And then I said to one of the attendants at that time, I said, “Oh, jeez, how come I had a dream like that? Take a snake(-person) by his tail and go walking. And I didn’t realize it hurt him so much. And I felt so very, very hurt about that, very bad that I knelt beside him and said, ‘Please, don’t die. Just let me die for you.’” And so, I said, “How come you want to die for a snake(-person)?” I kept asking myself.
And I said to the attendant, “It’s a strange dream. Even if it happened like so, how can I truly want to die for the snake(-person)?” Instead of him, I wanted to replace him, to die for him instead and suffer for him instead. I said, “How come? It’s so strange. If you want to die for your loved one or a person, you can understand, but for a snake(-person)! Who has heard of these things? How come it’s such a strange dream?” So the attendant said, “It is because You’re always full of Love. So even in a dream, even for the snake(-person), You would express this kind of attitude and have this kind of mental attitude.”
So I was enlightened then, through the attendant. Yeah, that was Tong. The tall guy. He never smiles and everybody fears him. That’s the guy. Except when he’s with me, then he laughs. Sometimes he rolls on the floor. And he said he only laughs when he’s with me. He never laughed before. Seldom, seldom. And he was correct.
Even in a dream, if we can express our love, that means we must have it on a daily basis. Otherwise, how could we remember it then? And even for a snake(-person), and a poisonous snake(-person), he bites everybody and makes people trouble. So, take care that we nourish this kind of love inside us, all the time, until it becomes our nature, first and second nature and one and only nature. And then everything we do will only benefit others, whether we do it in a strong way, in an apparently angry way, or in a loving way. You understand what I mean? It doesn’t matter at all.
It’s just like a skilled surgeon, a skilled doctor, who can give you a sweet pill, or who can cut you into pieces in order to heal you. If we do not take care of this love and try to nourish it, then we cannot progress because the way to God is through love. If we love every other sentient being, that means we love God. That means God is inside us, and God loves Hiers children. And that’s how we attract people – by this love. It’s like a magnet. Everyone likes us, loves us, and we don’t know why, and the people don’t know why also. This is the love that attracts people, not the appearance, or the sex – female or male, or the education.
So, like the Sixth Zen Patriarch, Huineng, He also didn’t have any education at all. And even His appearance was so lousy that even His Master at first rejected Him. He said, “You look kind of like a southern barbarian. How can you become Buddha?” He was joking. “A southern barbarian.” He looked dark in complexion and short in stature, and probably not very good looking. Even His Master didn’t like His look and called Him a southern barbarian. Can you believe it? Such a person who appeared in such a way that even an Enlightened Master called Him “southern barbarian.” Or maybe His Master had discrimination. Or maybe He just made a joke. The Masters, They have lousy jokes sometimes. And many people cannot laugh. They don’t understand the humor of the Master. Only the Enlightened person can laugh.
So at that time, probably Huineng, the Sixth Zen Patriarch, wasn’t enlightened. Therefore, He was a little bit cranky and serious. So, He answered Him back right away. He said, “Buddha Nature doesn’t have north or south, doesn’t discriminate between north or south.” Probably He wanted to impress His Master that He knows something. Anyhow, I think the Fifth (Zen) Patriarch was a very humorous person, or maybe very tolerant person. Otherwise, He couldn’t accept this “lousy guy,” who was so serious and so over-sensitive that even He has to answer just like a fighting cock(-person). He saw another one and he had to go and pick him.
You know, a fighting cock(-person)? One time, a long time ago, there was a king who loved cock(-people) fighting and he raised many, but he has not been very successful. So, he heard that there’s one cock(-people) fighting master who knows how to raise a good one. So, he assigned him to raise a cock(-person) for him. He gave him the best one, the best quality and the best descendant of such and such famous ancestor, cock(-person’s) ancestor. So, he gave to him to raise and gave him money and everything.
So, a few weeks go by, and he came and asked the master, “Is the cock(-person) ready to fight or not?” And the master said, “No. No way. Too far away yet.” So, a few months later, the king came back again and asked him, “How is the cock(-person)? Is he ready to fight now?” He said, “No, no, no, no. He’s just improved a little bit only.” So then a few months later, he came back again and impatiently he said, “How is my cock(-person)? Is he getting better? Is he ready to fight?” And the master said, “Ah, no, not yet. He still gets excited when he saw another cock(-person), wants to fight.” So, the king said, “That’s what’s supposed to be.” And the master said, “No, no, no, it’s not, it’s not. Not yet, not yet, believe me.”
So, the king went back home and forgot all about it. He got fed up, he kept asking all the time. But then one day, probably a long time later, years or something later, he happened to pass by and then remembered that, and then came in and asked the master whether his male hero is ready or not. So that master said, “OK, this time it’s alright.” And the king asked him, “How do you know that he’s alright? You said he wasn’t alright before.” So the cock(-person) master told the king, “Now he saw another fighting cock(-person) and he doesn’t move one inch. He doesn’t even blink his eyes. But the other cock(-person) just saw him and ran away.” No need to fight now. The quality inside radiates outside. Why [do] I talk about these fighting things? What’s the reason? Was there a connection? (The Sixth Patriarch… fighting...) Ah, fighting. Oh, yeah, yes. So, He probably wasn’t ripe. He wasn’t a ripe fighting “cock(-person).” So, He immediately picked (a fight with) His Master, thinking He’s another fighting “cock(-person).”
Many of the disciples are like that when they first come, in their eagerness and excitement to become Buddha. They have a lot of illusions concerning themselves that he’s such and such a person, he must be among the chosen few. And when the Master sees him or her, They must have different eyes because he’s different. For example, he flies all the way for many miles and he didn’t eat all the way. Or maybe he walked one step and kneel one step, and walked three steps and bowed down three times or something like that. Or he has been eating one meal a day for many years waiting for this great moment. Or maybe he has been looking for the Master many, many, many years now or all lifetime. Now, this is the first opportunity and he recognized the Master immediately. It means he must be very enlightened, so the Master must know it. And everyone will treat him specially and things like that. Special treatment. He might get special treatment alright.
But in which way? He might get scoffed off, scold out, or thrown out. I have seen many like this. They have so many illusions. They read too many Zen books and saw so many Zen movies. So, they imagine all kinds of things. For example, one guy after initiation – we have many hundreds of people sometimes – and then he still keeps sitting there. So, our attendant asked him what is it that he wants, that he won’t leave. So he said, “The Master has not given me initiation yet.” So the attendant said, “How? You just got it.” He said, “Huh? That was it? I thought He (She) had to sit with me in the closed room with all the windows taped and all the doors closed, and eye to eye.” This is the way he read from the Sixth (Zen) Patriarch, Huineng, and His Master. Yes, that’s what he imagined.
People have all kinds of illusions, all kinds of imaginations. Some people imagine that the Master must be old, with white hair and a white beard that’s so long like this. Yes, yes, yes. And He eats one meal a day, or maybe doesn’t eat at all. And no need to wear any clothes, and He’s flying in the air and taking him by the hand to Heaven and things like that. Or suppose the Master must be male and not female. This we can take care of today. It’s very easy. With plastic surgery we can change. If somehow you’re not satisfied with my female appearance, you let me know. I will consider to make it complete, to complete your illusion, just for fun.
But I don’t think so. I love to be a woman. It’s fine. We can put some make-up on, wear nice clothes. Otherwise, the male is so, so, so boring. The best they can wear is a black suit. That’s the best clothes for the male of today, no? And it costs nine hundred or some thousand dollars and looks so ugly, depressive, black, colorless, and so serious, so business-like. So, who wants to be male anyhow? They have heavy karma to be male. You can have no change for life.
We women have many choices. We can have make-up. We can have our hair permed this way, that way. We can have short (hair). We can have long (hair). We can have high heel shoes, flat heel shoes. We can wear these clothes, that clothes, no problem. But if a man wears different clothes like this, people will look at him. And will want to put some label on his name.
It’s fun to be a woman. Otherwise, if I was a male this time, I’d be bored stiff. At least I am a woman. I can play around with make-up, high heels, wear different clothes that my disciples made for me. They’re so talented, so talented. They can create different beautiful clothes. And since they’re monks, they have nothing to do and are bored. They try to create things and put them all on my body for show. So, I think to be a woman is OK. Anybody object? Especially women no, huh? Yes, be proud of me. (Yes.) OK.
Photo Caption: Heaven Is What the Dweller Made It to Be!
