During this month whenShakyamuni Buddhawas born, Supreme Master Ching Hai took the opportunity to tell us a story called “The Lion Follows the Path,” about one of the former lives of Shakyamuni Buddha, and explain the importance of not harming any weaker beings for selfish purposes:“You see, Shakyamuni Buddha, before achieving Buddhahood had been reincarnated countless times in countless eons of time because he had not practiced spiritually or had not practiced the correct method.  For many lifetimes, he gave up his thrones or his wives or whatnot, and it still took him such a long time to achieve Buddhahood. Even if his body had been cut up many times, if he hadn’t practiced the correct method, he couldn’t have achieved Buddhahood.  It’s like one can’t cook sand to get rice. 

In our group, all we do is apply the philosophy of existing religions; we didn’t create a new religion.  We only apply the teachings of Lao Tzu, Zhuang Tzu, Buddha, and Jesus Christ.  In our school, we only apply what the previous Masters taught.  They taught us not to kill, so we don’t kill. They taught us to eat vegan food in order to protect the lives of animals, so we eat vegan food.  They taught us to meditate to find our true inner Self, so we meditate, and so on.....”