So, every day you have to pray and thank all beings for the meal you eat. Thank God, of course, above all. And thank all involved in the meal you eat. Thank the farmers who toil, rain and shine to take care of the vegetables or the food that comes onto your table.
I thought, my God, it should not happen like this, especially in America! We, in many countries, have the idea that America is a very rich country, very secure for everyone, but it isn’t always like that. When it comes to recession time, they call it or something like that, people just lose jobs, and they don’t have enough money even to take care of any other things, except for themselves. And the whole family sometimes moves to some charitable shelter or something. And once you’ve lost the job, once you’ve lost your house, you have no address. You cannot go find a job if you don’t have a mailing address. One thing leads to another.
Many educated people, high-paid persons before, succumb to this kind of situation. And they end up becoming homeless or staying in some shelter temporarily. And nowadays, some organizations, they lend the addresses to give the homeless people a kind of stable place, so that they can apply for jobs. When you go to an interview, the company, the staff manager that interviews you, he doesn’t immediately say, “Hey, we’ll hire you.” Now or tomorrow, “We’ll call you.” So, you need a phone. Or, “We’ll mail you.” Etc., etc. Or they will ask more questions, and then you have to write to them, and then they will answer you through whatever address. If you don’t have an address, that means you are nobody in the society anymore, no matter what. And then that’s the situation. Everything is sometimes so sad in this world. So sad.
Yesterday, I saw a little moth, very little one. And she died because of too much wind at one time, and then she just died on the floor. And I thought she was still alive. I was trying to get the glass and the paper to scoop her in, but she didn’t move. So, I put her on the tree, and she didn’t move again. So I said, “Oh my. You’re dead? So sorry about that. Your life is so short and then you had to die just like that already.” I felt it was so unfair for this moth. I felt so sorry for her. It just touched me somehow, in my heart, that everything in this world is so cruel, so unkind. So, the little helpless and harmless and fragile little moth like that, she couldn’t even enjoy her short life in peace. And that’s not to talk about if some other animals don’t eat her before, even.
And then sometimes, if we cook something or eat something, the insects come and then you have to remove them, outside. And I also feel very bad. I feel like, my God, even just to eat something, you have to fight with other beings. Not to talk about many insects die or get injured during the farming season, or off-season, on-season, after, before season. If we don’t think about it, we can survive. If we do, we don’t want to live anymore. Such a hassle to keep this body going. Even simple already, not like very luxurious or anything.
So, every day you have to pray and thank all beings for the meal you eat. Thank God, of course, above all. And thank all involved in the meal you eat. Thank the farmers who toil, rain and shine to take care of the vegetables or the food that comes onto your table. And thank the other people: the transport company, the drivers, the ones who harvested it, the ones who washed it, made it ready and put it in a nice container or bag for you to take home. Everything in this world, we owe someone. We use anything at all, we owe everyone. Even tiny bees, insects, they are doing their job so that we…
Just stretch it out more. Yeah, on that side. Yeah, yeah, that’s the east side. We have a south side, north side, who cares. Do it. You don’t have a chair? Are you leaning on a chair? Yes? (No.) (No, I’m not.) No, you don’t have? (I have my cushion.) Just a cushion. (Yes.) You should have a little chair. Anybody have a chair? Can somebody go get me a chair for him, please? He is not talking. I am talking. Can somebody go out, get me a chair from the shop? Please. Chair for him. (I have a chair.) Never mind. Never mind. You sit, because when you go out now, you’ll miss me. I think. (Thank You, Master.) I am not sure. But, no. OK, OK. That one. Yeah. It’s more comfy. You’re a driver, aren’t you? Not, not, OK, also fine, fine. Look at that, how much love is going on. (Thank You, Master.) Be careful. (Thank You, Master.) That’s good. All right, enough already. How many chairs? For him also, good. Anybody else who needs a chair? We empty the shop outside for you. Sit. You’re a driver, right? (Yes.) So, you drive all day, sit all day already, now come here, have to sit again. So sorry. Such is life. You know, it’s not fair, anything, I told you already, just before. Nothing is fair in this world.
And don’t think he eats a lot, so he grows so big. No, not necessarily. It’s the thyroid gland sometimes. Yeah, when it functions slow, then people get chubby. Or too much fat they put in their hamburger, even vegan burgers, because they like it. And some people just get fat without any reason. And some people eat so much, I’m telling you, and they are like a toothpick. It’s true, right? You know, right? (Yes.) So, don’t criticize anybody; it’s just the way it is. Karma. (Happy Buddha.) Happy Buddha. You look like Maitreya. You need it a little bit bigger though, to compare with Him; that’s just the disciple size. He is like this, the stomach protruding out.
So, we created so many different karmas like that. And even nowadays, after initiation, still have. Each one has different karma. And you must meditate well, in order to minimize a little bit, so Master can help you. Because if Master gives you too much power, you also cannot bear. If you clean the karma too quickly, you will have problems, or you will die.
Different people create different karma. I have people who help me, but they create different karma also. Or the people who come here with pure intentions to meditate and to see the Master and to elevate themselves, but they also bring different karma. Like a few days ago, I suddenly had such a terrible pain, so I checked and I knew who was coming, and there were two people who were very sick, two Aulacese (Vietnamese) people. I don’t want to say who. Never mind, you know. If you’re very sick, you should not come here, not come here with the intention of wanting Master to cure you. There are medicines; there are doctors. We should not always rely on Master for everything.
My body is also very fragile like yours, maybe even more fragile sometimes. I don’t look it, but the body is the body. And I work so hard, sometimes I really abuse this vehicle. Just like if you drive your car and you don’t really take care of it all the time: you don’t change the oil, you don’t have time, or you give cheaper gasoline and make him run, poor car, etc, etc. And you forget to pump in the air, or you don’t have time if you are very busy, and the car is also feeling its age. Or when the car is older, it doesn’t go as fast as before, or you shouldn’t go as fast as before; many parts of the car have to be constantly maintained or changed. The body is the same. But we neglect our body too badly. I myself, truly. But I truly sometimes have no choice with the inside work pressing and the outside work pressing.
And the dogs, they don’t understand anything about my job, about my inside, outside. They say they know, “You work day and night for the world.” They told me that, but they don’t care – always come sissy-sassy, want pet, want hugs want (vegan) snacks, want to stick around, don’t want to go to their room. They fought tooth and nail with my new assistants just to stay behind; they don’t want to go out of the gate. They fight with them. Oh really, so terrible. I feel so sorry for the new assistants. They harass them no end. I said, “Go, now!” And then, “OK, OK. OK! OK! I’m going!” And then looking back, “I’m really going?” I said, “You’re going!” They play their game, you know, dogs. I’m telling you.
And then escape and all that stuff. Only the mother – she is the wild one because she was born in the wild and lived in the wild before she saw me. Before, nobody could ever touch her. Nobody could go near her even. Only after I got her babies, then she came knocking at my door. And a couple of …a week or ten days, I already could carry her on my shoulder, walking around, showing off to the neighbors. “I got her. See? Caught her!” Because she became like a puppy. She is also one puppy, tough life. She was so young and got pregnant because they’re wild dogs. And she became like one of the puppies. She is the most sissy-sassy of all. I said, “What? You’re a mom, you know that? This is your babies’ stuff, not yours.” But she doesn’t care. She doesn’t really realize that she is older than her babies, just one year plus older; it doesn’t make any difference to her. Afterward, she behaved just like a puppy. Just because she was so used to living in the open, so now and then, she tries to escape, and she is so good at escaping. Before, she could jump. There are fences like that, these kinds of fences? She puts her four paws on it, climbs up, up, up. Two seconds, she’s out. No, not even two seconds, one second. She’s so fast, so fast.
That’s why I could never catch her before. I didn’t want her to go out, not because I’m controlling, but I don’t want her to go out eating garbage, and then bring back bad germs and something for the little babies. Before, I scolded her a lot. But she tried, and then she opened windows, and she bit the whole wall to try to get out. She bit the whole wall down. I don’t know how she didn’t die because these are painted. Even if you breathe in or you taste a little bit, you would feel some effect. No, nothing. This girl, she’s invincible. The whole body was all white – the nose, all the hairs was all white, and the ear hairs was all white, the tongue white too – nothing happened to her! I was worried sick, but nothing happened.
The moment I’m not careful, she runs. If I open the door, she runs under our legs and out, in… not in 60 seconds, not even six seconds. Six nanoseconds. She’s so fast, so fast because she was so skinny before. Now she’s more chubby but still skinny, so escapes so quick. She climbs so fast and jumps out. And sometimes, she sees some tree nearby, and she uses that tree, climbs up the tree and then near the fence, then she’s up, goes comes out like that. Oh, my God! This girl, incredible! And she uses magic to break even the iron chain, just to get out.
(She was a cat before because she likes to climb.) Maybe she was a cat. No, she’s like a cat, (A lion.) and she climbs so fast. She is used to the wild life. She is street smart, so smart. Before, when we were in Thailand, we fenced everywhere but we could never catch her. I hired everybody. And then one time, luckily, we used the big basket that you use for leaves in the garden. And then one Korean guy, looked like he had affinity with her, he came in and just caught her like that. But two days later, she was gone again, etc. Never mind, don’t talk about her. And last night, I was so tired looking for her. Everybody was looking, and to everybody else I said, “You go home and sleep. I’ll wait for her. She will come back.” I just don’t know when, that’s all. She’ll come back. They always come back.
