Today there were some reporters who interviewed me. He said that some Buddhist groups seem to have complained that I am trying to snatch their disciples. I said there is no such thing. It is very difficult to become my disciple. If I really want to snatch their disciples, I won’t ask them to keep the Five Precepts. No need to eat vegan, and make things difficult for them. I said if I wanted to snatch disciples, I’d skip the vegan part. Because there are many people who like me and my teachings, but they just can’t follow a vegan diet. This is the biggest test for them. So there aren’t as many of our disciples as you imagine. There aren’t… meaning, as many as we expect. I also refused some people, you know. They probably can’t become my disciples. So it’s not that I snatch their disciples. That is a big misunderstanding. Don’t worry. The reason for that is because those people don’t have confidence towards their own religion. That’s why they’re so scared.
I’m not afraid if other people come and pull you guys away at all. I’m not afraid at all! Right? (Yes.) So, whom you want to worship, what you want to do, I didn’t say anything at all. I wouldn’t go and check on you at all. (Yes.) If you want to go listen to other people’s lectures… Have I stopped you from going to someone else’s lecture? (No.) Have I said that you can’t go to temples? No. Have I told you not to go to churches? (No.) No. I’m not afraid at all. Then why are they afraid? If we have confidence in our own teachings, we fear nothing. Besides, we should have confidence in karma: If someone has no affinity with me, even if I beg him, and give him a few million dollars, he still would not come, right? (Yes.) We should understand this key point in spiritual practice. Why worry? Right? (Right.) If that person has affinity with me, even if you kill him, he would still want to follow me; no one can stop him. So, I would not be greedy for disciples and I’m not afraid of losing disciples, and I don’t snatch disciples. Just let it be. OK? (OK.)
Of course, when I come, disciples get very enthusiastic, and feel that since it’s rare for me to come out, they certainly want to tell everyone. Since our registered address may not be the same as the one at the time of initiation, and could be scattered in many places. So they put ads in the newspapers for people to know that I’m coming. We don’t have their phone number or address to inform them. No signatures, just your address registered at the time of initiation. We have nothing else. We didn’t tell them to write names or whatever. So we have to put ads in the newspapers to inform everyone. Or there are some… Invitation cards. Because they live scattered everywhere, we don’t know how to inform them. I don’t have time to come every day, so you cherish it and advertise to tell others to come to see me. We didn’t mean to snatch anyone’s disciples. Can they be snatched? Sigh. What do we snatch them for? Right? (Right.)
Having many disciples may not be good; it’s only good to have disciples who practice well. Otherwise, it’s a waste of your time. A bustling crowd is useless. And you know it very clearly; even after you’ve been initiated and become my disciples, if you don’t meditate well, we won’t accept you. You have to take an oath before joining group meditation, that you haven’t violated the precepts, eaten (animal-people) meat, or consumed alcohol, before you can enter for meditation. Otherwise, you’re just like an outsider, whom we don’t accept. Understand? (Understood.) Otherwise, it’s not fair. For people out there, we don’t teach them publicly. If these people come and cheat us, saying that they’d keep the precepts and the vegan diet, and then I just teach them with great effort, but then they still violate the precepts. (Yes.) Therefore, for these disciples, I will still tell them to go home and repent, and come back only when they can keep the vegan diet and precepts. We don’t cut them off totally, but we don’t want them to come for spiritual practice like that. And so you know I don’t care about how many disciples I have. I only care about those who are sincere.
If I truly want disciples, it’s too easy. I don’t need to go through all the hardship (Yes.) and be misunderstood so much. Oh my, it’s difficult to be my disciple. I don’t mean to steal anyone. Even after being initiated, you may not be able to stay in our group. If you’re not sincere, not really honest, not pure in spiritual practice, but violate the precepts and cheat, we will still expel you. Understand? OK. So, when anyone asks you whether I’m trying to snatch his disciples, just give him a smile, tell him that he’s dreaming. “You’re dreaming!” Besides… Also, I told them that I’m not wearing Buddhist dress. If they don’t have enough faith, if they see me like this, they’ll run away. The Buddhists, if they see me dressed like this, they will run away. So why accuse me of stealing the Buddhist disciples. I’m not even looking like a Buddhist. I don’t look like a Buddhist. I look ordinary just like you. (Yes.) OK. If people understand, they come. If they don’t, they won’t come. They can’t say that I snatch Buddhist disciples.
I used to be rather simple-minded; I wore Buddhist clothes because I’m a Buddhist. I grew up in Buddhism. I’m also a Catholic, but I couldn’t wear both the priest and the monk’s robe at the same time. I just wore one. Eventually, I felt that it was too narrow-minded. We should not propagate or lean towards a certain religion. We should practice the middle way. The Tao is within us, not in our clothes. Why must we look so special? Then get worshipped by everyone everywhere, “Master! Master!” Before I even accept him, he already calls me Master, what for? It’s troublesome. He offered me many things, and I can’t accept them. Because we don’t accept offerings. We practice spiritually in order to take care of ourselves. We can’t accept offerings. When I wore the Buddhist monk’s robe, they all made offerings to me, which was troublesome. If I refused, they’d feel hurt; if I accepted it, you’d say, “Master taught us not to accept offerings, how can You accept it?” It’s also troublesome this way. So, I just wear this, to be like you. If you like it, good; if you don’t, just forget it. That would mean we have no affinity with each other.
So I said, before I wore Buddhist clothes, so people could say that I tried to attract the Buddhist people, but now I don’t. I feel just to wear one kind of clothes is too narrow. It’s difficult for me to express the liberation from all religions inside my heart and people just come and bow to me all the time, say, “Master, Master, Master.” And I have not even accepted him as a disciple So I just thought…. Also, people would respect me when I wear this. Except the disciples, nobody else respects me and I’m a little bit free. And people don’t see me as a Buddhist, but they see me as just a Universal Representative of GOD, of Goodness, of Beauty, of Truth. That’s the best. So, I wear this. If you like it, it’s fine. If you don’t like it, it’s fine.
OK, now, making so much trouble. Where is your father or mother? (Jakarta.) Huh? (In Jakarta.) Jakarta? (Yes. He phoned me this morning, he said,) Oh. (“Is it possible?” If it’s possible, he wants to come to see You.) Has he been vegan for a long time? (Yes. Quite some time.) How long? (Maybe three, four months.) Three, four months. If he has been many years, (Many years.) you see, we’d make some exceptions. (Because of sickness.) Huh? (Well, sometimes he had to take vegetarian because of his sickness.) Oh, that’s why. (Yes.) Four months ago. Right? (Yes.) It is not yet enough. If he has been vegan for quite some years, then we’d make an exception for him. (I see. [Two years.] Yes. But he has been reading Your books and [Every week.] tape recorder, everything) It’s good. (and…) Well, if he wants to come to see me, let him come to see me. ([He] should be welcome, yes?) Sure. (Thank You.) Always welcome. But the initiation I cannot promise. (Yes, I know You said it’s kind of hard but... Well, he told me he’d like to try but if there’s not some kind of…)
Tell him to come see me. (Yes. Thank You.) If he wants to. If he wants to. (Yes. OK.) Because I’m not going to Jakarta now. (Yes.) I thought we might pass by, but we don’t. (You don’t.) Too much trouble just to go there and unpack all the things and pack all the things, and then go back again on the airplane. (That’s right.) So I stay here until I leave. (Yes. If You will be here tomorrow, then I’ll call him to come down here.) Yes. Yes. Yes. I’ll be here tomorrow. (Yes.) Yes. If he comes before lunch, he can have lunch with me. (Oh, thank You.) Yes. (That would be an honor.) And if he comes very late maybe dinner, but dinner I’m not sure. (OK.) Lunch, I’m sure. (Sure.) OK? (Thank You.) Yes, yes.
OK, now we come back to Chuang Tzu. OK, you read it, you read. The translation is going on or not? (Yes, we all have.) OK. You come for translation, please, earphones. No need? Because I will not speak English anymore. (We like to see You.) Alright. Perfect. (“My life has a limit, but knowledge is without limit. To pursue the limitless with what is limited is perilous indeed. To know this, and still strive after knowledge – that is perilous beyond remedy. In doing good, stay clear of fame; in doing wrong, stay clear of punishment. Follow the principles of the Way, and you may preserve your body; keep your life whole, care for your parents, and live out your full span of years.”) Do you understand? (No.) Ah? (Don’t understand.) Don’t understand. What did you say? (She asked her to read it slowly.) (They still won’t understand even if I read it slowly.) It’s more difficult to understand if she reads it slowly. If she reads it quickly, you still have an excuse: “I don’t understand because she reads too fast.” If she reads it slowly, it’s even more embarrassing, because you really don’t understand.
It’s in classical Chinese and it requires prolonged study to understand gradually. But it’s alright. Here we have an English translation. I’ll translate it for you and explain a little, then you’ll understand. He said, “Our life has a limit, but our wisdom is limitless, boundless. Infinite. If we use these kind of limited tools, limited things, to pursue the limitless, the boundless, the thing that is infinite, it’d be futile.” Meaning it’s an illusion.
It’s best that we do… “When we do good things, it’s best to remain anonymous, and avoid being praised by others. When we do bad deeds…” Why is it like this? “In doing good, avoiding fame; in doing evil, avoid punishment”? Nonsense. Ah! He said, “If we, maybe want to do bad deeds…” Is there anything related to bad deeds? You read it once more. His translation is poor. (“In doing wrong, stay clear of punishment.” When you do evil, do not incur disasters.) Understand. Understand. Understand. What He means is, it’s unavoidable that we sometimes will do the so-called, something that we don’t feel comfortable with, against our conscience, it’d be best that our deeds won’t get us into trouble. Meaning try our best to avoid what we can. We shouldn’t… do bad things comfortably. Avoid as much as possible. When we really can’t avoid it, we really have to think of some way to avoid big disasters. Yeah. Understand? (Understand.) The best is not to do it; then it’s alright. But there are things that people think are bad, which actually are not. Therefore, this is what He meant. I’ll explain again later. I’ll explain it later. Let’s continue reading it.
“Therefore, we follow the Middle Way, then we can preserve our body, our human body, fulfill our obligation. Also to take care of our parents, and then live out our years.” What did He mean by that? Our life is truly limited. Material things, things made from material are ephemeral. You can’t see me. Let me sit higher, or your necks will hurt. Abusing me. This way you can see me more clearly.
He (Chuang Tzu) said that if we use this physical body or the so-called physical brain to try to pursue the eternal limitless Tao, it would be a joke; meaning we are seeking in the wrong way. That’s why we cultivate the mind, not the body, let alone cultivate the clothes. Maybe I was not enlightened before and that’s why… I wore such different clothes. OK. Now I’m enlightened. You just pretend to believe it. Otherwise, listening to me here, you’d feel you’re wasting time. Pretend that I am enlightened, then you won’t waste your time listening.
Photo Caption: “Thriving and Withering, Life Is Always Continuing”
