We have to rise above material boundaries, in our mind, before we can progress spiritually. The family will be taken care of, don’t worry!
So, even the snow brings water for your garden, for the agriculture. Everything is a miracle! Just don’t take them for granted, but use them to invest, make more miracles. Use your miraculous hand to make some more events happen, more financial success. Then you can enjoy life, and spread it out. And our life is simple; that’s why we can afford to even help someone else, because we don’t need much. And use whatever you have. Whatever you have with you is a miracle. Even your hair. You can do a thousand things with it. Nice stuff! Don’t wait until you all lose it, and say, “Oh, my miracle is gone!” Or borrow from a neighbor! She has a lot, pluck some, cultivate some.
If we can see the world around us, that’s already a big miracle. Can you imagine if you don’t have it? Can you imagine? At night, when you’re groping in the dark, then you know what it’s like to have a miracle. And your ears, you can hear; your health, all the tissues in your body function in harmony. That’s a miracle! When something’s wrong, then you appreciate that it has been right before. Sometimes it’s late! But it is good that your life is in harmony, your body is in harmony together. The mind, the brain, the body work together to make you a functional, perfect human being. And you are beautiful already, very beautiful! Everything, you have! You’re lacking nothing.
And tonight, we feel great, meditate together, feel very good, because we’re in harmony. There are no rotten apples around. Even one would cause discord, and then you don’t feel that good. So, it is good sometimes that we have just the similar energy, and then you feel better. And that provokes the lower energy person to hurry up a little bit. So, kindness has many forms, and not because somebody gets scolded, and that means she is unloved or anything like that. Just like you treat your children differently, it depends on how they behave. It’s not always like, I love you, give sweets and chocolate. That is not always good for the children, especially when he is bad. Then he will never change. And a spoiled rotten kid is the worst kid that you ever will have.
Same! A spiritual person has to be upright, correct, and noble at all times, be more selfless and noble. So, keep the Gift I gave to you, remind yourself also, OK? That will be very great to start a new year with, and to continue with. (Yes!)
The camera is OK? Cameraman, are you OK with the lady sitting in front of you, and...? I know it! So, my face will be covered with hair, huh? Because, your hair is very tall, and he has to make the camera up now, and I don’t know what my face will look like in it now. Situation changes, the camera changes the angle, and maybe my face will look like that or look like that, or look like that - from upper, it goes down. So you see, sometimes my face looks different. It depends on the cameraman. (Yes.) Sometimes I look too beautiful, and people keep coming and asking me, “Where is that beautiful lady?” I say, “Don’t ask me!”
OK, you’re happy, huh? (Yes!) Are you staying here all night or you go home? No? (Yes!) Some have to go home, right? (Yes!) OK, fine. It’s good. If you have to go, you go, OK? And maybe I see you some other time, maybe next week if I am still around. (Oh...!) I mean, weekend. Weekend! (Thank You, Master!) But only you guys. Because we don’t have enough room. But you have a nice tent outside. It’s always like that every weekend? No? No. (Today.) No, only today, because a lot of people. Mostly you eat in the kitchen, simple. (Yes.) OK. It’s nice. At least you have a very nice and cozy place.
We just make a tent. Even in winter, the tent with heating, good enough! If it’s insulated well enough, then it should be warm enough. I’ve been living in minus ten (degrees Celsius), Oh, not even... Yeah, in ten, I told you already, minus ten, minimum! I didn’t really have the real thing, but the water became ice, I told you. The water became ice and the snow became ice. No, not snow even, it was too cold to snow, so the sky was pristinely clear blue, but the water in my bucket became a big solid block! I couldn’t even knock it out of the bucket. It stayed in there. And even then, I survived! Just one oil heater.
If we don’t have enough electricity, we just have to be more diligent: buy more oil, and use oil heater, the one that doesn’t smell. Besides, the smell only goes up, it doesn’t go down when you meditate. So, that is another motivation to sit and meditate. If you stand up, you smell. If you sit down, nothing! You don’t smell the oil when you’re at a lower level, because most of the smell or the heat goes up. It’s OK. And you open a little ventilation from the tent when you have a heater, or it’ll be too hot. After a while, it’s too hot, you have to turn it off. Even minus ten or something, I can’t bear it. Six degrees is too hot inside the tent for me. You’ll get used to it after a while. You’ll get used to it.
So, we don’t have to always use electricity, you know? Oil is better than gas, or it’s the same? We can have gas. (We’re actually using oil for the radiators.) Yeah, it’s very easy. They go and fill it once a year, or once in every two, three months, it depends on how much you use. It’s OK. You can cook inside your apartment if it’s equipped but simple. Or eating together in the commune kitchen, it would be better. One person cooks every day, or two or three persons. And you can cook your own if you want also. It’s up to everybody.
(This one has...) And you can plant vegetables. Yes, this one what? (This one actually also uses solar power.) Solar power, wow! Yeah! (It’s even cheaper.) Yeah, we could have even wind power if it’s not too expensive. Now, it’s “in!” European Union, they approved for that. Many places begin already. They call it “Green Power.” It’s very good for the environment. But you have to have a lot of battery, you know, to store the sun (energy). Especially in England! The summer doesn’t last long! But it’s better than nothing. And then wind power as well. And soon, they will invent something else, or different power. We don’t really need electricity. We only use it for some time. We don’t need so much, really. We can use it for washing, maybe washing machine, if you don’t want to wash by hand or some special...
And the rest, we can use anything else - oil lamp or whatever. I lived in the cave, I told you, just candles and oil lamp. But be careful when you use candles, that’s all. You have to be present, should not leave it alone when you’re out or something. Something might knock it over, or pets knock it over, or children, that’s all. Or, the oil lamp, you hang it high, or something like that, out of reach of children and pets. Just a little precaution. Besides, at night, I don’t use it much. I just use it when it’s dark, a little bit, if I need. If not, just go meditate. When the sun goes down, we meditate. When the sun goes up, we get up. A very simple life!
Or sometimes you go outside and contact with the wood company, and their leftover things, sometimes you can bring home cheap because they want to get rid of them. Or you can buy it cheap, or you can have it for free. In Taiwan (Formosa), in the beginning, they used to do that. Actually, because even if you have wood, it won’t last forever. Everybody goes and chops one, and it’s gone. We don’t want to chop wood, anyway. What I mean is, just for a small group, independent group, like a family. There’s always some dry wood from the tree and falling down. Or you can break some of the dry wood and use it. Or chop and trim them, and use it.
Like, I have a place. It’s private and very small, only two small bedrooms, one for dogs and one for guests. And then, very small. It’s said a house, but it’s cheating, like two storerooms put together, or something like that. It has a lot of olive trees, so every year you have to trim the olive trees so that it grows better next spring, next year, and then it bears fruit. Therefore, all the wood, you can use it for fuel. But only for one family, you can’t use it for one world, the whole world. OK, it’s cool.
The rest, you take care. (Yes!) So that we’re, like, doing things together. Not like a charity, always Master does everything, Master knows everything, Master can take care of everything. I can, but I don’t want to. Now you’re grown up already. Take care of me! That’s what I bear children for.
In China, Âu Lạc (Vietnam), India, etc., the poor families, they want a lot of children. Surprise, you know! They say, in case one dies, the others are still there. And when they’re older, the parents are older, they rely on the children to bring the income home. That’s why they want a lot of children. The more poor, the more children. Surprise! I mean, the poorer, the more children they want. It’s just like security benefit, like insurance in the West, the life insurance, yes.
That’s why in China, Âu Lạc (Vietnam), India, all those countries, the family tie is very strong. They just talk about family all day long, all year long, and then bring to the meditation hall also the family, the whole family. When they talk, the Chinese, some from Mainland China especially, nothing but children, family. I got fed up over the years. I mean, we all have children, we all have family, and we all love our family. But that is one thing. And another thing, to always bring it repeatedly into the meditation hall, and talk about nothing except how you miss the children, and how your children don’t behave, and that is not the point. It’s not the way.
We have to rise above material boundaries, in our mind, before we can progress spiritually. The family will be taken care of, don’t worry! I mean, you do your best already, right? You earn money, you take care of them, you teach them the best you know how, you bring them to spiritual encounter. That’s the best parent they can ever have. And the rest is up to their karma, and the world, and their own spiritual level. You can’t do much more. It is not always askable. My God, I don’t know.
Some people are just too much material, too materialistic. And that’s why they don’t go up. The best thing you can help or do anything to your family is to be spiritually elevated. The higher, the better. And I’m not saying that you run away from your family, or don’t give them clothes and shelter. You do, anyway. Right? (Yes.) That’s why you’re working. Because if you’re alone, you don’t work that much, right? Because you have family, you feel responsible, so you work harder, and you save money for their future. And you give them whatever they need, I mean, what’s necessity. So you are doing already materially more than enough.
Also spiritual side, you have to take care. If they don’t follow you, you have to be strong enough to even cover them. So don’t just keep talking, “Oh, I miss my family, I miss my house,” all this rubbish. I don’t buy any of that! Because if you really practice well, you will understand. You will not talk rubbish. You will not talk nonsense like that. You just quietly do your job. Because if you really do your job well, you don’t feel anything bad in here. Right? You know you do your best, and you feel happy.
And some people also complain if their family member goes out and works more spiritually for other people. Like, “You don’t take care of me. You only take care of everybody else!” That’s wrong, also! That’s wrong. You should be helping, together doing that, or you should be happy that, “Oh, my God, I have such a spiritual brother! I have such a spiritual husband! I have such a highly developed saint in my house as my relative, as my friend, as my husband, as my wife!” You should be proud, instead of nagging!
If he goes out drinking, gambling, squanders all the family fortune, or goes with another woman and messes about, and comes home, tells lies, and makes trouble for you, then you complain. But he goes out, or he’s busy for spiritual practice or spiritual purpose, then you should be proud. Because you are having such a person as a friend! How many friends like that do you have? How many people in the world are doing this kind of thing, selflessly? And besides, if you are near such a person, you also benefit from his work, from his merit. So you should be happy, right? And you shouldn’t talk nonsense or nagging, and that’s very low! Low lev (level). We call that “low lev!” Sounds like Russian, I’m sorry. Pardon my Russian! Low lev (level). Lower lot, lower lot.
OK, you cool? (Yes!) So you intend to sit here all night? Some of you? How many going? How many staying? How many going? And how about the rest? What are you doing? (Staying.) To do what? Why? (Meditate.) But tomorrow, no work? (No.) Why, why’s that? (I don’t have to work Holiday.) (Just lucky.) (I go back to work tomorrow.) Huh? (I go back to work tomorrow.) Some have to go to work, then just go. Otherwise, you will be late tomorrow and tired. (I live nearby.) OK, understand. Whoever has to go, go. (Thank You, Master.) Take some food with you. If not enough, you bring more. If enough, then OK, because not all of them (are) leaving. (Thank You, Master.) You’re welcome. Very difficult to leave, I know. But if you have to go, you go. Then I say goodbye now. (Bye bye.) Enjoy your meditation. (Thank You, Master. Thank You.)
