We also show good people casually, or animal-people’s good behavior or good deeds all the time on our Supreme Master Television. So, you can encourage your children to watch them, to have a good example imprinted in their young brain, young mind. And when they grow up, they will live according to those. I’m so touched. Many times, I cry when I’m doing the editing, because there are people outside there, they’re all so loving, so kind. […] Especially, many men made me cry when they went out on the street for protesting the animal-people cruelty in the slaughterhouse and ask people to become vegan. Oh, I saw their face – so passionate, so real, so true! It gives me goosebumps now, talking about it. And I cry also, because I’m so grateful such people exist still.
Not just men, but women! They went onto the street to protest, to advocate for the poor animal-people who have no voice, and to advocate for the fetuses, the unborn children, risking being ridiculed and being looked down upon from the opposite direction, from the opposite group. But they don’t care because they really have love when they do that. They love these unborn children. They love these animal-people. And I’m not just talking about the vegan people – the non-vegan people also, because humans originally have a good heart. “Nhân chi sơ tính bổn thiện.” We say that in Âu Lạc (Vietnam), in the Aulacese (Vietnamese) language, meaning humans originally, from the beginning, have a very good nature. So Buddha also said that all humans have Buddha Nature. And Lord Jesus said that we are the children of God. Many Masters said that.
And Lord Jesus said, “Whatever I do, you can do also. You can do even better.” He was just humble, of course. He’s the Son of God. But Masters, They are like that. They are humble. They mostly give credit to God Almighty. They don’t say much about what They do Themselves, even though They do it quietly, invisibly to the naked eye of humanity. Because humans, not all of them understand what’s going on in the world, what disaster will befall them if they continue to live this kind of life – without love, without sympathy for other beings, for animal beings, for trees, for insects, for all the poor people, for example, like that. It’s very difficult for them to understand because nowadays, it’s too much material temptation and too much into the material things. And it’s almost like the spiritual endeavor, spiritual goal, is almost forgotten in our world. People do go to church, and go to temple, go to mosque, I know that. But it’s not always on the inside. It’s only the outward. That’s the problem.
It’s good to go to the church, it’s good to go to the temple, to the mosque, if you need to be in a group with the same-minded, same spiritual aspiration. And if you need to be reminded of your original Master – like Shakyamuni Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, or Baháʼu'lláh, or Lord Mahavira, Lord Krishna, for example, etc. then you do go to the church, do go to the temple.
And if you see some monks who are really virtuous and really diligent in practice, then you can give an offering, of course. But do not think that if you give an offering to this monk, that monk, or this nun, that nun, then you will have merit. Don’t think like that. You just offer because you love. You want to offer, because that monk or nun inspired you to go further in your spiritual practice. And also, he/she needs some material sustenance in order to go further in his or her own spiritual endeavor as a monk or nun, or as a hidden-away kind of lay practitioner.
There are many who are not monks and nuns, but they’re truly sincere and high-level. Like when the Buddha was alive, Vimalakīrti – He wasn’t a monk, but even all the monks respected Him because He truly had spiritual power. They could feel it, and they could hear His eloquence of a high wisdom. That’s why they knew that He was enlightened. Even Buddha loved Him, admired Him. So, when He (Vimalakīrti) was sick, the Buddha asked many monks to come and visit Him. Many didn’t dare go because they were worried that Vimalakīrti had more wisdom than they did. Some monks and nuns, at that time, maybe still had a lower level than Vimalakīrti, the layperson.
And please do not judge a monk just because he eats two meals or three meals a day. The monks have to work also in the temple, just like you work. They have to clean the temple yard, clean the temple house, inside the hall, so that the laypeople can come and sit and meditate, or listen to the lecture of the high monks. And maybe if the temple is not very rich, they have to chop wood to make fire, to cook. And they do many other things. And read the sutras, or recite the Buddha’s Name. That takes up their time, and then they have to meditate also. Or sometimes they have to go out and buy things for the temple. They also do some work! So, everyone is different. As I told you, Maitreya Buddha incarnated into this world some many centuries ago. He was a big fat Buddha with a big stomach and very happily smiling all the time. That’s how they make the statues in His likeness, and we still see it nowadays in temples. People still worship Him like that.
When I was younger, I had a Maitreya Buddha statue, a very big-stomach Buddha in my house. I also had Quan Yin Bodhisattva, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and other Buddhas. When I was out of Âu Lạc (Vietnam), it was difficult to buy Buddhas’ statues. It’s not like you can buy it anywhere you want, it’s not like that. In Âu Lạc (Vietnam) or in China, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, it’s easier to buy.
When I went on holiday with my former husband, I liked one statue of the Buddha so much in Thailand, that he even – at that time we were poor, not very rich, because he was still paying the mortgage for the apartment, and still paying the student debt – but he loved me so much, he bought that statue of the Buddha for me, and went through a lot of legal procedures in order to have it sent back to Germany. It’s not that easy. And he took me on holiday, but he knew I love Buddhas, so he took me to those Buddhas’ temples and stuff. Like even Burma, to go to the Shwedagon Buddha Golden Temple, and in Thailand also to go to different temples. Perhaps you still can see some of my photographs taken with the Buddhas in some different temples. Oh, such a good husband, I still remember. Bless him.
So, it wasn’t easy to buy any statues in Germany or England or in European countries. So, as soon as I could do it – in Thailand, we could. And there was a beautiful statue with a lot of shining jewelry on it. Maybe not real jewelry, but all shining like diamonds, rubies, stuff like that. They embedded them on the whole statue, like on the dress. I was so happy to be able to get one Buddha statue, so big, as big as two-thirds of my height. And other Buddhas’ statues – like Maitreya Buddha or Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva or Quan Yin Bodhisattva – they’re smaller. That’s all I could get in Germany. Or, in England I had one also, but not that big.
We were not all that poor, but we just lived like… it’s not like we were very rich or anything. I guess middle-class. He worked as a doctor and I worked as an interpreter for the Red Cross, and only half-day, because I wanted to stay home and take care of the house also, so when he came home, we had a warm house waiting. And I made sure everything was clean and all that – did some housework, cooking, waiting, watering the tomato plant that he planted outside. We planted together. I also planted something like coriander and peppermints at that time, and flowers.
He bought some flowers to plant in my garden, because he knew I wanted to offer fresh flowers to the Buddha, all the time, whenever I could. So he said, “These flowers will bloom all the time, all year round.” So we bought it and we planted it, and it spread all over the garden. Later, we had to kind of limit it inside to one area. And it truly bloomed every day. It looked similar to sunflowers, but smaller. And I also bought other flowers at that time, not just that, but whatever I could, and whenever I could. And when the flowers became almost withered, then I changed them, of course. We offered flowers, water, and fruit.
And I recited the sutras every night before sleeping in my own room, small room. It’s an office, but I took it as my room. Especially after I decided to go for enlightenment, we separated into different bedrooms. So I slept with a sleeping bag on the floor of that room so that I could also recite the sutras in the morning, so I don’t wake him up. It was just an excuse. I decided that we should separate and have him get used to being alone. But it was still a very big heartache for him, and for me also. But for him, it must have been more, because I had my goal, and I went for new things, but he still stayed in the same house, doing the same work, and was lonely. So, it wasn’t very right of me, but what should I have done? I probably wouldn’t be able to meet you, talk to you nowadays, if I didn’t leave home. But that doesn’t mean everyone should do that. It’s just, maybe it’s my fate; my mission demanded that so I have more concentration.
