So you know, in our place, in our non-temple temple, we don’t bother with flowers and incense, or drums and gongs, or anything. We just bother with sincerity and inner devotion. That’s why I tell you to concentrate and meditate. No need for outer performance so much. No need to even bow to me or bow to any Buddha. […] The Buddhas do not expect these things. They expect that you are devoted to yourself so that you can find your Buddha Nature and become a Buddha or become one with God. Find your own glorious nature and be of help to yourself and many other beings.
“There is a brother of Arjuna called Bhima. He never sat to do any worship. He never went to the temple.” […] “Arjuna thought that he was a great devotee of the Lord (Shiva) and that he was highly pious and devoted. He thought that his brother Bhima had no devotion. Therefore, he looked down upon him with contempt. Lord Krishna found out the attitude of Arjuna and wanted to teach him a good lesson and bring him to his senses. He proposed to Arjuna to take a trip to Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva.” […] “Arjuna did not suspect anything. So he gladly consented to the proposal of Sri Krishna. […] Now, “They both started on the journey…” to go to Mount Kailash. I told you already it’s not a fun place to go. It’s a very, very long journey and walking through landslides sometimes, it’s snowing too, you know, mountains deep of snow; very difficult. Many people go and don’t come back.
Well, actually, anywhere in the Himalayas, it’s difficult to go. But Kailash is a longer journey, that’s all. It takes a longer time. Otherwise, anywhere you go in the Himalayas, it’s only like a trekking path; you walk one footstep after another. The path is sometimes very narrow and dangerous – wet and snow and cold, and you don’t have anything. And sometimes, it’s difficult to make a fire at such a high altitude because the atmosphere is different. The fire is difficult to start, and then when it starts, it’s difficult to boil. That’s why most of the time, I ate raw food. Whatever I found, I just ate. No need to cook. Takes too long. Sometimes, it doesn’t cook – takes... oh, takes one day.
Now. “When they were on their way, they met a man dragging a cart loaded with flowers of diverse kinds. Arjuna asked the man where he was taking the flowers to, but the man kept silent as he was very much absorbed in his work.” Very concentrated. Not like you when you sit in meditation: “Is Master around?” “Is She coming yet?” “It’s 6 o’clock already, why hasn’t She come?” Yeah. “So Lord Krishna said to Arjuna, ‘Let us follow the man and find out the things for ourselves.’ Arjuna agreed and they both followed the man. They saw him empty the cart by the side of a huge heap of flowers, which was as big as the hill of…” Hsihu Ashram. “They further saw several hundreds of carts, all loaded with flowers, approaching the same spot and emptying their contents there.” All the flowers from so many different hundreds of carts, emptying in the same place. There was a huge mountain of flowers, fresh flowers there.
“Arjuna became more and more curious. He could not control his curiosity anymore, so he asked the men, ‘Please tell me where these carts of flowers come from.’ None of them bothered to reply. But one man said after repeated questioning from Arjuna, ‘Venerable sir, kindly do not disturb us. We are too busy with our work. We have no time to talk to anybody. We have brought only 750 carts of flowers, and more than 750 more are still in the temple. They are all the flowers with which one Bhima, a son of Pandu, worshipped our Lord yesterday.’” Understand? (Yes.) That means these mountains of flowers are only half of what they have to carry out. There’s still half lying somewhere in the temple. And all these flowers came from bum-Bhi (Bhima). Who is bum-Bhi (Bhima)? The brother of Arjuna. The lazy one! The one who never went to the temple, never worshipped the Lord – you know, apparently – and never did anything. Never gave a flower or incense to the Lord. The one that Arjuna always looked down upon as useless, as an atheist and not devoted to God.
“Now, it is hardly four more hours before his worship today, and we must remove all the flowers within that time.” Every day he worships; the mountains of flowers come. So they have to remove every day like so many flowers from him, from his worship. “Arjuna was struck with wonder. He asked, ‘Is it Bhima or Arjuna that you speak of? Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake? You mean Arjuna, right? Arjuna, huh? Not Bhima, no? My friend, think! Think about it! You’re mistaken. The name is Arjuna! Arjuna! A-r-j-u-n-a! A-r-j-u-n-a. Must be.’ So the man replied, ‘Pooh! Don’t talk about Arjuna. No, no, no, no, no! Not at all, not that one. It is Bhima, his brother, who does such glorious worship with intense devotion, and not his brother Arjuna, who merely makes an outward show of his worship.’ Just then, another man came with a basket of flowers.” A basket. You know, small one that I put (vegan) candies and cakes in for you yesterday? The man came with such a small basket of flowers.
“Lord Krishna asked that man on purpose…” On purpose – not that He didn’t know. He pretended not to know. The Lord Krishna! You think He didn’t know that He had to ask the man? “‘…My friend, whose offering are these flowers?’” Of course, you know the answer. “The man said, ‘They were offered yesterday by an ostentatious man who lives on Earth. His name is Arjuna, and he makes a display of his worship without any real love and devotion.’” Therefore, one basket of flowers and talks so much about it. “Arjuna lowered his head in shame and said to the Lord, ‘Oh Krishna.’” Supreme Master Ching Hai. “‘Why did You have to bring me here? Huh? Let us leave this place at once. You could have pointed out my defects, my self-conceit and ostentation at home and saved all this trouble and exertion. I do admit that I thought very highly of my worship and devotion. I treated Bhima with contempt. Just now, I realized that Bhima’s short meditation with sincere devotion is more valuable than all my showy worship all day long.’ Lord Krishna smiled and kept silent.” Now you know what it is. There is a lot of commentary down there, but I think you know already. Make your own comments. Alright? You’re happy? (Yes.) Good, huh?
So you know, in our place, in our non-temple temple, we don’t bother with flowers and incense, or drums and gongs, or anything. We just bother with sincerity and inner devotion. That’s why I tell you to concentrate and meditate. No need for outer performance so much. No need to even bow to me or bow to any Buddha. If you see Him inside, see the Buddha inside, you may bow to the Buddhas if you want to. But the Buddhas do not expect these things. They expect that you are devoted to yourself so that you can find your Buddha Nature and become a Buddha or become one with God. Find your own glorious nature and be of help to yourself and many other beings. And that is what the Buddha expects from us, right?
Sometimes we have flowers, you can see. No high heels today. Difficult to see the Master. Now, sometimes we have flowers too, you can see. It’s for decoration when we have a grand occasion, just to please the eyes of every living Buddha in the hall. Otherwise, we don’t even have a hall, right? These are places that we repair after. You can see all the mud walls, broken mud walls still there for souvenirs. Before, the little chicken-people used to run around here. And now the little Buddhas still run. Both have Buddha Nature, anyhow. So, actually, in every religious body, they emphasize mental worship and inner devotion, and not the outer ritual. So now you know: You are on the right path. Yeah? (Yes.)
Any questions? How long am I here already? One hour? (No.) No? Time flies. No need to take too long. Look at your marriage and you’ll know what happens. No need to stay together too long and bug each other. Yes, the diamond is small; therefore, it’s precious, OK? (Yes.) Human life is short. That’s why it’s valuable. Fancy if we stayed so long in this world, what would we do? Then, every day, I’d have to tell stories for numerous years. And then what to do? Then we’d never finish with our work, and then we never could leave this world, and then we would never become Buddha. So let it be, whatever it is. OK? (Yes.) Quality is more important. But make sure you eat enough food, OK? (Yes, yes.) Alright. So I’ll meditate with you for a while. (OK, yes.) Are you ready to meditate? (Yes.)
I told her to come down and tell you to gather together because I would come down. But when I phoned, she said, “They already gathered before I came down.” I said, “What? It’s only about after 5 o’clock.” She said, “Yes, they’re ready.” I said, “Do I owe them anything? And then, every time they have to come at the same hour and want something.” Anyhow, I tried to put myself in a good mood and come down with a smile. I kept telling myself, “Keep smiling. Whatever happens, just keep smiling.” I said, “Put your bad mood under the wheel and crush it. Keep smiling.” And then it worked. It really worked. Otherwise, when I heard that people already gathered in front of the hall without my order and were waiting to collect “debts,” I was feeling, “My God, what’s that? Do I have to always tell them stories?”
Are you warm enough? (Yes.) OK, if you want to make a fire for yourself, then you can go and get the wood and find an empty place where there are no trees. Very difficult here. There is a small lake. In the middle of it, there are no trees. You may waddle to the middle and sit together on top of the water and make a fire. That should be fun. Anyhow, I heard that many of you have miracle power: you can walk on water, sit on water, lie on water. (Yes, meditate.) Yeah? You do! You do it every day. You lie, sit, stand, walk on troubled water, and you don’t know. Make sure that your troubled water becomes no trouble, alright? To live in this world is a kind of magic power. We walk on water every day, troubled water. We walk, sleep, eat, function on top of troubled water. This world is like a troubled water lake. And everyone needs to kind of struggle to float on top. Otherwise, we will sink. Now, the meditation will help you. Not just keeping your head above the water, but keeping the whole body on top, and healthy, happy, and not cold, not wet. So, meditate, huh? (Yes.)
The monks also can meditate there. And when I leave, you leave. OK? I won’t say it anymore, understand? (OK. Understand.) But actually, I don’t need to speak in English; you all understand me. You want me to demonstrate it? “Zen doesn’t need language,” they say. You want it? You want me to demonstrate that you can understand me without language? (Yes.) OK. Look here! If you understand, you say yes. Alright? (Yes. OK.) (Yes.) (Yes.) (Yes.) (Beautiful.) (Yes.) You see, so what is the use of learning any language at all? Alright. So now, try to learn the inner language, OK? Meditate. Turn off the lights. What I tell you is always the truth. You see? I never tell lies.
