If possible, you don’t eat leftover food, OK? Because the demons, they favor leftover food, so they will, kind of, take away the purity of the food. So, if you eat it again, you are mixing with the demon’s energy. Not too good. Try to cook just enough and then you just eat that. Next time, you cook again.
Hallo! Can anybody hear me? (Hallo. Hallo, Master.) Good, that’s wonderful. I thought nobody was home How are you? (Fine, Master.) (How are You, Master?) Yes, I am fine. I’m still alive. It’s just today, originally, I wanted to come down to talk to you, to see you and then something wrapped me up, I could not get off. And now, so late and I… we have to arrange this way, just to let you know, that I still think of you. (Thank You, Master.)
Tomorrow, if it’s possible, I’ll try to make it in the day time, OK? (Thank You, Master.) OK, I’m so sorry, the situation is really the worst. So urgent and I cannot even leave. I cannot leave just for that. Yes, now, so I have to just call you, just to say hallo and see if you’re all right. Just raining. Is it OK? Are you wet? (No.) OK. All right. Good. I told you, I don’t have a roof for you. I told you not to come and you all still come. We have a better one in Kaohsiung, but I have to work. I can’t work in Kaohsiung. I work better near here. It’s because of the situation and the arrangement like that. I will try to come and see you tomorrow.
Anybody leaving tomorrow? (We’re very happy.) Who are you, Indonesia, leaving? (German sister is leaving tomorrow.) What time? (Early morning, 5.) Oh, my God. Why leave so early? Germany, is that real German or Aulacese (Vietnamese) German? (Indian German.) Indian German? (Yes. Malaysian German, Master.) Malaysian German, oh. I am so sorry. But maybe it’s better you leave, because it’s so wet and there’s no roof. I don’t know, maybe in the future, we will get better. Might have a better place. I am so sorry. I told you guys long ago, “Don’t come.” It’s just, I don’t have a good place for you. (Thank You, Master. We are very warm. We thank You very much.) OK. You don’t have to thank me. I don’t have enough space for you, that you thank me. (We are very happy to hear Your voice, Master. We are very happy.) OK, yeah. But the person who leaves tomorrow won’t see me. What’s your name, Germany? (Maheshwari, Master.) Maheshwari? (Yes.) Wow, what a holy name! How long have you been here? One week? (Yes, about one week.) Oh, next time just come during a weekend, it’s more chance. (Yes.) I also have a lot of work to do. Have you seen me before? (Yes, Master, many times.) Many times. (Yes.) Oh, at least like that. (Thank You.)
I’m sorry, our situation and the karma of the world and many things, always try to obstruct me, you know? When I want to see you guys, I cannot and all that, or something happens. (We understand, Master.) You understand, but it doesn’t mean it makes you happy. I’m so sorry, Mahesh. You know what? (Yes, Master.) Only you leave tomorrow or anyone else? (Yes, another German sister is also leaving.) (I am going home tomorrow.) Aulacese, right? (Twenty-seven persons.) Twenty-seven persons are going home all together? (Yes. Twenty-seven Aulacese are going home. We are going back to Âu Lạc, Master.) Ah, back to Âu Lạc, right? (Yes, Master.) OK, let me think quick. (Only 27 people, Master.) OK, just one moment. Yeah, wait a minute. You guys stay there, OK? (Yes, Master.) Can you guys just stay there? Maybe half an hour, yes? (Yes, Master. Thank You, Master.)
So who is going tomorrow? (German sister.) All these here? (German sister.) Only you? They told me 27. I drop everything and come down, because you say you’re going at five o’clock in the morning. Couldn’t you wait till five o’clock in the afternoon? OK, never mind. Have a look then.
(Dear Master, we go home at two o’clock.) It’s two o’clock already? (O Master, we go home at two.) Two o’clock, how come you go home so early? (Yes, we go home at twelve.) There is no airplane at two o’clock, right? (Dear Master, the flight departs at six o’clock.) You fly by yourself? OK! (We go with a bus at 2 o’clock, Master. Go by bus at two o’clock.) Understand. Is there someone driving you [to the airport], or you have to take a bus? (We take the bus.)
Where’s my telephone? I just want to see what time it is. Why are you looking at? Why are you laughing? (Master knows how to use a (smart) phone.) Why? Modernized? Yeah. I’m telling you, I know everything now. Now is 12:34 am. You have one hour something to run. Yeah? God, I don’t even know how to use it. That’s all I know. And if I push like this, sometimes it doesn’t work. And I say, “Hey, come on!” Oh yeah, it’s working. Sometimes I want to turn it off, it turns on. Sometimes I want to turn it on, it turns off. I’m still getting used to this temperamental machine. It’s very good stuff; good tablet. Looks like a stone tablet, but it’s the real thing.
Nowadays, we take everything for granted; so modernized now. It stopped raining already? (Yes.) I wanted to come and see you in the morning, I mean daytime, but I could not. There was something going on. And then something else going along with it. You understand? One thing led to another. So many things and I was really tied up and wrapped up, I could not go. And then when I realized it, it was too late. So, I thought, “OK, I’ll take a shower and quickly look at my other kind of tablet.” The bigger one - many, many numbers, many, many letters on it. See what I have to do? Every day, some work. Then what happened? And then I heard you crying something down here. I thought maybe somebody was leaving. Because I didn’t come down today, I thought maybe I’d come and have a look at you. See if you’re still OK. Sorry about the situation.
I told you not to come to my place here in Taiwan (Formosa). I told Taiwanese (Formosan) also not to come, because we don’t have anything here. You have a holiday, right? Holiday time, right? And you thought, “OK, I make a holiday!” Not here! Here, nothing to look at. Only the rain. And if you did not bring any rain coat or any umbrella, you are in trouble. Your rice becomes soup. Right? Because even your eating area, there’s no roof either. This was recently put up, but still the ones who sit in-between are getting wet, no? What kind of holidays are you making here? I said I don’t have anything here. Everybody knows it. For many decades already, we have nothing. Going now? (Now, I’m going.) Come here. Come this way, quickly!
How many are you? (Thirteen.) Hey, souvenir. (Korea.) Korea! Thank you! Hi! Come here. Korea. All of you are Korean? (Yes. All Korean.) Korea, come here. (All Koreans are here, 13.) I’m so sorry. (It’s so nice to see You.) Sorry. (It’s a blessing to see You, Master.) Your Master’s very poor. Only small houses. I am so sorry. (We are all very grateful.) OK. (We are all very grateful.) OK. Come, come along here. Grateful, with some cakes. Come on. There you go. Thank you! Thank you. Have a good trip. Have a good trip (Thank You, Master.) Good trip. Souvenir. (Thank You.) Thank you. Have a good trip. How you say, “Have a good trip,” in Korean? (Goodbye.) Hi? Same thing? (No, it’s like have a good trip is… Have a good trip.) (We love You!) Love you too.
Yeah. I also don’t feel good that I could not spend all my day with you. My dogs feel the same. No matter how much time I spend with them, it’s never enough. For example, from their room, I just leave to go to the bathroom. Five minutes later I come back. Wagging tails everywhere. Wagging the whole body and going… Like long time no see. This is the problem with love. Love just binds you so tight. Hatred makes you want to run away. Love wants to tie you. Very, very difficult. Very difficult. Very difficult when you are loved by someone. You don’t want to leave. And when you leave, you feel like something twisting in your heart. Or your, feet feel heavy Go, go, don’t go! I want to go this way, just go that way. It’s a problem. What to do?
There is one solution, is that you meditate well, sincerely, and keep yourself pure at heart. And then one day, we all go up and you can see me all day, all night, all the time. There is no day, no night, nothing over there. And we are all like One. Feel good. It doesn’t feel like, have to leave because of bus, because of airplane, because of visa. Everywhere is like that. They have some regulations and laws. This place we cannot build anything. This is already very good. I know, but you get wet. The ones in the middle of two tents together got wet, right? You don’t have umbrella, hat, nothing? You have extra clothes? (Yes.) But if every day is like this, you don’t have enough time to change. And the food is good at least? (Yes.) (Very good.) Good.
It would be nice if each one had like one room, eh? Yeah, with the toilet inside, en suite. En suite and then bathroom, running water, carpet, sofa, big king-size bed, and run around and meditate and…. And the way you meditate, you’d need a king-size bed, so you don’t fall on the floor. Sit right in the middle. The Buddha doesn’t know my disciples. That’s why He said, “You cannot sit on the big, tall or large bed.” You need it. The Buddha’s disciples, if they meditate, they don’t need to sit anywhere. Maybe they have a hammock only.
But you meditate too well. All directions, one time front direction, oops! Hit the brother in the front, “Oh, excuse me.” “Sorry.” Sit again, Wake up! And then next time, oops, the back direction! Hit the back sister, “Oh God, that’s no good. Sorry, sorry.” And then next time, the right side seems good. “Oh! Oh God, no, no, no, no, no.” And then the brother pushes you back. And then next, on the left side. See, you meditate, I mean, you are really omnipresent.
Omnipresent - you can meditate anywhere. Meditate here and there. So…Buddha! You know what I mean? Omnipresent - everywhere you are. I sit here; it’s not safe if I meditate right now. I probably will be influenced by your power of Samadhi. Then I might also go in all directions. Hold well. You never know. Never know when I go into Samadhi. So, this is our problem. Would be nice if we each had one room. King-size bed, big sofa, with the footrest in the front. Anyone can meditate and become Buddha like that, no? Wonderful life. It would be nice! Don’t have. Sorry.
We don’t have such a thing here. Even I don’t have. I have a sofa. I have a little sofa. Most of my sofas... I have many sofas actually, in one small room. Dog sofa number one, dog sofa number two, dog’s number three. And they also sit on my sofa. So actually, it doesn’t belong to me. Nothing belongs to me in the house. Originally, I didn’t have a house. Yeah, originally, I didn’t like a house; too much cleaning. Otherwise, I had to call somebody to clean, and sometimes, they understood, they cleaned. Sometimes they didn’t understand or they didn’t want to understand. When I come back home, “Huh, what?” Everything is the same. Very familiar.
It wastes a lot of time if you stay in a house; you have to clean a lot. And now, it’s even worse. The dogs, they go and they trail their blankets everywhere. They drop their little bones everywhere. And I have to always clean up because the ants will come. These smell very strong, and they come all over the house. Before, I didn’t know what an ant was. And now, a lot of them.
Did mosquitoes bite you here? (No.) No? Maybe too many people. Too many people. They just… So you don’t feel anything, right? They have choices, right? “Oh, this guy! Oh, German! Maybe I’ll try a little bit foreign food.” Check it out, “Oh, no good.” Go to Korean, “Oh kimchi, tastes better.” Oh, go Indonesian, “Oh, the food is more spicy.” “Oh Indian, curry, very strong flavor.”
By the way, talking about flavor, if possible, you don’t eat leftover food, OK? Because the demons, they favor leftover food, so they will, kind of, take away the purity of the food. So, if you eat it again, you are mixing with the demon’s energy. Not too good. Try to cook just enough and then you just eat that. Next time, you cook again.
The demons cannot go near you, because if you keep the Five Precepts well, and you meditate enough, the demons cannot go near you. But they don’t have to go near you to take the flavor of the food. You understand that? So, if you eat again, it seems like you eat the leftover from the demons. The demons, they don’t have to be near you to enjoy the flavor from your left-over food because the flavors are just like smoke, or the smell, the fragrance of the cooking or the flowers. They just permeate the air or the atmosphere, so they can always enjoy that. They’re allowed to.
But I feel very sorry for them, so I often leave a morsel or two after eating my food, so that they can partake of that flavor. You can do the same, if you would like to.
If you cook a lot, you take out only some that you will eat, and whatever is left, that would be OK. For example, if you are eating and you are busy, like me sometimes, and there’s still some food leftover and you’re working, working, and you want to eat again later, within nine minutes, it’s OK. After that, the demons are allowed to eat your food. Because it’s kind of leftover, it’s like discarded food. They don’t have enough merit to eat fresh and wonderful food, so they are allowed to eat whatever is so-called discarded.
Therefore, we better eat what’s fresh. Better, OK? Otherwise you might feel agitated, unpeaceful, unrestful for meditation or for dealing with many things in the world. I also personally experience that, so I tell you the truth. But in this world, it’s sometimes very difficult to adhere to those principles. Like, most of the monks, the monks under Buddha, they ate only before noon. After noon they didn’t eat anymore. Number one, because they had to meditate and go to the Buddha assembly, in order to listen to His teachings, because they could not go all day, begging outside. So, they begged one time, went for alms one time, and then after eating, they had to wash and clean, and then go for group meditation like the way you do. When the Buddha was still alive. So, the monks they didn’t eat after noon time. Because up to three o’clock, it is still a good time.
Up to three o’clock in the afternoon, it’s still a good time to eat. Up to six o’clock, maximum, is the best time to eat. After that it would be the taking over by the negative force, and then whatever you eat, it might not be easy to digest. Or it might not make you that healthy as you would like to be. Because it’s tainted with some negative influence. Up to six o’clock, it’s OK. After three o’clock, it’s already going to the negative zone of time in our world.
But, up till six o’clock, the Sun is still shining. The reason we still can eat up to six o’clock is because the Sun always frightens these kinds of demons, these kinds and other lower kinds, weaker kinds. Not all of them are frightened. But the demons, they are lowly anyway. So up to six o’clock the Sun is still there. Even though you don’t see the Sun, like a cloudy day, rainy day, the Sun is still there. The Sun’s power is still radiating into the world. Thus, if you eat within these hours, up to six o’clock, from three o’clock early morning, up to six o’clock in the afternoon, it is still OK. Better not eat after that.
Up to six o'clock, we can eat because the Sun is still there. But it's different in different countries. Depends on what time the Sun sets. Also depends on the season, as well. Just eat before the Sun sets; that will be good. I am OK. I can eat anytime I want, or not eat. Because in my surroundings, I have created, or the Heavens have created with me, a protected area. So, I don’t get much harm from whatever I do. But most people, they might have bad influences from the negative force in this world. Maybe that’s the reason why our world is often very restless. Even in a peaceful country, we don’t have good energy as in Heaven. You understand now? (Yes, Master.)
And then we eat many things like onions, garlic, and stuff like that, which also make us restless, less peaceful. I don’t know why I talk about these onions and garlic now. They are also some kind of medicine. In the West, like when I was in France or in England, people brewed onion soup in winter to prevent colds. And also, sometimes they put onions in the pocket of their children to prevent having colds. Also garlic, sometimes it also cleanses your blood, in some cases. But not to be eaten often, even though it has medicinal properties. But it does also have a spiritual bad side, side effect.
Do you have any questions? Any good questions? Yeah. (How about raw food?) How about what? (Raw food?) Raw food! (Yes, do the demons still eat after nine minutes?) Yes, anything that is leftover, they are allowed to eat, if they want to eat. The food with a lot of flavor, of course, they like because they can feel it. Even though they don’t have a body, but they can sense it from afar. So, they can even take the flavor from far away from you. Raw food also has some other effect, like, the enzymes are still very much alive. So, it could… if you are very sensitive - sometimes I’m very sensitive and I feel that - it also makes you a little restless. But some people think it’s energy. It depends on if you need a lot of action, or if you like to have more quiet time. It depends also on whether or not you are very sensitive to the enzymes’ activities, enzymes’ activeness.
The food - if you take half of it first into a different bowl and eat it, and whatever food is left there, if you haven’t touched it yet, have none of your saliva on it, or you didn’t eat from it and then left, then it’s OK. Understand? But if you eat half a bowl and there’s half a bowl left, the same bowl, same food, but you already ate half, left half, then it’s counted as leftover.
(What about when you’re cooking and tasting?) You taste with a different spoon. You take a spoon, you put it in a little bowl or cup, you taste from that, then the food is still OK. That’s why in the Buddhist sutra, the Buddha told you, whatever is not offered to the Buddha, you should not eat. See that? Number one: because of respect. Number two: because it’s maybe like that; the demons have tasted it already. And if the Buddha eats it, it’s no good. You see what I mean? It’s even no good for us; how would it be good for the Buddha? But for the Buddha, maybe it’s OK. Maybe because Buddha had protective power. But at that time, He had many monks.
So, when we taste it, we should have a different cup, then your food is still pure and new. Also, food, when you eat leftovers or overnight, it’s also no good. Would be better to eat fresh every day. Not even cook today, eat tomorrow. But for my convenience, sometimes I do that. I have no time to keep cooking. Put it in the fridge and it’s still fresh, just take it out, eat it. It still tastes good though. But of course, when it’s warm, you’re used to it; it’s warm and fresh, it tastes better than from the fridge. But I didn’t always have the choice. I’m very, very busy. Whenever I come out to see you, I look relaxed, like I have nothing to do, except to look at you and talk nonsense, and smile, make jokes, but I am very busy. Very busy.
I think I am a very good monk. In many precepts I’m a good monk. Like the monk could take a shower only every two weeks In India maybe they didn’t have water. I am the same. Not because I do it as a precept, but because I have no time. So, I think in a way, I am a very good monk. Maybe in India they did not have enough water at that time. They had just limited water from a well. and it was difficult to always draw it up. Or maybe because they were busy; the monks were busy, no idea. But I can tell that’s a very good precept, very good excuse for me.
It’s good to be busy also, but sometimes it’s just too busy, too busy, it’s not too good. Never mind. I’m still better than busy with the things that are not useful or not helpful to anyone. I am very happy that I can still do some work and that helps other people, and reminds them to practice; reminds them to remember their higher selves, and the freedom that they used to have, before they’ve been trapped in this body. I’m happy to be able to still do that.
