No big deal! Whatever you want to do is fine. (Thank You, Master.) I have a more beautiful place, which I don’t care to mention. (If we can have this place, then it is very beautiful, Master.) That place? (The one where we are inspecting.) I have a more beautiful place. (Oh, if Master gives it to us, we won’t have to buy something else, Master.) I already bought it, but not giving yet.
Oh wow! Is that enough for the tree? Not enough, huh? Oh my God. I don’t know why I want to see you. I just forgot. The Aulacese (Vietnamese) can talk if you have something so that you won’t regret it later on. Today, you can talk. Did you eat yet? (No, not yet.) Not yet? Just look at me a little more, then go eat... (We are not hungry, Master.) Not hungry? (No, Master, we are not.) Not hungry, huh? OK, then I’ll tell them to cook less tomorrow. (We are satisfied seeing Master.) If not hungry, what for do you eat? (Yes.) So, have you made any progress by meditating these past few days? (Yes.)
Where are the Aulacese (Vietnamese) who came from Âu Lạc (Vietnam)? Where do they sit? You didn’t let them know? (Yes.) I said that those Aulacese (Vietnamese)… those from Âu Lạc (Vietnam) could also come here. You didn’t tell them. (Oh.) They enjoy looking at me the most. (I’ll go and find them.) (Yes.) Forget it, forget it. Some other time. It’s too late. Now they’re everywhere eating. Where to find them? (We could broadcast it.) Never mind. Forget it. Forget it.
Where are the ones who came from San Jose? (Yes.) How come you guys didn’t keep the ashram for me over there? What’s going on now? What? Is it closed? (There is still no permit, dear Master.) Didn’t get the permit yet? Now, they want to test our soil. What do they test? What kind of soil do they want to test? (They took our soil to test.)
Are they behind these? Is it OK? Otherwise, more and more of them will come. Then you’ll find nobody. It seems these don’t belong to those there. What about those who came later? (They’re all from Taiwan [Formosa]. Those are from Taiwan [Formosa].) Is there anybody blocking that side? They’re coming from behind. No one. No guard blocks them. (Kitchen team.) (Kitchen team, from the kitchen.) (Kitchen workers as well as guards… Taiwanese [Formosan] kitchen team and guards.) OK, OK, OK. Don’t come all at once, then it’s meaningless – nothing special. Oh, the way you guys are sitting – how is my grass? (It’s going to be fine.) Really? (Yes, I know it.) Can you promise? (Promise.) It cost a lot of money. (This grass is…) It’s a lot of grass... (It can withstand being trampled.) Right, but they’re not stepping on it. They’re not walking the way people normally do. They’re rubbing on the grass.
Why wait for the permit? Why test the dirt? (Yes, Master, the initiate who took care of the paperwork, that’s what he said. Now, the county wants to test our soil.) Test for what? What kind of soil? They test to see whether it is soil or not, right? (I don’t know.) What for do they test? (I don’t exactly know, Master.) Well, how come the initiate who applied for the permit doesn’t know? (That’s all he told me. I hope that we can go back to the ashram very soon.) Ah, is that the only problem? Otherwise, we don’t have to close the ashram permanently, right? (That’s right.) Why was the ashram closed just to test the soil? We didn’t have to close it for the testing. (No, we didn’t close the ashram. We temporarily stopped using it and left it empty while applying for the permit, Master.) Ah, OK.
So, where do you guys go now? (We rent a church and have group meditation there every week.) Really. Is that OK? (Yes, it’s OK.) Then it is fine. Otherwise, we could buy that church outright. (They don’t have chairs in that church, Master.) No need; we sit on the ground. (It is not like a normal church.) Ah. (They also meditate on the [inner Heavenly] Light, similar to us,) Oh, is that so? (and they concentrate on the wisdom eye.) That is very good already. OK. Then, we also go there to contemplate the (inner Heavenly) Light. (They say they feel good since we started going there.) Yes, that’s right. Feel good. Of course they feel good. If we feel good, they will also feel good. It would be strange if they didn’t feel good.
Alright, go out and make an announcement: Any Aulacese (Vietnamese) can come in here now. But where will they sit? There is no more room. Oh well, save it for another day. I’m afraid their movement would make noise and mess things up. OK, then it’s their fate; they just have to bear it. Later, when you go out, look at them a little to share the blessings and the power. Do you want to ask anything else? (No.) No. I’m serious. What? I told you to ask, and you do not? You dare to sit there and remain silent? When I tell you to ask, you must ask, even if you have no questions. No, the Aulacese (Vietnamese) in the US are fine. We’ve seen each other for a long time, so there’s nothing more to ask, right? (Right.) Only the Aulacese (Vietnamese) just coming from Âu Lạc (Vietnam) are excited. So it is OK, right? (Right.)
Suddenly, they wanted to test the soil. That soil was there for thousands of years; there’s nothing to be tested. (Yes.) What about LA [ashram]? When will it close? True. What? (The brother is taking care of that matter. Now, it is OK that we... Now, we are still in the period when they come to… We are applying for permission.) To test the dirt? (We sent them the drawings, Master.) What are the drawings for? (Whatever they told us to repair or modify, we made the drawings again, to submit to them, and let them look at our drawings, to see whether our drawings are exactly what they requested or not.) Yes. (In the meantime, they are allowing us to sit there and meditate. And they said that the time for their inspection is about four to six months.) The longer they inspect, the better. No problem. Tell them: “Take your time.”
(During this time, we also went to check out a piece of land nearby.) We dare to spend. Then what? (We are asking for Your permission, and if You allow, then initiates from all over would pool their money together to buy an ashram in the US for American practitioners.) Pooling isn’t needed. That place is not so expensive. No big deal! Whatever you want to do is fine. (Thank You, Master.) I have a more beautiful place, which I don’t care to mention. (If we can have this place, then it is very beautiful, Master.) That place? (The one where we are inspecting.) I have a more beautiful place. (Oh, if Master gives it to us, we won’t have to buy something else, Master.) I already bought it, but not giving yet. (We can wait...) But that place is far away, not in LA. It is where the weather is better. (Oh!) In Florida. (Oh wow!)
At that place, we can meditate all year round, but in LA... (Yes. Can we initiates move to that place, dear Master?) Yes, if you want to move, then move. (We can establish a village.) That place is ready; it has everything. We just have to bring our tents and stay. (Oh.) But you can’t stay for long. You can go there once in a while. That means we can take turns – like a few hundred initiates each day would be fine. But if a few thousand initiates come, then it is not OK, (Yes.) because it’s a small town. We have to do things slowly and gradually. If we descend on the place with too many initiates, the neighbors will complain. We’d have to leave quickly and sell it before we finished buying it. We open it quietly and jubilantly close it. Like in Cambodia: we jubilantly moved in and quietly withdrew. Even the mosquitoes were afraid of us and moved away. See that? When we first arrived in Cambodia, there were so many mosquitoes, remember? (Yes.) Later, they were so frustrated that they all left because they couldn’t bite; the initiates were too tough!
We were still doing the application papers, right? We are practitioners, so “the four Great Elements lead to Emptiness.” Anything is nothing! The number one is nothing, only one number! One or two is not that big, right? (Yes. The numbers one or two, Master takes care.) And those zeroes are for initiates to take care. Yes, yes. I know. Please go slowly. (Thank You, Master.) We are still doing the paperwork, so it could take a while. Sometimes, it takes months to complete. You don’t need to move inside to live, but move closer if you want to work. (Yes.) When we have the land, then you can move. When we don’t have, then you don’t plan. Otherwise, we can do like this: we move in near the neighbors there. We move into the houses on both sides of the street. Then, later on, we won’t complain about ourselves. Whatever cars come in, we don’t care. It’s our street, so we can drive in.
It’s also cheaper there than in California. It’s OK – not that cheap, about the same, but the weather is better. We can meditate all year round. In California, there is so much sun. When it’s shining, it’s too hot, and when the weather is cold, it’s too cold. Over there (Florida), winter is less cold than in California. Well, it depends. It seems to be about the same, but it’s not as dry as California because it has water and a lot of trees. California is a desert. You can tell right away; just look at your faces – all kinds of desert heroes!
And now they’re forcing us to start over at the LA ashram from scratch? Why? To rebuild like before? (We have to rebuild from the beginning.) Can we not do it? Forget it. Forget everything. (We may think along those lines, Master.) Yeah, clear everything and then plant trees (Yes.) to make a park. (Yes.) Then, whoever is living nearby can go there from time to time for relaxation. No need for a house. (Yes.) Just build a few toilets, for example. And the meditation hall can be taken down because it is old already. (Yes.) It’s also worn out from hundreds of people tramping through it every week. By now, it’s had enough (Yes.) and is ready to retire. After all, it’s just a mobile home. (Yes.) For the past many years, it has served its purpose. Its useful life is over. Just like when we are old, we retire. If the county doesn’t say, we will move anyway. We don’t gain anything by staying there. Otherwise, we could bring in a small mobile home and park it there, just like before. (Yes.)
So don’t say anything. It would be a waste of time to rebuild. As for the wood, we can distribute it like souvenirs to the initiates. Whoever gets a big piece can make a coffin later on. And someone who receives a small piece will nail it to the head of their bed as a remembrance. Or they could have their name engraved on it and use it instead of a tombstone. Whichever way they use it is OK. And if anyone is close to death and has a lot of wood, we can cremate their body like in America; no need to bury it. Oh no, like in India. (Yes.) As for those who are totally bored with life, throw them onto that pile of wood and let them lie there. OK, then it is done, no problem. And the ashram, if we can buy it, then buy; if not, forget it. Is that area like the one before? Commercial, huh? How come so expensive? (The brother already went there to have a look, Master.) How come he takes care of everything? (He takes care of land.) He takes care of land. So is he the Earth god?
