High-heeled shoes are so troublesome; low heels are the same. Hallo! Welcome! Welcome to your home. Is it too hot? (Yes.) (No.) Hot, huh? Yeah, because you come from… Korea. You come from Korea, so you feel hotter. It’s cold there and hot here. This place is called Hot Country. I didn’t think you could make it. You came here at such short notice! How many foreigners? Over three hundred? Not bad, not bad, you acted fast. You are used to it now, right? OK.
So everybody’s OK? (Yes.) Today is a special day, so… It’s the first day. I wanted to do my duty quickly so I could go and have a siesta with you. It is kind of special today; it is the first day. I was thinking we could finish the opening ceremony of the three-day retreat. After we finish, we could have an afternoon nap together. That’s why I asked you to gather here so early. I told them to inform me by 12:15. They forgot and didn’t inform me, so you have been sitting here sunbathing. You can seek out Tong to settle the score, OK? I told him to report to me after you had settled down.
Is the translation in good order? If it’s not good, then you try to listen from your wisdom inside. There’s nothing I can do about it. Too much trouble. I feel like speaking English, but I think I’ll speak in Chinese because of technical problems. I don’t feel comfortable speaking Chinese today. But you don’t have clairaudience. What shall I do? It is strange that whenever I see foreigners, I want to speak in English. It doesn’t happen if I don’t see them. When I see these foreigners, I feel more comfortable speaking in English. What should I do now? English or Chinese? (Chinese.) Both? (Chinese.) Chinese, of course. That… what? Is your English still lousy? I heard that you were studying or something. Do you practice day and night? Do you? When you go abroad, you’ll have to do everything in English. With English expressions like “How are you?” “Kiss (Excuse) me, please.”
Because I just want to finish the opening ceremony today, then we’ll all take a nap. Otherwise, it is too hot. Today is the day… For this three-day retreat, we will change the schedule a little. We will meditate more in the evening, meditate more in the morning, and have a nap at noon! From 11 am to 3 pm, you can do whatever you like. You can eat or not eat. You can sleep, and you can snore. At that time, the bird-people are still here. So your snoring will not bother anyone. The sounds… are all the same. So, this three-day retreat is more… the timing is a bit special. For example, normally, we meditate… They tell you to meditate from 2 pm to 4 pm. That’s when you can barbecue. You’ll have lunch at 10 am, then what… 11 am to noon, you’ll sit here and listen to the Master’s lecture and so on. At that time… Then, you could write a complaint to God. That is the hottest time. We have nothing now. There’s no roof, no electric fans. So, I feel like making a little change because it’s summer.
We cannot get everything right in this world. It is not the fault of the office. For example, if we want to be cooler, we can have our three-day and seven-day retreats in winter, right? At that time, it’s deadly cold. Wherever you go, you have a parka, jacket, and a sleeping bag. And keep a couple of heat packets handy and hot water. So troublesome. And in springtime, there’s lots of rain. It rains often, not too cool, not cold, not hot, but lots of rain, for example. In summer, the weather is fine. No rain and not cold, just too hot. So, I don’t know what to do. There are some places, some places… In the fall, there are many mosquitoes. So, nothing we choose is ever right. There are some places… And now another insect has come to say hallo to me. I’m telling you, this place is not for you to park. Go. Go away. Maybe there are too many cars in the parking lot. Too crowded, so he parked here.
There are some places that are milder. For example, some islands in Spain are very beautiful. The weather is like spring all year round. I heard it is cool there, not hot, not cold. Singapore also seems to have very mild weather. It’s very constant, isn’t it? People from Singapore, am I right? (Yes.) It’s always between 22 and 30 degrees Celsius. Is that right? (Yes.) It gets no hotter or colder than that. Oh, wonderful. But can we find a place like this in Singapore? For example, like this. Or Tenerife. Tenerife is an island in Spain, and the weather there is very mild all year round. But it’s very expensive there. It’s a vacation destination. There are villas everywhere, and first-class hotels, etc. If we go there, we can only look from the outside or look down from the airplane. After returning from a seven-day retreat, we would be completely broke. For example, like that.
There are many places where it’s cool now, like some places in Europe. It is getting comfortable in Europe now. For example, some beautiful places like Côte d’Azur, Nice, Monaco and where else? What else? Côte d’Azur is very beautiful, the most beautiful place, most beautiful. And the weather now is perfect. But if we have a seven-day retreat, both the Master and the disciples will disappear – no more money to visit Master again! The hotels there cost over $1,000 a night. Can you afford it? (No way.) Those places, wow, they are truly beautiful!
Whereas this place here in Taiwan (Formosa) is very cheap; it is our own land. We don’t even need to build a roof. If we put up a roof, someone else will tear it down for us. What’s the use of having a roof? Spiritual practitioners should renounce everything. When God saw that we were attached to a roof, Hes sent someone to “open it up” for us. This way, we have a bigger space and a much bigger roof.
I hope the Taiwanese (Formosan) people or the government of Taiwan (Formosa) can somehow educate our fellow citizens. If everyone keeps this island beautiful, wow, more tourists will come. Then they will want to spend money here, and the economy will be better. Because foreigners, for example, those who live in higher-class places, are very clean.
Suppose you visit Côte d’Azur along the coast of France. Whew! You’ll think it is Heaven. You cannot see any weeds along the road, not even a piece of tissue. It is so beautiful, so beautiful. Every house, every road, is very clean. They follow the rules. So when I go there, I feel like I want to stay there because it has the same kind of quality as I do. I like things that way. I like it very much, very much.
I just think… I look at pretty places like that and I feel it’s a shame. When I think of Taiwan (Formosa), Âu Lạc (Vietnam), or other Asian countries that I like, I feel that it’s a shame. If we could make it a little bit cleaner, we wouldn’t lose out to any other country. We have our money, our freedom and our rights. We have democracy and a good government. And now, now it is better than before. I mean, compared to a long, long time ago, it is much better. We have freedom and autonomy, and it is more democratic. We have international status now. Other nations will gradually recognize Taiwan (Formosa). Just put in a little more effort, for instance.
So every country, every place has its somewhat lousy corner, something less than ideal. That’s why a good place is more expensive. Of course, they need to maintain the place, so it’s more expensive. Besides maintenance, the citizens of that country have been trained well. Every individual, everyone’s house, front, back, left, right, all sides are kept neat and clean. So if everyone takes care of their environment, the whole city will be beautiful. I don’t mean all civilized countries are so clean, not necessarily. Just one or two people cannot control that kind of situation. You need everyone to be elevated in education and spirit, working together to improve it.
During my world trip, I saw places that were spotless. Switzerland is very beautiful. Switzerland is immaculate. So is Côte d’Azur, it’s beautiful there too. But really, frankly speaking, it is too expensive. We could do that… could find a kind of lower- priced house and stay together. But there would be lots of restrictions, such as registration of the number of occupants. You must report accordingly; it’s still very troublesome. Then in Taiwan (Formosa), summer is hot, winter is cold, spring rains a lot, and autumn has lots of mosquitoes. We can never win, no matter what we choose. Therefore, you need to be patient.
Seeking your own inner peace is the best. I feel most peaceful when I live alone. I have a confession to make. I feel less peaceful after returning here. On the first day back, I cleared the garbage right away. The second day, I observed their sloppy ways. The third day, they had all kinds of problems. Oh! I had no choice; I had to take care of those things. But in this world, we’re bound to face many issues when we live with others.
Photo Caption: Spring Will Come Soon, B Prepared
