In this world, magical power, secular power, there is never enough to protect yourself from all harm.
Hallo, everybody! How’s everyone? Right? How’s everybody? (How are You, Master?) I have to be fine, of course. I have to be fine. Otherwise, I could not come to see you. (Hallo, Master!) (Master is so beautiful!) Ah, thank you. (Master is so beautiful!) My clothes, my clothes are beautiful. Hi, everybody! How are you? (Fine.) Very good.
I’m getting old. I’m not the same anymore. Your body will tell you, even if you don’t feel old. I’m old. I’ll go this way, so their seats won’t get dirty. My shoes are quite clean; just washed. They look clean, but still.
Ah, I’m sorry. (Hallo Master!) Better to see from a distance than not at all. (Hallo Master.) Good enough that you know that I’m still alive. Don’t, don’t, don’t! Bow to the Buddha. Prostrate before the Buddha or Heaven, but don’t do that to Master. Don’t prostrate before this physical body. OK? Take Master for instance. When you see Master on TV, do you prostrate in front of the TV? You won’t, right? Don’t, please! Prostrate to Heaven, to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. I’m still very young, and you elder ones prostrate before me. It’s embarrassing.
OK. I thought my place was there. OK. All right. I sit a little higher, you know why, right? So, everybody can see me. Give me my bag, don’t take it away. My bag? My bag. He has to take it, so that I am free, my hands, understand? Thank you. Not because I abuse his kindness or muscle.
Oh, being a man is much more convenient, really. I wish I were a man sometimes. Sometimes I act like a man. Man and woman, and both sides, switch back and forth, back and forth. Very tiring. Man is when I need to move mountains, move karma, bigger than mountains. And then woman, when I need to be gentle and sweet. Some egos are bigger than a mountain. You don’t know because you don’t work with people.
Anyway, I wish I could be a man or at least be in India. Indian people are very liberal. There are some women practitioners, they don’t wear anything. Do you know that? At least you saw some photos, right? People say nothing. Even go and bow to them, touch their feet, kiss the dirt that they walk on, in other country. You know, over there, police also very respectfully bow to them. Here, if I did the same, the police also would respectfully take me to a very safe area. You understand, right?
India is a great country. A lot of people think it’s a poor country, but it is not poor. It’s very, very rich in heritage, spiritual heritage. And we have to thank them for guarding all this spiritual culture, spiritual lineage for us, so that we can continue to uplift our world with our spiritual practice. Yes, truly, it’s like that.
But the lineage doesn’t always stay in India. You know that, right? Therefore, it went to Jesus in Jerusalem. It went to the Prophet Muhammad, God be with Him, peace be upon Him. I forgot this, I don’t often say, I forgot. Forgive me. The Muslims, forgive me.
Peace be upon all of you, the Muslims. Peace be upon you. That means you keep peace. You always say to people, “As-salāmu alaykum” meaning “Peace be upon you.” Then you keep peace upon yourself first. Because if you don’t have peace, how do you give peace to people, right? So, I hope the Muslim brothers and sisters remember that. Remember what they wish upon everyone, regardless. That means, the Muslims look upon all as equal. Yes, otherwise, they wouldn’t say the same to the foreigners, as well as to their own kin. See? Therefore, they should remember that.
Peace begins inside, in yourself. Just like the Prophet, peace be upon Him, if He hadn’t had enlightenment within Himself, how would He have transferred this enlightenment to others, His disciples and all the followers, and still be revered all these centuries? And influence millions of people across the globe, generation after generation, to worship God, to remember the Origin, to remember that all religions belong to God, to remember that if you treat other beings kindly, God will treat you kindly. On the contrary, God will not be merciful upon anyone who is not kind to other beings. It is said like that in the Qur’an, more or less.
I don’t know why I say so many things. I jump from one country to another. I could say things, right? I never dreamed I would say such things before, when I was younger. Before I went to the Himalayas, I knew something, but I could never speak a lot. Very small, small talk and quiet. One of the brothers who knew me in India, they told one of our brothers and sister there “Master was very quiet.” I think he was on TV, in some of our TV before. Right? He’s a very cool guy.
All right. Everyone’s OK? (Yes, Master.) (Yes.) You’re hungry yet? (No.) Yeah, better not be, because I’m going to talk for a while. Because some of you like me to sit here and talk, no matter what. Even the weather forecast or the trees or the birds, anything will do, as long as I sit here and entertain you, right? 30%, 30% enlightening entertainment. The 70% is unspoken. And don’t come crying to me about your relative dying, so that I have to give you another umbrella. OK?
I need this, I truly need this. I live in the mountain. Everywhere I go, I don’t know why, I just live in the mountain somehow. Somehow it just happens that I got a place in the mountain. And when you are old, or I mean as young as I am, you need this to walk down a little bit. Even very thin and fragile like this, it has a lot of cushion. But you have something to kind of lean on, so you don’t like topple if the road is rough or if you happen to be distracted by some snails or some little cockroach, or something on the road, then you will not topple. It’s very convenient. And when it rains, it protects you. When it’s sunny, it also can protect you, keep your skin beautiful.
All right. I understand. We all have problems. We all have relatives and friends and loved ones who we did not want to part with yet. We don’t want to, but they just leave us. Yeah, everything we love, when they leave us, we feel very, very, very tormented as if somebody...
In Costa Rica, when I first went there, first time ever, and then when I had to leave, they’d say, “It’s like somebody… Master’s going, when You leave, it’s like somebody cut a piece of my flesh away.” From her flesh away. It’s that bad? Could be. Could be.
If you happen to have this situation happen within your families or your friends circle, keep busy, OK? Do what you have to do with the physical shell that’s left behind, bury or cremate it as quickly as you can. Depends of course on the relatives and friends, how long and… Sometimes they bury people or cremate. They look at the date, whether or not it’s an auspicious time to bury someone, etc. Depends on that. Other than that, keep busy, OK? Don’t sit in the house and mourn. That is very bad for your physical, emotional and mental stability. You’d better keep busy. The best way is to keep busy. If you don’t have a job to do, go out. Go out and help some volunteer group. Go clean the Ashram. And you cleaned in the morning, clean again at noon. Clean another time, clean the bathroom, clean the toilet.
Do something else for somebody else. Because remember, no matter how tragic our situation, there are worse for some other people on our planet. There is always something going on. War, famine, injustice, oppression, still, in this 21st century, always something. It’s because of the karma of the world. Because the maya, the illusion force has made it that way since time immemorial, and then it continues this kind of circle, it cannot break, unless you’re initiated and become a real practitioner. Then you have the force within yourself which continues developing, and it protects you. It helps you in any time, any circumstances. But keep, keep straight your path. Don’t veer left, veer right; keep straight, straight by the Five Precepts. Very simple. And remember the Five Holy Names, and meditate as much as you can at home. That’s how you protect yourself in this world.
Because if you look around, even in a peaceful country, we still have prisons. We still have people suffering inside the barbed walls. And sometimes injustice, not fair judgement, because of fake evidence, because of situations or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being the wrong color, in the wrong place. That’s how things happen to people. Or, even in a rich country, powerful country, we still have homelessness and poverty. Some people have no medicine to take care of themselves, or live too far from the doctor. Always think like that, otherwise, we complain. I also complain, and then I have to think to myself, “It could be worse, it could be worse.” But I have to confess that sometimes, if it was worse than that, I don’t know how I’d bear (it). Even with all the Master Power inside. If it was worse than what it has been or being, I don’t know if I can bear (it). Talking is easy. When in a situation, it’s different.
All right. Anybody prepare your questions? Anyone want to ask questions? The Aulacese (Vietnamese), the Chinese? Yeah, tell me.
(Maudgalyayana is also a disciple of the Buddha.) Yes. (Why was his mother not able to be liberated? He also had to go to hell looking for his mom. Yes. Can You explain more about this case?)
Yeah, yeah. (Thank You.) OK. Some people also wanted to ask me this before. It’s good that you ask me now because the other day, I didn’t have time to tell too much about that. OK, I am telling you why.
His name is Maudgalyayana. He’s one of the foremost disciples of Buddha, you’re right. Foremost, one of the foremost, not just a normal disciple, and he had strong magical power. He used to go and compete with other magicians for fun. Maybe also ego, maybe… because the other magicians were not good, so they fought. But because of that, he finally also died, because of magical power, because no matter how high you are, there will be another higher. In this world, magical power, secular power, there is never enough to protect yourself from all harm.
