Spiritual space

This story was told by the Venerable Thiền Tâm, and we once retold it in the book "On Cause and Effect".

A group of children were herding buffaloes home along an earthen embankment. Suddenly one of them fell to the ground, thrashing and screaming in terror. The other children, frightened, ran over and held down his arms and legs. But he went on screaming violently. After a long while he stopped, but his whole body was covered with scorch marks. When asked what had happened, he said that as he came to the embankment he suddenly saw a huge city gate appear, with a fierce fire blazing inside. He felt a sudden, extreme terror. But at that very moment an invisible force seemed to sweep him up and carry him inside, where he was burned in unbearable pain. And now the city of fire had vanished and everything was back to normal, with the embankment, the field, the herd and his friends, but his skin still bore the scorch marks and the fear still lingered.

Was the city of fire real, or only an illusion? If it was only the boy's illusion, why did the scorch marks appear? If it was real, why did his friends not see it?

From the standpoint of physical space, we will never be able to explain this strange phenomenon, or the countless other strange phenomena that have happened and are happening everywhere.

In truth, physical space is not the only realm of space in the universe. Higher than physical space there is spiritual space, with entirely new and unfamiliar laws that human eyes and ears cannot perceive. Nearly every religion gives weight to this spiritual world, with faith and with added guesses and imaginings that are extremely appealing.

Science can set foot on the moon, but it cannot yet set foot in this spiritual world. So this is also a free field of activity for mystics. They embellish this space with all sorts of myths to attract followers with a simple argument: science cannot know!

The good fortune we have today is that science has acknowledged the reality of extrasensory phenomena such as telepathy, hypnosis, prophecy, healing by the power of the mind, levitation and so on, and is searching for the key to a deeper understanding of these matters. Objective scientific research will restore the spiritual world to its true nature: neither adorning it with excessive mystery and fancy, nor dismissing it arbitrarily and shallowly.

Living beings, both animals and plants, all have the instinct for survival. This instinct is the tendency to maintain one's own life and to pass on one's kind for a long time to come. Plants tend to send roots down to search for food in the earth, such as water, nitrogen compounds and minerals. Leaves reach towards the light to carry out photosynthesis and absorb components of the air. Then they either bear fruit and drop seeds so that young plants grow, or their seeds are carried by the wind to other ground, or their roots creep far through the soil to sprout new plants.

Animals do not put down roots and stand in one place; they are more mobile, moving from place to place to find food. They are divided into female and male. The union of the two produces young to continue the species. A few hermaphroditic animals also have a suitable way of reproducing.

Unlike machines and vehicles, which are inert and without the survival instinct and work only when people operate them, living beings have a fierce tendency of their own to maintain life. That tendency is hidden in the genes of the cells, specifically in the spiral chain of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Scientists affirm that no two living beings have exactly the same DNA molecule. Criminologists rely on this property to trace a culprit accurately when only a strand of hair, a little blood, skin or semen is left at the scene.

Genes have an extremely complex molecular structure that science is still groping to understand bit by bit. It is these genes that determine how a living being will develop, what its form, temperament and health will be. People even dream of intervening to alter those genes in order to shape the development of living beings as they wish. They will create more perfect human beings.

At present some biologists have implanted human genes in livestock so that these animals secrete rare pharmaceutical substances in their milk. By refining the milk, important, expensive substances needed in medicine are obtained. Genes have even been implanted to produce trees with square rather than round trunks, so that less of the outer boards is wasted when timber is sawn. Illnesses linked to genes will be corrected and cured.

The secret of life is gradually becoming clear in the light of scientific achievement.

The survival instinct also arises from these tiny genes of complex structure. Another extremely important point has been overlooked: it is the survival instinct of the living being itself that creates a region of spiritual space for that very being.

Any living being, whether animal or plant, as long as it has the survival instinct, creates for itself a region of spiritual space around it. Scientists are calling this region of spiritual space the biological field (bio-field). Science knows magnetic fields well; it knows less well the gravity field, the vacuum, the gravitational field (at close range the gravitational field becomes the gravity field, at long range it is called the gravitational field), and the media that propagate sound and light. But it is still utterly unfamiliar with the field of spiritual space arising from this survival instinct. This field of spiritual space is the bright prospect for human civilisation in the future. Many scientists have sensed that the future civilisation of humankind will not be a physical civilisation but a spiritual one.

We use the phrase "region of spiritual space" arising from the survival instinct to refer to a category quite different from the metaphysical realms.

According to the religions, beyond this physical space the universe also contains metaphysical realms, heaven, hell and so on. These metaphysical realms exist objectively, like physical space, and contain many higher beings such as devas, gods and spirits, demons and evil spirits. Sometimes there are even palaces, halls, flowers and grass. Here we are not yet dealing with this kind of realm; we speak only of a region of spiritual space that is wholly subjective to each living being, which scientists are taking an interest in and calling the Biological Field. It is this subjective Spiritual Space that is the gateway to contact with the other invisible realms in the universe, not ordinary physical means.

Unlike physical space, which exists objectively with natural laws that operate independently of human wishes, spiritual space here is extremely subjective, working in dependence on each person (or, more broadly, each living being), with laws that are strange to the existing laws of physics. This region of space has its own aura.

In 1939, S. D. Kirlian, a gifted electronics engineer in the city of Krasnodar in the Soviet Union, invented an aura-photographing machine.

One day in a hospital, he was operating a high-frequency generator. Suddenly he noticed that the electrical discharge between the palm of his hand and the generator's electrode was quite unlike the discharge between his wrist and that electrode. There was some difference in electrical potential between two parts of the body barely an inch apart. Why? What was it? The best thing was to photograph and record this extraordinary phenomenon. But how? For as usual, if ordinary light were shone on it in order to take a picture, the electric streamers would no longer be clearly visible!

After some time puzzling over it, Kirlian decided to photograph the discharge in another way, without using an ordinary camera.

Kirlian devised a new apparatus for photographing, as follows: on a table he placed a sheet of ebonite for insulation. On that sheet was a metal electrode, and on the electrode a photographic plate.

Kirlian stood on a small rug to insulate himself from the floor, then connected the second electrode to the back of his hand. The palm of his hand he pressed tightly against the photographic plate. He called a young technician to help, telling him to close the switch so that the high-frequency current ran through his hand. The young technician was frightened, but nonetheless closed the switch and afterwards cut the circuit.

They developed the plate. They saw an image that was not very sharp, but nonetheless had the outline of a hand, and on the fingers the white joints of the bones showed clearly. Of course this was not an X-ray picture. It was something entirely new, an image of a biological object in a high-frequency electric field.

A leaf placed in the Kirlian machine appeared as a whole world of points of light. Around the leaf one saw little sparks of turquoise and orange, coming from the centre and travelling outwards along fixed meridians. A finger appeared like a whole painting, a detailed map of points, lines, pits of light and pits of fire.

Afterwards Kirlian and his wife developed a more advanced machine and photographed the auras of all kinds of living beings. At first the aura revealed the state of health of living beings. Later the aura also revealed all their moods. When health or mood changed, the aura changed with it.

Eastern teachers of the Way have spoken a great deal about the aura of the body. According to them, saints have an aura that shines brilliantly far into the distance, while ordinary people have a small, dark aura. Now, through Kirlian's invention, this aura is being seen with the naked eye of anyone. The region of spiritual space is having its veil of secrecy lifted a little. (See also "The Reincarnated Lamas".)

As for the applications of this field of spiritual space, the facts have astonished everyone. It is thoroughly subjective. A person with strong spiritual power (a field of spiritual space that is wider and of denser concentration) can use their will to carry out an extraordinary action that breaks any law of physics.

Uri Geller (of Jewish origin) used his will to bend metal objects and to stop the clock of Big Ben, merely by "looking" at them.

Ermolaiev (Soviet Union) could rise 60 cm above the ground. Or he would extend his hand towards another person, without touching them, and make that person rise from the ground.

Djuna (Georgia, Soviet Union) can use her hands to diagnose and heal illness. The results amazed the medical world. In 1984 she accepted experiments by a research panel from the United States and the Soviet Union and showed that she was able to see scenes in California (United States) from the Soviet Union.

Thadi-Ichu, a Japanese man, had remarkable eyes. When he concentrated his gaze, they emitted a supernatural energy that could crush small stones to bits.

Edgar Cayce (Kentucky, United States) could diagnose illness, direct the use of medicines and tell the patient's previous lives. Sometimes the prescription he gave was for a medicine that was still in the laboratory. He often spoke of karmic consequences: an unwholesome act in a previous life had produced the present illness, and he advised patients to do meritorious deeds together with taking medicine in order to be cured.

Large countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union have been quietly and intensively researching telepathy, the communication of information over a long distance between two people without any mechanical means, and have already had definite results. They also use psychics in intelligence and security work to uncover spies and criminals.

There are legends of Chinese qigong masters who could glide across water, and Tibetan lamas who could fly from one mountain peak to another. For the Eastern religions, the spiritual powers of a person who has attained the Way are self-evident, and are called supernormal powers.

Because spiritual space is so thoroughly subjective, scientists have met no little difficulty when they want to study this subject by the objective methods of physical space.

When a person has strong spiritual power, they will use it in many different ways according to their own subjective wish. They concentrate the mind to divine events at a distance, send a message, heal illness, levitate, prophesy, divide their body, hypnotise and so on. In this subjective wish, they go beyond the laws of physical space. This is extremely fascinating to the scientific world. If all the laws of the spirit were grasped and applied, humankind would advance very far.

Many scientists suspect that the method of travel of UFOs (flying saucers) is precisely the application of spiritual power to machines. UFOs disregard the pull of the earth and disregard inertia. They drift slowly and then suddenly move at extreme speed, or turn invisible and vanish. Moreover, to cross distances of hundreds of thousands of light years, UFOs must surely have a way of moving many times faster than the speed of light.

The speed of light is 299,992 km per second. According to Einstein, in this physical space the speed of light is absolute. If any object flew at this speed, its dimensions would be annihilated.

However, with spiritual space, Einstein's relative law of physics is still broken. By applying extremely strong spiritual power to machines, UFOs can reach speeds many times the speed of light. If need be, they can become invisible while moving. The writer of the film script "Star Wars" called this phenomenon entering "hyperspace".

But why would machines have spiritual power? As we have seen, it is the survival instinct that creates the region of spiritual space around that individual. And the survival instinct comes from the structure of the cell, in whose nucleus the DNA molecule serves as the hereditary gene.

It may be that, with extremely advanced means, they create large pieces of matter in which each atom is arranged tightly after the structure of a cell with its spiral chain of DNA molecules. When supplied with an electric current, this piece of matter becomes a living body with a survival instinct. Each atom works in perfect coordination. And so an artificial region of spiritual space appears around that piece of matter. Now, by their will, people direct the piece of matter to move.

At present our own science is also beginning to enter an "atomic age", able to see atoms and trying to find ways to arrange them.

Science has already applied biomimicry quite a lot. People imitate dolphin skin to make the hulls of submarines, the ultrasonic waves of bats to make radar, the ability of electric rays to store electricity... But the highest peak of biomimicry is to create a large object, arranging each atom so that it becomes a living body with a survival instinct when an electric current runs through it, and so that an artificial spiritual space appears. Let us wait for that day, the day Earth catches up with the civilisations of other planets.

Spiritual space has an aura. Flying saucers also have a dazzling aura. Could it be that the field of spiritual power is so strong and so dense that the saucer's aura appears so that the naked eye can still see it, whereas in living beings this aura is too weak and only exceptional psychics can see it?

Then too, the regions of spiritual space of animals and plants differ. Animals have a brain and complex, changing psychological activity. The brain has brain cells and nerve cells different from muscle cells. So the survival instinct of animals is far stronger than that of plants, and the spiritual space of animals far greater than that of plants.

In 1966, Mr Backster, a scientist who built an electronic lie-detector, became thanks to that machine a trainer for American police on how to use lie detectors.

During one sleepless night of training, his mind so tired that he absent-mindedly attached the two electrodes of a sensitive galvanometer to the two ends of a leaf on a plant in the room. The leaf was large and thick like a banyan leaf. The plant was very dry. He wondered what would happen if the base of the plant were watered and the water rose to the stem, branches, leaves and flowers. The galvanometer would measure the phenomenon.

The water gradually rose to the stem and leaves. But no: the needle of the galvanometer stayed still, with no reaction at all. By rights the needle should have moved up, since with more water the conductivity ought to increase.

Suddenly Mr Backster thought: if a person or animal feels an emotion or a fear the needle jumps, so why not do something out of the ordinary? The scientist thought of burning the leaf with a flame to see what would happen. But he had only had the thought, and had not yet made any move to pick up a lighter, when to his great astonishment he saw the needle of the galvanometer twitch.

Even with his eyes open he could hardly believe it! Could it be that the leaf read his thought and showed its reaction of fear? Mr Backster decided to really burn the leaf. He stood up to fetch the lighter, and immediately the galvanometer jumped once more. Without hesitating, he struck the lighter, determined to burn the leaf, and the needle jumped again. But he did not burn the leaf. The next time, he picked up the lighter and pretended he was about to burn it, but had told himself beforehand in his mind that he would not, and the galvanometer did not jump. Then he resolved to burn it for real, and the galvanometer jumped hard again. At that time the room was windless, and Mr Backster was touching neither the plant nor the machine.

So one may conclude: the plant had read human thought. At that moment Backster cried out and meant to go and tell everyone that plants had an extraordinary faculty. They knew other people's thoughts, which means they could think, they had a mind. But he stopped himself in time. The proper attitude of a scientist is to research fully so as not to draw a wrong conclusion. And he decided to extend his scientific research to other plants.

He gathered his colleagues and used 25 different kinds of plant in the research, experimenting on leaves such as lettuce and cabbage leaves, and on bulbs and fruits such as onions, oranges and bananas... The research, conducted by proper scientific method, allowed him to affirm: plants truly react when they face danger.

It is a special form of an invisible sense, like the gift of clairvoyance or the "divine eye" of some people. But these are vague terms. A special sense means a faculty above the senses. But plants have no eyes, ears, noses, mouths... They have no brain and no nervous system, so their knowing must be of another kind.

So it may be said that human senses are only elementary senses, feeling only within a very limited range, while plants have another kind of sense. Thinking so, Backster widened the base of his research more and more and made ever more novel discoveries.

He acquired more advanced machines, especially those that record the rhythms of electric currents. And the research went forward with a very elaborate plan, fully documented. The data were collected and classified carefully.

Even a separated piece of leaf had the reaction described above (called the Backster reaction). If a leaf is torn into pieces, each piece shows the same reaction. Stranger still, plants react not only to dangers created by human intention but also to an unusual suspicion not created by intention. A dog suddenly entering the room, or someone who dislikes plants walking in, also made the galvanometer jump. The movements of a spider approaching the plant also caused a reaction in the plant. Mr Backster carried out the experiment and demonstrated this before students at Yale University (United States). In that case, when someone came to drive off the spider, the needle of the galvanometer fell even before the spider ran away. It was as if, before the spider ran, the plant had already received the spider's decision to retreat. The plant saw the danger had passed and no longer reacted.

One experiment showed that when living side by side, plants keep watch on one another (fearing disturbance), but when an animal approaches and the danger is nearer, the plants turn to watching the animal. The research is long, and there are still stranger discoveries to come.

Mr Backster also discovered how plants defend themselves. How does a plant react when we eat its leaves? Plants also have memory and recognise those who habitually harm them. They even love the person who tends them and are happy when that person comes back.

Already 7,000 scientists have asked Mr Backster to send them the results of his research together with the scientific documents. Every botanist is passionately studying these extraordinary discoveries, and everyone will come to love plants more (collected by Hoàng Vũ, published in the magazine Thế giới kỳ lạ, issue 5).

Madame Djuna affirms that the spiritual aura of each kind of plant is different, and she can see it.

Thus the spiritual reaction of plants is intuitive, a direct knowing that needs no intermediate expressions and goes straight into the consciousness of the surrounding object, very much like the ability of gifted psychics to read the thoughts of others. This spiritual reaction demonstrates the presence of a region of spiritual space around plants.

Long-lived plants with strong biological power can be used as medicine to strengthen human health. The legend of the ginseng root drove the medical world into research and analysis, hoping to find some strange active substance. Sadly, they found no special active substance in the ginseng root. Yet clearly those who take ginseng do improve in health. This effect is not due to chemicals but to the biological (spiritual) power of the ginseng root.

Certain ngãi plants with very strong biological power are cultivated by sorcerers. They concentrate their minds on the ngãi plant with spoken vows, sometimes good and sometimes evil. When they want to harm someone, they use their thought, together with the biological power of the ngãi plant, and chant a curse that their enemy should suffer. Even from a great distance, the other person falls to the ground in terrible pain. Biological (spiritual) power can take effect across space and time.

The spiritual nature of plants arises from the survival instinct, whereas the human mind also has complex psychological activity. Human beings are the peak of psychological activity. The human psyche is divided into two parts: the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious is the small visible surface of a huge iceberg. It is the deeply submerged unconscious that holds a whole mass of fierce activity.

It is the unconscious that remembers, creates, has premonitions and brings out all the marvellous powers of a human being. Sometimes we combine the survival instinct and the activity of the unconscious into one.

The autonomic nervous system belongs to the unconscious; it directs the activities of the internal organs, making the heart beat, the pulse throb and the glands secrete hormones, all automatically.

The conscious mind seems nimble: it can think, reason, distinguish and recognise, but it cannot know directly the way the unconscious does (intuition).

Plants can know a person's thoughts directly with their simple spiritual space, so human beings, whose spiritual space is higher, ought to perceive far more. But why does it seem that we cannot know anything beyond what the eyes and ears tell us?

Why can we not know the nature of the thoughts of the person facing us, or of someone far away?

It is precisely because the shallow conscious mind covers everything over! We are accustomed to using the conscious mind, and the conscious mind depends on the senses, so we do not hear what the unconscious has perceived.

Listen to the unconscious!

Let us practise as the Eastern teachers of the Way, the Zen masters who honour Buddhism, and the priests experienced in deep stillness advise: let go of the conscious mind and go deep into listening to the unconscious. When the thinking of the conscious mind settles and falls quiet, the intuition of the unconscious will appear. The capacity of the unconscious, with its vast spiritual space, will open up a thousand marvels that we never imagined. The famous psychics of the world all have the ability to enter concentration in order to use this wonderful spiritual power.

Certain animals we regard as intelligent, such as dolphins, dogs and birds... in fact do not have the quick, reasoning conscious mind of humans and monkeys. For the most part they use intuition. Other animals such as snakes, tortoises, cats and tigers also recognise the intentions and nature of other animals through the spiritual unconscious. But sometimes their reaction is weak and unclear, or they too are obstructed by the conscious mind.

The nature of this field of spiritual space is extremely subjective. It takes effect according to the wish of the subject. Whatever the subject wants, it does. If we want to know another's thoughts, immediately spiritual power turns into the ability to receive thought as information. If we want to make a person lighter (levitation), immediately spiritual power turns into the ability to dissolve mass (not to oppose gravity). If we want to heal another person, immediately spiritual power turns into the ability to adjust the body. If we want heat in the palm of the hand, immediately spiritual power turns into the ability to generate local heat... The countless effects of spiritual ability are directly tied to the subjective wish of the person. Scientists, used to the objective research methods of physical space, are bewildered by the strange effects of this spiritual power. They pay no attention to the wish of the subject, while spiritual power depends entirely on the wish. With concentration and with a wish, spiritual power will take effect.

Although, compared with physical space, spiritual space seems higher and more wondrous, it is still governed by the law of karmic consequences.

Brilliant leaders, while their merit is still full, often have the ability to divine the intentions of the enemy from afar in order to defend and counter-attack. Zhuge Liang is a typical example. He seemed to guess nearly all the moves of his opponents. They also have the ability to judge the capability and loyalty of their subordinates. This intuition helps them succeed in consolidating political power. When their merit is exhausted, intuition declines, they misjudge and finally collapse.

Businesspeople are the same: intuition helps them foresee the shifts of the market and from there draw up accurate investment plans. Besides the help of specialists and of computers, they still have their own judgement by intuition.

In addition, thanks to merit from previous lives, leaders have an invisible authority that makes others respect and obey them. This authority is also a power of the spirit. Their eyes are bright, seeing right through the person facing them, and as if by a natural hypnosis, their subordinates are subdued before they know it. Dictators and tyrants have a fierce, violent authority. True founders of religions such as the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad (see Will Durant's "History of Arab Civilisation") have a deep, boundless loving gaze that moves everyone and brims with reverence. Coming close to true masters, we feel an invisible, fresh peace spreading around them that puts us at ease. Krishnamurti also had such a space of peace, which many people felt.

Gifted psychics are all people who practised meditation and concentration in previous lives and directed their minds to supernormal powers. A yogi in the Himalayas once attained concentration and often used spiritual power to heal the villagers. Born in the Soviet Union in the next life, this person spontaneously showed the ability to heal by biological power. A hypnotist once trained eyes full of power, with an inner mind settled and firm. Born in England in the next life, this person spontaneously had extraordinary eyes and could move objects by looking at them from a distance.

However, there are also cases where the result does not appear because it is covered over by other karma. For example, a yogi had the ability to walk on water. This yogi often boasted, was complacent, and disparaged those who had not achieved what they had. In the next life the yogi no longer had the ability to levitate. The karma of complacency and disparagement blocked the result of his practice.

Many people raise the question that if illness can truly be cured by spiritual power, modern medicine would no longer be necessary, since psychics already take care of everything from diagnosis to treatment!

In truth, from within the Absolute Essence, karma still quietly governs everything, and not everyone has the chance to meet a gifted psychic to be treated. Only those with the merit and affinity meet this opportunity. What merit and affinity made it possible for us to be treated by spiritual power, while others must accept treatment by drugs and surgery?

In earlier centuries, faith was still very strong. Some kind-hearted believers prayed for a higher power to bestow blessings so that patients would recover. Their sincere prayers, with deep faith in the higher power, awakened spiritual strength in themselves. This strength crossed space and eased the illness of the other person. Of course they did not have the extraordinary power to end the victim's illness, but their goodwill was answered. In the next life, when they fell ill, they were often fortunate enough to meet gifted psychics who treated them at little cost and without pain. That is why not everyone receives healing by spiritual power. As for doctors who believed only in the efficacy of medicines and diligently prepared herbs and chemicals to heal everyone, in later lives they will meet similar treatment whenever they fall ill.

However, Zen masters advise against using supernormal powers a great deal while we have not yet fully attained the Way, because attachment to self has not yet ended. When we use spiritual power we must give rise to a wish: wanting the sky to gather clouds and rain, wanting a person to rise from the ground, wanting to know what the future holds... It is this "wanting" that makes attachment to self grow, and when attachment to self grows, we cannot be liberated and dissolve into the boundless Essence of the universe.

Only arhats who have fully realised the truth, whose attachment to self has ended, can use supernormal powers regularly without being bound by attachment to self. That is why a person practising meditative concentration should simply settle the mind deeply to the very limit of the strength of concentration, and should not give rise to supernormal powers halfway, lest progress be held back later.

Some sorcerers and wizards have strong spiritual power and abuse it excessively to practise magic. They concentrate their minds to harm their enemies. They draw a human figure, write the opponent's name, light incense, and chant spells praying for the spirits to help. Then they form a wish directed at the opponent, imagining that he suffers pain and illness... Through spiritual power, and also because the other person has reached the time to repay karma, the victim suddenly feels spasms of pain inside that could kill him.

Such sorcerers often receive wretched karmic consequences at the end of life: they become paralysed, go blind, eat their own faeces, and their bodies stink so that no one dares go near. After death, in another life, they suffer even more misfortunes.

Although spiritual power seems higher than physical power (because of its subtle, invisible nature), it is still governed by karmic consequences. When a person uses spiritual power, they too cause an influence in the universe. This influence spreads gradually through many intermediaries and finally meets again the one who created it. If it is wholesome karma, the author will receive joy back. If it is unwholesome karma, the author will receive suffering back.

A Khmer master, when young, lured his lover into a lonely forest and killed her, cut out the foetus from her belly and took it home to prepare a "Thiên linh cái" charm. His magic was famous throughout the region. Many people asked him to cast spells on their enemies, or to find lost property, or to prepare love charms for girls. As a result his acquaintance was very wide. A young man went into the forest to look for medicinal leaves. Suddenly, as if an invisible force were drawing him ever further, he came upon the white skeleton of a girl. Out of pity he dug a hole and buried it properly, then turned back. Because he had spent effort on burying the skeleton, as he passed the Khmer master's house he was tired, called in to greet him, rest and ask for water. The master chatted a few sentences and went to the kitchen at the back to fetch more water. A snake that had just crawled past bit his hand. The venom was beyond his own power to cure. His body weakened gradually, his spirit declined, his spiritual power vanished. While lying waiting to die, he constantly saw the image of his old lover appear to reproach him, then saw countless snakes and centipedes come to bite and tear at him. He cried out in agony until he drew his last breath.

A grieving husband went to the police to report that his wife was missing. The investigation that followed produced no result. A detective was assigned to investigate secretly. After many findings, the detective guessed that the husband himself had killed his wife and disposed of the body. But more conclusive evidence was needed before they could conclude and prosecute. In the evenings he often went close to the husband's bedroom to listen, hoping to find another clue. Every time he passed a clump of banana plants near the pond he tripped and fell. A flash of intuition came. He asked the commune police to dig up the banana clump. And the wife's body was found, and the husband confessed.

Here we should not understand that a departed spirit intervened. In truth it was karma and spiritual power that resolved it. Karma urged the young man gathering medicine to come upon the skeleton. His tiredness obliged him to call in at the Khmer master's house. And the venomous snake crawled by just when the master went to the kitchen for water. The master had used spiritual energy far too much, with countless curses and prayers of ill will. All this was preparation for a mental disturbance later. But he may have been healthy and his power of concentration may still have been strong enough to suppress any disturbance.

When the snake bit him, his body weakened and his spirit declined, the mental disturbance broke out, and he suffered from illusions that appeared and tormented him fiercely.

Likewise, it was not the spirit of the wife that pushed the detective over. It was the wife's anguish and struggle as she was killed that created a powerful energy imprinted on the surrounding space. Karma drove the detective to pass through this region of space marked by mourning. The spiritual energy still recorded there pushed the detective over and attacked his mind and feelings, so that he had the intuition that the wife's body lay beneath this spot, and the case was concluded.

Spiritual space, though invisible, is very great once it takes effect. So every secret thought of ours still quietly creates karma and has an influence on this world. With thoughts of hatred and selfishness, we scatter ugliness into life. The influence of thought on the minds of the people around us is hard to see, but it is there; it is not absent. A hypnotist concentrates his power of concentration and pours into the mind of an alcoholic thoughts of giving up drink. After that hypnosis, deep inside, that person feels he does not want to drink any more.

A mother grieving over her wayward, defiant child prays night after night for the Buddhas to protect the child so that they change their heart and character. Those sincere prayers create a hypnotic force from afar. After a long time the child becomes gentle and heeds his family's counsel.

Those are cases where mental power is concentrated on one particular object. But our wholesome and unwholesome thoughts, though not focused on anyone in particular, still quietly infect the minds of those around us. By constantly steeping ourselves in thoughts of compassion, without intending it and without speaking a word, we still transform to some degree the malice of others. The reverse is also true.

Therefore, without a firm stand, we will be infected by evil if we live close to bad people all the time. The spreading of this thought is much like the spreading of a virus. Those who lack resistance will be won over by the thoughts of the people around them.

A person who constantly nurtures good thoughts and has a beautiful influence on his neighbours will be born in a later life into a community of good people. The Japanese are still a typical example of this kind of intelligent, courteous community. The samurai spirit of honour, the profound spirit of meditation, the elegant and deep arts of tea and flowers... have blended into a distinctive character of the Japanese people. Recently, in Japan's industrial society, some pragmatic, materialistic tendencies, far from the ancient traditions, have been criticised. But compared with other communities, the Japanese are still highly regarded.

For those who understand the law of karmic consequences and clearly understand the influence of thought on the common environment, they will guard their minds so as not to be soiled by streams of evil thought in the space around them, and at the same time they sincerely pray for everyone to be well; they often spread compassion to all beings, from people and animals to the plants, leaves and flowers. Without speaking a word, they use thought to improve the morality of society. Of course, with this conduct, the result in a later life is a saintly status praised and respected by everyone. Such saints and sages have an extraordinary character, with a special attraction that makes those who come near feel naturally subdued. That is why from time to time among humankind we see sages and saints appear whose fame lasts for ever, such as Lao Tzu, Confucius, Jesus, St Francis, Leo Tolstoy, Wang Yangming...

There are karmic results that must be received in physical space, such as being cursed at, beaten, killed, or becoming rich and powerful. But there are also karmic results formed in one's own subjective spiritual space. The case of the buffalo-herding boy who suddenly saw the city of fire and was swept into it and burned in agony is a fitting example. This was his own spiritual space; none of his friends around him saw it. The suffering he received was no less than the suffering of being tortured in physical space. Perhaps in the past he had nurtured many evil thoughts of hatred. When the conditions were complete, an illusion appeared in his mind.

Many people who in life worked in slaughter, such as killing pigs, chickens and ducks... when they are near death fall ill and see countless animals come to peck and gnaw at them. They cry out in pain, asking their relatives to drive the animals away, but their wives and children around them can only stand and watch helplessly, seeing no animal at all.

The Venerable Xuanzang is a great example of dignified conduct, an earnest mind seeking the Way and an excellent vow to save beings. He endured hardship to go to India to study, pay homage at holy sites and bring scriptures back to China. After returning home, with the help of Emperor Taizong of Tang, he laboured to translate the scriptures. In the last period of his life he often saw scenes of the heavenly realms, with celestial maidens scattering flowers in offering, and his heart was filled with joy.

There are people who all their lives accumulated virtue and did good, and who at death have a radiant, joyful face and tell that they see saints coming to receive them, with dazzling light, and sometimes even a fragrance spreading so strongly that their relatives smell it too.

Because of this hard-to-understand phenomenon, many missionaries have explained that there is a real existence of metaphysical realms such as heaven and hell...

As for the suffering or joy that the world of the mind brings, it is equal to the suffering or joy of the physical world, because it too is a result proportionate to past karma.

What connects the realms with one another is the MIND of each person. Only by turning to the Mind can we make contact with or find other realms. No aeroplane or rocket can take us to heaven. However, sometimes our mind too produces illusions resembling other realms, and we then misunderstand and think we have achieved communion with a higher realm. Superstition begins from there.