Visitors' Questions during August 2002

This page will be revised at the beginning of each month.

The following are Hai's and other spirits' responses to miscellaneous questions recently posed by visitors to this web site or by personal visitors to our home. If you would like to ask a general question please complete the Question Form or post it in one of the Web Board's forums. If you have a question of a more personal nature please see the Consultations Page. Occasionally, we may ask people who have received responses to personal questions if they are happy to give their consent to posting on this site an extract of the response which they have received if we feel that it could also be of benefit to others.

A recent postal question prompted a follow on discussion regarding the possibility of achieving a calm and peaceful state of mind:

Q: Is it possible do you think for all thoughts to cease to exist and the human mind to be peaceful. Is that possible for a human being to achieve?

Hai: But you need your thoughts, you need your mind, as you know. But it is a matter of keeping them in balance like a three horse chariot. We must allow the middle horse, the wise horse, the balanced horse to hold the day, to run the race and pull the others in it's track. If we can achieve balance in our thoughts, balance in the mind; this is what is needed, this is what is needed. But we need our thoughts, we need our mind. For we are living in the ephemeral world and even in the spiritual world we need thoughts. Thoughts are our power, are our means of communication, are our connectivity.

Q: Do you think the human mind spends too much time going over the same points again and again and again?

Hai: It is like you walk along the street and you step on some chewing gum that some kind soul has deposited there on the pavement and you cannot get rid of it. You feel it under your feet, you feel something under your feet. You scrape and you shake. You move your feet around, but it will not go, for it is stuck to your foot. It a bit like that with thoughts, the negative thoughts which people have. For they become obsessed with a particular thought, especially perhaps with a 'what if' thought. A "what if this?"; a "what if that?", "what if I had dome that?". These thoughts are very sticky. But this is not helpful, not helpful. It is best to examine these thoughts then put them to one side, for there will be no end to them. You could become so obsessed with one of these thoughts that 20 years later it would still be rattling around your head.

Q: I knew someone who was like that.

Hai: Well is this not great pain? Is this not great torment? It is like as if we say to ourselves: "Oh what an awful day that was! The sky was thick with dark clouds which threatened rain and threw rain on us all. What an awful day that was!". And their friends says to them: "Ah, yes indeed, it was, but that was one day many months ago and here we are sitting in the glorious sunshine of the blue sky". But you see my point? You can become so fixed on that one bad day, that awful day, that you loose, you miss the Now, the glorious Now.

Q: If people did have more controled minds would it add to the peace on the earth? Would we be more peaceful?

Hai: It would be more peaceful if people could have calmer minds. But reality is people come to this earth to learn things. If everyone could have calm still minds when they came there perhaps would be no need for them to come. It is by living the life of this world that they learn such things, hopefully. And therefore we must live our life, we must learn from our life. We should not be too worried about our mistakes. For if we were to make no mistakes what would be the point of being here? We are put here, we are sent here, to be refined in the furnace, into glorious precious metals. But what would be the point of putting pure gold into the furnace? To what purpose would this have? None, yes? And so with us also. We must make our mistakes. We must have forgiveness for our mistakes. We must accept our mistakes. For we came here to make our mistakes, to learn through those mistakes and to grow through those mistakes. Therefore, we should also not be too quick to point the finger: "Ah look what he did"; "Look what she did". For we hope they are learning through their mistakes and we also through our mistakes, which perhaps we are not so quick to see, to recognise. I have made you all quiet.

Q: I was just thinking about the quiet beautiful mind.

Hai: Quiet mind reflect the beauty of all around it like limpid clear pool of water, unruffled by the interaction of the scene.

Hai: Ah well, you know, while we are in the earth body we have many needs, we have many needs. And to the extent that earthly goods, earthly manufacturings, help to ease our life in earth body, there is no harm in this. And indeed there may be much good in this. So there is no problem with this. But the problem is when people become too attached to the earthly imaginations, too attached to earthly things, too attached to material conditions and material artefacts. This can cause problems. People loose perspective, people loose balance. People then fail perhaps sometimes to develop the spiritual aspect of their life because their minds are focused on the material to the exclusion of the spiritual.

But I talk as if there is duality. There is no duality here fundamentally. But it is true that we may loose perspective on life. It is true rather that we may loose persective on life in a number of many different ways. It is not accurate to say that we should contrast the material with the spiritual. For the fundamental problem is that people loose balance, loose perspective in their life and they become obsessive about one aspect of their life, or about certain conditions in their life to the exclusion of all others. And no matter what manifestation of their attachment comes from this we find a situation where they lack balance, they lack perspective. They loose their focus on life. They loose their balance and therefore their life becomes a life of dis-ease, a life of lack of balance, a lack of the pivitol point of life. Therefore it is best to talk in this way: that we should foster the principle of non attachment. That we do not become over attached, excessively attached, preocupied with other things, regardless of what these other things may be. For people may become over attached to religion, may become over attached to spirituality. And we would therefore have the same problem with this. The same problem of lack of balance as we would have with preocupation with other things such as preocupation with television, watching hours and hours of television, without purpose. Therefore the fundamental problem is this lack of balance, this over attachment to certain things.

Q: Do you think this comes about through normal human reasoning or through poor education?

Hai: You may foster, you may create conditions in your society which present, which create these circumstances, these situations where people are more likely to become attached to things or less likely to become attached to things. Your society, your culture, brings about these problems sometimes. Therefore it is more than just the individual. The individual is one fish in the sea if you like, and if you find that the sea becomes contaminated then the fish, the poor little fish, will become contaminated. The sea is pure, the fish may be pure also. But it is not the whole story, because we have our free will also. Therefore it is both a matter for the individual, but also a matter for society, culture.

The person then related a story about someone whose expensive car had been vandalised. It had caused the owner a good deal of distress.

Hai: Well, you know, we become sometimes too attached to our possessions, too attached to our outer manifestations. For sometimes we see our possessions as an outer manifestation of our own inner selves and this is great error. We identify ourselves with our possessions sometimes and if this possession is attacked, is damaged, we feel it is an assault upon our own identity. But our own identity is inviolable. Our own identity is secure within, unless we allow it to be assailed from without. But if we associate it too closely with those things we possess then we make it vunerable, for we then put ourselves in a position where damage, where harm to the outer manifestation, the property, the thing, the material good, becomes a matter of great concern. For it has an immediate impact upon our own sense of security, our own sense of worth. Therefore, to associate ourselves with our possessions to any great extent is great error. For these things are transient. These things are passing, are changeable and there is no security in them. Therefore we should not put our trust in them. We should not place our identity with them. We should not place our future with them.