You see, those monks are truly sincere in their practice. So, every winter, we try to send some money for them to buy blankets and other things… at least to help them keep warm. Of course, we can never give enough; it’s never enough. It would be best to take them all home and provide for them. But they wouldn’t like our way of life. They’d rather stay poor like that but free from attachment. Understand? They can rest and meditate whenever they want to. They can leave at any time as well – no luggage.
And off they went, all alone and free. But it’s not all that good. The monk with the bad rice was already very lucky. Some don’t even have rice to eat. I met a monk who had not eaten for 14 days. He just drank water, the water from the Ganges River. It’s free and clean, not like ours. You know, like before, I heard that the toilet water was sucked out of a lake, and you thought it wasn’t clean enough to flush the toilets. You had to trouble me to get the water filtered. You even bothered me about that. You were too much, OK?
You have to take good care of your inner self as you practice spiritually. Don’t be so quick to criticize this and that everywhere you go. It’s easy to criticize. It’s better to keep your mouth shut. Talking too much can hurt people. Understand? Sometimes it hurts. It’s best not to say anything if you don’t have to. Handle things yourself if you can. Don’t bother other people anymore, especially not your Master. (OK.)
