And I was sometimes touched and impressed, and grateful that I live in this time of human’s period – that many conveniences are abound, that our lives are very, very comfortable. (Yes, Master.)
You still can see me? (Yes, Master.) I don’t see you very well. I can see but not too… I mean, I don’t see myself very well there. It’s OK? Very clear? No? (Very clear.) (Yes, Master.) Wow. It’s really a miracle, you know that? I am thankful for this. This is one of the miracles that I’m very impressed with. Every day, like sometimes I use the safety pin, the so, so very tiny, safety pin, tiny ones, some very tiny, (Yes.) about one, two centimeters tiny. They use to pin those names of the clothes on top of the dress or something. (Yeah.) And we have to take it off the tag. And I was thinking, “My God, how can any machine be so clever? More clever than humans. They can make such a tiny safety pin like this.” (Yeah.) With a complete trap and hook and everything in it, like the big one. The big one may be easy, but so tiny! And it’s exactly like a safety pin. I’m always impressed every day.
Now it’s not much because I stay in one place. Even if I move to another place, but not like I’m going out a lot, or buying things or interacting, or doing a lot of activities. So, there is not much for me to be impressed with. But even when I see the dog food, the dog pellets they made, some are small, some are big, and they make into the shape of a heart, heart-shaped for the dogs. I don’t know if the dogs care what shape the food is. They chow down before they even see. But they take care, take time to do these kinds of products. And I was sometimes touched and impressed, and grateful that I live in this time of human’s period – that many conveniences are abound, that our lives are very, very comfortable. (Yes, Master.)
I asked people to bring me the machine that you had outside that has cold water, ice cold water and hot water at the same time. (Yes, Master.) I never knew it existed. Until just some months ago. They were moving dogs around and they said there is a machine like that. I said, “If they don’t use it, then what to do? How big is it?” Then they told me. Before, I knew that you guys have them, but I thought it’s big. And now some of your brothers described to me that it’s not big. It’s just about one meter-something. (Yes.) And it’s about 40 centimeters wide, square, like that. So, I said, “Oh! Give it to me! Oh, I could use it. I could use it. It would be heaven.” If I want a tea, I just open the tap and the boiled water comes out. (Yes.) It saves me many minutes to go out, get the filtered water, and then wait for it to boil, and not worry about if I forget, it’s all boiled out, and whatever. (Yes.) It happened before. And then after they brought it, I thought, “Wow, it’s heaven!” It’s really like heaven. And that is the second heaven I had. Because before, when I’m alone, I don’t go to the public lecture or go to the ashram, the public ashram, then I do everything myself, like I wash the clothes myself. Because I don’t have a lot of clothes and (they’re) simple clothes, so I wash by hand. But then the work, the Supreme Master TV work, and the dogs and all that really drag me down. It’s too time consuming. So, I asked whether or not I could have a small washing machine, very small, that fits in the small bathroom. And then they made it. And that was like heaven for me, because the water comes in by itself; you don’t have to wait for the tap to run the water into the bucket.
Well, I used to do that before. It’s no problem when I lived in a tent and all that, or even after the tent, I could do that. It’s just now I have more work than ever. (Yes.) (Yes, Master.) So, this little small washing machine, it’s like heaven to me. And this ready-made water, hot water, cold water. (Yes.) If the dogs come, I just open the water for them. And I don’t have to go filter the water or go to the filter area. (Yes, Master.) Because this one you don’t have to keep changing the filter. You change every half a year even. That’s even another heaven type of lifestyle. Wow, I was so happy, happy. (Yes.)
So, every day, whatever I have, I really appreciate it and I really am grateful. In the physical life, I have it better than many Masters. Consider in the old times, like when Guru Nanak... It has nothing to do with the ghosts. You want to hear? (Yes, Master.) Continue? (Yes, Master.) My calendar. Even Guru Nanak, when He walked around to go to spread the teaching to His disciples or visit His other town disciples, He had to walk in the forest and eat whatever berries or wild fruit or vegetable He could find. For example, like that. And the Buddha had to go outside to beg for food every day, as the monk’s tradition as a sign of detachment of possessions. Otherwise, He could ask His king father to supply Him every day, supply for all the monks, also. But because at that time, the monks should go out and do the alms round. Number one: to continue the humility. Number two: to continue the detachment of possessions of any kind. Number three: to bear it when you don’t have food, to go through anything to continue your practice, so that you are not attached to any places or any utensils or any comfort.
Nowadays, I’m just too comfortable, but I cannot do what the Buddha did. Because nowadays, in every country’s law, it’s forbidden to go out begging. They still do it, the homeless. But still, it’s not like a lawful thing, not natural like in India in those times, in the old times. Also, (there’s) so much work that ties me up in one place. Even if I keep changing places, but still, I need a place. (Yes.) It doesn’t have to be big. The smaller, the better for me. I keep telling you that. And it is true also. But I need it to cover computer, internet box, telephone, whatever, whatever it is. We need it. (Yes, Master.) Also, to keep myself well, in a safe covered area so that I don’t get sick that easily or get a cold or something. Then our work would be delayed or stopped (Yes.) or affected in some negative way. You know that also, right? (Yes, Master.)
You also cannot go out and live the way the Buddha’s monks do. You cannot. You have to stay in a place, in a safe place, and have a place to rest so that you can work. And then you have to have food ready for you because you don’t have time to go out into the town. And then to beg or all that. And maybe the police will catch you. That’s a problem also. So now we have to be independent, financially and stuff. But still, I prefer a small place. Small place is enough. If I have many clothes, even I could hang on the wall, (Yes, Master.) just make two hooks on two corners and then hang all the clothes there. That’s what I did before. Even then, don’t even need a lot of cupboards or anything. I don’t have any cupboards. I have those drawers that belong to the working table, like what you have. (Small cabinet.) And a cabinet underneath. (Yes.) I use them to put some of my clothes in and that’s all I need. That’s all. That’s all, that fits enough for my clothes and some little makeup powder, anti-shining powder. And actually, that is a lot more already. I wish I have less. Because if I have more things, I feel too clustering. (Yes, Master.) I don’t feel free.
Before, I used to live in caves. I felt better then. I felt like the cave is very big. But if I live in the house, I feel the house is small, don’t know why. Because maybe the building, the bricks and the stuff like that, it feels heavy. When I live in a tent, I feel even better, feel like free, very near nature, (Yes.) not much to take care. That’s a free life that I love so much. I’m not as happy now as when I was living in the tent next to the river, where there was no need to pay for electricity, no worry about bills. We had water from the river. We just filtered it. Actually, we didn’t have to. I told them to dig the hole on the riverbank, so whatever water that had run from the river into that hole underneath, then it’s so clean and clear. And then we just used some cloth, our clothes or something, a towel, to filter one more time. Perfect! So, we never had to pay too many bills. That was a happy time.
And we did silly things, like the coal, the ash that we cooked, we used it to put on the face to do theater every day. Just to make fun and doing theater. Even we had a camera, a small video, so maybe some of it is still left. You can dig it out and have a look. Every day they thought of how to make some theater to make me laugh. Just some silly stuff. It’s very funny, very funny. Like, if a fat nun, they made her play a princess. And then, instead of putting just a few spots of ashes on her face, they used the bottom of the pot, very black, put all over her, make her play the part of princess. They just made all kinds of things. And they made me a crown of wild… this kind of crawling plants. They used a crawling plant (A vine?) to thread a crown for me, sticking in some flowers. It’s very cute. And then they’re all prostrating in front of me, like a king and stuff. We played very nicely, like children. We were very happy then. And I slept on the ground in the open. I had also a tent, of course, but I only went inside whenever it rained. I didn’t like to go inside. So I slept on the ground with those tatami. The thin one that you roll and you bring to the beach in some countries. So I slept on that. And it was OK. No mosquito, nothing ever bothered me. And nowadays, I have a house, they even sneak in to bite. That was a happy time. That was truly a monk’s lifestyle.
