Oh dear, we laughed too much! Laughing too much will make you shed tears. Humans are so weird. Whether they’re in the most painful state or the most… (Happy.) happy, their facial expressions look pretty much the same – with tears streaming down their faces. Our brains are a bit ignorant. When they perceive our excitement, whether it is excitement from regret, or excitement from happiness, they still allow tears to stream down, to wash away karmic burdens. I’m telling you, this world is a good place, we can practice spiritually here. I heard that it is hard to practice spiritually in Heaven. Do you know? (Yes.) Heaven is sometimes in this world. So sometimes you complain to Master…
Do you want to keep listening? Or ready to go home? (Keep listening.) What about the tour bus? Will it cost money? (It’s alright.) How much? (No need to pay.) No need to pay, you have already become good friends. (We can spend less.) You can borrow money. You don’t need to pay extra, and you can even borrow money. (We can buy on credit.) You can buy on credit. (We can owe money.) You can owe money. In the future, when the tour buses bring you here, they are aware they will have blessings. Whenever they bring you here in the future, they should give each person a certain amount of money. (How nice.) Those bus companies would compete to do business with us, to bring our fellow practitioners here. Next time, we’ll see who offers the most, then we’ll let them make the trip. You are so happy, so happy to make money. If you don’t come here, you also save that few hundred dollars.
What was I talking about? (Heaven.) Heaven. It’s hard to stay in Heaven. (Heaven is here.) There are some, for example… This is a real experience by the way. There were one or two renunciates, and before renouncing their worldly lives, they lived a hard life, for example. Not poverty, not like that, they could get by. But his father was a so-called spirit medium. And when he gets possessed by a demon, he would beat his wife and child, almost beat them to death. Sometimes he would use iron chains to tie around their necks, something like that, almost killing them like that. When they came to see Master, they were still bleeding here, and there were marks. Circling marks, still bleeding, beaten up from top to bottom like this. The child was a merely few years old, nine or ten years old at that time. Then… she wished to get a divorce; but her husband wouldn’t let her go. The child’s father did not agree to a divorce. Afterward, she kept begging Master for help,then, later, she was able to get a divorce, and they hurriedly came here to become renunciates. At that time, they were very happy, to be here, but less so now. All was good after coming here, but after things got well, they felt not so well again. That’s why I said it is hard to stay in Heaven.
Now, there are no problems here; no one oppresses them, no beating, no scolding. and the child can go to school every day. But it seems like when the child goes out to school, he gets influenced. People outside looked at the little monk, and thought that he was so cute, so good-looking. They would keep hugging and carrying him around, making the child feel sort of dragged down, influenced, or feel polluted. So he was distressed after he came back, and wanted to run away sometimes For a kid just over 10 years old, even if he wants to run away, where can he run? For example like that. Previously, he talked nonsense, saying he wanted to commit suicide or something like that. He felt being pulled away by outside forces, he felt struggling and whatnot. I say the situation is really upside down. Formerly, the situation was so painful, to the extent that he was caught between a living death and a dying life; nevertheless, he did not want to commit suicide. And now he is here, everything is going smoothly, lots of monthly supplies, and Master takes very good care of them. Their clothing is great; everything is provided for. No one is forcing him. No one is cursing or scolding him. And the doctors here, for example Tong, he spoils him, he spoils him rotten. An illness here, some troubles there, frustrations there, etc. He would comfort him all day long, something like that. What I mean is, it’s like Heaven here.
They’re too soft, no firmness. So yesterday, I added in a little bit of firmness, then it’s OK. Being too soft won’t do; I have to be the “bad guy.” Everyone’s being the good guy. But they too… sometimes they don’t know how to handle this. Considering his past, and he’s so upset now, they don’t dare to be too firm. Or maybe because Tong has too much compassion. He must use it. He likes it best when people need his medicine. He advertises his medicine every day. Even if nobody wants it, he still advertises it. I’m his ""victim"" too. Sometimes I decline for the third time, and he still doesn’t take it to heart. After the tenth refusal, then he took it seriously. He keeps leaving medicine at my door like that. So, he’s spoiled rotten. That means, every aspect was fine. And I rarely scold children, except when they’re lousy, or not doing their homework, or cause trouble for others outside. Then I would scold them a little. Not too much, very rarely. As for him, I’ve never scolded him once. He’s the most pampered one. It’s not like there’s hugging or head pats every day; but on the inside, because of his background, of course I like him, love him. I want to make up for his past. It’s like Heaven; yet he couldn’t stay.
So I am telling you not to always make requests. I’m telling you these, not to ask you to catch him back here, or to take a look at who that person is. It could have been you. Sometimes you might be the same. One day it might be us, or perhaps we also have had lived this kind of life. There’s no need to inquire who he is. What I mean is, I’m telling you this, don’t try to look for Heaven every day. Don’t constantly ask Master for help, for everything to go smoothly, for everything to be good, for good health, for business to be good; that’s not so good. It’s good for us to have some obstacles, only then do we have the need to strive. That’s how our willpower gets stronger, and how our determination to seek the Tao (the Way) becomes strong.
If the world is all good, then it’s already Heaven; nobody would practice spirituality. Isn’t it true that when we’re happy, it rarely occurs to us to meditate? (Yes.) (Yes.) Time flies, then we’ll pretend to say, “Wow! It’s past meditation time. Sorry, Master.” Then continue to enjoy ourselves. Yeah, understand? It really is like that. Then there will be nothing to do, everything is simply going too smoothly. If you don’t use your brain, don’t exert effort, you’ll break down. If we are too idle, things are too well, we’ll become soft. So even if we have spiritual practice, we know that we have Master’s Power to protect us at all times, and our own wisdom will grow, and protect ourselves, but occasionally we still have obstacles. That is good for us. Because, in this world, we need to have obstacles. If there are no obstacles, that’s not this world.
A world without obstacles, that is another world. It doesn’t belong to this world. So that won’t do for us. For example, you go into the water, and you wish not to get wet, it wouldn’t work. You need to be wet for it to be considered water. So sometimes, when there’s a tiny obstacle, we’ll say, “Oh dear, I heard Master can erase any obstacle, and make things go smoothly for us. Why is it that after we start practicing, we still encounter this and that?” It’s just a tiny bit. Most of it has already been swept away. Only a tiny bit remains. Only 1% of it, and you’re already so overwhelmed. If all the karmic obstacles from your past lives were given to you to take on, all in one go, ha-ha, it would be spectacular. Yes, you couldn’t walk, you couldn’t move at all. Otherwise, how can you achieve liberation in one lifetime? If your karmic hindrances from all past lives are still there, you still owe money, and have many other obstacles, then how can you be liberated in one lifetime? So you see, even if there’s a tiny obstacle, it’s only 1% of all; I have already dealt with the 99%. So don’t worry about it. (Yes.)
Let me tell you frankly, from the time I started taking on disciples until now, there’s no hardship I haven’t endured. I didn’t know that before. even when I was a layperson, I wasn’t aware of such painful situations. Wow! From the time I took on disciples until now, there’s no hardship I haven’t endured. I rarely have fun, because for me, there’s not much fun in the world. Nothing in this world is fun at all. Sometimes I just hang out with you guys; sometimes I go along with you guys tolerantly. Sometimes I have fun with you happily, that depends on the situation, but only rarely. I personally don’t really like it. I’m not particularly into entertainment or socializing. I really dislike, for example… Most of the time, I do have a lot of time. If I weren’t occupied by work, or if I could put my work aside, I could go out and have fun – go here, go there. I mean, I’m very free now; I can do whatever I want, meaning, from a worldly point of view, I am in a position to go and enjoy myself. I can do whatever I want, buy whatever I wish, I can do whatever I desire, but it’s just that I don’t want to. I don’t want to. Nobody is stopping me, it’s just that I don’t like it. It’s not that I hate it. No, not hate, not rejecting it. I just don’t feel the need for anything. Sometimes I go out, and take a look, by the way, that’s all. It’s not that I like it, and go to search for it.
You guys saw those videos from Japan, and you think we go out and have fun every day, looking at the mountains, the rivers – no, it’s not like that. That’s just one day, only that day. Yes, and then they filmed it all. They showed all the eating, drinking, and having fun. And then everyone sees it and exclaims, “Wow! How nice it is to follow Master! You can have it all, dancing, singing, and having fun.” Oh, we only dance once in ten years, and only sing once every couple of years. Just sing for about five minutes, or a few minutes, at most a few hours. That’s all. We don’t do this every day. I really don’t like it; there’s no benefit.
Sometimes I have to entertain guests, or someone wants to visit me – not fellow practitioners, sometimes… I can’t say who. Some are especially… No, not really any particular person. Sometimes we just meet, and they insist on visiting me. And I can’t refuse. Anyhow, after seeing them, I go back and immediately take a shower. I had just showered right before going down to see them, in order to look neat, so that I wouldn’t smell unpleasant to others. But when I went down, they smelled terrible! I couldn’t stand it myself. After seeing them for half an hour, I went back up and immediately showered again. It’s not fun to do this in winter. I just finished showering, wearing really pretty clothes, applying makeup, spraying on perfume, or whatever. Then I went down, saw them for half an hour, came back up, and I had to shower again. Who can stand that? But if I don’t shower, I can’t stand it either. Just to see a few people. Sometimes it’s like this, it’s not the same every time. Like on Sundays, that atmosphere is different. For example, when I see so many, so many of you, thousands of people, for instance, I wouldn’t feel there are so many. Just sometimes, yes.
But sometimes when I saw only a few people, wow, I feel like, someone is wrapping something around me. You can’t shake it off! And you can’t say anything. I had to go take a shower right away. Originally, I planned to save changing clothes. I just put them on, how can I take a shower again? Why should I change clothes again? But after sitting down briefly, I couldn’t stand it. So I changed my coat. I thought it would be OK to only change the coat, the inside clothes would be alright. I think it’s only the coat polluted or something. But sometimes, their smell... People who eat meat, sometimes really,… they themselves are not aware of it; it’s not intentional. Just sometimes, when they eat meat. Not everyone is like that. Some eat too much or drink too much alcohol, those stuff rot in their stomach or something. Oh dear! No, it really smells bad. They didn’t do it on purpose. They themselves can’t smell it either. After that, it feels like there’s something clinging to me, and I can’t take it off, so then I changed my coat. I took off the coat and put on a new outfit. And after a while, I had to take off that newly changed one too. Oh dear, another set of clothes is thus wasted.
My original plan was to save one outfit set. So I figured I would just change the coat, and keep the inside clothes the same. But afterward, the newly changed coat and inside clothes had to be removed I was soaking in the bath for a long time. I soaked for around half an hour, with that powder... what is it? No, it makes bubbles in water. (Shower gel.) (Body wash.) Shower gel? (Body wash.) Whatever, something with bubbles. I put it in and soaked in it for half an hour. After soaking, I still used salt and lemon to scrub myself thoroughly, head to toe. And after that I used sandalwood soap, and rinsed again. Wow, so miserable, especially in the winter. When everyone is too lazy to shower, to be honest, I had to shower four times in half an hour! Who could stand this. Then, when you look at my appearance, when I come down and wear such pretty clothes, to receive people, you think I like socializing. Too “ugly.” Yeah, sometimes it’s like that.
I’m just too sensitive. When I went up to take a bath and change my clothes, I felt very ashamed. Why do I have so much discrimination in my mind? But I could not bear it. So I bowed fully, from head to toe. Not really bowing; what I meant is I apologized to them, saying: “I’m sorry. I respect you very much, I just couldn’t bear it.” Then I went to take a bath. For fear that their souls would smell it and feel hurt, I had to apologize. It’s truly like that. But I couldn’t bear it if I didn’t take a bath. I still have to love myself. Right? (Yes.) Why should I make myself uncomfortable? It wouldn’t hurt them in any way. It’s because of them that I had to take an extra bath. But then I felt ashamed for taking the bath. Like I was looking down on them. Actually, I was not! I didn’t look down on them. If I did, I wouldn’t have gone down to see them.
Photo Caption: “All Are Happy to Greet Each Other with Welcoming Love!”
