Whatever I teach you will benefit you for a long, long time and benefit the whole world in the long term. So try your best to follow. And don’t worry about my clothes and my makeup. The result speaks for my action. OK? Don’t judge my action; judge my result. Alright? Because if a practitioner is not flexible and does not learn to adapt to the situation for the benefit of mankind, then he’s dead. He’s a dead Buddha. And only an alive Buddha, a living Buddha, is good for the world. Right? […]
Therefore, I tell you, always have to behave well and try to integrate with the country people where you stay – for our country also. Apart from being a good spiritual practitioner, bringing blessings to whomever we contact, we also do it for the country and for the peace of the world. Because then, many countries will get to know Âu Lạc (Vietnam), and Âu Lạc (Vietnam) will get to know many other countries. Then we integrate our cultures, and each country will get to know the other country and think, “Oh, after all, Âu Lạc (Vietnam) is so good!” You know what I mean? Yes. So, in the future, if our political situation becomes more favorable and many countries have already known us through long years of integration and cultural exchange, they’ll willingly help Âu Lạc (Vietnam) to build their future. Capito (Understand)? It lasts a long time!
So wherever you go, whatever you do, don’t think you do it for America or anybody alone; you do it for the whole world, if not for Âu Lạc (Vietnam). We have to think bigger, yes, because Âu Lạc (Vietnam) is also one of the countries. And whatever happens in one country generally affects the whole world also. You know that. Because if every nation is developed and peaceful, then, in turn, the world will be peaceful. Is that not so? (Yes.) So, at least we take care of our house, right? And now we don’t have a house, you say you don’t have a country, so you take this country as yours. But by the way, what you do here will affect the future of our first motherland. So don’t worry, nothing will get lost, nothing will go wasted.
Whatever I teach you will benefit you for a long, long time and benefit the whole world in the long term. So try your best to follow. And don’t worry about my clothes and my makeup. The result speaks for my action. OK? Don’t judge my action; judge my result. Alright? Because if a practitioner is not flexible and does not learn to adapt to the situation for the benefit of mankind, then he’s dead. He’s a dead Buddha. And only an alive Buddha, a living Buddha, is good for the world. Right? That’s why I have taught you to take care of yourself. Do your job right. Work. Use your wisdom to take care, at least your family, and whatever’s spare, we can help the desperate. Then we can contribute not only spiritually to the world, to help to clean the atmosphere of the world, but also financially, physically, and many other aspects. We have to develop all directions to become a perfect being. Is that not so? (Yes.) If you say you are a perfect being, and you develop only one, like wisdom, what is the use of your wisdom?
Since we are living in this world, and we have owed so much to this Earth since we were born, at least physically, and now we’re grown up, we can stand on our feet, we’ll repay some kindness, right? (Yes.) So, each one has to be responsible for his own finances and family – that I told you again and again and again. And now you know why. Do you know? (Yes.) Yeah, good. So what I teach you is truly beneficial, not because I control you or tell you what to do, but because you see the result of it. Yeah? (Yes.) Now, if I tell you, “Follow me, shave your head. Wear the monk’s robe; that’s the holiest thing we can do.” So what should we do now when the fire comes? We have no money, and we have to go begging for ourselves. How can we give to the people who are having flood disasters or fire disasters and all that? You understand what I mean? (Yes.)
Therefore, be strong. Be a giver, not a taker, because that’s the way of the Saints. If you call yourself a saint or you practice saintly conduct and you always go and depend on somebody else, that is nonsense. If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you say you will take care of other people? If a master can’t afford, can’t even take care of herself or himself, how can he boast of taking care of the whole world or other disciples? OK. A Master takes care of the disciple spiritually. There’s no doubt. That’s the duty of a Master. But you can’t trade that; you can’t trade that for material support. So, you are learning to become a saint. You are learning to be a master or to kind of train yourself in the way of the Master, the noble way. So, you have to first take care of yourself. Then you can say, “I know how to take care of others.” Right? (Right.)
That’s why I have told you many times you don’t bow to the small gods or all these kinds of things that depend on you to live. Because sometimes they bow to such and such gods, local gods or some other strange gods. And they say, “If we don’t bow to them, if we don’t give them offerings, the gods will… you know, because they’re hungry. The gods are hungry, and they, in turn, will not protect us.” It’s ridiculous. So, I said, “If that god depends on you for food and finance in order to protect you, he’s nothing better than a gangster leader,” right? (Yes.) Yeah, who goes around collecting money from pimps and all that and then protects them. If God is an exchange agent, then we can go and bow to the bank or the exchange bureau. What is the use of bowing to any god to protect us?
We are gods. We protect ourselves. (Right.) Otherwise, we will be, at some time or another, disappointed because we can’t always ask other people for help in our life. Sooner or later, our conscience will begin to stir up and feel very bad about it. Or it becomes like a habit, and we lose our power of independence. And that’s very expensive. Capito? (Yes.) Yes, the power of independence, the spirit to struggle for survival – that is more expensive (valuable) than money. And that we cannot buy. Keep it. If you want to be strong, if you want to be the protector, the guardian of the weak and needy, of the young spirit, you will have to be strong yourself. No? (Yes.) Yeah. It’s very simple this life. If your house is too big, mortgage too much, you buy a smaller house, right? Or rent that to someone else more wealthy – for example, like that. Don’t get yourself into financial trouble and become dependent because we lose our pride then. We lose our self-respect. We can’t sell it for money. Understand? (Yes.) Therefore, I always tell you, “Support yourself.” Right? So you’ll never be dependent.
Of course, we have disasters sometimes. Unexpected circumstances. Then, at that time, we have to think fast. Or we can receive some help when it’s truly an emergency, like these people in the fire. They had a fire. All their houses were burned – million-dollar houses. Now, suppose they’re OK, they have insurance, fine. But now they have nothing. They’re on the street, so of course, they need help from someone else. Nobody says anything about that. If it were me, I also would do that. I’d also receive help. If I am on the street and cold and have nothing to eat and somebody helps me, I’ll accept that. I will not be too proud to accept help when I need it. Because later you’re strong, you work, and you help again in the society, help the next fire [victims]. No problem. That’s no problem. So when you’re in trouble like that, don’t say, “Master says, ‘you have to be independent, and you cannot receive help from anybody,’ so now I have to die.” Right? (Right.) Yeah. Be flexible. Learn my teaching and assimilate it, digest it, and use it for different circumstances. You have to know what’s right, what’s wrong. Don’t always say, “Master said like this,” and then it has to be like that. That is brilliant idiocy. It’s not good.
So, for example, I have told you already, people keep asking me all the time about why I put makeup on, why I wear like this, why I don’t wear a monk’s robe. Why should I wear a monk’s robe? What is the good use of the monk’s robe now? When I sit here with you, whether I wear a monk’s robe or I wear makeup, what difference does it make to you? I don’t have to say any reason, first. And what difference does it make to you what I put on this skeleton? What difference does it make to you or to me? Right? (Right.) Right. But because society demands, and now I’m in a different position and different influential power, I have to do this like this. It’s good for you, good for people, and good for the connection with the whole world – so that I can help more people instead of clinging to my robe and helping only myself and a few who are attached to that kind of outer appearance and move nowhere beyond that. Capito? (Yes.)
So whatever you learn from the Saints of different teachings, learn and make it your own. Learn and be flexible. The Buddha said the same thing. Don’t say I am teaching different from the Buddha. Don’t say I don’t wear the same clothes as the Buddha. The Buddha said what? “My teaching is like a raft only.” When you already cross the river, you don’t carry the raft on your head, on your shoulder. That becomes your obstacle, then. When you cross the river from this side, you need the raft in order to carry you across. But once you arrive at the other shore, you don’t carry the raft with you all the time. Because the raft before was the one helping you, was the helping instrument. Now in this situation, it becomes an obstacle. Understand what I mean? (Yes.) And then you will bump into all of the trees and the people around you when you carry the raft on your head all the time, and you get tired from that. Because you say, “Well, the raft is the one that helped me. I have to be faithful to it. I have to sleep with it, carry it all over, and go to my grave with it.” Isn’t that ridiculous?
Similarly, the monk’s robe was the one I thought was helping me to fend off the world so that no boyfriends would come and disturb me. Well, I used to attract boyfriends. Not that I had that many, but I attracted them. So then I thought that would be good and also afford me to go around and see a different society, and people wouldn’t wonder why I go around so much. Monks can go around and learn. That’s OK. But now I’ve learned, right? I have mastered what I learned. So, I don’t need that robe anymore. I can wear it, or I don’t wear it. It depends on how it benefits myself and other people. Now, it’s no use. It’s useless, so I have to throw it away. That’s a very simple reason. (Right.) And you see how we grow faster. Because before I wasn’t famous, I can wear anything – I wear a monk’s robe, OK. But I don’t need it anymore. And that’s a hindrance now to me and to you also because you will be attached to my robe all the time. And you think if you don’t wear that, you’ll never become a Buddha. Nonsense. I could swear, but I just say nonsense. Because... Because then maybe you’ll scold me. Actually, it deserves more than just “nonsense.” But never mind, just keep it. I’m a lady, after all.
So, you see, many of you must ponder over my teaching, must think about what I teach. And make use of it in different situations, please. Don’t cling to one corner of my teaching and make trouble for yourself and other people. I told you many times, but some of you never understand. Even the (Five) Precepts. They’re good for you and they’re [fitting] for normal situations. But there are some special situations where you have to use your wisdom to handle them. Once, a person asked me about one of our disciples – got initiation, but now he’s in the army. And in that specific time and specific unit, they didn’t let people eat vegan. And you couldn’t even bring any vegan food in – for a few months of that period. And he was forced to go into the army because of his age, not because he wanted to. Just in that situation, for a few months, you were not allowed to get any food from outside. So, then the mother insisted that the boy had to be vegan. There was nothing there for him to eat. There was no vegan food there. No need to insist that he eat vegan. Just tell him to die on the spot. You know what I mean? It’s better to keep this alive. So you have to always use your wisdom. Understand? The (Five) Precepts, the teaching, are only for guidance. Don’t buy into that; you’ll die. You cannot hang it on your neck; it’ll become a burden for you. OK. It’s the same thing over and over again.
