Any special complaint? Except for (vegan) cakes and candies, anything else you want? No? Where all of you came from? Where from? (Canada.) Canada even. How did you get the news so quick? From Canada. And you? (Rochester, upstate New York, near the Finger Lakes area. I was initiated in Phoenix, Arizona.) Oh, yeah? (Yes. And then I moved with my sister in Rochester.) That’s why I was wondering why you’re so near now. (Yes.) You moved here now? (Yes.) Is it convenient, more convenient? (Yes. The Center is not too far. It’s closer than I thought. Only about six hours away. So it’s nice.)
I wonder what is this room? What is this wall for? (It’s the garage.) Garage. You know what? We have to pull this down, so people can sit in. Cars sit outside, people sit inside. But you’d have to put a kind of movable carpet. So if nobody comes, you can put your car in. When there’re not many people, the car can sit inside and meditate, and when people come, then the car sits outside. We exchange: car, people; people, car. Alright? Just pull the middle of it out and leave the two poles so that the house is still stable. Make a little square hole in the middle, just like a big door, so that people can sit and see through. And if we want to cover it, we just put a cloth curtain and draw it up when the car is here. So we have more space and people can see me.
We’ll do that tomorrow morning after you wake up and I want it to be done before noon. It’s not joking. No joking. It’s already a very slow process. I want it done yesterday even. I didn’t see it. That’s very easy. Make a door. Don’t pull the whole wall down, just make a door in the front, a big door, so that they still have support for the hole. Or maybe we make two doors, leave a pole in the middle and two poles at the two sides, two doors, and draw the curtains between, when necessary. Otherwise, people can sit.
Tong, you understand? (Yes.) You supervise it tomorrow. OK? (OK.) Do it the way Taiwanese (Formosan) people do (OK.) in our Center. Understand or not? (Understand.) Give me a pen, and I’ll draw it for you. I’ll make sure you understand because I don’t trust your ears. I have experiences in this matter. Doesn’t matter how much I speak. They say, “Yes, yes, yes. Understood, understood.” And then later, they just do what they want. You like my Japanese socks? Thank you.
So it’s like this. The wall is like this up to now. Can come over here. You see? (Understand.) This is what our wall is like, right? Now it is in this shape. Break it, but keep this part. Keep this part in order to support the structure above. Understand? (Understand.) Keep the whole thing. You can’t break the whole wall. Leave this part as it is. You decide on how much to keep depending on the situation. Probably from here to the black one, there is enough. (Quadrilateral.) Make both sides the same. Then you keep a little bit in the center. (OK.) Keep this one too. (Understand.) Don’t demolish everything and leave only the ceiling. This is the ceiling. Leave it a little bit thick on top. It doesn’t matter to leave it thicker up there. It’s good enough if people can walk through. Or just keep it like that one. (OK.)
But… I don’t know if it will… Will it affect the structure above? It won’t, right? (It won’t.) Maybe they won’t build the support in the Center? (No.) Is this wall to support upstairs? No? It’s not for supporting? Just for the garage purpose. (I think so. I think so, Master. It’s not important. I think so.) It’s not important? (Yes.) You think so. You think! What do you think? Here. Keep this one. (OK.) So we leave one pole in the middle just in case this is a supporting wall. Like this. So people can see me and have more space.
Whenever there are no people, you can bring the car in in the morning, roll the carpet up. Or don’t need the carpet there, whatever. We’ll see what happens. Garage no need, no need for a garage. In winter, you roll it out and when people come to meditate, you open your shop, you lay out the carpet. And when the people go out, go home, you close the shop, just like those supermarkets. They do that every day, so why not you? They do it once or twice a week, no problem. Supermarkets, they have to bring their things out in the morning, every shop is like that, and prepare everything. And then in the evening, after all the customers are gone, they bring their things in, arrange everything, and then close the shop. Right?
So this, you make it like a shop. No problem, it’s not much work. Don’t think it’s a lot of inconvenience, it’s nothing. People outside, they earn their money in this way. It’s more inconvenient than this, they still can go through. Every day, sometimes, they have to go around with the car and bring their things in the car and then bring them back in the evening, to run around, to deliver it to people. So this is nothing. Just to roll the carpet in and out, before people meditate, you do that, and after they’ve gone home, you roll it up, and bring the car in. If you want it that way. People are more important than cars. But anyhow, we need the car also, because in America, if you don’t have a car, it means you have no legs. You cannot go anywhere and do anything. Understand this? (Yes.) You, the Aulacese (Vietnamese) monks, should do it. No need for the Taiwanese (Formosan) people. They don’t come here to knock your walls. Even though we do that sometimes, but they have a lot of work to do. If you want to do it, just go ahead. It’s alright if you don’t. You have a little rest until we run again for the next election.
And then make a curtain later, whenever you’re ready, so we can draw it when necessary and when not. Not even necessary to draw the curtain. The car is beautiful, no? And quiet to look at. OK. So we have more space now. The garage is as big as the area they sit. Right? (Yes.) Yeah. So we have double space. Before noon, I want to see it finished, cleaned, painted, and ready. If I don’t give you a deadline, you’ll be making it until next year. Sure, they do that. Just standing there and sitting and talking and thinking what to do, instead of doing it. It’s nothing really, just...
But I think you’ll do it very fast because it’s a kind of destroying work. It’s your “expertise.” Very easy to destroy things so fast. So I trust you can do that without my supervision even. And tomorrow everyone can sit here and see me. Alright? Because I see the necessity today of opening it. Yesterday I didn’t. Yesterday we didn’t have that many people. And probably tomorrow more. Therefore, it’s about time. (Yes.) Yeah, just about time. And I’ll see whether we can break here also. I’ll have a look.
So now you share your (vegan) cakes, candy, fruit. I’ll see you tomorrow, or on the weekend, or whatever, the weekend. When I finish my work, I’ll have more time for you. I saw. I saw you. No need to read your names out loud. I saw. OK. Share the fruit. Every day I have to buy so many fruits for you. What do you think? Wow! The best fruit. Seasonal fruit. Wow, beautiful. I like this, because they’re hard. Is there any hard fruit? (All soft.) I like these the best. (Mango...) This also hard, I like. A little bit bigger than that, and eat it with salt. Ah, this is too soft. This is only for the people with no teeth.
Alright, alright. Eat it. There’s nothing for me! Don’t complain. Now, go distribute, distribute. I have to touch every fruit, because I find nothing for me, so... All of this here, two hundred.
Can I come in? (Yes.) Now you have everything. You have me, you have (vegan) chocolate, fruit. (Yay!) See you tomorrow. (Yes.) OK? (Yes.) If you need scolding, come back again. Anybody missing or not? I just want to see who didn’t come. Not bad. Refreshing. You OK? (Yes, I’m fine.) You lost some weight? (Thank You.) What happened? (Work.) Why? Oh, people cannot see outside? There are many people sitting outside? Oh. What a shame. You’ve found the wrong Master. You should go and get a bigger temple. Big-temple-Master. Take it, huh? (Yes.)
Beautiful Americans. See who had not come. Outside stood so many people. Very sorry. You are the heroes, heroes of the group. Alright. Thank you for coming and goodbye. See you tomorrow. All of you stay here or not? No? (Yes.) You stay here? (Yes.) How many stay? Raise your hand. Oh, and the others go home and come back. Right? (Yes.) Oh. So far and you will go back to ... (I live outside.) You live outside? (Yes.) Where outside? (Motel.) Hotel? (Motel.) Motel? (Yes.) Oh, the wealthy one! Live in a motel? You don’t like our tent? So that’s what you call home when you said you will go home.
(Hi.) Hi. Today, it’s not bad. This place will become better. If I stayed here, it would expand more, but it’s not necessary at the moment. OK. Thank you very much for your love. We’re going strong or not? Can come. Can come in and take fruits, take some for the children. Can you come back tomorrow? (I will try.) How are the children? Wow! You don’t look that old. (Goodbye, Master.) See you again tomorrow or the next day. What is tomorrow, Saturday? (Saturday.) Oh, tomorrow we’ll probably have more people. (Yes. The weekend.) Sunday more. (Yes, Saturday and Sunday.)
So you see, it’s time that we have to knock out this wall and do something. Otherwise, tomorrow we all sit on top of the pool, floating. Floating level. We can do that when it is warm, can sit outside also. It’s possible tonight even to sit outside. Will people complain, neighbors? (Not yet.) They will. They complain about everything practically. And they complain also when you complain. It’s the way it is. Too much discipline is also no good. And no discipline is even worse. So, I see you again. Is it alright now? Alright? (Yes.) Yes. If it’s alright, then tomorrow don’t need to come. I don’t feel like leaving you, but I have too much work to finish. It’s very urgent. OK? Sorry. I will have more time for you on the weekend. Try to be comfortable here.
Photo Caption: Stretching Toward Closeness to Love!
