True love is to let your partner be free. As long as they don’t do anything bad or wrong, or harming anybody else. So you should even learn from their good example and follow that. Follow them. That is true love. Looking in the same direction, if it’s a good direction, of course.
Sakra went once more to her and said, “Did you see your companions?” “Yes,” replied Wellborn, “I saw them. They ridiculed me and then they went away. Take me back again.” So Sakra took her back again, set her free in the water and then asked her, “Did you see their celestial glory?” “Yes, Sire, I did.” She didn’t call him “husband” anymore; she is also sour. “Yes, Sire, I did.” “You also should employ such means as will enable you to obtain rebirth there like them.” “Sire, what shall I do?” “OK. If I admonish you, I scold you, will you keep my admonition?” Or maybe just advice. “Yes, Sire, I will. I will keep your admonition.” So Sakra taught her the Five Precepts. Having done so, he said to her, “Be zealous in keeping the precepts.” And then he departed. Just five precepts.
Hence, thenceforth, she sought after and ate only such fish as had died a natural death. After a few days had passed, Sakra determined to test her. His specialty again. He always tests people who practice, who want to go to Heaven, or who want to become Buddha. He will come and test them. There you go. Don’t copy me. Copy everything else except my cough. So he went and taking the form of a fish, lay down on the surface of the sand, pretending to be dead. When she saw the fish, thinking that it was dead, she took it in her beak. Just as she was about to swallow the fish, it wriggled its tail. The instant she discovered the fish was alive, she released it in the water. Sakra waited a little while, and then, laid down before her on his back once more. On his back? And then laid down before her? OK, OK, he laid on his back in front of her. Again thinking it was a dead fish, she took it in her beak. But just as she was about to swallow the fish, it moved the tip of its tail. So immediately she knew it was alive and let it go in the water. When Sakra has thus tested her three times, this was not a difficult test compared to the thing he did to the Buddha. Gruesome! But you missed all that. You probably have to wait until they upload, download, cut, edit, and do all kinds of things before you can see it. He tested her three times. And then he had satisfied himself that she was keeping the precepts faithfully. He revealed his identity to her and said, “I came here for the purpose of testing you. You are keeping the precepts faithfully. If you continue thus faithfully to keep them, before long you will be reborn as one of my wives. Be heedful.” Having spoken thus, he departed.
So, this is true love. It lasts long. It lasts from Heaven, from Earth to Heaven as well. But the love that we profess sometimes to each other here on Earth as couples, sometimes it won’t last. Because we go separate ways afterward; if we don’t look in the same direction, if we don’t do the same good deeds. Then no matter how deep the love you think you have for your partner, it won’t be deep enough. That’s why sometimes the husband or the wife tries to hinder his or her life partner in the spiritual practice. They don’t know they are doing wrong to themselves. If they really love to have his wife or her husband forever then they should help in that. So the husband or wife goes up very high and they also will go up high together. And they stay longer together, even in Heaven. See, you still can stay together husband and wife. Even maybe they don’t have any of the bodily sensual pleasure anymore like we do here, but they have company, they have each other’s company. And most of the practitioners prefer that also. Besides, after marrying for many years, you’re just like friends. That’s what they have in Heaven -- friendship.
Being Sakra, he could have any wife he wants. He doesn’t have to come back for his wife like this. You know, the rotten one. He could just pick up any human even or any astral beauty and use his power like this to bring her up in no time. You can adopt, you can adopt; if you are like, in the second Heaven, and you want to extend your family, then you can gather all your friends all together, make a circle, and using your power, and extending the Light, making it like a ladder and then you pick up that person to come up to you. She has to be clear and clean, purified for a little while then hopla, together. Like a family. That’s how they adopt in Heaven. If the person is not meritorious enough, don’t have enough good deeds, they can use this way, many powerful Lights together and then pick that person up. It’s like we adopt a new family member here on Earth. Even a poor child, for example, born in a very poor family without parents anymore and lives in an orphanage, but rich powerful parents can come there, and legalize him and lift his status into the son of a powerful and rich family. Similar like that.
It is legal in Heaven to adopt. Therefore, maybe if you befriend somebody who is initiated, who is highly developed spiritually, then even though you are not very highly developed spiritually, that person will lift you up also. Can, see what I mean? (Yes.) No problem. So cool. Good system. If we can adopt here, why not there? But you cannot adopt from so many levels. Maybe the neighboring level - like if you are Second Level, you can adopt Astral Level. If you want to … but that person must have some merit at least, a little bit to be nearer to the Level of the Second. Then it’s easier to adopt; otherwise, that person has to do a little merit or do something to have an excuse to go, you see what I mean? All right, that’s like that. Why are you crying, love? Just touched or happy? (Touched.) Touched by the husband? (Yeah.) The love? (Yeah.) I guess it’s good. Why not? Some husbands really love their wife that much. My ex-husband, he kept going to the Himalayas, not just one time, several times to find me. And chased me several times also when I left, when I ran away, before or after marriage. Even on the planet they do that, so why not a god from Heaven who could... Why couldn’t a god in Heaven have such love. See what I mean? Lasting love. Be heedful, be attentive, be careful with the practice. I guess he didn’t just teach her the five precepts; probably told her a lot more moral stuff. Try to do good deeds - like don’t eat the fish. Don’t eat the live fish.
Wow, my God! Truly, truly karma really exists, and sometimes in this lifetime you have to pay right away. Even my dog, Happy, she used to chase and eat the live gecko, some insects, when she first came into my adopted house. And sometimes you could still see the wagging tail of the gecko in her mouth. I said, “Spit it out right now, now.” And I held her throat, shook her head as I said, “Spit it out -- out, out, out!” And then “Puh,” and the gecko run, run, run for his life. I said, “Run far! When you see this girl again, don’t ever, ever go near. Don’t! Just run as far as you can, because I can’t guarantee next time she would let you off if I am not there.” And I didn’t ever see geckos run around anymore in my yard after that. Probably they understood. Or the one who survived the ordeal went all over and printed on the newspaper, “Don’t go! Don’t go near that. The one with the round curly tail, looks very friendly but she is not. She is not friendly. She is your death sentence. Watch it. Her name is Happy.” But she did it again and again. I always had to watch her, and then sometimes she did, I don’t know. See? So from all the dogs that I adopted, she has suffered the most. Understand? She suffers still now. She suffers cancer. Of course, I have medicine and all that for her still, but she still had to suffer, a different part of her body. Sometimes it just broke out or something, or she fell down, or something bit her, always having something on her body. Always some bump here, some sore there, some bleeding here and there all the time. Very busy with her, very busy. That’s why if she passes by, you see her wearing socks sometimes, because she’s wounded there and if we don’t put the socks on, she will keep licking it, and then it keeps opening the wound again. And sometimes she has to wear this bell collar for many weeks. And it’s like breaking my heart.
And she’s constantly, ever since she became older, the karma caught up with her. And she is constantly suffering. The medicine keeps her alive and well of course, but it’s not like before, not like the way she had it before, not like when she was younger. And even we went to different doctors, they said, “Oh, she’s too old, just... Why bother?” But we did not give up on her. We went to different doctors, then Italian doctors -- they are very kind, very, very kind. Even so kind that they told us to... Because she was sick, so she couldn’t digest well. And she loved to eat those vegan shrimps. And when she’d see it, she’d jump on it, whoa, eat. You can give her three kilos; she’ll eat them all. So the doctor said, “Not too much. Even though she cannot eat too much, now she has to even slim down.” The girl who loves to eat a lot now has to eat very little. What a suffering for her and for me. The one liked to give a lot, also now cannot give a lot. And the one who likes to eat a lot, now also cannot. Both of us suffer together. And the doctor even told us to chop very fine, chop small those vegan shrimp or vegan fishes, for her as her snacks, and other food when cooking for her as well. She, so sick like that, still picky, don’t eat the vegan dog food, just eats the cooked food -- noodles, rice, of course, vegan protein, and mixed, and some vegetables and fruit, or fruit one side. She could eat the whole melon if you give her, after a meal already. Understand? So we have to ration it, have to weigh the food even, the doctor said how much, how much per day. It’s terrible for me to watch. You know how I love to give everything and now she cannot eat much. So the karma really caught up with her so bad, so bad.
They say… even the doctor was so kind, she’s lucky. If it’s in another family, sometimes they just put her to sleep. Many families do that because they listen to the doctor. They say, “What for, she’s old now. And if she has cancer, she’s suffering. Don’t bother, just end her suffering, end your suffering.” And it’s so easy to hear. And then just one injection, gone, just like that. But we didn’t give up on her. If it’s your family member, you will go to the end of the world to find a remedy until you cannot find anymore. You will turn heaven and earth upside down to find something to save your family member, no? If you love somebody, you do that. So she’s still alive. The doctor says normally she will die in six months. It’s more than a year already, still wagging (her) tail and wanting food. Give me, give me, give me. She’s very skinny now, very skinny. You can see her stomach very thin now. Before, when she walked, the fat on both sides was flapping like wings. I used to call her Gorditita in Spanish, means... Gordita, but she is small, so I say Gorditita, just to mild it up a little bit. Gordita means fat, so I call her Gorditita. Because when she’d lie down, the fat on both sides flapped out like an extra blanket. And when she runs, it runs with her. It’s like an angel’s wings. And now she’s so skinny, so very small, and very, very slim, it’s terrible for me to watch. I keep always asking the doctor, “Can she eat more now?” “Not yet.” OK, OK, let’s go back to India or in Heaven. We’ve stayed on Earth long enough. Stay even in the dog kingdom; now we go up.
He said to her, “For the purpose of testing you, you continue this way, then you will be reborn in Heaven. And we’ll be reunited again.” You know, husband and wife. “Be heedful.” Meaning take care, take care of what he told her. Listen to what he told her. Having spoken thus, he departed, went back to Heaven. Thenceforth, she used for food either fish that had died… Oops, this is already done. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Either had died a natural death, or none at all. Even if she didn’t find any fish that already died naturally, then she ate nothing. Truly, truly keeping the precepts very well. Because like cranes or flamingoes, they eat just fish. So she cannot eat anything else, nothing else around there to eat. After only a few days had passed, she shriveled up and died. Because she didn’t eat that much and sometimes ate nothing, so she died.
And solely as the fruit of her virtuous conduct, she was reborn at Benares as the daughter of a potter. She’d not gone to Heaven yet. Not yet. Not that easy. When she was about 15 or 16 years old, Sakra considered within himself, “Where has she been reborn?” Well, at least not as animal. Perceiving that she had been reborn at Benares as the daughter of a potter, he said to himself, “I ought now to go to her.” Wow, what a good husband! He had already three wives, not like he’s lonely or anything. And everybody loves him in Heaven, not like he is bored or a lack of entertainment or anything. It’s a pleasure Heaven. He has anything he wants. But still such a faithful, devoted, good, good, good husband; he went again to look for her. Incredible. Wouldn’t you like to have a husband like that? But maybe you would stop him, “Why? Follow Master Ching Hai, do what? Eat vegetarian nonsense. Why? Meat tastes better. More energy, go, go, go, go. Don’t, don’t follow Her, follow me.” Both, and then both go to, you know where. OK. Yes, some wives, obstructed their husband; some husbands obstructed their wives. That’s not the way of love. True love is to let your partner be free. As long as they don’t do anything bad or wrong, or harming anybody else. So you should even learn from their good example and follow that. Follow them. That is true love. Looking in the same direction, if it’s a good direction, of course.
