So, we should know by this example that real practitioners, they don’t really depend on anything in this world to survive. They just do it for the sake of others, for the sake of the world. For whatever it is, it’s not for their own benefit.
Who is this person over there? It should be me. Why is it him? Just joking. Doesn’t matter. I don’t have that much ego. Just joking with you. How’s everybody? (Good.) It isn’t very cold, is it? (No.) (We don’t feel cold as long as we have Master around.) (Master is so beautiful.) (We don’t feel cold with You around.) Thank you. Anybody wants to come up? Can. Hallo. Aulacese (Vietnamese) can come up. Don't have any? Then the back can come to the front, and can sit over there if you want. There are some places there, behind there, some places behind here. Everything good. Wonderful. Here. Closer. I’m acting like a commander. “Go there, here. Move there, here. Come, come. Go.” I said I am directing. Not a film director, but traffic director. Here, still some more places. Now! Up for sale. That one. Oh, some more places there. Come on. Never mind, whatever. It’s good. Translation begin. Nobody there. If you need, raise your hand quickly before it's out. It's very quickly out here. You need earphones, you raise your hand quickly. Raise and keep it there until you get it. There. OK. Very good. I am a good director. Why didn't I do some film directing stuff? Oh, I did some. One - “The King & Co.,” just for fun. OK? Yeah? Everybody happy? (Yes.) Sure. I can believe that. That I can believe. It's a good holiday. People cook for you, and people translate for you. Wow, what a life! I like it. Sit here, make me feel comfy. You have translation? Not yet? (Yes.) Good. Wonderful. What a nice day. For a change.
Turn it around. It’s all the same. It’s the same. I don’t know why I have to wear all this. I have no idea why a nun wears all this. I complained to the one who drove me here. I said, “My life is so miserable. I might look pretty, but it’s actually so hard.” I have to wear everything. It’s very difficult to put this on. Sometimes I just can’t hook it up. I said sometimes this kind of thing looks beautiful, but I am alone. Nobody helps me. I don't have a husband, wives or kids to help me to hook it in, and sometimes it’s very difficult for me, one person, to do everything. Even the shoes, you have to hook it in. And the trousers, you have to hook it in and everything. As I told you last time, to be a man is a blessing, except the hormone stuff. Everything is good, to be a man. OK, I have to sit this way, otherwise, I always look at the women. I want to look at a new view for a change. Every day I look at myself already. New view! Good view!
You don’t wait until the retreat to come? You’re coming now? You don’t wait until the retreat? It’s only a few more days, right? How many more days? Twenty days? Less, less. And you will see your old woman again, same old. So every day, now I’m getting older, I have to decorate a little bit, so that you can see a new view, new stuff. OK? Everybody ready? (Yes!) Good. Last time, where were we? Before I go on and on, and on with my calendar, we’d better look at this. (On a fast…) Fasting? Yes. He was on a fast. Yes. He looked for the princess. (Yes.) Is this correct? Ah, yes. Hallo, are you still there? (Yes.) We’re catching up.
“Five months and twenty-five days had passed since Lord Mahavira had eaten anything.” So, “The twenty-sixth day of the sixth month dawned. It was past noon when Prabhu Vardhaman, wandering for alms, was approaching the house of merchant Dhanavah. An expectant crowd followed Him.” Everybody now followed Him everywhere. It’s like that because He hadn’t eaten anything, and people were curious to see whether or not He was going to eat today. Same when I was in New York in the temple, and I did not eat anything for a long time, the attendance of the temple increased. They came looking for me, asking questions and stuff like that. It was really a bother, but I had no choice to go anywhere at that time. I had no money, no place to go, and any place is the same. If you don’t eat anything, and you are in the public eye, they will come looking for you, just for your special diet, a no-food diet. That’s the problem. So, nevertheless, I survived, until the last minute, I could not bear anymore. I thought, this couldn’t be worse than eating. It could be worse than eating. People pay too much attention to you and for the wrong reason, so I started eating again. I told you already last week, right? (Yes.) Good. Oh, this is a new one. I don’t know how to handle the new thing. I just moved again, and everything is everywhere. And you know what women are like: we need this, we need that, we need everything. And all this kind of extra work makes me feel, “What for have I become a monk?” It went back to zero, worse than before. I thought I left just one husband, and now I have so many. I thought I left home, and look at how many relatives I have now, family members.
So the big crowd, “expectant crowd” was following Him now, everywhere. It’s because five months plus, almost five months and a half, He hadn’t eaten anything. And people would of course, wonder whether He was still alive, or it was a ghost who ran around begging. In the world, people have concepts of what, and what, and what. Like if you don’t eat, you will die, for example like that. So they were also watching me like a hawk, when I was in the temple. Because the temple people came in and out all the time. And on Sunday, also gathering to pray and all that. If you are alone it’s not too bad. But like Lord Mahavira, He was also alone, but He needed to go out to beg for alms. Almost five months and a half He didn’t eat anything, so He was still walking around and still begging for alms. But He was still waiting for that precise princess who was still in shackles, who was holding horse food or something in front of her, but didn’t eat for three days, and was in rag clothes. So that’s the way it was arranged by maya, to make trouble for the Prince. But almost five months and a half, and He didn’t eat anything. Meaning He eats if He wants to. He doesn’t when He doesn’t want to. You see clearly? (Yes.) So good practitioners, they don’t really depend… He already had no clothes on. In the beginning of the story, we know already that they even took away His only one cloth to cover for decency, for human decency. They took it away from Him already. And now He had no food, He still stayed alive. So, He is a true practitioner. He could concentrate so much inside, so was oblivious to anything outside. So that means He could eat or not eat. But He chose not to eat. In such a dire situation, how could He find the princess, in rags even, and hadn’t eaten for many days, or three days, and then in a cage, and in front of a bowl of horse food or something, coarse food in front of her, and still did not eat? But it had to be like that, and He knew that. He saw that in His vision, so He had to wait until then to have something to eat. Meanwhile, He still survived, walking around, begging like everybody else. So, we should know by this example that real practitioners, they don’t really depend on anything in this world to survive. They just do it for the sake of others, for the sake of the world. For whatever it is, it’s not for their own benefit. So, the expectant crowd followed Him anywhere.
“Chandana was sitting on the threshold of the cellar…” She wasn’t deep in the cellar anymore, but she sat on the threshold of the cellar, “…one foot inside and the other outside.” Just one foot dangling out, one foot inside. “In her hand was a basket and in the basket, stale pulse-bran.” You knew it last time, when I began the story. “When she looked at the shackles on her limbs, a broken dream emerged in her memory and she became lost.” She was kind of lost in her trance or dream, daydream. That could be like a vision. Since she was so pure and she hadn’t eaten, so probably she just became calm very quickly, and had a vision. “All of a sudden, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps…” Many footsteps of course, because it was not only the Master, it was the big crowd that followed Him. Very attractive. Anything new, anything strange is attractive to this human race on this planet. So now, she heard the footsteps. She was in her dreamy state, but then she heard many footsteps, “…and a murmur of the crowd.” Why do they murmur? I don’t understand. Probably it was still far away and they didn’t want to talk loud to disturb the Lord Mahavira, out of reverence, so they just talked in a murmuring fashion. Like, “OK, I tell you, don’t tell that one.” “OK, this and that one, don’t tell this one.” “This one, don’t tell that.”
I thought I murmured before, but it became very loud. In the beginning, when I first came back to Taiwan (Formosa)… Today, the former two-time vice-president of Taiwan (Formosa) also came and paid a visit. And she said to me, she was very impressed when I came home, came to Taiwan (Formosa) in the beginning, and a big, huge 10,000 people went to the airport and carried this kind of high sedan chair. And carried it on their shoulders, and put me on it, to welcome me home. So, that is the thing. I told just one person, my attendant or somebody, I can’t remember, to book my ticket for me. And I said, “Don’t tell anybody,” of course. Well, I forgot, or maybe I didn’t tell, or maybe I forgot. And she told the other attendant. And the attendant has her best friend, and the best friend has a boyfriend, boyfriend has mama, mama has papa, papa has co-workers and whomever; the disciples, they all went to the airport. And I became a sudden star, an airport star. So I told her that was at the beginning. Even sometimes, I said, “I’m thinking of going to Japan.” I didn’t even book a ticket. I didn’t plan anything yet, everybody knew Master was going to Japan and Japanese disciples prepared everything already. Oh God! So, I say that’s why I don’t tell anybody anymore. I even go everywhere alone now, with my own suitcase, pack my own things and book tickets at the airport. I don’t book tickets at home. I don’t ask. I don’t know how to book online.
