Whenever we do the things we want, but are harmful to others, then our conscience would hurt, because we go against the law of nature. Then, at that time, we call that karma. Karma is just that. Karma means we do what is regrettable. Then it would be as though we drop a big rock on the path which we walk on, or we swim but then we put up a wall to stop us from swimming. Therefore, it seems like things are not going smoothly.
You heard that in the past my family was not very poor. Even though our house looked simple outside, but my parents had money. I remember in the old days we didn’t... When I was little, my mother showed me our pot of gold. She said, “This is our pot of gold, we bury it here. In case mom and dad die, you must know it’s here, OK? Gold!” Inside the house we had gold, but looking from outside, the house was just ordinary. But not anymore, not anymore. Don’t go there looking for it, OK? No more! They sold all the gold, but still not enough to cover expenses. My family now remains very poor and simple.
My parents also had to go to work. At that time, I didn’t send them any money. I didn’t. Once in a while if they got sick, they would write me a letter. Then I sent some medicine, that was all. I didn’t use this money to provide for my family so they’d get rich. So, my family is very poor. Now they still are. They don’t even have a television set. Maybe there is no electricity in the house yet. But this past New Year, I sent some money because they needed it. They are too old to work. So I used, how to say, the money that I earned, not money from the public, OK? To send to my parents. Now it’s just enough for them to live comfortably, not to become rich. Ah, because we do not know how to choose the way to live, so we become destitute. My parents were the same! They did not know how to choose. But “no man is a prophet in his own country,” understand?
So, I did not go back home to say anything at all. After more than twenty years, and for the first time today, I met my sisters and cousins again. I did not send home any letter to say: “Oh, I am a Buddha now. I became a Buddha already, so you should follow me to study this and that.” No! We should let things happen naturally. When their time comes, they will come to me. Otherwise, I do not advertise.
So, among you, there are many people who misunderstood that I tried to entice disciples. No, I did not. Even my own family members, I did not entice them. I did not say anything to them for the last twenty years. Today is the first time they met me again. If you do not believe me, then you ask them. They sit in a group of more than ten people, in the middle. All of them are my family members. They do not know who I am.
Much less talk about pulling other outside people into my group. And why did I “entice” the refugees, and not others? The refugees are already extremely destitute, why “enticing” them? As a result, people gravely misunderstood. They talked nonsense. The smart people do not believe them. Because you don’t believe them, you came here and filled up the venue. If you had believed them, no one would have come here, right? Actually, people’s minds have a degree of intelligence; not everyone wants to deceive someone.
Therefore, I did not use any magical power, or any extraordinary work in order to influence people, or to so-called “fish” disciples. I used logical and clear reasons in order for you to understand and then you accept it by yourself. You would think “Ah, this Lady said it correctly, I have always thought the same, but I did not know whether it was correct or not.” “Now, I heard what She said, I knew right away. Ah, it is exactly like that.” That means you recognize your own intelligence.
I only confirm your understanding, confirm how high your spiritual level is. That’s all. Not that I teach you anything. All the things that I say, you already knew. Therefore, when I say it, you understand. Now, for example, if I talk to a dog-person, can it understand? Or if I talk to a small kid, who has not attained the level of understanding like you, can he understand? Therefore, I teach but I do not teach anything.
So, I do not feel proud that I am a Buddha or a Master, or anything at all. But I understand clearly that all beings have wisdom. However, if there is one person whose torch is lighted already, then it can light up other torches that it touches. That’s all. In fact, those other torches already have the fire potential in them. They have the potential to be lit like the one which was lighted already. So, it’s not the lit torch that makes the other torches light. The torches which are not lit yet, already have the fire power inside them, ready to be kindled.
Therefore, many people who follow me to study, insist on calling me Master. I just have to accept it, but in fact, no one is the Master to anyone. I only remind you of things that you already know in your mind, but you forget or are vague about it. You do not have the time to sit down and check or confirm what you already know. So now, I travel to give lectures, to show you how to sit still in order to remember what you already know. That's what it is all about.
Meditation is like that. Because if I do not show you how to meditate, how to get back your wisdom, the complete wisdom which you already know, then you would be busy with wrong conceptions. You would be busy with making money, with worldly attachments, and then you forget your perfect wisdom. That is all there is to it. Therefore, I am a Master but not a Master. I save human beings but do not save anyone. So, I never let anyone bow or kowtow to me, because that is excessive. Regarding the flowers and fruits, it is because people are sincere and want to welcome me who come a long distance, in order to make me happy. It is like a welcome! That is it. I did not force neither request those (flowers and fruits). I did not want to have such rituals.
However, I could not tell everyone that. If I told this person not to buy, then another person would buy, and I did not know everyone to tell all of them. And also, it is their freedom. We cannot forbid them. If people have money, they can buy whatever they want. And they can gift it to anyone they wish. If they want to gift it to their beautiful lady or their lover, then they can do it. If they want to gift it to a spiritual practitioner, they can too.
Sometimes, they buy those to give to the tombs out there. It is also OK. They gave these to me. It is similar as giving to the tombstone out there. The tombstone is engraved with such names as Thomas, so and so… They give them to that tombstone. So now, I am sitting here just like a tombstone, and anyone can gift anything to it. Because to the world, I am already dead. Therefore, they give the flowers to me, it is like giving to the tombstones.
How come no one dares to laugh at all? Why do you just crack a smile and then bite your lips to hold it back? If you want to laugh, then laugh. It is not a big deal! My God! You live in this world, but how come you lost freedom to such a degree?
Why is our life miserable, do you know? It is because we make it miserable ourselves. Dare not to laugh, dare not to cry, dare not to love! You love secretly, and do not let the other person know. Later on, that person gets married, then you sit there and cry. Or later on, that person finds a wife, then you sometimes think of committing suicide even. Stupid! Huh? Why didn’t you say something? What was so bad about that? For example, if you love someone, then you tell that person so. And if that person doesn’t love you, that is fine. Then you know it clearly like black and white, and you go find someone else. You would be stupid to commit suicide, right?
So, you need to practice spiritually. You practice spiritually in order to gain the Buddha wisdom, so that you can face daily life, so that you can expand your heart and mind freely, then your life would be happy and rich. Otherwise, each day, you go to work, come home to cook, then go to sleep and wake up at the same time. My God! It is too tiring. There is nothing... We were not born to be slaves like that. Each month, we receive roughly more than a thousand dollars, but we have to lock ourselves inside the cement walls for 10 hours a day! You can sit like that (for 10 hours a day), but if I tell you to sit two and half hours a day, and travel everywhere in the universe, you do not want to! Then what can we do?
Then you continue to lament, “Why is life so hard, so dark, so arduous?” It is our own fault. Your life is supposed to be grand, magnificent, splendid, happy. And I can show you how, starting from today. Whether you are initiated or not, you have to live a strong, healthy and happy life. If you wish to have something that does not harm others, and your financial situation or mental state allows it, then you can buy it, you can do it. But don’t sit there and hesitate forever, then the time passes by, and you carry on and suffer.
It is our own fault. And if we love someone, you go and buy a rose and bring it straight to that person, and say, “I love you. Do you love me, too?” Or say, “Do you love me?” If that person does not, then you would say, “Good-bye, I’ll go find someone else.” There is no lack of people in this life, understand? You should not think that without that person, you would die. That is stupid. How can you die? You can’t die. The world has many people. We may find someone else who looks more beautiful, is better, more talented than the former one. It’s just that we were in a daze for a period of time, thinking that we could not live without that person. That is not true! This I have tried already.
Because in the past, I had a family myself. We were in love. I also loved my husband very much! I tell the truth, please do not laugh at me, OK? Then when I left him, I was very sad. I was afraid that if I left, I would miss him so much that I could not bear it. But I left anyway. I thought that, if I kept staying there and be attached to my personal feelings, then my ideal would never be achieved. At best, we would wash each other's clothes, embrace each other, talk intimately, then we would have two or three children, something like that. Our lives would have a lot of happiness. And that is all we would have. Later on, our hair would turn gray, our skin wrinkled, and we would look at each other quietly, then the grave.
Therefore, I said to myself, “Just leave and see if life can be any different.” We had to do something new. It is not that one woman is born to be the same as another woman. Then why should we live as ordinary women? Why do we do the same as everyone else? There are enough women who do that already, why should we squeeze in and ask for the same job. Just like a home which is already crowded, why should we force ourselves into it. There are so many women as housewives and mothers already. Let them do that. We find something else to do, understand?
In this life, it is similar. For example, if you want to do something, you put all your effort, all your mind, all your emotion into it, then you will surely be successful. When we are successful, we are happy and satisfied. Otherwise, if you are hesitant and indecisive, you just sit there and let the time pass by, blaming yourself and others and crying, then you would gain nothing. You waste a whole lifetime and make yourself miserable.
So, starting from today, whatever you want to do, just do it. But you have to see if it harms anyone. Not that we can do the things we want, if it harms others. Then it is not OK. That is what I mean.
Whenever we do the things we want, but are harmful to others, then our conscience would hurt, because we go against the law of nature. Then, at that time, we call that karma. Karma is just that. Karma means we do what is regrettable. Then it would be as though we drop a big rock on the path which we walk on, or we swim but then we put up a wall to stop us from swimming. Therefore, it seems like things are not going smoothly.
You are supposed to have everything in this world that you want, and there is no sin in that. For example, if you want to be rich, to have a beautiful wife and good children, those things are not sinful. You are supposed to have them. You should have a big family with a lot of relatives, a big house with many cars, a luxury life. And you should not be tired when you are working.
For example, I go from place to place, board a plane, get out of a car, run to this house and that house. And sometimes, I talk to my disciples all night long, until five or six am before going to rest. Then the next day, I continue to lecture until three, four, five, six, seven am, or pm. Then give initiation until seven, eight pm, then board a plane to go to another place. The next day, the same things happen. k or eat very little. But I do not feel anything, I do not feel tired. Sometimes, I am tired… for example, if the weather is cold…The other day, my cousin called me on the phone and said, “Sometimes, I see You coughing, so did You take some tonic?” I answered, “No, I did not.” Occasionally, my disciples see that I am too tired, so they give me something to drink, something that I do not know. They give me a straw to drink; it must be a tonic. But I only drink it once in a while, only when I travel for a lecture tour. For example, like today, after three, four, five days in a row, then my voice becomes hoarse, so they gave me some tonic. Otherwise, I do not take [any tonics].
From the morning till now, I ate a little bit… like half a bowl of congee, only that. Each day, I have something like that, but I work a lot, sleep a little, but I do not feel anything. I do feel a little, but compared to you, it is not the same. You have only one job, two or three children, only one husband or one wife, but you are tired, right? You work from dawn to dusk but the work is still not finished. You have no time to visit anyone, no time to go to the lecture, no time… to practice spiritually.
Then how can I have time? I practice spiritually and at the same time, take care of the initiates, teach the renunciates and the laymen, teach this country and that country, and take care of the refugees even. But I still have time to practice spiritually as usual and am still healthy. And you do a little work. But I still have money as well. I have money, I do! If one practices spiritually and becomes poor, then who wants to practice? Is it correct? If we practice spiritually and become a beggar, then why do we practice, right? Money is not a bad thing. If we do not need money, then we save it for something else.
