A monk, he forgets all his family already, and he goes out to become a monk, then at least his heart is purified. And he walks around lending his beautiful energy to the whole country. He doesn’t have to do anything. So they should treat him with respect, all the monks. Regardless, regardless of what religion.
In India, you see, everyone is safe. I mean as far as Hinduism and Buddhism are concerned. And afterward there come other religions after that, and become less so devoted. Influenced from the outside. Before, the Indian people were more pure. But they still do now, in many parts of India. When you go to a farmer…
I went to some farm, some time ago, on the road, and met some farmer girl. Immediately she greeted me, “Hari hari, Ram Ram.” Means, “Greetings to You, the God,” something like that. They treat you like God. And they immediately, on their mouth, come out of their lips, always God. Just a rural farmer girl. It's not like a sophisticated master or something. It's very, very ingrained in most of the Indian people. Not all of them of course, but most of them. They still keep this tradition of God devotion. And all the temples, always hear chanting everywhere. Beautiful! They chant all the time in praise of God. No matter what temple, no matter what they believe. Beautiful instruments they play and they sing. Yeah, beautiful.
I'm glad India exists. I'm glad. So every year in winter, I repay the kindness of Indian people (Yes.) by giving the wandering monks, (Blankets.) people, blankets and something, (it’s) the least I can do, every winter. The monks, they need blankets, the wandering monks. They are Hindu monks or Buddhist monks, I don’t know, whatever. The wandering monks, they’re really ascetic. They have nothing. Some monks don’t have anything to eat for two weeks or something like that because nobody gave him anything. Never mind. Many humans still don’t know what to do, how to repay the monks’ kindness. Because even if the monk is preaching nothing, even he’s not like a holy monk or not very… Maybe, who knows he’s holy or not?
A monk, he forgets all his family already, and he goes out to become a monk, then at least his heart is purified. And he walks around lending his beautiful energy to the whole country. He doesn’t have to do anything. So they should treat him with respect, all the monks. Regardless, regardless of what religion. Regardless of whether or not you think he’s holy or not. It’s the symbol of love, of compassion, of wisdom, of detachment. These are all the qualities that we long to have but don’t.
All right. Now, so if you offer something to such a renounced person, then maybe he would lend you some of his virtues. And maybe in the future life you can be a monk - detached. At least in this lifetime, feel more detached, less bound. All right, so… in India, I heard that you should never upset a monk because you don’t know what power he possesses. And by upsetting him, that power in him will repulse it and return it to you without him wanting it. He’s protected. So, just like you spit at the sky and it comes back to you. So you should never upset a monk. Never make him angry, never do anything improper, never disrespect him - a monk, any monk.
So OK, like that. And then after that, he went to the Himalayas, adopted the life of an ascetic. “And in the course of time, developed the direct knowledge by the practice of deep meditation.” Enlightened. “Now a certain forester happened to see him there, and reported to the king. Thereupon, the king went to him, exchanged friendly greetings with him, learned what had happened, and offered to bestow his kingdom upon the Great Being.” Wow, wanted to give him the whole kingdom or half at least. “The Great Being, however, declined his offer and admonished him as follows. ‘For my part, I have no desire to rule. But as for you, Majesty, you should keep, unimpaired, the ten royal virtues. Avoid evil deeds and rule your kingdom justly.’ Thereupon, the king arose from his seat in tears and went back to the city. The ten virtues of the royal king are: giving, virtuous conduct, renunciation…” Inside, of course. He cannot go in the forest just like him, but at least inside. “Renunciation, uprightness, gentleness, austerity, non-anger, harmlessness, patience, non-opposition to the will…” Means for the will of the people, means not to rule against the will of the people, being good and gentle to people.
I cannot be king. Non-anger, I fail. (So mean.) So mean, huh? So scary, Master. Oh now, don’t make me do that again. All your fault. If I live alone with my dog, would I do that? No. All your fault, it’s all your fault.
Right, then. So the king cried and went back to his palace. “On the way there, he asked his ministers, ‘Through whose fault was I separated from one endowed with such uprightness like this?’” Like the monk. “So the minister said to him, ‘Your chief consort was to blame for this, Your Majesty.’” You know, his wife. It's the chief of the concubines. “Thereupon, the king had her taken by the heels, and flung head first down Robbers’ Cliff.” Oh man! He threw her down the cliff, meaning she will die. But when he ordered to throw the prince down, he did not die. The dragon caught him, the fairy took care of him. So now… “And entering his city, from then on, he ruled his kingdom justly. At that time Prince Mahā Paduma was the Great Being, and the fellow-wife of his mother was Ciñcā Mānavikā,” the second wife. End of the story of the past.
“When the Buddha had made this matter clear. He said, ‘Monks, in the case of those who have abandoned one thing, the speaking of the truth, who have become confirmed in falsehood, who have rid themselves of the chance of a happy next world, there is no evil deed which way they will not commit.’ So saying, He pronounced the following stanza. ‘The person of false speech — Transgressor of one principle, Rejecter of the other world: There is no evil he cannot do.’” Meaning, if you can tell lies then you can do any other bad deeds. Even though it doesn’t seem very big, the sin. We would think killing is a greater sin than telling lies, but here the Buddha pronounced that if you can tell false… He means telling lies, harmless lie, sometimes is OK. But if you accuse somebody or you blame somebody in such a way like that, you make up a story to defame somebody, slander someone like that, this is a big lie. Then there’s nothing else bad that you could not do. Means if you’re such a person who slanders and tells a lie, fabricates a story like that to harm somebody else, then everything else, however bad, other precepts you will also destroy. Ruin yourself.
Understand now? You are so clever. I’m proud of you, very proud.
I was thinking there is another story but I don’t know, I will find it tomorrow. Not now anyway. And then we will have a happy time again. Everybody’s happy to be gone now. Keep the chair there. Keep the chair. Anybody else who needs a chair like that, we can arrange in the back. And then if you sit in the back, you don’t disturb anybody. Anyone else needs a chair? No? Yes? No, no? Yes, yes? No? OK, no. All right.
What is it you want to show me? You mentioned there was something new? (Did I give this to You the other day?) Ah, you already gave it to me. Oh, this is big brother Sâm, huh? (Yes.) One of my cousins. This is me when I was younger. And my cousin. My cousin, big cousin is here. He’s a soil engineer, and this was me. And some of the others, the nieces and the nephews. I don’t remember them. I just remember him. I never remembered that I took a picture with him, either. First time, first time I saw it.
(You have it already? Do You have this one, Master?) I already have it. Not that one, but I have this one. These are my parents, my sister, bigger sister, myself, my grandma. And who is this? (Grandma.) No. I know it’s grandma. Who is this? (Aunt Bốn.) Ah, yeah. It’s my aunt, the one who owned the jewelry shop, gold shop, gold jewelry shop. Gold and jewelry stuff. My grandma. She lived until 105. (Wow!) She was very religious. This was your Master. Your great Master. Big Master, big Guru. It’s my elder sister. She was not born at that time. Younger sister and younger brother. OK, good. All right, that’s it.
And what is this? Who wrote these letters? (These are Your letters sent a long time ago. I remembered that, so I brought it with me.) Oh, really! OK, wow, thank you! Oh, wow! Thank you very much. (I read it.) OK. You want to keep it, or for me? For me, thank you, thank you, very nice. Very nice of you. You keep so many things. (This is my grandchild.) Ah, my God! Can you believe she already has a grandchild? Is it a boy? (It’s a girl, Master.) A girl, but how come she looks like a boy? OK. Girl. My grandchild, my granddaughter. She’s so young and already has. (Yes.) In Âu Lạc (Vietnam), her granddaughter is also my granddaughter. They will also call me “Grandma.” Oh, man. Feeling old. (Age of chewing betel nut.) (Everyone is old now.) Feeling old. I did not have this photo with him. I just have this photo alone.
(I’ve already made my own copy last time.) Oh, is it so? (And this one I haven’t.) Oh you want to keep it? (Yes.) You want to give it to me? (Yes.) All this? OK, and this one? (Yes.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, my sister. You were not in the picture. It’s special. It’s special. (That one is special.) She says it’s special, special.
My sister, she’s very sweet. She always says things very nice and positive, loving and kind. She was always very, very loving, sissy to my mother. I never could be like that. She was always very hugging and loving and caressing my mother. Always, “Oh I love her, she’s so nice,” and all that to my mother. I thought, “How come I never did that?” Yeah, I was never… I never did that. I never did anything like that. She was always very, very loving, and clinging to mother and make her feel so good. I said, "My God, she did a better job than I." She’d always come and caress my mother, “Oh, I love her this, I love her that. Oh mother, you’re beautiful, you’re this and that. I love so much, so much.” I never did this kind of thing to Ma and Dad. My God! Good, good girl.
And she does that to the dog also, her husband also. Everybody loves her. It would be better if she be a Master and I… More sweet, everybody would love her. Maybe better. I don’t know why God picked me. Sorry you don’t have a better Master, sorry for you. She’s very sweet, very, very sweet. I haven’t seen anybody so sweet like her like that, with mother, with mother at least. I don’t know how sweet she is with him, but… with my mother. I wish I could have been like that. When I met her before, she was always very sweet. She knows how to talk sweetly and positively. Very sweet person. You’re always like that? (Yes, Master.) She’s the best in my family. I’m glad we have one, at least, in the family.
(Even at the last moment before he died, he still asked for his son-in-law only…) Yeah, I know. OK. I know. My father, she says, my father loved this brother very much. It’s actually brother-in-law, but he’s just like… He stayed with our family so I call him brother. I don’t think he’s a brother-in-law, I just think he’s a brother. And my father loved him very much. Even the last moment before he died, he looked for him, he called for him. He asked for him. He loved him very much, so he’s like family. I’m glad he had such a son, finally. He always wanted a son. He never had. He had only three of us girls. Every time mother gave birth, disappointed. “How come no boy?” Only girls. All right, good. Now I’m sorry, I was a girl.
If I were a boy, maybe better Master, I don’t know. (No.) No? Why not? Men, they deal with stress better. Some hormone arises. What is it they call that? (Testosterone.) Testosterone. Yes. The men, when they are stressed, or they’re angry, or they’re vexed, or they’re excited, or they’re challenged, they produce more of this… Testosterone. Testosterone. Whatever “terone” that is. And that makes them even more energetic, powerful, and they live, they thrive on it. On the contrary, we women, we also produce that if we do similar to men’s job, if we’re stressed, and then it’s bad for us. It’s not compatible to a woman’s body to have that kind of hormone arise within us. So if I were a man, you’d probably have a better Master, no? (No.) Never scold you. Or maybe like my sister, always love, love so much.
Does she behave that way with you too, or she is controlling? You don’t dare say it? It’s OK, I understand. I understand. I asked him if she is also sweet like that to him or controls him, he doesn’t dare say anything. I say, “I understood.” Don’t dare to say, so I understood. It’s OK, we keep it… OK, never mind. But you know, if she controls you, that’s normal. We women, very smart. We know what’s the best. OK. It’s good then. They’re good together.
