I often also make offerings to monks. I do not discriminate between the animal-people meat-eating monk, priest or non-meat-eating priest or monk. […] Maybe it depends on tradition, but mostly eat whatever’s given in your own bowl, that’s it. Now, if you know people already very well, you could tell them, “Please give only vegan.” Because as a monk, you have compassion. That’s why you want to become a monk. You want to be a Buddha so that you can help others lessen their suffering.
Eating meat causes a lot of suffering for the animal-people, your own body also. You might have sickness because of that. And it’s also very harmful for the planet because the methane that is produced, unwittingly or wittingly, out of animal-people raising, will warm the planet. And that’s why we have climate change now. And that’s why we have so many terrible disasters coming, like terrible floods, terrible typhoons, terrible storms, extra, more than usual, and not at the expected time.
If you like that type of life and you’ve already been doing this for a long time and you can’t change, then maybe that is your destiny to do it. But please choose vegan. So that the animal-people don’t have to suffer for you, even though you don’t hear their cry. You don’t see them being murdered, but you know where the animal-people meat comes from. Do not be too busy to remember this or to study about that. You can look on the Internet and films to see how the animal-people are tortured all the days of their lives in small little crates that they could not even move in, not to talk about turn around. You can look on our Supreme Master Television, we show that sometimes. To my heartache, we have to. In reality, it’s even worse than what we see. It’s just a little bit, a glimpse on the screen, because that’s day in, day out for them. It’s not just a few seconds fleeting on the screen, but it’s day in, day out, all the days of their lives.
And they suffer so much, so much, so much. And they are deep in their urine and feces. And how can you even eat that, eat the suffering and the filth as well? You’re a monk. You’re a noble being. You aim high. You aim to be a Buddha, the top of all creation. And you eat this filth? And you eat this kind of meat, which causes suffering, untold suffering to all living sentient beings. And you’re supposed to deliver them. You’re supposed to help them minimize suffering. But eating animal-people meat will leave you out in the cold. No, I mean in the heat of hell. Excuse me, Your Reverence. I told the truth. I swear to Buddha, I told you the truth. And I guess you know that. Karma.
You know the law of karma. What you sow, so shall you reap. The same in Christianity, the same in other religions. And if you have a chance to go to hell, you will know what I am talking about. I hope you don’t have a chance to go there – not for suffering, not to go there to be judged and get the punishment, horrible punishment, but just to visit, if you have enough merit for that. Only people with a pure heart and merit can go to visit hell. Otherwise, the moment you go there, you’re doomed, you’re finished. You’ll be in pain forever. Even just for a few days, seems to be forever already, not to talk about there is some forever hell.
I’m not saying you definitely have to stop begging, because maybe your country continues that kind of lifestyle, so you have to do it with them. But you have to tell the donor, the offerer, to give you vegan food only. And later, they will all know that, and they will give it to you.
Rather die of hunger than commit the killing karma because it will come back to you 10,000-fold or more than that, depends on how long you live, how much you eat, how many animal-people you bury in your stomach like a graveyard. Now, maybe it is your destiny to go out begging for food. And I don’t blame you, nobody blames you because we all have our destiny even as monks. We have our karma. We have our destiny already prepared. And you can’t change it unless you become enlightened and truly get out of the cycle of birth and death.
There is a monk who is the King of Beggars. He’s a kind of a Beggar King, just like many other kings, just a different kind of kingship, kinghood. He’s a Beggar King, but he became a monk in the physical life, and he also goes out begging every day. He goes everywhere, not just inside his village or his hometown. So he can’t even change that. Maybe if he prays a lot, then he can change, he can settle down somewhere and let people who follow him, who respect him, come and make offerings to him. It’s safer for him and more convenient for people to come and visit. But if you are kind of a Beggar King, King of Beggars, and then you become a monk and you go begging for alms, then it’s your destiny. But if people mistake your destiny for Buddhahood and crown you as Buddha, then it’s no good for you at all.
There are many worlds, not just our world, you know that. The World of Demons, the World of Zealous Ghosts, world of… all kinds. And there is also a world called “Punishing World.” Many dog-people are in this world. Many dog-people are officials or kings of this world. And the dog-people will judge people from their world: who is good, who is bad. They make some judgments; not all the judgments, of course. But according to their power and their position, they can judge humans as well. So, woe to whomever eats dog-people’s meat! Oh, my God! They don’t know what’s waiting for them. This is one of the worlds. I know that. But, of course, not every human knows this world. So they’re also helping, they also have a duty to judge humans according to their merit or their sin. And definitely if you are not friends with dog-people, or if you abuse a dog-person, or if you eat dog-people – oh God. Oh, God help you.
And there are many other worlds, like the Karma World, the War World, the Peace World. Each world has a king. And there is another world called “Crowning World.” And that Crowning World also has a king. And one monk is supposed to be a Beggar King. But also in the physical life, he’s a begging monk. And if people, the followers of that religion – maybe Buddhism for example – if the people, the followers, the faithful of Buddhism mistake his begging asceticism for a high enlightenment or even Buddha attainment, and if that beggar monk does not correct that, and even inside his heart feels proud, feels happy, feels good, because people worship him and offer him things, praise him and treat him like a Buddha, and he’s happy with all that – then he will be in trouble because the Crowning World will not like that. They will not accept that. This is the thing that many monks do not understand.
And because if the karma, the destiny of that monk has not finished, and people already say he’s a Buddha and all that by mistake, or just by too much belief in the teachings of the Buddha, and too longing, too thirsty to see some holiness in some monk… but they should know that holiness doesn’t mean asceticism. Asceticism may help a little, it depends also. So now, if that beggar monk, the monk-for-alms’ destiny has not finished being the King of Beggars, and he has already jumped around or accepted people calling him a Buddha or treating him like a Buddha and inside he’s happy to be worshipped, adored and offered like that, then the Crowning World will not be happy. They might make a lot of trouble or obstruct him in becoming a Buddha later, even if he aspires to.
Because each one in our world has a duty to do something. And if you don’t do it, then you have to do it again until you do it perfectly the way you should do it. Everyone, not just the begging monk or the Beggar King who became a monk. Because like that, he’s misleading people and pointing to people the wrong direction, worshipping the wrong person, the wrong being, who has not been worthy of worship and who has not done his kingship perfectly as a King of Beggars actually. It’s like that.
There are many kings in the whole Universe. Each one does different things, takes care of different work. So the King of Beggars cannot do much more than just go begging, so he also cannot help himself. But he could also stop and beg in one place. And meanwhile, also, inside, he has to take care of the beggars. He might not even know it, if he’s not enlightened enough. Then he doesn’t know who he is and what he’s doing subconsciously while he’s on the planet as a human, in the human form. He has to take care of all the beggars. So when they’re in trouble, he has to go there and comfort them or help them what he can. But if he enjoys being placed on a pedestal and being called a Buddha and doesn’t want to go down from there or he’s too comfortable to stay there, then his merit will be deducted a lot, a lot and a lot.
And if he cannot complete his work in this lifetime as a King of Beggars – he doesn’t do well because he doesn’t concentrate on that, just concentrates on being worshipped and adored and receiving offers and being prostrated to and all that – then he cannot have enough time and concentration to help the beggars and to fulfill his duty as the King of Beggars. The next lifetime, if he’s lucky, he has to continue to be the King of Beggars again until he does it perfectly. Or he has to become just a normal beggar, stripped of his crown, of his position. It depends on how much he neglects his job.
Photo Caption: The Laid-Out Path, Pleasant or Not, Must Walk On
