly. Prince Shakyamuni was of the highest class, and he said it was not fair, saying that all human beings are equal; just imagine how he could take advantage of the whole system, because he saw it was not fair to the others. It was a big breakthrough for them at that time and it is a great breakthrough today.

We talk about science, which is technology and rationale, but we also need the balance of religion with it because sometimes science can be very dangerous.

A few years ago our Grand Master, Living Buddha Lian-sheng was invited to China. He accepted the trip to visit China. One day there was an old gentleman, about seventy two or seventy three years old who was in charge of part of the country. There were technology research centers there, and if the scientists ever wished to, they needed the Prime Minister to sign a document to allow them to leave. The scientists are considered the treasures of the country since they have lots of intelligence.

Anyways, this seventy two or seventy three year old gentleman came to see Grand Master and said, "Grand Master, Master Lian-sheng, Living Buddha, I have come to pay homage to you." After he made this statement, he did a great bow on the floor and paid homage. Grand Master at that time was fifty some years old and he said to the man, "Oh, no, no, you develop science and you have helped lots of people." The old man replied, "No, I have not. Do you the Living Buddha know what I'm doing? I do research in weapons development and I have spent my whole life trying to research weapons technology, but you, a Living Buddha, have spent your whole life trying to save people. My job is to kill people, but your job is to save people, so you deserve my highest respect." This is from a scientist who researches weapons technology, so it really depends on what you do in your life because you are either helping people or you are destroying them.

Sometimes when we say, "Oh, it's not science," or "It does not sound like science," it seems that we use science to measure everything. Let me ask, what is science ? Science is just the accumulated knowledge of all human beings, but this whole universe is very large, do we think we can understand the entire phenomenon of the entire universe ? Many things cannot be explained by science, so then people say, "Oh, it does not sound like science or it is not science." What is science then? It is just our human knowledge that we discover today.

I remember when I first went to Paris because the temple there invited me. There was a female student who came to talk with me and she said, "Master Chiu, I think I have good karma with you." I asked her, "Why do you say that ?". The night before I arrived there this lady had seen me in her dream, but please pay attention because she said, "Before the dream I did not know about you and I never had seen your picture or ever met you in person." She did not know my name or that I even existed, but she saw in the dream that it was me who appeared in Paris for a ceremony. On that Sunday when she went to the temple, the Reverend there made an announcement, "I have news right now to welcome Master Chiu from Vancouver to officiate a ceremony." This lady was really shocked wondering if it was Master Chiu that she saw in the dream. She asked to see my picture and she was shocked to see that it was me who was in her dream. I do not know how many of you have had the experience of seeing someone that you never met before in a dream and the assertion is that this was not the first instance.

When I was in New York with Grand Master, one night around eleven o'clock a student came to see me and he said, "Master Chiu, I need to talk to you." At that time he had taken refuge in Grand Master for about three months and he said, "I took refuge, so I should go to Seattle to see our Grand Master ?" So the The night after, he made up his mind, and had a dream that he was in at the Seattle temple. This student had never been to the Seattle temple, but in his dream he saw that Grand Master was giving the a Dharma talk and then this gentleman said to me, "I saw there was another master sitting next to Grand Master, doing the translation." When Grand Master gives the Dharma talk in Chinese, it is usually me who does the English translation for him. The student saw who was giving the English translation and when he flew to Seattle, whatever he saw there was the same in as his dream. It was so exact similar that it really shocked him and he remembered me very well so then he said, "In my dream I saw Grand Master and then I saw Master Chiu." Can you by using science, explain this kind of situation? It is really hard to explain, which shows that sometimes Buddhism goes beyond science.

I took refuge in Grand Master in, but I have been reading Grand Master's books since 1976 I have been reading Grand Master's books. Currently, our Grand Master has written a hundred and fifty four books, all of them about Dharma talks. Our Grand Master Living Buddha Lian-sheng used to be a survey engineer and he was also a bible teacher. It was a big change from being a bible teacher to becoming a monk. In 1986 when I took refuge, I saw a documentary that really shocked me because it really is amazing. The documentary was about an old monk in Taiwan who was ninety-two years old who one day said to his students, "Three days from now at twelve o'clock, I will be leaving this world." I do not know how many Caucasians have heard about this kind of thing, like announcing they are going to die and not by committing suicide. In Buddhism, we call this as "Self mastery of birth and death." The students prayed to their master, "Please do not go; Master, please do not go!" Something similar happened when he was at the age of eighty-two, when he had made that same kind of announcement to his students telling them, "I am going to leave this world in about three days." All the students did not want him to go so they pleaded with him, "Oh, please do not go; Master, do not go!"

This old Chinese monk whom we will name "Wang Qi", so it is easier for you to understand, said, "I cannot make the decision, so I will have to talk to the Buddha." That night this old monk at the age of eighty-two, while in his meditation talked with Buddha (Mee Le Poh Sa) (Maitreya). The Buddha allowed him to stay for another ten years. Then at the age of ninety-two he said, "No, I really have to go, " and his students said, "Please don't go!" He then said to them, "I have always taught you and I'm ninety- two years old already, so how many more years do you want me to live? You shouldn't be so attached to this life and birth stuff." So they could make a documentary in 1986 and have it on video, three TV stations from Taiwan were told to tape this old monk, since he had said that he was going to die in three days from then, at twelve o'clock. You can see imagine all the cameras that were facing this old monk who just sat there, but did not sleep like your own meditation. Ninety-two is a very old age and his body was showing its frailness, but at the last moment, when it was twelve o'clock, they turned the cameras off. They would not let them show it, but on the documentary the reporter said, "You know, at twelve o'clock everyone will witness this old man after he stops chanting "Ah Me Toa Fo, Ah Me Toa Fo," (Amitabha), he will just close his eyes be gone." When I saw this documentary I said, "Gees, it is really shocking that someone can announce what time he will die."

In Buddhism and for the True Buddha School, our final destination is to awaken to our Self-Nature and to be a master of birth and death. This means if you want to come back here, it is from your own will and not because of karma that has to be paid back for whatever is owed to people.

I do not know if you have heard of the 16th Karmapa, but last month I saw a video that a student had given me. Karmapa came to the United States in 1981, and I think this was the first time western people found out about Tantric Buddhism. Today, most people only hear about the Dalai Lama. The first Tantric Buddhist to come to the States was the 16th Karmapa. In Tibet the Dalai Lama is the political leader there, but when you are talking about the leader of Buddhism, it is the Karmapa. Karmapa is in charge of all the religions in Tibet and is the King of all the Masters. He was in the States when he was around fifty something years old, and the night before he died, he made the same kind of announcement too. This documentary said, if I remember correctly, that he died in the state called Illinois in the US. This documentary was interviewing the doctor because the Karmapa had liver cancer.

The doctor said usually when people suffer from liver cancer it is painful and quite torturous, so they kept asking him, "How do you feel," but he would answer, "I'm OK." At first, they thought that he was trying to be nice or he did not want to talk about it and by saying that it was hurting or painful, but in reality, he really was not affected by any pain. Even when he was in the hospital, he did not show any signs of pain at all. The doctor who was Caucasian, said something really amazed him right after the Karmapa died. After the Karmapa passed away they left the body on the bed out of respect, since he was considered a special person. Later that night, a student showed the doctor a phenomenon by taking his hand to touch the Karmapa's heart area to show that it was still warm although twenty-four hours had passed. The doctor said normally that after twenty-four hours after death for the heart to be still warm is not very remarkable. After forty-eight hours, the student showed the doctor again and it was still warm. The doctor said he was shocked seventy two hours had passed when he checked the heart area of the Karmapa to find that the heart area was still warm. He said it was totally different from what he had learned in medical school. How can someone who died still have a warm body after seventy two hours? He said it was the first time he had ever seen anything like it. According to the Buddha sutra, when a great person or a great cultivator dies - or as we refer to it as rebirth - means his physical body dies, but the spirit has gone to another dimension. When a great cultivator dies and takes rebirth, the body enters into nirvana and rainbows appear in the sky. The documentary showed that when the 16th Karmapa reincarnated, a big rainbow appeared in the sky. It is good evidence and the doctor said whatever it says in the Buddhist sutra happened there and he was speechless so he did not know what to say.

Eight hundred years ago in Tibet, there was a Bodhisattva whom we call Guru Padmasambhava. I do not know if you have heard of Guru Padmasambhava the Bodhisattva, but we usually address him as Guru. Eight hundred years ago in one of his teachings, he said that when the iron bird flies in the sky and the iron horse runs on the road, Buddhism will go to western society. This is what he says in the Buddha Sutra, but can you imagine seeing an iron bird eight hundred years ago, since we did not have airplanes at that time. He said when the iron bird is flying in the sky and the iron horse is running on the road, Buddhism will go to western society. This was a true prediction by Guru Padmasambhava.

Speaking of the Karmapa again, we know before all the living Buddhas die they usually will say, "I am going to reborn in this country or this village and these will be my parents." It was so strange for this 16th Karmapa since he did not say anything like this. All of the students suddenly realized, "Hey, our Grand Master did not say where he is going to be reborn, so how can we find him ?" They were trying to look for him everywhere and they prayed for eleven years but they could not find where Karmapa was going to reborn so they asked the present Dalai Lama. "Please help us to find the Karmapa because we do not know where he is going to be reborn." The Dalai Lama prayed and did many pujas, which is a fire offering like we will be doing later tonight.

Finally, the present Dalai Lama saw in his dream that the Karmapa showed the village and a mountain near where he was going to be reborn. After the Dalai Lama woke up, he said, "I know the Karmapa is to be born in a small village". Tibet is so large, so how could they find the small village? One of the students suddenly realized eleven years after Karmapa died that Karmapa had given a box to him and said, "One day, you'll need it." This student realized saying, "You know, it was eleven years ago when Karmapa, our Grand Master gave me the box." This thought had suddenly come to his mind, so he opened the box and it said, "I'm going to be re-born here and my father will be this name and my mother will be this name." It only said the name of the father and the name of the mother and which village he was going to be reborn in. This was great news to find this box that the Karmapa had given to the student ELEVEN years before he died and after FIVE year they found that there was such a village. They were so excited and after they went to the village they asked if there were really two people there with the father's name and the mother's name. They asked a villager, "Do you have a couple by this name and by this name?" "Yes," said the villager. "Do they have a kid child born six years ago?" "Yes," he answered again. After that they all were invited to a house and do you know what happened ? When they walked into the house, there was a young boy about six years old who sat on a bed. In Tibet, all the Living Buddhas sit on a bed; and so he sat on the bed waiting for the great bow. A six year old boy! How can we explain this phenomenon using science ? There is no explanation and this shows that sometimes religion is one step beyond science.

Sometimes people say they have blind faith in religion, but many people not only have blind faith in religion, they have blind faith in science too. Sometimes we have blind faith in love and we have blind faith in money or in authority. Is this not true ? Superstition is also a blind faith and religion sometimes has this, but do we ever have a blind faith in science ? Can science give us every explanation to all our questions and give us all the answers? So we can study more or read more articles, but sometimes it is even beyond what science can understand. Just look at the Karmapa or the ninety-two year old monk.

One time I remember watching this documentary where they were trying to test the brainwaves of an old monk from Japan. According to the doctor, when a brainwave becomes a straight line, it means a person is dead. When they were testing this old monk, they had put all the wires on his head, which was connected to a monitor. When this old monk was meditating, he came to a certain stage where suddenly the monitor beeped, which meant someone is dying and it became a straight line, but they did not expect it. After the monk woke up from his meditation, the doctors said they were surprised because a human being usually cannot have a straight line for his brainwave. When this monk was in deep meditation, he had no brainwave; it just showed a straight line. So Boni (in the audience), one day you may have an answer for us (Laughter from the audience) since she is going to medical school. Sometimes things are indeed beyond the explanation of science.

When we are talking about science and Buddhism, we believe in science and we try to help develop science so it can help people. As I said, science without religion is science without conscience, and sometimes it does not necessarily benefit all human beings. When it comes to religion ask yourself, when we have religion does it benefit us and does it help the society? I think many people know about Mother Theresa. After living in India for a long time and becoming famous, she was invited by New York City to visit New York. On the day she left New York, a reporter interviewed her and asked her what she thought about New York. Mother Theresa said, "When I was in India, I saw lots of people who are so poor because they are poor in material. They do not have enough food and they do not have enough things or enough houses, but I can help out with this. I found that in New York the people are handicapped in their spiritual life and I do not know how to help them. New York has many material goods, but the people are poor spiritually, so it is a big job to help New York." What is defined as rich and what is defined as poor ? It all depends on how you live your life.

In Buddhism we say, "It is all in your mind." A few days ago when I was talking to the Calgary Temple's Buddha's Youth Club, I shared with them a famous story about two monks in a temple. Usually in a temple there is a flag for the banner and the wind blows the banner. One of the monks said, " Today the wind is blowing really hard." The other monk said, "It is not the wind, can you see the wind? It is the flag that is moving." So they argued about which it was, "It's the wind blowing the banner, so the banner is moving." "You can't see the wind, so it's the banner that is moving." Finally, a third monk came by and said, "It's neither the wind nor the banner, it's your mind that is moving."

After I was done giving the Dharma talk in Vancouver, a student named Ben who was in his third year at UBC (University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada) came up to me and said, "Master, I don't understand. If it's not the wind that is moving, why is it the mind?" I said, "Ben, last Christmas did you shop for a Christmas present for your mom?" He said, "Yes," and then I said, "Did you shop for Christine?" Christine is his girlfriend so he said, "Yes." "So tell me, when you look for a Christmas present for your mom and one for Christine, which one would you spend more time and effort looking for?" Of course, Christine his girl-friend, and I said, "When you're shopping and you're trying to find something for your girlfriend, you might only have your girlfriend in mind. There maybe something good for your mother, but did you see it?" Since your entire mind was only thinking what would be good for Christine, you will only see what you want. If there was something for your mom, you missed it. Your mind is blocking it and it is blocking yourself, so everything is in your mind.

Ben still did not understand, so I told him another story. I said, "There're two salesmen from a shoe factory who were sent to an island to try an open a market there. After one salesman got there, he called the company headquarters saying, "We can't do business here, since all the people here don't wear shoes." The second salesman said, "Great news, all the people here don't wear shoes, so we have a huge market here." They both saw the same thing, but it is how you interpret it. Everything is therefore in your mind for example, the power to analyze the same situation differently.

In Buddhism, when you have more wisdom, and you will really know how to handle these kinds of situations. I always say, "Buddhism is a lubrication for your life. It helps you to smooth out your life and your relationships so you can relate better with people." It improves your life when you can improve your relationships. If we talk about the network society, with multi-level marketing, and human relationships; if you have an occupation that has more of a public relationship aspect to it will be more rewarding. I believe it makes our life much easier. In Buddhism, it depends on how you look at things. When you look at something positively, it becomes positive, but if you turn it around and you look at it, it could be negative.

Have you seen the movie "Star Wars "? I love this movie and I always talk about it. Star Wars, in the first place, is very scientific. What is the Star Wars motto? "May the Force be with you." The first time they said this, I was really knocked out because the original saying is, "May God be with you." They changed God to the Force. George Lucas is a very smart guy because he can show there is something out in the universe. It might not be God; it may be something else. When you use the term "May the Force be with you," the Force may be anything, so they can sell it in all the markets. No matter if it is Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim, you can use this force.

At the end of this movie, why did they call the main character Sky Walker? In yoga or meditation, your spirit can have an out-of-body experience. To a spiritual cultivator, you can walk in the sky and become a "Sky Walker". Remember in Part Two - Sky Walker is learning how to master the Force the way he learned from the muppet? "Yoda" was the name of the muppet. Does "Yoda" sound like "Yoga" to you? From Yoda, you learn how to master the Universal force. Remember the guy in the black mask? Darth Vader. Does the black mask represent death to you? Darth Vader, like western technology, has always tried to conquer death.

This may be why in the USA, at a cryogenic institution, within five minutes after someone dies, they will freeze their body. Later, they will try to bring them back to life when the technology is better in the future. In the Oriental philosophy, we try to cope with death. We do not try to conquer death, because death is a very natural thing.

In part one of Star Wars, when Sky Walker is flying the space craft trying to destroy the headquarters of his enemies, he wants to use the computer target screen, but it will not be successful if he does. He then turns off the computer. Remember when he turned off the computer and then he used his mind instead? He used his concentration to become focused and at the right moment he fired and hit the target without the use of the computer, only his mind power.

In the second part, Luke was telling princess Leia that he had met this Yoda Master (the Muppet) before. I remember in one of the scenes when his spacecraft was at the bottom of the lake. How would he be able to fly the spacecraft back to land? Master Yoda taught him, saying, "Luke, Concentrate !" Luke tried to concentrate and said, "Master, it is not working!" Yoda did not say anything, instead he just closed his eyes and concentrated on the whole spacecraft, which rose up from the bottom of the lake. Luke said a very famous and classic statement: "I don't believe in it." Then Yoda answered genuinely, "That's why you fail." I do not believe in it and that is why you fail. Is this a reference to the mind ? I do not believe in it and that is why you fail.

Is part three called Return of the Jedi? In Return of the Jedi, Luke finally realizes that he is always trying to find Darth Vader. He then finds out about the nature of their relationship. They are father and son, a blood relationship, but the problem is how do you conquer your father ? Darth Vader is the blood father of Luke Sky Walker. At one point, Luke screams, "No, you are not my father!" He could not accept the fact that Darth Vader was his father. Finally Dark Vader, who still had a good conscience in the end, tried to help his son Luke.

Finally, it seems that Darth Vader begins to sing and everyone else starts to sing. Finally, the movie tells people how to cope with death by trying not to conquer it and accepting it. At first Luke tried to conquer Darth Vader, so to me, Darth Vader represents death in the movie. They sound very close to each other, "death evader" and "Darth Vader" and his clothes look like death. Finally, at Luke's re-union with Darth Vader, he realizes that Darth Vader is a part of him. That is why I use the term "cope with death" instead of conquer death. You cannot conquer death, you can only cope with it.

In Japan many years ago, the King Emperor of Japan, whom they call the Heavenly King, was dying of cancer. In Japan, they handled it differently. They were not trying to extend his life, but instead they were trying to make the King Emperor of Japan die in a comfortable way. I read a report that said this is something new to the doctors in the USA, because in Japan, when they know it is hopeless and you cannot save a life, they try to make it peaceful for the person instead. Now, they have a mercy King, but it is a big topic; I do not want to get into that this time. Overall, it is a different philosophy on how to deal with death.

Sometimes when young people come to ask me, "Master Chiu, can you put it in simple terms for me?" I often say to them that Buddhism is just like three words, "Application, concentration and dedication."

Application is when you try to apply what you learned in your life. First, I should have said concentration is to focus on what you are learning. Even if you are student or when you are working, concentration is still very important. When you apply what you learned, that is application. If you want to do better than average, you will need to dedicate a little bit more effort. I notice that concentration, application and dedication appear in many of movies.

Another movie, I am going to talk about is "Forest Gump". Did you notice that after everyone gave up, Forest Gump caught all the shrimp near the end ? He kept trying and trying, which is application. Whatever his mom told him, he believed in it she said that miracles can happen. You know, at first Forest Gump's leg was kind of crippled and that his mom told him a miracle could happen. While he was running, he did not need the support of anything because he had faith, so he applied what he learned. He also loved that girl, Jenny, and even when she died, he still loved Jenny - now that is concentration. He caught the shrimp after everybody gave up, but he kept on trying; that is what we call dedication. Do you think that concentration, application and dedication help in our lives? It does not matter if you are a student or if you are a professional. This is what Buddhism is all about; so you can apply what you learned to your life. If you want to succeed, then dedicate a little bit more and try to help out other people. This is Buddhism.

In Buddhism we try to gain wisdom and learn compassion, but when we say "compassion" many people say, "It seems to be a broad term". I usually reply, "compassion starts from your mouth by trying to say something nice." Compassion starts from your family and the people who surround you. Many people say, "I have got to save the rain forest." which is good. Last year before I came, someone sent me an email that Bill Gates was giving a speech-not an election an election in a high school. Bill Gates has eleven rules that he came up with himself that someone sent me. The number one rule by Bill Gates is, "The world is not fair, get used to what you gave." That is the first rule and I remember one of the other rules he said, "When you say you want to save the rain forest, try to clean up your closet first." Then, one of the next things he said was, "Your parents had no fatigue before they had you. But then they had to pay the mortgage, electricity, insurance and pay for your food, that is why they are tired now. This means that it starts with your family members, so when I say compassion starts from your mouth, compassion starts with the people around you. Compassion starts from your family and when everybody can do that, because society is already whole society will be more harmonized.

The last thing I would like to share with you is, "People do not plan to fail, they fail to plan". The last time I spoke to some high school kids, there was a big child who did not want to go to college. Of course, most parents want their kids to go to college for further education. They said, "Master Chiu, please talk to him," and I said, "To be honest, I finished college and after my graduation, people asked me how I felt. "You're now finished with college." I said that after four years of college, it seemed that I knew what I knew, but I did not know what I did not know. Knowledge or a college degree does not guarantee you a successful life, but knowledge does provide you with a better opportunity. You have more of a selection so it is your choice of what you want in your life, but you have to dedicate and co-operate.

Once a mom came to me and told me that her son is a good child, but every weekend, he goes out until three or four o'clock in the morning. When he comes home, he will say, "Mom, I'm mature and I am not going to do anything bad, so don't worry." Basically, his mom does not know how to handle it, so she came to me to asked for help. I said, "Next time you can tell him, "At the moment you are living in my house and I don't expect you listen or obey me, but don't you think you should respect my way of living when you live in my house?'" I said not to use the word "obey", because it is too strong of a word. I said to treat him as an adult and say "When you live in my house, I am paying for your bread and butter and I am paying for everything, so don't you think that you should have the courtesy to respect my way of living ?"

It seems today's kids are saying, "They're my rights!" but what are your obligations? When you talk about rights, you are also talking about obligations. You are not just born with rights; so what are your obligations? What are you supposed to do? One of my friends came to me and she said that one day her twelve-year-old daughter came up to her and said, "Mom, I'm twelve years old now and I have the right not to help with the dishes." I asked her how she handled that; she said, "I yelled to her that I'll do it and I would rather do it myself anyways, because I'm much faster."

At the temple in Vancouver, we have a Buddhist Youth Club for the ages of seven to fifteen years old. I quoted this scenario for them to analyze. I do not give them answers, so it trains them to think. I said, "This twelve year old girl says she has the right not to do the dishes, but do you think you have the right to not help out the family as well?" One boy came up with an answer that I really liked. He said, "Yes, she might have the right not to help with the dishes, but her parents are not obligated to feed her and they can abandon her or give her away." When we talk about rights, what are the obligations? Sometimes, we emphasize too much on just the rights, and completely forget about what are we obligated to do. That is how I feel about it.

I think that even in a marriage, we tend to talk about our right, but we should also think "What are my obligations to my family ?" When you go to the church to get married and when you say, "I do," there is a commitment too. I am not going to say that this is wrong, but you should not say that on Friday or Saturday nights, "I want to hang out with my friends," because sometimes you have a priority or you have a commitment. This is how I feel. Life is not just two people getting married and living happily ever after. Before you got married, there was no obligation, no mortgage or no car insurance and you paid your own expenses. After you get married, you have to share. This is how I feel too. With compassion we should think of other people and how they feel, so maybe you can handle things easier.

Buddhism teaches you how to handle relationships and how to think of others. When you learn this wisdom, it is much easier to have a better life.

Thank you for coming to today's dharma talk.

Om Mani Padme Hum

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