At night, I have to be there to watch over them, in case something happens in the night. […] They’re like children; you can’t just leave them alone. Even daytime, we don’t leave them alone; always somebody’s there. […] We check out if the water is clean or not clean, change it, and give them (vegan) food on time, give them snacks. Clean the cages, pick up their waste and things like that. (I can do that.) You can do that? OK, I will think about that. (Oh, yes! Yes.)
You see, the reason I don’t have any team is because all of my team are working either for [Supreme Master] TV or everything else to support all this. That’s why I walk everywhere alone. I can’t even have anybody arranging anything for me. I do it all alone. Nobody to take luggage or (We can do this.) bring me tea and all that. Good job, huh? (But at night, when You say somebody couldn’t... At least keep an eye on things, so You can do something else, and then let You know when it comes in, or You know, some sort of help.) Yeah, that I also have between these three, four people at home. But of course, you can help also, of course. But I don’t want you to just leave your family and your kids and… oh, a 25-year-old child.
(Master, we can live near You.) Live near? How? They don’t have any houses for rent around there. (Maybe camp in a tent?) Tent? (Or maybe we should then go to LA [Los Angeles] for six months. We could get a six-month visa and help over there [at Supreme Master Television]. However You see us fit,) Then you just go. (where You think we would do best.) Then why don’t you just… If you want to go to LA, you don’t have to ask me. (I’d prefer to be with You.) No, what I mean is whatever’s good. Mostly, like my cook, my chef all these years – now they go and cook for (vegan) restaurants so that other people can enjoy and become vegan. So, now I’m eating lousy food, or I cook it myself. And my secretary has to do something else, and my other has to do something else because now we have more and more work all the time.
What? (My wife, a sister, she’s Taiwanese [Formosan]. She’s a very good cook.) Where is she? (Maybe downstairs, she takes care of the garbage.) Yeah? OK. She’s Taiwanese (Formosan)? (She’s Taiwanese [Formosan], yes. And we live in the south of France.) She is French now? Français? (No, no, she hasn’t...) So, how? (She has French papers.) Oh, I understand. OK, OK. I’ll think about… (And I translate for [Supreme Master] TV and the magazine also.) Understand. So, how do you get rid of your house and your kids and all that? (We’re about to buy a house, but if You say OK, have a solution now.) No house! (We can manage that!)
OK. That would be nice to live together, but my house is very small. I mean, it’s big, but it’s full of dog- and bird(-people) already. (It’s OK.) (It doesn’t matter. We can stay.) Doesn’t matter? Where would you live? In a tent? (Yes.) I also have a tent myself, and a small garden shed. I told you – two by two (meters). That’s where I live, actually. And at night, I go in... All day, all night, the dog(-people), whenever, and the bird(-people). But at night, I have to be there to watch over them, in case something happens in the night. If I’m not there now, one person takes turns to go there to sleep at night or meditate, just to watch over them. Because so many dog(-people), many bird(-people), anything could happen. Nothing could happen, but how do you know? If they get sick at night or something, somebody always has to be there.
They’re like children; you can’t just leave them alone. Even daytime, we don’t leave them alone; always somebody’s there. Either I, or there’s somebody cooking, or somebody’s always there. We take care of them all day because we have to take them out, you know, four or five times a day. We have to clean the bird(-people), their cages, and give clean water all the time. We check out if the water is clean or not clean, change it, and give them (vegan) food on time, give them snacks. Clean the cages, pick up their waste and things like that. (I can do that.) You can do that? OK, I will think about that. (Oh, yes! Yes.) I just have to go home and consider who is who because now it’s too many; I don’t know. It’s not like that simple… And you guys… Are you going home yet now? (No.) (Yes.) Do I have time? (In the afternoon.) OK. Do I have time? (Yes.) (We leave at 5 o’clock this afternoon.) OK. Do I have time for all of you? (Yes, we are waiting.) OK.
Oh my God! Then we might as well stay in the hotel because there’s no room anywhere else like this. Dear God! The hotel is the only thing that can accommodate so many. I don’t have room in my house. I have a house, a big house, and a guardian house. The guardian house has four rooms, and now people are living in there – each one, one room. I promised them, “Next time, you will have your own room.” Because before, they lived in the garage or storage and all that. So, now they have their own rooms, they’re happy already. If you come, I think they will hate you. (I can live in a tent.) Tent? Cold at night, no? (Oh, it doesn’t matter.) Winter, cold! (Winter?) Yeah, in winter, it might be cold. But not that cold over there, though. (It’s not too often.) Yeah, 2 degrees or zero degrees (Celsius). It’s OK, huh? Sleeping bag and big, thick blanket. (Yes. It doesn’t matter to me.) (I can sleep with the dog[-people].) Yeah? Everybody hugs one dog(-person), and it’s warm! I don’t think they’ll like you. You stink of Zen.
Oh, my goodness! How will I go through all this? Are you sure? What are you doing there? Have you finished your degree? (Yes, yes. I finished in December.) So, what are you now? “Doctor Who”? (I am a doctor in immunology – molecular immunology.) So, you’re not going to work now, doctor? (I’m in this kind of in-between state, so I’m looking for a new job.) Understand. (And I have saved money from the old place.) You have what, love? You sold your place? (No, no, I have just rented a flat, and I still have money from that old job that I had before.) I understand.
Oh… Oh, no! Wow. From where? How? I have to buy another hotel! Jesus Christ! Like a mountain! (Think about it.) But thank you for your… for your love. (Thank You.) To be honest with you, I don’t think I need that many assistants. But thank you. So if you come, it would be just like a homeless shelter then. Or I’d have to buy another hotel. You know, even this hotel cannot house all these people if you want one room each, or even two, three people one room. It would be difficult. And besides, your visa – how will you get? (Master, I have an Italian passport.) Italian passport now, how? (Always. I’ve always had one.) Oh, I thought you had a South African passport. (I have South African and Italian.) Oh, wonderful! Aren’t you clever.
(And Master... I’m free. I can sell everything, and then I’m debt-free. My family doesn’t need me; they don’t even want me near.) OK. And your boyfriend… (Forget the boyfriend.) So much for romance! The poor guy, if he hears this! (Master, You’re the best Love.) I know that, (My first love has always been You.) but what will you do then? (I don’t need him.) Just hang around and eat, or what? (No, I want to work with You.) Work to do what, honey? (I’m a good driver. I’m a very good driver. I don’t lose my direction.) You don’t need directions? You don’t lose... OK. (I don’t lose my direction.) Oh, my goodness. (And I can cook. I can clean, too.) Yeah, I know. We don’t need all these people for cooking and cleaning.
Wow! You guys are so cute. I don’t mind. I want to house all of you, to be honest with you. I don’t mind. If you have nothing to do, well, you just stay and meditate. All I need is just $10 per day (for your food)! And if you don’t have money, we don’t talk about it! No, no, we’re OK. Financially, it’s OK. Actually, if you live in my house, and if you have enough savings, it’s not much. Maybe 5 euros together, and then we eat well. Do you have 5 euros, at least? No, 5 euros is too little. (Yes, Master.) Five euros per day for the rest of your life? (Yes.) Five euros is enough for a European country to eat one day? (No!) What do you mean no? What do you want to eat? I just give you one loaf of bread and a bottle of mineral water. That’s 5 euros. No, we can plant vegetables also (Yes.) and be self-sufficient.
(We can do a business.) Business? Then what for staying with me? OK, do business. Yeah, yeah, can do also. That’s good, that’s good. We can do business also. Online business: “selling” initiates. “Who wants to buy a helpless, hopeless, jobless, boyfriend-less person? One euro! Or maybe if you don’t have money, then it’s free.”
I know all of you can do everything. I know that. It’s just to live together in one community, it could be complicated. You understand, the personality conflict. Now you say, oh, because you’re happy to see me after a long time, “Anything will do! I’ll just sit under a Bodhi tree until I become Buddha.” But no! When you go there, you’ll say, “Oh, my room’s so small! I have to share it with three people! And they smell. They don’t clean the bathroom!” Blah, blah, blah, blah... All kinds of things will happen.
I tell you what. When we were in Hungary, remember? Many people wanted to come and stay with me. But at that time, I didn’t have room anyway; I didn’t have a place. But some of them did come, and I even had a house already at that time. And because we just moved in, a lot of work to do – chaotic. We had to begin building cages for bird(-people) and setups for dog(-people), all kinds of things we had to do for the new house. And so I put them all up next to my room. I had one room with all the dog(-people) sleeping at night. But downstairs was free for everybody; it’s a big living room. So, at nighttime, we slept upstairs because sleeping rooms were upstairs. I had one room with all the dog(-people), the women had some rooms next door, and the men had some rooms opposite me – opposite, but down a long corridor, in a different quarter. And some were for the bird(-people), and the dog(-people) were with me. So, we women on one side of the house, and the men and the bird(-people) on the other side of the house. I also had a guardian house with four rooms and everything, of course.
But at that time, I saw the guardian house was very dirty, not cleaned yet. We didn’t have time for taking care of that, because we just moved in. We didn’t have everything! We must go buy this, buy that, and clean this and clean that. You understand how it was? Because we couldn’t take everything with us, with a few cars and a few drivers. We needed space for cages for the dog(-people), for the bird(-people), and for our immediate belongings and the cooking stuff. You understand how it is? Moving. (Yes.) We couldn’t take anything except sleeping bags. Even dog(-people) beds, we couldn’t. A sleeping bag, the dog(-person) sleeps on it, also fine. I folded them four times, two times. Or two sleeping bags, then it’s very soft. I also sleep on a sleeping bag, alone. One sleeping bag, even, to cover. But the dog(-people) had a little bit more extra. That was the beginning, but then we had to buy many things, and clean up the house because they didn’t clean that well. And we had to build cages and set up quarters and, you know, organize everything!
And the three boys just temporarily stayed in that empty room together. But one of the boys talked to the other two boys, and then they wanted to move to the guardian house immediately the next morning. I said, “Why? Just stay here first. The guardian house is not ready. We have to clean it all first before I let you in, because for a long time nobody lived there. Bacteria or whatever, mold, [mil]dew, and all kinds of dampness. I don’t know what is there. You stay here.” And I asked, “Why? Of course, it will be yours if you want to, but right now, it’s winter, and we stay here; it’s safer. I don’t know if the heater works in the guardian house. I don’t know if hot water’s working. We don’t have time to check all that and clean the house inside out for you yet. Because we’re only a few people, we have to first organize in here for the pet(-people), dog- and bird(-people). And so just stay here.”
But they just wanted to go to the guardian house. I said, “What’s the reason? I thought you all didn’t even need the room because you said you would meditate all night. That’s what you told me, guys!” You know, the group in Hungary, they said, “We don’t need room; we don’t need to sleep anymore. We just follow You! We just meditate all night!” Remember? Just like on retreat. “So, when you come now, and you even have a room and only three persons, why do you want to move?” “Oh, last night, I wanted to drink water, but the dog(-people) were out all over. I could not go out.” That’s the reason! Believe it? (Yes.) Do you believe it? (Yes.) It happened like that. So, OK, finally they went there.
What I mean is what you illusionize about yourself and what you do when you face reality are different.
Photo Caption: Thrust Out Gently into the Wild World
