It’s OK that they eat vegetables raw, but their inability to take care of themselves also worries me. Understand? (Yes.) The vegan diet and raw food diet are the same. You have to look after your nutrition. It’s not that you eat the green stuff every day and it’s OK. Because the green stuff is not enough. Sometimes there’s not enough protein. Not all of them have a lot of protein. For example, broccoli. […] It has more protein. The kind of baby bok choy and green bok choy they eat have leaves so thin that they melt as soon as put into the mouth. […]
Do you have earphones? Yeah? Oh, OK, OK. I did not see. If I really don’t want to scold people, I don’t want it so noisy. If you want me to allow you to put on shows in front of me, I need to wear an eye mask every time I come down. And plug my ears. That way I can give lectures. I just leave my mouth uncovered. It’ll be OK. Then you don’t need to look at my eyes anymore. And I don’t have to see the shows you put on in front of me, or to see you running to and from the toilet and wandering about. And squeezing each other. Normally, if one person… If a few people can’t see me, I’d tell them to remove the flowers, or remove the things to let them see me. You’ll see everything if you sit here. (Yes.) Also, I’m very concentrated. My eyes are always sharp, and that’s the trouble. I see everything. Maybe you can’t see the tissue paper or something at the side when you walk by, but I’d even see a nail. A nail or something tiny. I see everything. When I walk by, I see everything. That’s strange. I don’t know why.
It’d be better if I couldn’t see that much, so that there’d be less trouble. From now on, I’ll wear an eye mask when I come down. Then it’ll be OK. It’ll definitely work. Do you have an eye mask at hand? Yes? You must have one when you take a plane. I’ll absolutely do that from now on. No need to look at the eyes anymore. That’ll save the trouble for both of us. OK? Is that alright? (No.) I won’t see anything. And I’ll just take off the eye mask after I go back up, then it’ll be OK. I’ll memorize the entire book, put on the eye mask, and just come down and recite it. There’ll be no problem. Or what should I do? You tell me. It affects many people. The whole atmosphere is changed. Some people don’t like this kind of scolding. They are not used to it. For example, they’ve been spoiled by their parents since childhood, no one has ever scolded them. Even if it is not them that I scold, they don’t like it either. For example like that. Then they put on a long face like that, and have trouble laughing. I also feel uncomfortable when I see them. Understand? (Understand.) It’s not only their business because I can see everybody when I sit here. I can see very clearly whose face is long and whose is short. And I can see through how they’re feeling. It’s very unbearable. Very unbearable. You don’t understand.
Because everyone is staring at Master. Do you understand? I’m the only one here for everybody to stare at. Therefore, any mood, any state of mind and attitude inside, I know them all. I have to bear them all, be it happy or upset, or this and that – all this appears because you pour all your attention here. Right? (Yes.) Except for a few possessed ones who are thinking about their girlfriends and boyfriends. I’d rather they think about those things. I’d rather they think about their girlfriend and boyfriend and don’t trouble me. Those people are comparably OK. In fact, those people… They’re sitting there… thinking of other people, and they wouldn’t bother me. Only if they pour their attention on me with their critical, disapproving, or dissatisfied mindset, they’d be like arrows… Arrows shooting toward me. Because not all of our fellow initiates practice very well. Do you know that? (Yes.)
Whatever Master does, good spiritual practitioners always understand it clearly. But it’s been many years. It’s not… Wait till he understands, I almost… And the newcomers… Sometimes, even though the newcomers are not used to us, they have high wisdom. Because their levels are high, they understand whatever I do, and whatever fellow initiates do. Just there are some who don’t practice spiritually well, have a lot of their own garbage, and they just dump their garbage on me. That’s what is troublesome. They look down on others, because they are on a low level themselves. They think Master is as bad as they are. I also have to put up with it, and wait till they grow up. But it doesn’t mean that I enjoy tolerating it, or that I don’t feel hurt. Let’s say your child is ignorant. Maybe he had taken the wrong medicine or something, and he stabbed you with a knife. You know that he’s just an ignorant child, and that he was just ill and crazy, and he didn’t know what he was doing. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t feel the pain. Right? (Yes.) Yes, it hurts all the same.
I just told them yesterday, “It’s so comfortable to be back in Miaoli this time.” No. No. Not yet. Not yet. I haven’t finished yet. It happened that yesterday I just said, “Ah, it’s so comfortable to be back in Miaoli this time. I’d love to stay very long. I didn’t think that I could come back to Miaoli. It’s just a tent, but I love living in it so much.” After I said that, I feel like running away today. It’s a very troublesome thing. It’s best not to say anything. There was a nun who didn’t talk for 20 years. Remember? I’ve told you before. She lived in Miaoli. Very near here. She passed away. However, she hadn’t talked or eaten at all. Nor had she drunk water. She had. She had drunk a little Great Compassion Water or something. Perhaps the nectar water from the Nectar River. Don’t you go back to take home the water from my Nectar River to drink, and not eat any meals. There’s a lot of food in Taiwan (Formosa). It’s a pity not to eat. You can never finish eating the food in Taiwan (Formosa). It’s because you have material merits. Some other countries don’t have material merits because they didn’t give or share with others. That’s why they’re born in that kind of country, and have no food to eat.
Perhaps you Chinese are more generous. You’d help whoever is in need, and that’s why you’re born in this kind of country, rich with inexhaustible food supplies. Nowadays, apples and things are all so big. Grapes are this big. Yes, I’ve eaten some once. The size of the grapes is this big. Yes! Right? (Yes.) Not all of them are like that. But once in a while: Wow! So big! Looking like what? (Like plums.) (Like plums.) Like another kind of fruit that is black. It’s black. Ah, never mind. So, when we were talking with those people yesterday, they said that Taiwanese (Formosan) people don’t cherish food nowadays. Sometimes they just eat half and throw away the other half. Is it true? (Yes.) Is it because you have too much food, or because the food is not tasty? (There’s too much.) It’s all water. Is it that by adding water or something, it became that big? You have too many things.
Same with me. Too many things. The stockroom here is full of things stocked for you. Because our stockroom is often jam-packed with things. There’s a lot in the stockroom, so, don’t feel like eating! Several monks and nuns are now bored with the food and asking to eat raw (vegan) like the cow-people do. I said they used to eat (animal-people) meat, then became vegan later on and turned into spiritual practitioners. Now they eat raw. They’ll soon turn into cow-people. Strange though. They like it a lot. They liked it naturally. Maybe their quality of cow- people emerged or something. They like it so much. It’s alright. It’s free here. Whoever wants to eat fruits, can eat. Whoever wants to eat grass or vegetables, can too. Only the trees you cannot eat because the trees provide shades for everybody to enjoy. Now we don’t have any roofs. These are our roofs when we meditate. Luckily there are no bird-people. Or else, while you sit down there, and “tuk!” When bird-people greet you, their ways are different. Different from ours. And the smell is not that pleasant.
It’s OK that they eat vegetables raw, but their inability to take care of themselves also worries me. Understand? (Yes.) The vegan diet and raw food diet are the same. You have to look after your nutrition. It’s not that you eat the green stuff every day and it’s OK. Because the green stuff is not enough. Sometimes there’s not enough protein. Not all of them have a lot of protein. For example, broccoli. What is “broccoli” in Chinese? The flower. The green flower-like thing. It has more protein. The kind of baby bok choy and green bok choy they eat have leaves so thin that they melt as soon as put into the mouth. For example like that. They eat those every day, and a little of other green stuff, then their faces will turn green. In the future, if you pass by, you might think that it’s a tree. A tree is standing there, but how strange that it has no leaves at all? You have to look carefully when you come here in the future. Don’t just hang your hammock randomly.
Even that worries me. Maybe it’s my own problem. Can’t help “minding others’ business.” It’s their own business that they turn green. Why should I care? But I am still worried. I worry sometimes. I don’t like to limit them or control them. I don’t like telling them what to eat or how to eat either. But whatever diet they’re on, I’d like them to eat more nutritiously. For example, the raw (vegan) food diet should include many different kinds of vegetables and how do you say “nut” in Chinese? (Nuts.) (Nuts.) Nuts? Nuts. Yes, yes, yes. Eat many varieties of foods. Then it’s OK. For example like that. If they want to eat a raw (vegan) food diet, they have to eat properly.
I also ate a raw (vegan) diet once when I was in the Himalayas, which I’ve told you before. It was not that I loved raw food, but because I couldn’t cook over there. It wasn’t convenient to cook. The atmospheric pressure there was too low or something. I cooked for half a day, but couldn’t even bring a small bowl of food to a boil. So, I said, “Forget it. I’ll just eat it as it is.” I just ate them the way they were plucked out. It was alright. I only did it for a while. It was OK too. Eating raw (vegan) is also OK. It’s also very healthy. Very healthy. But you have to take care of yourself properly. You can’t just pluck anything and eat them as they are. Then you’ll turn green like Milarepa – growing green hair. Right? People saw Him and asked if He was a demon or a ghost. If we saw Him here, maybe we would ask, “Is it a bodhi tree?” So green.
I’ve changed my hairstyle, but I’m still uncomfortable. Is it more like myself? More like me? (Yes.) It’s more comfortable. Because she made my hair huge yesterday. She went “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh” and made it like that. And when I got back at night, oh, I don’t know why yesterday I was so tired, so tired. Maybe there were too many outside people yesterday. Different people. “Good” politicians. All kinds. No! There were no “evil” politicians. They were all “good” ones. They came and I saw too many of them. We have to look at the eyes. When people talk to you, you cannot avoid looking at them. And then, wow! I was so tired at night. When I was meditating here, I even dozed off around seven or eight o’clock already, and I almost snored. How embarrassing! Did you peep and see me snoring? (No.) You did. I heard someone laughing. I was sound asleep, and your laughs woke me up. Next time I’ll just sleep outright. I’ll put a bed here, and tell you to do the (inner Heavenly) Sound meditation. You can’t hear anything, then I’ll snore. That’ll be OK for me to snore freely.
Well, yesterday I was already very tired when I sat here. I seemed to be dozing off. Every time I woke up, I felt embarrassed. Luckily you all had your eyes closed. I hope you did. And there was no cameraman shooting nearby, so I slept for a while. Nevertheless, I was still very tired when I got home. I went back because of the hair, which she “whooshed” incredibly. That person, wow, has been a professional for 15 years. So once she does your hair, even God cannot undo it. Even God cannot flatten it out. That’s why when I got back last night… Usually, I wash my hair every day. Regardless of any type of hairstyle, I definitely wash it when I get back. But yesterday I couldn’t stand it. As soon as I got home, I washed my face like the way cat-people do. Cat wash. I washed and washed and washed, and I went to bed in less than five minutes. I meditated a little, symbolically only, and then I went to sleep immediately. But then, I slept less than… Maybe I was too tired or something. I slept for a bit, and then I got up. And I didn’t feel well the rest of the night.
Photo Caption: Things Can Sometimes Change Beyond Our Control
