Even a simple place doesn’t mean lousy, sloppy, or shabby. A simple place can be very beautiful, very cute, and lovely, and very warm, cozy, cozy. I like those.
I think I’ll forget Lord (Mahavira) today. Sorry. My calendar is coming out. You stay here and you bless everybody while I talk, or you talk, and I just sit there. It would be nicer.
So, we do really need wisdom. Not because you get initiation and are secure, and then you don’t have to grow up anymore. We do have to.
People outside, when you hire them for something the disciples cannot do, the Taiwanese (Formosan) cannot do, they hire outside people. Oh, they’re absolutely polite. They even stayed late at night to finish just the roof, glass roof for me. They stayed overnight. They stayed until late at night to do it, and even then, it was their New Year. It’s the most important for them, but they stayed to do it. I did not ask, but they knew I needed it.
I stayed on the roof, and then they put the filtered sunglass on top for me, and they stayed late. Of course, later I rewarded them with extra money. I said, “This is for your wife, your kids at home. When you get home, you say this is for New Year, so they don’t complain (about) why you stayed late, and they don’t doubt that maybe you stayed somewhere else. This money is the proof. And tell them they can call me, call my people here to prove that you were here all this time with all your workers and many other eyewitnesses.” He said, “No problem, we are working, we are not doing anything.” I said, “You know, I know, but the wife doesn’t know. We women are very, very careful about husbands and men. We never trust 100%. We always reserve something to prove, for fun. Just to have something to think about or to be on edge, to be alive, like, ‘We’re still here. Watch us. We’re sharp.’”
And later, I gave much more extra money, not just the overtime. They didn’t want to take it. They respect me so much, even they’re not disciples. Respect. So, everybody was willing to stay and work. But I gave them extra money for overtime and then for New Year, for them and extra more for their family. I said, “This is for your wife. Tell her why you got this money, so that she doesn’t complain or she doesn’t feel hurt, that maybe you treated the work more importantly than your family, even on New Year’s Eve time. I really appreciate that you stayed. I did not expect it, but I really appreciate it so much that tonight I can stay here now, that I don’t have to stay in the room downstairs.”
I don’t like the room. It’s just an empty roof, and then they put a tent for me, and I was so happy there. Really, I was reluctant to leave. Only after I discovered the cave, then I was not reluctant anymore. I moved immediately, like love at the first sight. But I was very pleased up there. I was so contented with a tent and the roof, empty everywhere. I was truly happy. During the retreat, I had to stay. I had to bear it until after the retreat, but I had to wear the shoes instead of walking bare feet like in the house, as I like. I wore the slippers just in case. And I didn’t touch the wood door, the poisonous door. I used cloth or something, or I did it with the elbow, with the cloth already on to avoid, in case, because I’m sensitive, I’m fragile, I’m small. I’m the smallest around here, am I not? Don’t you consider that? Without the high heels, you wouldn’t find me at all. “Where is Master? She disappeared!”
One time, I was in France SMC center, and I always invited the Westerners, because it’s very small, and short-term Westerners come to my little hut behind the center. And I put vegan bread and even just vegan butter, they said, “Oh, yum, yum, yum.” I put anything, “Yum, yum, yum.” Whatever I gave, “Yum, yum!” They liked it; they were kind of, wow, so eager to get just a morsel. And then because it was in my place, I didn’t wear high heels; I just wore similar like this. If you were there or not, I don’t remember. If you don’t remember, you were not there. None of you. Imagine. You were there, you ate my (vegan) bread? (Yes.) OK. See that? One witness. And of course, so I wore sandals, slippers. And I wore this monk’s robe. And I was chopping (vegan) bread for everybody and putting some vegan mayonnaise or whatever I had that they prepared for me in the fridge. I said, “Bring more bread. Even just bread alone, they take it like gold.” Oh, my God. I’d never seen, just like hungry ghosts or something.
They’d already eaten dinner, these were extra. But everybody’s like… Oh, my God, I thought I could open a shop and sell to disciples and I’d earn millions in no time, surely. They’d fight for it. Queuing outside, and making me more famous. And outsiders would even queue with them. “It must be good because a lot of people queuing.” They don’t know the disciples; they’d queue for anything as long as I am there. They’re just queuing, queuing. If I open a stinky tofu shop, oh, I’m sure you all will be standing there, drooling all day long. Come back again and again.
So, I was chopping (vegan) bread, and some more people kept coming because this is a small place. It’s just like a small corridor and I had a little hut, maybe two by one and a half, something like that. Those storerooms that are ready-made, you buy and then you put there, and you just stay in. Wonderful! I love this kind of arrangement. I never liked any big building, bang, bang, boom, boom, cement. I don’t feel the difference between a big room and a small room. I’m small, luckily also. I enjoy this kind of quick build, simple. You live inside, you feel like, OK, you’ve accomplished something, just the way you like it. And then I chopped-chopped (vegan) bread and one of your sisters, her husband was there, and she was there, and she looked at me head to toe, toe to head again, and said, “Oh, without the high heels, You look so small!” I said, how can she guess? I said, “How can you guess? Didn’t you know this before? I’m glad you noticed now. Probably your wisdom eye opened.”
Even a simple place doesn’t mean lousy, sloppy, or shabby. A simple place can be very beautiful, very cute, and lovely, and very warm, cozy, cozy. I like those. I am also busy. I don’t need to clean too big. That kind of house, you clean in “zoop,” one second, two the maximum. Very quickly. And you don’t need a lot of things, just a towel, a cleaning cloth; that’s it. You don’t need a lot of vacuum cleaner, that’s one thing less.
Tell me, Nick. You look wise and old. I mean not old, wise. (Old, old, OK. I…) We’re in the same boat, don’t worry. Tell me. (I had a house with a wooden floor, and it was very, very old, but it was still new. And everybody would come in and say, “Why don’t you put the shellac or the shiny things that they do?”) Polishing it, right? (And I said, “No, I like it like that.” I would go with the vacuum cleaner, clean up, and I loved it. But everybody else wanted that shiny thing, not me.) Yeah, I know, I know. They have nothing else to do. (No. Yeah.) Just like if you’re just sniffling a little bit, ten people come up and tell you, “Take this, take that. Go to that doctor he’s good; that doctor, no, no. I know something, home remedy, take this.” And then they give you ten thousand medicines out of love. (And then some people said, “Oh, why don’t you tear it down and build a new one?”) Yeah, yeah, yeah. (I said, “No, no, I like this. I like simple.”)
They told me like that with my old farmhouse in Spain. (I understand, in the same boat.) I didn’t even live there. I lived outside in a small hut I bought myself. It was too small actually, 1.60 (meter) and 1.90 (meter), but I fit. I even had a heater inside, a small television as well, and some hooks to hang my clothes. And I bought some small square things like they make it ready, a square box like this and you have two drawers in it. So, I bought about ten of them. I put them together, it became a bed. And I put a mattress or whatever I had on it, and that was wonderful. I had my clothes under, my tools, even a hammer and… Yeah! A hammer and a screwdriver, all kinds of stuff, you have no idea. I had all, it was organized.
And then I was very happy, but they said, “This house…” Any worker who came to help me always advised me something. I said, “Does that cost me something also? Is that included in the price that you fix my pipe or not?” Just a joke.
Anybody who came there always advised me, “Tear it down. Build a modern one.” I said, “I don’t even live in it, what for? Just leave it there, souvenir.” And if it becomes a ruin, then in Spain we have many ruins everywhere, so it just joins the club. I said, “What for do you take care of the things that you don’t need and unnecessary? It’s not even obliged (obligatory) by law.” But everybody who came, the guy who fixed the road a little bit, “You, that house is too old already.” I said, “It’s still livable. It’s still standing.” “You must build a new one. I know a builder, very good, very fast, cheap.” I said, “No need cheap or expensive. I just don’t need to.” Later, I was tired, so I said, “OK, OK. I’ll think about it maybe. If I want, I’ll call you. Give me your phone number quickly.” And then they were happy. “Call me. I’m always available for You.” My God.
And sometimes I didn’t call them, they called me, “Hey, Your house, how about it now?” I said, “Nothing, it’s the same like before. You want to go have a look? Be welcome.” Oh, man, I’m telling you, people don’t understand. They busy themselves for nothing with too much trimming grass or manicuring plants. There are some manicured plants I’m going to remove also. Just like the fence, the plants they planted around the fence to keep it green or safe or whatever when they grow thicker together, but I don’t want it. If they grow very tall, and I don’t cut it, then it covers my view. If I let people cut it, I don’t feel good. I don’t want trees to be chopped and cut if truly not necessary.
