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We all praise that Shakyamuni Buddha had thirty-two good appearances. Do you know what the thirty-two good appearances are? Why are most of them animal appearances? Shouldn’t spiritual practice go beyond images of human and the three world? Why is there still animal appearance? Supreme Master Ching Hai says jokingly: “He turned into animals after becoming Buddha; no wonder we can't find any Buddha here.” If we measure a Buddha by outer appearance, we can never find any Buddha. A spiritual practitioner can experience many levels, but no one can explain what the highest level is. They just know it. After becoming Buddha, we are what we are; of course, we will become more beautiful, and will automatically have a kind of formless attraction and beauty; people will feel more and more comfortable when they look at us, so the more they look at us, the more they want to look at us, and they will be reluctant to leave us; it’s never enough for them to look at us.

We are born as humans, animals, maya, ghosts, women or men in each lifetime. That’s all because we go through different mirrors. Our real self, however, remains the same. The world is a mirror that reflects us. We mistake this unreal world and unreal emotions for us and think these are us. In fact, we are not born, not destroyed, not defiled, not clean; we are the most noble, wise, loving and pure, and have never sinned. Only when we know we are the most pure can we truly understand that we originally have no karma and everything comes from the mirror and all is drama. The mission of a Master is to make our soul, the real Self understand: do not stick to the mirror any more. The only way for us to become Buddha and get rid of those illusions is to look inside, instead of looking at the mirror.