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THE
FIVE PRECEPTS
Dear
friends,
Upon the request of HT Cau Nguyen, I send you the translation of Ngu Gioi Cam.
Please feel free to contact me for any question.
Love.
Hum Bui, MD
The Year of the Earth Dragon (1928)
Children, your Master proclaims:
DO NOT KILL LIVING BEINGS.
I have told you that when there was nothing in this universe, the cosmic ether
gave birth only to Me, and My throne is the universal monad. I divided the
monad into the diad which is Yin and Yang and then into the tetrad and then
into the eight trigrams. The latter changes continuously to form the universe.
I then divided My spirit to create ten thousands things that consist of
materials, plants, insects, and animals called living beings. You should
understand that everything comes from My spirit. Wherever there is life,
there I am. I am the father of life. My love of life is
unfathomable. Life is for all living beings. I distribute life everywhere in
the universe. Life grows
like a flower on a tree. It takes time to develop, to bloom, and to form
fruit that we can use to grow another tree and so on. If someone cuts that
flower, the life of that flower is interrupted and its further evolution is
prevented. Each life has its own Karma. It does not matter whether it is
an original or secondary living being,* its life on this earth is already
predetermined. If you kill any living being, you are to be punished
because no one knows whether that living being may have been an immortal or a
buddha reincarnated to earth. As I said, life is Me. To destroy life is
to attempt to destroy Me. And it is not easy to destroy Me. Teach
that to human beings.
I take My leave
* Original living being: living being whose spirit is directly coming from
God's spirit.
Secondary living being: living being whose spirit is coming from the original
living being. The original living being may divide his/her spirit to form many
living beings who are called secondary living beings.
TNHT 1972 p. 170
The Year of the Earth Dragon (1928)
Children, your Master proclaims:
DO NOT CHEAT.
Alas! When I gave birth to you, I loved and respected you profoundly, and I
sent you to this world with a sacred body made exactly in My image, so that
you did not need to eat in order to live, or to make clothes to cover
yourself.
However, you did not listen to Me and were seduced by materials, good foods,
sex, power, and wealth which ultimately lead to suffering in this world.
I reserved enough wealth for all of you to share, but because of greed, some
of you received much, while others suffer hunger. I granted the same
powers to you that I granted to the Genies, Saints, Immortals, and Buddhas so
that you can discipline each other to respect and honor My saintly love of
life. Unfortunately, these powers have become a tool to treat people as
slaves. Alas! What a tragedy! I am so disappointed! Do you
know why all people become so dishonest and greedy? The principal needs of
people are food and clothing--no one can avoid those needs.
Unfortunately, many people want to have an exclusive power of distributing
foods and clothes. How do they acquire those powers? People use all
manner of wicked tricks to get as much powers and wealth as possible.
Society is therefore
becoming chaotic with struggle and fighting to acquire things. The
stronger acquires everything, the weaker loses everything. There is no
justice this way. God's law is not observed anymore. This is the cause
of all suffering on earth.
When dishonesty and greed penetrate your heart, there will be no more virtue.
When they penetrate your home, there will be no more right teachings.
When they penetrate your country,
there will be no more right administration. When they penetrate the world,
there will be no more
Genies and Saints.
Needless to say, dishonesty and greed can make you commit sins and crimes.
Therefore, dishonesty and greed are severe crimes.
I take My leave.
TNHT 1972 p. 171
Year of the Earth Dragon (1928)
Children, your Master proclaims:
DO NOT BE OBSCENE.
Why is obscenity a severe crime?
Ordinary people see the physical body as a single unit. In reality, it is a
mass of innumerable living parts. These living parts are assembled to
form a body with a divine personality. This body is nourished with other
living beings such as vegetables, plants, fruits, rice--all of which are fresh
and contain vital matter (because all these foods are living beings). If these
foods did not contain fresh, vital matter, they would certainly simply wither
and die. Thus, you would never eat things whose nutrients are already
wasted. Cooking simply disinfects foods. The nutritional energy of these
foods does not die after being cooked.* Foods are then transformed in
your gastrointestinal system into "Khi" (vital energy), and then
into blood. Of course, you all know that there is spiritual energy in
"Khi" and in blood. It is transformed into a human body as a
result of the cycle of death and birth. Therefore, even a drop of
blood has a certain amount of spiritual energy. Since sexual
"Tinh" (lifematter) is composed partly of blood and partly of
"Khi," excessive sexual activity thus causes an unnecessary waste of
Tinh and therefore of spiritual energy. After your death, you will be
confronted with and judged by this spiritual energy, and the manner in which
you wasted it, at the "Nghiet Canh Dai."** You will not be able to
deny how you wasted your spirit. So, you should observe this precept
closely.
I take My leave.
* Foods change only in form during the process of digestion and
absorption. Foods do not die after being cooked or digested because they
constitute elements comprised of atoms. Atoms are not destroyed--they
only change their arrangement, form and purpose.
** "Nghiet Canh Dai" is a place in the spiritual world where the
spirits, after the death of their physical body, will see all the good and bad
deeds that they has done during their physical lifetime.
TNHT 1972 p. 172
January 18, 1927. Year of the Fire Tiger.
DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL.
Why abstain from alcohol?
I have taught that your body is composed of a mass of everlasting spirits. You
should understand that the internal organs of your body are also formed by
living units whose function, whether they are aware of or not, is commanded by
Me. I therefore use your body to teach.
Firstly, let's explain why alcohol is harmful to your physical body. Your
physical body is still like animal and needs to eat in order to live. When
alcohol is ingested, it is absorbed into all internal organs of your body
including the heart which is the main machine for life. It makes your heart
work more than naturally, it pushes the whole cardio-vascular system to
function excessively, and the lungs do not have enough time to purify dirty
blood (to oxygenate blood) which will be accumulated in the whole body,
intoxicate the living units leading to progressive sickness and finally to
demise of the living units of the organs and then of your body. Many people
had half of their body dead just because of alcohol.
Secondly, I explain why alcohol is harmful to your spirit.
I said that the soul forms your second body. It is the "khi" which
surrounds your body like a mold. Its center is the brain, the gate by where
your second body enters or gets out is the fontanelle on top of the head which
is watched and protected by the Ho Phap. With meditation, there is unification
of The "Tinh" and the "Khi" and the "Than"
leading to enlightenment.
The brain is thus the origin of the "Khi." When dirty blood is
accumulated in the brain, it becomes confused and your spirit is not clear
and calm to control the body. The body will lose its human personality and act
like animals, and will have no hope to progress to the state of Genie, Saint,
Immortal, and Buddha. At the same time, when the brain is confused, it becomes
an open gate, the evil will take advantage to invade you and push you into
crimes and subsequently into continuous reincarnation. Therefore, listen, I
forbid you to drink alcohol!
TNHT 1972 p. 173
Year of the Earth Dragon (1928)
Children, your Master proclaims:
DO NOT SIN BY WORD
Why is lying forbidden?
I have said that I have set up a spirit in your physical body that protects
your life. Of course, you all know that this spirit is impartial and can
communicate with the Genies, Saints, Immortals, Buddhas, and Superior Spirits
of the Ngoc Hu Cung (Cabinet of God) and can record all of your good and bad
deeds. They then transmit this record to the Celestial Judgment Court.
All will be recorded there, whether good or bad.
(side note: so this is like the akashic records of a soul)
Moreover, this holy spirit not only has a duty to protect you, but to educate
you as well through what most human beings describe as the
"conscience." Thus, Confucian Saints have said: "One who
despises people despises one's own heart. God has determined that this
is a crime from which there is no escape." When you lie to people,
you first lie to yourself, to your own conscience, and thus to your own spirit
(which is a part of God). As I said, this spirit will submit your every
word to the Celestial Judgment Court--and even though you may never have acted
on your words, you will be punished for them just the same, because the effect
on the spirit (and therefore on God) will have been the same. Therefore,
at the Judgment Court, none of your words will be omitted. This is why I
have instructed you to be careful in your words and your virtues. You should
be twice as careful in your speech as in your actions, because the punishment
for morally wrong speech is the same as punishment for morally wrong actions.
It would be wise for you to remember this.
I take My leave.
TNHT 1972 p. 174 |
