In Heaven, you don’t need to want anything. Or even whatever you want, it’s already there for you. And even if you want anything extra just for creativity’s sake, you just think about it, it’s right there. But here, you are not allowed to use this. I’m not allowed to use so many things.
I like Taiwan (Formosa), but I really love Europe. Everything’s clean and tidy everywhere, every country. Even a ruin, for example, if you go to Spain… Don’t let me forget the restaurant. I might go on forever. Spain is big, very big. So, if I go around Spain, that’s enough for another month. If you go to Spain, you will notice people there are very tidy; everywhere is so tidy. Even if a ruin... Ruin means a house that has been built a long time ago and nobody lives there anymore, and the roof is gone, the wall is half broken, still, you don’t see any mess there. Even if I look at the ruin in Spain, I love it so much. It feels so clean and somehow very endearing. Or Italy also. But Spain gives a deeper impression on me. Really, every ruin is like a piece of special art for me. Sometimes I take pictures, go home, have a look, and I imagine how it was before. And I thought, if I had the time and chance and talent, I would maybe buy that piece of ruin and the land around it, and rebuild it again to make it beautiful.
And my cave in Spain, it was just a cave, a lot of rock and rough and it was not accessible. But afterwards, I hired people to come in, move all the unnecessary rocks and trim all the trees, because it’s a cave only; there’s nothing. After we removed everything, I still put some artistic pieces of assembly things, assembling some rocks around it. And then I built some columns or something, half high or two-third high, and made it beautiful, and half of the wall. Oh, I should have taken photos, but I never thought I would go out again. I didn’t have anything there. I didn’t have a camera, nothing. I had a canvas and some painting stuff. I thought I was going to paint it, and then I never had a chance. I had to leave.
The cave is still there. Maybe one day, if I go there, I’ll go there and take photos. It’s far away from any human’s quarter. It takes maybe 40 minutes driving on a mountain road to reach the first house that you can see. I loved that place. No water, no electricity, but I can have [water from] a little stream somewhere or we can buy water, bring it in. You don’t need much there; water, you also need less. My dogs don’t care if I smell. And if you don’t do much, you meditate a lot, you don’t really smell. And you need only a wet towel to make yourself clean every day. And I don’t need electricity. I buy a lot of these sun lamps, solar lamps, and just stick in the ground everywhere, big ones, small ones, depends. And then I use it as a flashlight, as a light for the night when I have to go out somewhere.
That was one of the best times in my life, just like in India when I had nothing. I love having nothing. You just feel so free. You don’t believe me, try it. I don’t mean absolutely nothing. You have some simple food that you can take with you. I eat just canned food. I bring only canned food in my cave, but I have a couple of assistants because of the dogs, and sometimes, they bring me good food, sometimes not. And you don’t need a lot. You bring a lot of canned food there, and something that can last long. You can bring oil to cook, because I have an oven, a heater that uses oil. And then on top of it, it’s very hot, you could cook things with it. So, in winter, it’s the best. You can warm yourself and then you can cook at the same time. In winter, also you don’t need a lot. I was there in winter. I don’t know what the summer’s like. In summer, probably you have more water. Summer and other rainy season, more water from the waterfall.
When it rains, it’s like a waterfall coming down. In winter, you have ice because I just put a bucket of water outside, and then when the rain comes, it fills it. I bring some plastic, like a swimming pool for kids, blow it up, and then the water can be contained in it. Because I cannot carry heavy things, so this kind of… like balloon, you blow it up, and it becomes like a container. It’s flat though, but you can have water in it. And if it’s winter, the water is still there, it becomes ice. You can also refresh yourself. If you don’t want to sleep, you chop a piece of ice, put it on your face, and then you wake up. In summer or rainy season, you stay under the waterfall, it wakes you up in no time. You don’t need electricity. But outside where I have some mobile unit for the workers, for the attendants, and for the dogs, we have solar panels, so we can charge the phone if we need. Very civilized indeed. You don’t know that. And if you have more solar panels, you can watch TV. I had a Spanish mountain, also no electricity, no water, but I had a TV. I could wash my clothes with a small washing machine. I can have even a dish washer.
And I collect all the rainwater whenever I can, but that’s the workers, they do it. They bring a big tank inside; we cannot do that. And I have many solar panels. In winter, I can even have a heater. I live in a small hut, one meter seventy long and one meter fifty wide. I couldn’t find any better, that’s why. It was Christmas time, and that’s the only shop that was opened, and that was the only thing available, so I had to take it. And I was very happy in it. I had a small television inside. I had a heater inside. You have to use the eco-heater, not the normal heater, but very flat, ceramic.
I love that cave. If I have a chance and it’s easy, I would stay in that cave again. I love it. It’s a natural cave. The water runs in and then some soft earth just loosens up and then all the stones come down to the floor. So, when we came in, we had to move all the stones, but then it became flat. And I put some gravel in it, and then built some little, like, half ruin Roman columns, some stuff like that, with my hands, with the rocks that I found around it. So beautiful! I found it beautiful. For me, it was beautiful, after I decorated like that. And I had a tent put inside, but the road is flat in some areas, but not flat enough for one tent. So sometimes I slept here, and then in the morning, I was down there somewhere else, almost. If there was no tent, I’d run into the ravine under there. It was not very deep, but it could hurt you. So, a tent is also useful. Even though just a zip, but it stops you, and then you wake up. You say, “Hey, it’s not where I want to be.” So, around is all trees and bushes, birds and squirrels and rabbits, and stuff like that. Oh, beautiful place! There’s nothing, really, just that. But, for me, it’s beautiful, because it’s so quiet. But in that cave, I had the biggest ever realization. And the Gift that I gave some of you, also from that time. All right then. Oh, let’s go to the restaurant. I went to a restaurant after I left the cave.
Nobody would believe that such a petite Asian woman, going to such a wilderness cave – where there’s no water even, no electricity – sits there alone with a tent, doing nothing! What business! And you were young even, not so old like now. Maybe they’d accept that you’re old and fed up with society, get retirement money, and go there just to quiet down for a while. There is not even a picture of Jesus or Buddha there, so that you could say you go there worshiping or praying what. Difficult to explain to the society what I was doing in there. Must be something that is not suitable for the normal life. And then I fenced around it even. We explained that it was for the dogs not to go out and eat the wild hogs, but they didn’t believe that. So, the Chinese said, “Of all of the Thirty-Six Strategies, the best is to run.” The best is? To leave. To run, not just to leave. To run and run quickly. Of all of the Thirty-Six Strategies of Chinese, the best is to run, in that case. So, I did. I listened to the Chinese wisdom. Master doesn’t always know everything.
You always have to learn because you live in this world. You have to learn to deal with this world in this world’s way. You cannot use heavenly worlds to deal here. It doesn’t apply. When you go to a different country, you don’t expect to have a “hot dog” or “cold dog” or whatever, everywhere like in America. You eat what the natives have for you, and you respect the law. Whatever law you know in that country, you abide by that law.
In Heaven, you don’t need to want anything. Or even whatever you want, it’s already there for you. And even if you want anything extra just for creativity’s sake, you just think about it, it’s right there. But here, you are not allowed to use this. I’m not allowed to use so many things.
I am so frustrated sometimes; so frustrated. Because the thing is, the king of this world worries if you come down with all your splendor and magical power, then everyone on this planet will just follow you, go back to Heaven, and he has no subjects to rule. What’s the use of a king without any subjects? So, you have to sign a contract: you can’t walk in the air, you can’t walk on the water, you can’t fly, you can’t go through walls, you can’t open doors without any keys from afar, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t heal the sick, I mean, openly. So many things you cannot.
The Master can manage everything, but here cannot. These people have sadistic tendencies. They want the Master to suffer, or to be in poor condition, or pain and sorrow of any kind, or short of all comfort that they want to have, that they themselves want to have. But they don’t want Master to have anything like that. No wife, no kids, no family, no friend, no possession, no clothes, no food even. Eat food, has to be very poor food. Walk bare feet, no shoes. No clothes would be best. That kind of Master, that people want.
The Master has all Heaven and Earth. And they expect the Master to be poor, suffer, pain, sorrow, all kinds. Meanwhile, they themselves ask for Master’s blessing, so that they are rich, healthy, happy, famous, marry well to a good family, pass exam so have good job…But the Master’s not allowed any of that. That’s why I told you this world is miserable and sadistic. You see or not? Am I right? (Yes.)
So, what did I say about restaurant? Now, I went there because of Mexican food. Oh sorry, no, no, that’s not the one. I went to the Thai restaurant next to the Mexican food. I don’t always go but sometimes at home food was no good. I hadn’t had time to buy any vegetables yet, so if I passed by a restaurant, I ate first before I collapsed in the supermarket. And then there was a Thai restaurant. I forgot. And then I sat at one table and a couple sat next to me. And they were talking. The man sat next to me. The lady sat in front almost opposite to me, because the two tables were next to each other. I sat here, she sat there. And she was kind of making conversation, she said, “Where do You come from?”
This is a very famous sentence. I wish I never had to hear it. Story of my life. Because if you tell them where you come from, then they start to ask another. “How long have You been there? Were You born there? You married there? Etc., etc. Did You study there? Your parents are still there? Do You have sisters and brothers still there?” And no end. I don’t know why everybody asks me the same stuff. Sometimes, I pretend the phone rang or something, and then I just put the phone next to my ear, then they stop. I didn’t say anything. I just put the phone next to my ear and then they stopped.
I used to have a phone, a very simple phone. You know, one of those dumb-dumb phones, you call it. Nowadays, if you look at the iPhone, you don’t remember in what dynasty my phone is made. So, anyways, that time, I still had that kind of phone. Until I went to Kaohsiung, because in Kaohsiung these kinds of dumb-dumb phones don’t work at all. So, they began to educate me into a new civilization. They bought me an iPhone but a different company. And later I asked them to help me to set up everything, so that I just push this button, that button, and everything functions, then they could not do it. They could not set it up because they said, “Master, this phone, You better buy an Apple phone.” I said, “Why? You like apples? I like all kinds of fruit.” He said, “No, Apple is more user-friendly.” I’m not trying to advertise. This is one of your brothers who told me that. I said, “OK, then buy me an Apple phone.” Because he and she, both of them, have Apple phones. And they both told me that Apple phones are easier to use. They didn’t want to say for a phone-unacquainted like me, or for a dumb-dumb phone, dumb-dumb like me. So, they say, “It’s easier for the user, Master.” I said, “OK, then buy me one and set it up.” So, it’s easier for them to set up.
But before this civilization dawned on me, I had those simple phones. But it’s very convenient, because if I just pushed a button on the side, then it’d ring, like a phone ringing. So, every time I want to terminate the friendly inquisition, I just put my hand in my pocket or wherever the phone is, I push that button quietly, and it rings. Wow! And I put that phone up to my ear, then everything stops. Time stands still and then I can just go on with my eating or whatever. Otherwise, they won’t even let me eat. I don’t know what is in me that they keep asking me no end. What’s it got to do with them, whether I’m married or not, or I married in Âu Lạc (Vietnam) or I married in America, or wherever? And then what car I have, how did I get here? Do I have a long-term visa? Short-term visa? Do I have a house here? How big is the house? How many rooms? It has a swimming pool or not? And how big is the garden? What kind of trees? Do you plant fruit trees and flowers?
OK, the couple. She asked me again, these kinds of big questions, “Where are You from?” Then I have to be obliged to tell her. And then, “How long have You been here?” Then I’m obliged again to tell her. And she asked me then about Spain, because I lived there at that time. I said, “I live here.” So, she asked me about the weather, the people, how comfortable it is, because she came from maybe Scotland or England. I forget. And she wanted to buy an apartment or a house here and live here. I said then, “Why don’t you? It’s good weather all year round and you see where we live here, is next to the sea and healthy and you have many restaurants and a lot of foreigners. You will not feel like a stranger in a foreign land here. Everybody speaks English here.” I told her that. I told her what I knew. I said, “We have Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, all the restaurants. Pakistan restaurant even. All kinds of restaurants. Indian, Thai; all kinds of restaurants. And you’ll be spoiled with choice and you will enjoy it here.”
I enjoyed it there too, of course. I have to tell you the truth. Not that like good things, I don’t care. I’m not that ascetic. I’m not Lord Mahavira at that time. Sorry for Him but...
And then, so we got talking, and then she said she wanted to buy a house here, but her husband doesn’t want to. He likes where he is and she just feels very frustrated. So, I said, “He’s very loyal, that’s why.” She said, “What? He’s so stubborn and wants to stay in such a rainy and old town and you say he is loyal?” I said, “Yeah. He likes what he has, and he doesn’t ask for more, and he’s happy with what he has, and he’s loyal to his place.” Then she was what kind of agreeing with me, said, “Oh, I didn’t think of it that way.” I said, “Yeah. You should, because that’s why he’s loyal to you. You’re married how long already?” She said, “Thirty-something years.” I said, “You see what I mean? And he’s still interested in you. He keeps talking to you. He doesn’t look left or right, nothing. He doesn’t even look at the pretty girl like I am, next to him. Such a beautiful young chick. He doesn’t even care.”
So, I pointed this out to her. So, she’s less upset about him. She said, “Wow! I never thought about it this way. I thought he’s very stubborn and very close-minded. But now You tell me he’s loyal. Yeah. I think You’re right. Where did You get all this wisdom?” Because we got talking more and more, and she asked me many other questions and I answered her. And she said, “Where? You look so young. Why You’re so wise? Where did You get all this wisdom?” I said, “Well, you know, you travel around, and people teach you things.” Just like that. And that’s it.
