God is the ultimate Provider, so we have to thank. Somebody gives you a piece of tissue, you say, “Thank you!” Somebody gives you a glass of water, you say, “Thank you!” God gives you everything, we have to thank Hirm, no? (Yes.) Thank Hirm. That’s normal. It’s the very least courtesy. It is good for us to have good manners. To be polite, even to God. It’s not like God needs you to do that. It’s always good to be grateful, because if you’re more grateful, Hes gives you more. It’s always like that.
This is still all the description about the life of the Essenes. I mean, their principal lifestyle. “Having washed themselves, they proceed to the special halls of the order where no one dares come who does not belong to the order.” Oh! (Meditation hall.) Meditation hall! Not nobody dares, but they normally would not let other people come in. For what? Just like you are here, only the initiated people. We welcome outside people on a different occasion, but not when we do retreats or meditate. Because they don’t know how to meditate they’d just sit there and watch everybody with binoculars: “How come that guy meditates like this? How come that lady meditates like that?” Then it would be very inconvenient for you to sleep, no? So we don’t allow anybody to come here who is not initiated into the fashion of sitting sleeping. There are people who are walking sleeping, but we have here sitting sleeping. Well, not much difference. Never mind. At least when you’re sitting, you won’t fall. (No.) When you’re walking sleeping, you might run into problems. But if you’re sitting sleeping, then you just sit and sleep. What harm can you do to anybody? Right? It’s a very peaceful group. The only sound you hear is not a complaining sound, it’s just a snoring sound. That’s a very harmless situation. You make peace, right? At least among yourselves.
Now… “Then having gone through the ceremonies that the law prescribes, they proceed perfectly cleansed to their eating rooms with the same reverence as if they enter the holy temple. Everybody takes his place in supreme silence and stillness. The bakers of the brotherhood then enter, distributing a bread to each person after a certain order.” I guess to the elderly first, and to the fat guy, one loaf of bread less than the skinny guy. What else can it be? Because here, I let you eat freely, and you eat wild. The fat guy eats more, the skinny guy continues to eat less, can’t squeeze in. No. You’re just temperate in your eating, right? Good enough, yeah? (Yes.) Two meals a day OK? (Yes.) I don’t see any two meals. I see you come in and out of the kitchen and grab bread, apple, whatever is there. It’s OK. It’s cool.
What I mean is, we should not spend all day in the kitchen. Two meals a day is already a lot, because your brothers and sisters, they’re spoiling you. They cook good food and all that. That’s a lot of labor from home already. So here, we just warm it up or just eat cold like that. It’s already very good. These are delicacies in Âu Lạc (Vietnam). You don’t even get that in a restaurant. Home cooking, like the round (vegan) pâté you saw yesterday, it takes a lot of time to cook that. You have to mash the tender soya, the young soya into a very fine kind of paste, and then you have to tie it well with banana leaves and cook it for a long time until it becomes smooth like that. They call it silk pâté, but there’s no silk in it. Completely vegetarian. I mean vegan.
Well, before, I just knew the word vegetarian. I didn’t know the word vegan exists. For me, everything’s vegetarian. But it’s actually vegan, if you want to call it. Everything we eat out there is completely vegan in the norm of it. Because there’s nothing there that is not vegan, right? Nothing from animal-people. And it’s all cooked with love, you see? You’re lucky, lucky people, very lucky people. At home, I don’t even have those. Rarely. Only when somebody visits from Taiwan (Formosa) or something, and sneaks something on the airplane and brings it to us. Like the Aulacese (Vietnamese) vegan silk pâté. Because it’s so smooth like silk, so they call it silk pâté. Silk pâté. It takes a long time to make, and good skill to make it smooth and compact like that. Because if you’re not skillful enough, it will become loose like mashed potatoes or something. It’s not so compact and tasty like that. And you have to put the correct amount of seasoning. So, whoever cooked yesterday was really a good cook. I don’t have those. I don’t have one of those in my house.
I’m the only good cook in the house. And even then, nowadays, I don’t even have time to cook a lot. So we just eat very simple. I told you already – brown rice, sesame, and mung beans. And we eat fruit also. We eat fruit and desserts and all that. That’s good enough. And raw vegetables, if we have it, or just boiled vegetables or just simple mixed salad. That’s enough vegetables and fruits. And protein from mung beans and from rice, and a lot of B vitamins from the brown rice. And protein and mineral essence from the sesame. You got it? (Yes.) So don’t think that I’m cooking a lot at home. Don’t dream about going to my place and then having Master’s cooking. I don’t even cook for myself. Sometimes I don’t even eat brown rice and sesame. Because I’m too busy, I eat so late, like maybe 5, 6 o’clock, already evening when I have time to prepare a (vegan) sandwich. So I just eat that sandwich, and that’s it. And then I continue with the work, I don’t have time again. Then – time to meditate, and then I just go, which is very late at night, sometimes late in the morning.
If I tell you to live a simple life, it’s also very convenient. Because I can live through it, so I think you can. The vegan food recipes, we give to people for them to enjoy. And because of that, we don’t have much time to cook for ourselves. So it’s OK, too. Somebody enjoys anyway, in the world. Why it has to be us? Like the lady who cooked the (vegan) silk pâté to bring it here and offer to you, how much she eats out of it? Maybe none. She saved it all, because so many hungry people here. So she saved it all to bring it here for you. You see? That is the kind of love that we cannot find, we cannot buy. Of course, you guys return the money to her. At least the ingredients that she had to buy and all that, and a little bit extra. Apart from the pooled money that we have, just have to pay whoever brings good food here. The bad food, tell them to return money to us! Waste our time to chew nonsense. no? And she wasted the food. yeah? Didn’t cook well. OK, Only the good food, we’ll return the money. And the other bad food, money back guarantee. It means, they return to us.
Now: “The cook sets before each one a plate of vegetables and other eatables. This being performed, one of the priests steps forth and holds a prayer. They consider it a grave sin to rest [eat] or touch food before praying.” Got that? (Yes.) That’s what I told you. Thank God before you eat. (Yes.) You don’t have to do any ceremonious way, but you do it in your heart, it’s fine also. Well, if we can, then we do it in the family. Pray together it’s fine, also. Wonderful. But if you don’t have that kind of habit, you just pray in your heart. To pray, to thank God, doesn’t mean God needs it. It’s just good for you to remember who is the provider.
Apart from the sister who makes silky tofu, God is the ultimate Provider, so we have to thank. Somebody gives you a piece of tissue, you say, “Thank you!” Somebody gives you a glass of water, you say, “Thank you!” God gives you everything, we have to thank Hirm, no? (Yes.) Thank Hirm. That’s normal. It’s the very least courtesy. It is good for us to have good manners. To be polite, even to God. It’s not like God needs you to do that. It’s always good to be grateful, because if you’re more grateful, Hes gives you more. It’s always like that. It’s a multiplying kind of business. The more you are good with something, the more you’re given it. Of course, if somebody gives thanks to you, and you feel good, and you know also that he’s good, then you help him again later on if he needs it. If somebody just ignores you, takes the food and runs away, and eats somewhere else and says nothing to you, you would feel a little bit, like disappointed, and not very happy to give again later on. Or even somebody else will put you in jail for your help, then maybe you’re also reluctant to help again, no?
Now: “They consider it a grave sin to eat or touch food before praying. The meal over, the priest reads another prayer, and then the hymn of praise is sung.” They’re very ceremonious. We could do that too, but I don’t think the neighbors here are very supportive of our loud voices. Hundreds of people singing, my God! And we are not even a church, not a formal religion or church. We’re not allowed to sing loud. OK, we sing inside. Sing our eternal song in our heart, eternal song of gratefulness and happiness, of peace. “In this way, they praise and thank God, the Giver of all good, both before and after the meal.” This is the proper way to do it. When you don’t have time, of course, you just thank in your heart. No need to sing songs and all that. Hes loves music, I’m sure, but I don’t know if your voice is good enough for the neighbors to approve. Especially when we have hundreds of people singing here, I think they will call the police. So, sing in your heart, before and after the meal. Praise whatever you want to tell God. Thank God for all the lovely food, thank God for everything you have. Thank God for the meal at least, before and after. Call Hirm beautiful names. Don’t always say, “God, God, God,” and “The Old Man.” “Beloved Father,” or “Caring Mother.” Be inventive! Call Hirm the name that you would like to be called yourself. That will feel nice. Because words, even physical words, do generate some very special effect.
