If we do some work to earn a living, it's better for everything. You feel good in there, so when you feel good, the body feels good. Yes, and it's connected, you know? (Yes.) The emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical, they are all connected.
You’re here today? You’re not working? (No, no work.) What happened? (Got another week off.) Yeah? (Yes.) Wow! You're a rich man, huh? (No...) One week off? That's a lot! Why? I'm not coming here every day. Just by the way. I got to buy something, so, by the way, pop in here. For lunch initially, I come. (Thank You.) (Thank You, Master.)
So that’s what you eat every day, like that? (Salad.) Simple. (Yes.) Like a big stew and then a salad. That’s cool. (With rice and stuff.) With rice, and stuff. (Yes.) Always nice to have some stuff with rice. Who cooked today? That brother? Nobody helped him? (And some sisters, yes.) One sister. (Brothers.) Who? Who’s cooking? (One, two, three - three of us. Brother and two of us.) Two of them? (Two sisters and a brother.) Who has to help, you? (Yes.) I thought the sister cooks and the brother grows, but today… (It’s the other way around today.) Good. Eat more up. It's addictive. (Yes.)
Where's your sister? Your wife? Here? Ah, that's the one! You both look like family. (We are not sisters.) You are very nice. You look so young and have so many children. (Oh, thank You, Master.) Hardworking! Hardworking! It's like the Chinese, huh? Tradition must be anywhere. Everywhere, keep the tradition. The Chinese like a lot of children running around. It's nice to have a big family also, huh? (Yes.) I guess it's cozy, no?
Children go back to school already? Not yet? (Yes.) Yeah? So, who takes care of them? (Oh, they take care of themselves.) They can drive? (No, walking.) Walk home! Oh, it's near, the school? (Yes, about 20 minutes.) Ah, it's not much. So they walk every day, or just today? (No, in the morning we take them to school, and after school they walk back.) Yeah, good! (And let them exercise.) It's good! Walking back is no rush. Sometimes you take them, sometimes they walk. (Yes.) It depends!
That's good, that's good, so they don't always think that you're obliged - obliged to serve them every day. The thing is, sometimes we do things for love, and then people keep expecting that all the time, and even more! Expect more all the time. So, (being) dependent is not good for anybody, because we should all do things ourselves. Life's more fun that way. Got to live our life, and everybody else lives theirs. Kids, it's good to train them to walk like that. When I was a kid, I walked all the time. My parents never came and got me, nothing! I walked one kilometer back and forth, every day, about four times. Because lunch, somebody stayed in the lunch, but I'd go home, and then go back in the afternoon. Maybe that's why I'm so tough.
So, nobody lives in the center? Sometimes they come, huh? Temporary, right? Two of you? (And the brother at the back over there.) (Yes.) Why? Why are you living here? (Because it's nice. The brother invited us, and then...) Oh, you are the couple, right? (Yes.) Ah, you used to live with your sister! How is she? (Yes, yes!) How is she now? (She is waiting for initiation eagerly.) Why you left her? (I don't know. Just felt we had to come up this way.) Yeah? (And she is coming in February. She is moving to this area.) Why? (Because she wants to be closer to the center and practice well.) Well, there's a center in London, also. (That's further for her. I think that's further for her, East Sussex. She's practicing well, and she loves reading, and videos every day, and she is eagerly wanting initiation.) She is alone, right? (Yes.) Has children, husband? (No, she is single.) Oh! So, it's easy for her to move here? She doesn't have to work or anything? (No, she is going to get some jobs here, like we did. We came here and found work.) It's easy, huh? (Just simple jobs.)
Is it easy to find a job here? (Very easy.) (If you want a simple job, cleaning and things, it's very simple.) Yeah, why not? Just enough to live, my God! (Yes, there are lots of jobs for cleaning.) No need to have a big deal job. (No!) If you're simple. (And we have a lot of time free as well, for meditation, because we work very early in the morning.) You work in the morning here, now? (At four or five o'clock, we go and do our cleaning jobs.) Wow, that's very diligent! (And then we've got most of the day free.) Oh, I'm impressed! (It's a great life! It's very nice!) I'm impressed! Both of you are working together? (Yes, we both clean together.) But where do you get the cleaning job? (In offices, and in people's houses sometimes.) I see, I see. So, you're employed by a company, or just freelance? (Some are freelance. Some, we're employed by an agency.) And you're fine with that? You both earn enough? (Yes, to live on, yes!) You look happy! (Oh, very!) You're both very wise! (Very, very happy, yes! It's through Your helping.) (It's just because of You.) Why? What did I do? (Miracles every day!)
(You gave us some advice on a video to do very simple work, and it's worked out beautifully.) If you want to be president of (the) United States, I cannot guarantee. But if you just want to have an honest living, by the labor of your hands, plenty! Just take the jobs that other people don't want, and don't need thinking too much. (Yes, yes!) Then your mind is free, also! Recite the Five (Holy) Names all the while, blessing their home, (Exactly.) and get paid for (it)! (And we listen to Your MP3 when we're cleaning, too, with Your music and chanting and lectures, and...) Ah, that's nice. Also, very healthy to do exercise. Some people have to pay lots of money to go to the gym to... Yeah! And here, you just, lift the chair, clean the table. (I used to have a problem in my knees when I meditated, but since I've been cleaning, it's so much exercise and bending, I have no problem now.) It's also the karma, honey. It's also the karma. (Oh, yes.)
If we do some work to earn a living, it's better for everything. You feel good in there, so when you feel good, the body feels good. Yes, and it's connected, you know? (Yes.) The emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical, they are all connected. Yeah, you know that very well, huh? (Yes.) Sometimes when you are very depressed, you easily get sick. And pain here, pain there, pain everywhere! Pain here, pain there...
So some people, they look down upon physical work, like cleaner, or do anything. I don't! I have respect for everyone who gets a job and gets paid. As long as you get paid, I have respect for you. (The people are really happy to come home to their houses all clean when they get home from work.) Yeah? (And we've found that people who don't even know us just leave us their key, and we just go and clean. They are very trusting, which is lovely. Very trusting to leave us in their house and clean.) Because you are good. They can feel it. (Yeah, it's nice.) Yeah, that's good. Oh, I'm happy for you. (Thank You, Master.) Thank you.
And you are happy, yeah? (Oh, every day!) Good! (We say thank You every day. It feels so good.) You are so good! You are good people! (It’s all You, Master. It has nothing to do with us. We’re lousy.) No, it's you who are good also. Because you are good, you have your self-esteem and self-confidence. You just do whatever, and you still feel great. Some people, they don't have self-respect, so they think they have to be something in order to respect themselves. In our group, it's different. You do what you do, as long as you take care of yourself, you earn an honest living, if you can, that's all we want.
We don't care who you are, normally. I never ask! I mean, at the time of initiation, they do ask you what you do, just in case, you know, in a group or something, go help disaster victims or something, we know who is capable of what. Or maybe if you are in a center, you are appointed to work at what. If you're an electrician, OK, take care of the electrics in the center in case something goes wrong. That's all. But I never need to know. I don't even know! Most of you, I don't know who, what are you doing. Sometimes I ask. Just conversation, just to talk. But I don't need to know who you are. I don't need you, totally!
I just need to know that you are happy, and that you really... Like you're doing cleaning job, you are really living my teaching. I mean, you go earn your honest living and you take care of yourselves, and you save time to meditate. (Yes.) That is the most respectful thing you could ever do. So, when I hear somebody do this, do that job, earn a little money to take care of himself, so you don't bother nobody, and you don't incur any trouble. Because sometimes the more you spend, the more you have to borrow, and that binds you. It's no good, no good. Better live within our means, you know, whatever you have. If you have big, then spend big. If you have small, spend small. No need!
(I had a business for nine years, and...) Headache, huh? (I'd never like a business again, no!) Yeah, OK. (Now my mind is free.) Yeah, it's more free that way. (No paperwork.) Yeah! No, because of you guys, that's why I used to have this center, that center. But me, I don't want any! If you have any, like, trailer park or something? You know, just have a trailer! It's good enough for me. Or just some small hotel, simple, bed and breakfast. Just in case I don't have any lunch and dinner, then at least have breakfast. Just to make sure! So, I have a bed and a breakfast, and that's all we need. It's just also nice sometimes to live next to the sea or some mountain. It is for the... (Fresh air.) Fresh air, yeah, it feels good. Huh? (It's very open.) Yeah, open. Yes, yes, yes.
Recent years, I developed, like, a claustrophobic kind of problem. I don't know who gave me that incredible present, but I'm still keeping it! I heard that many people are free from it. They told me! I say, "Ah, bravo! Good for you!" So, that means I'm still having to keep it for a while! So if sometimes, if the room's with a small window or something, it does send me into some panic experience. Nothing that I cannot control, it's just unpleasant, having to sit there and say, "OK, nothing is going to go wrong." And you know, spend energy on calming yourself. It's no good. But after I meditate for a while, it's OK. It's just that I have to go through it, for somebody else's sake. You know, somebody who doesn't like this kind of present, and he passed it on to me. So that's why if you stay in a big mountain or (near the) ocean or something, it just feels a little better. Otherwise, everywhere is the same.
Actually, I didn't feel all that bad. I tell you what, because when I was in Spain, the cave I lived in had no view at all in the front. You know, big trees in the front, and the width is only about maybe from here to that radiator over there, that's it, you know, the wall there. That's the widest space in front of me. That's it. Otherwise it's all trees, and a mountain, a big mountain. Of course, the cave cannot be on the top of the mountain! It has to be in the middle somewhere, or under. So, that one is like, almost at the foot of the mountain. And in front is a stream, only when in winter. When in the rainy season, there's a waterfall coming down in front of the cave. And it goes down to the stream, goes down there. Beautiful! I still left some vegan canned food, and an oil lamp and a solar light and stuff, and my clothes in that cave. But the cave is not completely closed, you know? So, I had a tent, so that the rain didn't come in the tent. So, I lived in that tent under the cave. A cave inside a cave. And it's not all that bad. You get used to it. Even though me, I love sun and a warm climate, but I bear it, it's not too bad. I would stay there forever. Lucky you, never see me again! Nobody scolds you ever again! Goodbye, that Madam!
So actually, it depends on where. You know, in the city, probably I feel panic, but... You know, when too many people. But I guess it's not in the mountain then; I was alone in a cave, and the cave is not that big. I mean, it's long, but there's no view or nothing in the front. Only trees! And high trees, you know? So, I guess it's not... I think it's just the city or something, and the people, being around with people. Now I come to think about it, the cave is not that big. It's long and big, but it's not like a big panoramic view in front of you or nothing! Just nobody, that's why. (It's pressure, isn't it?) I guess so! People's energies are so different. That's what makes you long for space.
But for example, in this center, I don't feel that bad, either. I don't feel, like, too small the room, or anything. But of course, I'd prefer if that wall has a bigger window. Two windows instead of one! But they've painted some nice pictures of lakes and things. Not too bad. Your kids? (No, a friend of my wife's sister.) Ah, not bad, not bad. It's OK. Huh? (The crying baby.) Crying baby, yeah? (Yes.) Yeah, I'm telling you!
It would be nice if people leave us alone, and you can stay together. Maybe one day we can do it again. I don't know. Right now, I'm fed up. Don't ask me anything, OK? It looks like you guys have to take care of yourselves. It looks like Heaven doesn't want me to work for you anymore. I mean, like take care, buy a center for you, and do every paperwork, and all the "hassling," all the caretaking like a manager of a hotel. So, many years, I bought a few places already, everywhere now. It looks like I can't stay anywhere too long. So it's no use either, that I buy it there, and then you can't come because I'm not there. I mean, you can come of course, but you're not interested to go there.
Like Florida Center, it's beautiful, for example, but (it's) time to go, got to go! And Costa Rica, it's also beautiful. Have you been there? Yes? And even, we have it in Malaysia. I bought it also. I've hardly seen it. I've seen it only one time. Climbed the mountain, had a look at it, and climbed down again. It's in the middle of a fruit-like forest. You know, very nice. I don't know what's become of it now. Probably people climb up there every day and meditate, you know, every weekend. You can drive in it now, I think, because they've made the roads on different sides.
I'm always a pioneer. I come when only mosquitoes are there, and then later on, clean up and make it nicely. Miaoli before, (there was) also nothing there! Many places are all grown with a thick kind of thorny bushes. And then when I first went to one of those places, I had to, you know... yeah! And then made it a little bit clear, and then put a tent on it. A small tent, a single tent that you often have. Yes, that's what it was! Some of the places were thick with thorny bushes. Later on, they had to use a... I don't know. Not just cutting, but used a CAT ("caterpillar") or you know, the one that pushes away the earth? What do you call that? (Bulldozer.) Bulldozer, and then a CAT, you know the CAT? Yeah, all kind of..., and then to make it nice. See, I kept going! You know, first I stayed there, and then I saw later everybody liked to stay there. And then I moved to the jungle and then cleared it all up, and then everybody went there again. And then I went to another jungle and cleared it up and stayed there, just a tent, and later everybody went and then ate up the whole forest, and now I'm gone!
