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Media Reports These two following articles were published in China Times, Formosa, Aug. 8, 1995 A King With A Lot Of Desire This story is called 'A King With A Lot Of Desire, Lust.' A very, very, very, long time ago, there was a king who ruled a very great kingdom, and for a very, very, very long time, in India. During that time, he was always victorious. He never lost anything. He always won. So he became very, very, very greedy and very arrogant, because everything he did brought victory to him. This King was a kind of practitioner. He had magical power. There were many kings in the old times that were called 'Golden Wheel Saint Kings' or something like that, because they had a kind of golden carriage which could carry them anywhere they wanted. Perhaps it was a U.F.O. When you read many stories in India, like Rama, it seemed like in the old times people got in touch with the U.F.O., extraterrestrial people, that flew with a chariot in the sky. So what else then? They didn't have any airplane at that time, did they? I don't think so. Or perhaps they did. And besides, with all these magical powers it must have been the extraterrestrial people that they had encountered, you know, Rama, his wife and company. And of course he had so many beautiful and precious things in his life. The first one was a very beautiful, strong magical horse which could carry him one thousand miles an hour. It must have been an airplane. What kind of horse would that have been? But it was a red one. Then he had a beautiful white like snow elephant. He had a precious stone that in the evening emitted beautiful light like the moon light. They didn't have electricity. They didn't need to. He had a car, like a golden carriage. This one could fly him up into the sky. What could that have been? Airplane or U.F.O.? Do we have a car that can go a thousand miles an hour? Oh, a day, a day, a thousand miles a day? Okay? That must have been the car. He had a car and an airplane. (Master laughed.) And also he had a queen who was very, very beautiful as well as very, very faithful. So what else could he want? He had a very good prime minister to help him, and a very, very powerful army general. So, he had everything. No wonder he was always victorious. Besides, he had thousands of princes, big, tall, strong, intelligent, educated, courageous, all like grand kings. Make Sure You Don't Live Too Long All these things actually should have made him very, very happy and satisfied. But he was not. Everyday he felt empty, felt like he was missing something. One day, he was fed up. He felt that he didn't have enough money, with all that, so he sat there and meditated on money. As he meditated on money, and he recited the mantra for money. He said: “Dollars, dollars, dollars....Americans dollars, French dollars, Italian dollars, not Taiwan N.T., (laughter), German Deutschemarks, etc. He recited all these mantras. And then all the money came down, all the Deutschemarks, all the American dollars, French francs, and all that; you know all the best. Oh, yen, Japanese yen. Instead of “Zen Zen”, he said: “Yen, yen.” (Master and all laughed.) Anyway, his meditation was powerful. He was very, very concentrated, very sincere, and very devoted to money. The God of money was very moved, and rained down the money for him. Then he saw that the whole palace, outside, all over the tree tops, and everywhere was money. Even next to the toilet, there was money too. He looked and then he told people to pick it up and count it for him. He said, “Not enough.” He meditated again. Now he wanted something else, so he recited a different mantra. I can teach you right now. (Audience laughed.) “Gold, gold, gold, gold, silver, silver, gold, gold, silver...” (Audience laughed.) And then again, as he was absolutely a hundred percent devoted, the God of gold and silver was very moved, and rained down all the gold and silver as he desired. This time the gold and silver covered all of Miaoli and the surrounding area. All he had to do was tell his people to go out and pick it up and bring it to the store room. He was satisfied for a while. Maybe a few days, a few months. Actually in the old times people lived a very long, long life. Perhaps that's why he was bored. So make sure you don't live too long. Surrender To The Will Of God So, many, many years had passed now since the incident of silver and gold. The King happened to be bored again, dissatisfied with life. So, he looked to the south and he saw that it was a very prosperous country, and very big and beautiful. So he said, “Ah... I wish I also could rule over that southern kingdom, then I would be happy and satisfied.” Suddenly, as he wished like that, his chariot flew up into the sky and brought him to the southern kingdom. He won immediately, because when everyone saw him come with such a beautiful golden and bright chariot from the sky, they all knelt down on the ground and said: “Hello.” They surrendered to him, no problem. They treated him very, very well, very, very respectfully, and did everything he wanted. He stayed there for a thousand more years. And then he was bored, so he went up to the high tower and looked again. Perhaps he looked to the north, and he saw that the north was a very nice kingdom, very prosperous, and had very good-looking people. “Now I want that kingdom! (Master laughed.) Then I will be happy and satisfied.” As soon as he had spoken, because he had the power of, perhaps magic, so whatever he wished came true. Perhaps he had merit for a long time and had not spent it. So he wished and the chariot flew him up into the sky and delivered him to the north. As soon as he came, all the people in the northern kingdom also knelt on the streets and gave him incense, flowers, fruit, cakes, candies, mineral water, beer and everything; and offered the kingdom to him, surrendered, so no problem. He had not wasted one drop of blood, and he obtained the kingdom. I think that the people who are fighting right now should come and learn his strategy of how to invade another nation without spending any blood or human lives. So now, he was very happy, satisfied for another thousand years. It did not take much for him to be satisfied. Ah, so, one thousand years passed now, and the dissatisfied king looked over, perhaps to the east. He used his binoculars, perhaps. And then he looked over there and said, “Oh, oh, how come there's a kingdom there I did not know about? And it's very beautiful, very prosperous, a lot of durian fruit. I can smell it from there to here. (Master and audience laughed.) So he said, “ I have to have that kingdom. I have to rule over that kingdom also, so that I will be satisfied.” Said and done, he won without blood or without any resistance. Perhaps because God had favored him. Perhaps because he had acquired a great deal of merit in the last life. Perhaps because those people in the north, the south, and the east were very peaceful, loving people. Whoever ruled the kingdom, it didn't matter. They didn't want bloodshed. They just surrendered. Perhaps it's the best way. I don't know. Perhaps it is the best way in every situation, because one cannot fight without resistance. Perhaps, we shouldn't fight at all anywhere. Truly if we understand the Kingdom of God is within us, and if we have already tasted the nectar of this Kingdom of God, then probably we do not want to resist anything. If we can live here longer to serve God and fellow beings, let it be so. If we have to go because our time has come, or because someone else wants to terminate our life, let it be, because we have other kingdoms to continue to live in. Perhaps, therefore, surrendering to God's will is the best. Sooner or later, each one of us must leave this world anyhow. So why complicate things? I see resistance in different countries. Sometimes it just makes more and more and more bloodshed without having any concrete and finished result. Just costs a lot of lives, time, building constructing power, and financial benefit; costs a lot from the people. Besides, as you have seen, every system will collapse itself. Like the communists in eastern Europe. They collapsed by themselves. Nothing lasts forever if it doesn't suit the plan of God. So, I don't know whether all this physical resistance is truly good or not. I still think I dare not say too much. People will think I'm a pessimist and passive, and things like that. But I think everything will take care of itself. Sometimes, in the course of life, you have experienced that yourselves? Sometimes you try to demand this and that, and you end up the same; sometimes worse than before. The Problems Of Not Having So now, another thousand years came. Ah.., he was happy. He swallowed up one nation and was very happy. One more thousand years, and he was fed up again, was bored. So he went up to the top of the mountain, used his binoculars, or whatever, telescope and then he looked over to the west. Now he said America. Perhaps, (Master laughed), before Columbus discovered it, he had seen it. He said, “That land is very big and beautiful -- California beach. Oh, no, no, Miami beach, California earthquake. Oh no, (audience laughed) good weather. West Virginia, snow. Oh, we have everything. I must have that land.” So said, wished, and accomplished as usual, as many times before. A thousand years more, and he was bored, unhappy. I told you, he should have come to Suma Ching Hai, and She would have told him nothing in this world would satisfy him! (Master and audience laughed.) You see the problem with having no master? If you don't have a living teacher, it's very difficult. Every guru will tell you that. He didn't have a Master like Suma Ching Hai who would have taught him the ephemeral nature of human life. Doesn't matter how many thousand years you live, still one day you must end, and there's nothing here you can take with you. And nothing physical will ever, ever satisfy you forever, every day of your life. Satisfaction comes only from inside. If you seek anything else except satisfaction from inside, you will always end up frustrated and miserable. Every time you try, every time like you knocked the wall, you have to return and reshape your actions again. Even love, children, husband, wife, anything that you think that will bring you the most beautiful feeling of human life, still it never lasts. Today it is good. Tomorrow it brings you heartache, problems, consequences, and all kinds of sorrow and worries. It takes a lot of effort to keep someone you love. And it takes a lot of effort to keep someone who loves you. Any little so-called wrong or insensitive move may break the relationship immediately, and sometimes it's irreparable. So every effort we spend in this world to repair our friendships, to build up the kingdom on earth, everything always brings us trouble, even though we are successful in the end, or sometimes in between. Still it takes us all the energy, time, youth, and attention in order to keep that alive. It doesn't matter what kind of relationship, or what kind of treasure that it is. You have experienced that? If you have not, you may try. Go and fall in love somewhere and then tell me what happens. (Master laughed.) Materialistic spiritualism Alright, so let's go back to India, to our greedy King. Alright, so now he was bored after running around the world. The King was bored after four thousand years of invading the four corners of the world. Now, he was bored to death because he had nothing to play with anymore. All the things, all the countries that he had conquered, he knew by name. All the games in the country, all the beautiful women he had seen, everything he knew. Now, he was bored with the earth, nothing to do. One day he sat there. He couldn't meditate on money either because he was fed up. He had enough. He couldn't meditate on anything else because everything in the world belonged to him. So he sat there. Instead of going to the Himalayas to find Suma Ching Hai, he just thought of God and meditated on God. Ah, haa..ha...finally, my God, can you believe that? He actually did meditate on God, finally. Then, he was thinking: “Oh, I wish I could see God. How I long to see God. If I could just see God, it would be good, beautiful. Oh, God! How can I see God?” As he wished, his dream came true. God, moved by his sincere desire, perhaps materialistic desire, invited him to the Kingdom. Perhaps, the God of the astral world, Vishnu God or Shiva God, we don't know what kind of God that was. Well, by the way he was thinking, perhaps he ended up in the astral kingdom, because he was so materialistic. Not that he wanted to see God for reverence or longing in his heart, but he wanted to see God because he desired to see the Kingdom of God. He wanted to see whether the Kingdom of God had any differences from his kingdom, and anything else he could learn, he could look at, he could play with, etc. It was just pure materialistic curiosity. God was very generous and loving. Anyone who meditated on him attained his attention. So, that was God. He was compassionate, loving, even though he was only an astral God. An astral God is also the representative of the highest God. He has some qualities of the Almighty. Now, very lovingly, cautiously, hospitably, he invited the King to come to the Kingdom of God. Then his UFO, airplane, or whatever, chariot, took him into the sky and up to the Kingdom of God, to the throne of the deity. Then, the God, whatever Kingdom that may have been, astral, intellectual, or Akashic buddhi God, I don't know, invited him to sit next to him. He had a very long sofa made of gold, studded with diamonds and precious stones glittering like the sun in the morning. So he invited him to sit next to him even -- very, very cautious God. Very, very politely, very hospitably, he offered him all kinds of biscuits, candies, grapes, (Master laughed) apples. Anything that was available in the Kingdom of God, was offered to him, as well as to his accompanying horses, elephant, queen, chariot, manager, soldiers, generals, ministers and everything that he brought up. Then God talked, chatted to him in a very friendly way. The King, the one who was never satisfied, sat there talking to God, but at same time, looked around. Wow! The lamp is made of diamond. (Audience laughed.) Wow! And that lamp is made of ruby, and the other one is made of pearl. And everything here is more precious and beautiful than anything we have on earth. Even the diamonds are different; gold is different; silver is different. It seemed to be a thousand times more beautiful, more real, more precious, more pleasing to the eyes and, of course, to the heart of the King. Now he sat there (audience laughed softly) and thought. When he was looking, he thought with the soul. Later, he thought with the knees, then he tried to think with the solar plexus, and then he tried to reason with the heart. That didn't work either. And then he tried to reason with the throat. But that was all he could come up with. It didn't work either, because he wanted to swallow everything. So the most concentrated chakra (Master laughed) for him was the throat center. He wanted to eat anything that he saw. He wanted to swallow, possess everything that he ever laid eyes on. He was thinking, when it comes up to the throat, he wants to swallow the Kingdom of God. Now, he said, “Wow! This is very beautiful. What if I get rid of this old man (Master and all laughed) and then become the King. Ah, ha! (Master laughed.) So he was sitting there and thinking like that with his throat. The God King is God. Didn't matter lower God or higher God, He was still God. The King was thinking with his throat center; his Adam's apple kept coming up and down, and the God saw it. (Master and all laughed.) When he saw his throat center activated, then he knew. He kept looking with his wisdom eye into the throat center, and he saw the black market going on there (Master and audience laughed), mafia organization going on there, ahh, all kinds of criminal records written there. So, God knew what was going on in this King's mind, but pretended not to know anything. He didn't say anything. He tried to be even more pleasant, more friendly, and offered more things. After that, God was just in the front mountain and tried to tell the King: “Okay, I'm busy. I have initiation going on in the back mountain, five hundred foreign disciples in the meditation Hall, and five or six sites of construction going on. So, would you please excuse me? (Master and audience laughed.) And “sayonara.”(Master laughed again.) The King was very, very desirous to stay in the Kingdom of God. But then the God King made sure that he knew that he must go. When he tried to stay there longer, many of the “hufa” (guards), God's guardian angels, with the eyes as big as the sun, shining like atom bombs, stared at him, and said nothing. (Audience laughed.) He said to him: “Either you go voluntarily and soon, or you go involuntarily and soon. (Master and audience laughed.) The King saw that he had only a handful of generals, soldiers, and a small chariot; and with all these guardian angels with very big umbrellas, (Master laughed), powerful eyes and arms; he had better move. So he had to move. He went back to earth again. Since that day, God didn't favor him anymore. So he began to be ill, suffered a lot, and then started to die. Before he died, he called his ministers and other officers to his deathbed and said that he was very sorry now, very sorry because he knew why he was dying. He knew God was punishing him. God withdrew eternal happiness or the eternal life-force from him, and now granted him a big favor which was the death sentence. He was very sorry and very repentant. He also said: “After I die, if anyone asks you why I died, you tell them it was because of greed. And that was it. He closed his eyes and meditated forever in the grave. Good-bye. Finished! (Audience applauded.) We Must Check Ourselves All The Time See, we could be materialistic practitioners as well. You know what I mean? This story serves to remind us that even though we follow a so-called spiritual practicing path, we must check ourselves all the time. We must be sure that we don't follow materialistic spiritualism. Yes it is called that. Because we follow a path in order to gain more power, then we can control others or we can take things from the universe, from other people without ever knowing. Sometimes you don't know it, but you do follow materialistic spiritualism. For example, you come here or you go to a Master anywhere expecting that She or He will heal you of your sickness because you don't want to go see a doctor. You think you have the right to demand such things. You come here with a very grave illness and throw yourself, throw the responsibility onto the ashram, wanting to be healed overnight; or you want to be richer, more powerful in some way and then you expect the Master to fulfil your wish in such a way. This is no good. Even if you practice the Quan Yin Method, you follow the spiritual discipline and meditate, but if your mind is not pure of the material need, then it's no good. Of course, when you are in trouble, you are bound to ask for help. Like I don't have a job now and I need to pay the rent and all that, Master can you help me to find a job. That is different. When you need, you may ask, if it is not necessary ... Also if the people come to initiation, expecting that after that, she will have this and that material gain or more position in the society, etc. This is disgusting. We should not come to any Master expecting such things, because we are bound to feel very disappointed. Or even if we are not disappointed, the master might grant us our wish. But then, the more we want, the less we are satisfied and then we keep wanting, wanting, wanting, to no end. And then our attention, our energy is always focused on these material aims and we forget the Almighty power inside. After we attain the Almighty power, anything will come to us when necessary without asking. But we don't come for that, we don't come for material fulfillment, or any other magical power. These are astral desires. Also material in other senses, not only that you wish for money, then it materializes. But if you wish for magical power or any kind of control over other people, the weather, or the surroundings, these are also material wishes. These are even worse. Like business people, we go to do business and we want to gain money and all these kinds of things. We should practice for the sake of wisdom alone, for the sake of knowing ourselves, for the sake of knowing the origin of our home and to be free, loving and happy. That's all there is. And everything else comes or does not come; it is just by the way. Everything I told you, you know or not? You do? But sometimes you know but your practice is different. It's funny. So we have to always check up. We are bound to make mistakes, but we have to check and correct it. The Benevolence Of The Saintly King u Spoken By Suma Ching Hai To The Foreign Practitioners, July 12, 1995 Hsihu Center, Formosa (Originally In English) Virtue, Wisdom And A Frugal Way Of Life A long, long time ago there was a King who was very, very, very good, very compassionate, very loving and he was supposed to be one of Shakyamuni Buddha's incarnations in the ancient times. Everyone in that country felt that he was a Boddhisattva, so they called him the saintly King. In India, there are many Maharajis; they are saintly Kings too. Anyone who had a problem or who was in need of some help came to him, and he always tried his best to help that person. Therefore in his country, everyone enjoyed a beautiful life and was very happy and prosperous; no one ever had need of anything. Also his ministers were very kind to the people. And his people were never oppressed in any way. Now let's see what this king did that made him worthy of the name of saintly King. So, apart from making all the subjects in his country happy, what else did he do? In the court of the King, he never organized any kind of costly and complicated festivals. You know, a kind of ceremony for the court, like for the King. Mostly in the old times when the King came out to greet people or when he did some ceremony, there were a lot of problems, a lot of incense, flowers, all kinds of guards, and maybe shooting of some cannons or something like that. Cost-a-bomb. Shooting some bombs “cost-a-bomb”, cost many bombs, so he never did these kinds of things. All the money that he earned or the revenue of the kingdom was spent in building schools, hospitals, roads and all kinds of necessities for the people of his nation. He had a lot of ministers, not because he wanted to have a very aristocratic system, but because he needed a lot of ministers in order to help people with necessities, more quickly, more efficiently. Ceremonies of any kind were very simple. Other Kings, if a minister came to that King, he would have to prostrate himself on the floor perhaps three times, or at least one time, and kneel there until the King said: “Oh, please, be at ease.” Or things like that. But this King, he didn't do that nonsense. When you came to him, you just went and sat down and said: “Oh, I have something to report.” Or you telephoned him or used a walkie-talkie. (Master and audience laughed.) “Say hello King. Are you home? I have something to report.” Something like that. Most of the money was spent on necessities for the people of his nation. And he himself lived a very frugal life. Just enough to keep his dignity and comfort, but nothing extravagant. Besides, he himself went out and worked to earn some money too. (Master laughed.) He designed some clothes, some jewelry, and all that, and sold it. Everyone was very satisfied in this nation. The Wrath Of A Neighboring King So, it happened that many of the neighboring countries closed their neighboring frontiers because they didn't want their people to immigrate to that peaceful, prosperous, and happy nation. Ha. Ha. See that? It wasn't the nation who closed the door. It was the neighboring nations, who closed their own doors. Isn't that funny? Because if the doors of the frontiers were not closed, many people would keep migrating, migrating, migrating to that land, where the King was so benevolent, the ministers were so efficient and loving, and the people were so happy and contented. Now, one of the neighboring Kings was a very bad one. Everywhere the Buddha reincarnated, there was a bad one next to him to make trouble. Yeah, there's always the Ying and the Yang, the positive and the negative. Now, this neighboring King was very upset, very envious, very jealous of the good King, the saintly King because he had so much praise, so much respect and there were so many good stories about how compassionate, how loving, how wise, and how considerate the neighboring saintly King was. So he was mad with jealousy. And besides, many people always compared the good King's actions with his own actions, and always there was a very vast difference. So, he couldn't bear it. If it were you, maybe you also couldn't. If it were me, maybe I couldn't bear it also. I'm joking. Do we want a kingdom at all? No. You're right. Very wise. So that's why he was very hurt; his ego was hurt. This was the reason why later the good King had to endure a lot of suffering, due to the neighbor's jealousy. We will hear later. Because this neighboring bad King was so jealous he lost his logic and his reasoning, and decided to make war with the good King. One day the bad King sent the messenger of war, to the good saintly King, saying that he wanted to start a war. The saintly King was very shocked when he received the war decree. He kept asking, “But what is the reason why your majesty wants to make war with us? If it's our fault in any way, oh, please accept our apology. Tell us how we can mend our ways, so that we don't incur the wrath of war from your majesty, the King.” But the messenger said: “Nah. Nah. We don't accept any apology. (Master and audience laughed.) We just want war. That's it.” So some time later, the great, strong army from the neighboring country came to his country. Just like that. No reason. No excuse. He didn't need to. Perhaps he had a lot of excuses. “You're better than me.“ That was an excuse. “People praise you and don't praise me“ and that was a good excuse. The same with many so-called teachers of yoga and many other fields of science. If a person is very famous, intelligent, and many people agree with him or her, then that person will be somewhat in trouble most of the time. Now the saintly King felt like he was being forced to fight. He didn't want to, and when he asked his ministers and everyone else: “Should we fight them? Anyone want to fight?” No one wanted to fight. Even the people in the country. No one liked to fight at all because they didn't feel that there was any just reason and logic for this war, for killing other people. They couldn't find any logical reason for it. So the bad King came to the capital without any resistance and told everyone that they should just drop their weapons, and surrender. Otherwise, he would kill everyone and not even a child would survive. That was what he said. The King sent a decree into the palace again, and told them that he was going to kill everyone if they didn't surrender, if the good King didn't surrender. Everyone at that time felt very hurt. Their national pride was hurt and they told the King, “We should go out and fight until the last one.” The Surrender Anyhow, after some time of thinking, here in the wisdom eye, the saintly King stood up and said, “Please tell your King I surrender. Please tell him to come and take over my kingdom, take over my throne. I do not want the people of the two nations to have to shed blood and sacrifice their lives just for no reason, and just for this particular golden throne of mine.” Anyhow, that was it. Then the good King told everyone to put down their weapons. If they wanted to stay with the new King, they could do so. If they wanted to retire to go back home, it was alright. And then he said, “We pray that the new King will be even better in virtue and wisdom than I, to rule this nation.” Then he just took off his kingly garments, vestments, put his crown down on the table, and left. When he passed by the horses' stable, his horse saw him. The horse was very happy and was kind of singing, you know, eh, eh, eh, eh. (Audience laughed.) You know how the horse sings. (Master laughed.) Maybe I don't sing as well as the horse, but the horse really did sing to the King and looked at him as if to say: “Oh, please, take me with you.” But the King shook his head and said: “No, you don't belong to me anymore. I gave up everything to the new owner, so you also belong to him. I have no right over you anymore. You stay here and serve your new lord. Bye-bye.” So he walked along like an ordinary person without any possessions at all. All the people in the land knew the story and were so touched that they knelt on both sides of the streets, and cried. The saintly King was very, very kind. He was in agony because he saw the love, good intentions, and friendship of his people, but he could not do anything anymore. He just kept going, and he was crying himself. At that time, the bad King came in and took over the kingdom and the throne. Outside on the road, the good King was walking very fast, like running because he could not bear hearing the people, his subjects keep begging him to stay with them. He kept walking very fast. He didn't feel very sorry that he had lost his power and his throne, his majesty. He felt rather happy that his good decision had spared many lives, especially his own people. He knew, whether he had won or lost the war, many people's lives would have been sacrificed and there would have been a lot of widows, orphans, disabled persons afterward who would have lost their arms, legs, maybe their mental capacities, lost their sight, their homes, their hopes, or their futures, everything. The Compassionate Law Of The Universe He was walking along the road when suddenly someone stopped him, knelt
on the road, and begged him to help, to protect his family and himself.
And the saintly King, smiling painfully, told him: “You're asking at the
wrong moment now.” And the person asked: “But why?” The Supreme Sacrifice The King was kind of surprised and thought: “Ah, maybe it's my fault. Did I made a mistake in my rule, my duty to the people? Alright, even if I made a mistake, now it's too late. So, please forgive me. You try to be courageous and try to start a new life.” He continued again to ramble: “No, I can't be courageous. I can't stand my life. If you don't help me... I put all my hope in you, now, I don't know of anything else to do. If you don't help me, I'll die. That's it.” The King apologized and said: “If it is my fault, if I disappointed you, then please forgive me and things like that. The man continued accusing him again and said: “Look here, now, you just go alone, you have nothing to worry about, so you're happy. And me, I will remain miserable, poor, I will be a nothing forever. I think you have no compassion for me. You do not consider me at all. You're just free. You're very unjust.” He kept blaming the King all the time. Suddenly, the King said: “Well, I have an idea. I can help you. I was mistaken. I was thinking that I have nothing to give you, but I still do. I have something to give you. I still have my freedom. This freedom I can give you for a price, because anyone who catches me and brings me to the new King will be rewarded very handsomely. So please, take me as your prisoner, present me to the new King, then you will have everything you need.” Suddenly, the bad man became good and he said: “Nay, Nay, No, I can't do that. If I take you with me, who knows what they will do to you. I think they will put you in a prison and treat you very badly, maybe torture and kill you in the end. I have no heart to do this to you.” The saintly King was very determined in his offer said: “No, you must do it. You have to take some string and bind my hands and then bring me over there. Now I'm your prisoner. You have to believe me. The new King will be very, very generous in this matter. If you bring me to him, you'll have everything you ever wanted and more. Maybe you will even become an officer of the court. Maybe you will become the Prime Minister of the King. Maybe you'll have everything, richness and noble position, that you ever wanted. I will be grateful to you, because then, I will have fulfilled my duty as you have demanded, then I will feel that I have done something for you as you requested, and I will be very happy too.” Only the Buddha reincarnate can do that. It's no wonder he became Buddha. Now the man was very touched. Full of sorrow, he knelt in front of the King, held and kissed his feet, and said: “Please forgive me for what I said before. I would not do anything to harm you. I will not demand anything of you again. Oh please go and take care of yourself.” But now, it was too late. The King had already decided that he would give himself up for a price for that person. So, anyhow, after many hours arguing back and forth, the person had to take the saintly King to the court of the new one. The enlightenment Of The New King Of course, the new King was very, very, very happy. He said, “Ah, ha, ha. Too, too, good. Too good. It's very good now. I'm going to have a very, very justified revenge on you. From today, no one will ever, ever praise how good you are, how good you have been, and how good you will be again. Whoever has caught you, I will give him billions of dollars, American. Anyhow, are you from my side?”, he asked the person who took the saintly King to him. “Are you from my side?” And the person knelt down and said, “No. I'm one of his subjects. I was one of his subjects. You know, the one, the King down there.” The new King was a little bit upset. So he knit his eyebrows together after he heard that the one who took the saintly King prisoner was one of his own subjects before. He was trying to be a puritan, and he said, “What? The betrayer? You betrayed your boss? Looks like he was a very good, very moral King and all that. Even though you are a betrayer, I will still reward you because of my promise. Besides, it doesn't matter. As long as you caught this enemy of mine, it's okay with me. Now, put down your weapon and go over there. I will give you one million dollars.” The person started very softly and said: “Your majesty, I, I, don't have any weapon.” The new King was very, very sur...surprised and said, “What?! You don't have any weapon? Really? Then how did you catch this king? How did you catch him?” So, the saintly King, because the person who caught him was kind of embarrassed and he didn't know what to explain, he now interfered and said: “Ah, no need, no need asking about this. He has brought me here to you and I'm your prisoner; just give him the reward. That's all there is.” He was worried that the person would talk too much and the King would not give him the reward. So he said, “Just give him the reward. That's all there is. Alright?” The new King looked at the old King and then looking at the person who caught him and felt something was very strange. Then he looked at the one who caught the King and asked, “How did you get him?” And the person who caught the king said: “ Oh me, not, not I. I did not catch him. It...was...uh...he, he...ah...he told me...but I didn't want and...he, he...he.” (Master laughed.) You know what I mean? So the saintly King kept telling him, “Shush...Recite the holy names. Don't talk.” (Master and audience laughed.) But the bad king kept on pressing him. “So, you have to tell me the truth. Otherwise, you get no reward.” So the man, sobbing, crying, tears falling, kneeling there, you know, crawling on the floor, told the new King everything that happened in the field. You know, between the saintly King and himself before they both came to his court. After hearing the story, the neighboring King was so shocked. He opened his eyes very wide, the normal eyes, not the wisdom eye. The wisdom eye had not yet opened. Just the normal eyes and his mouth opened, (Master demonstrated and everyone laughed) for a very long time, because he couldn't believe that in this world such a person ever existed, so good-hearted, so unconditional, so compassionate and so selfless, like the saintly King. After a while, he compared him to himself, the one who is so selfish, so greedy, so brutal, violent and jealous. There was nothing that could compare to this saintly King at all. So, after a moment of silence, maybe he was enlightened. He stood up, came down to the saintly King, helped him up to his feet, took his own clothes off, his crown off and put them back on the saintly King and said, “Please forgive me. Everything belongs to you now. You are more worthy than I.” He felt very sorry. (Everyone applauded.) Forsake Everything And Then Very good story. Every day if you can read one like this, I think you will change. Do you have some books like this at home? No? Try to find some. In the Buddhist scriptures and treasure stories, there are a lot of things like this. So, if you want to become such a saintly person, a reincarnation of the Buddha, then you may read them everyday. Some of them, when you need, then you read them. It helps. It might help. It even helped such a bad King, so, how about us? We're so good, it must help even more. So you see, most of the Masters always tell us: Forsake everything and then you will have everything. Like in the Bible, it also says: “Whoever holds onto life dearly, will lose it; but whoever forsakes it will attain eternal life. Likewise, if we do not really feel attached or attach ourselves to any possession, fame, name in this world, then everything really comes to us. But once we are enslaved to anything in this world at all, then we will be forever running after it; be exhausted, taxing our mental ability; and all kinds of trouble will come our way, not necessarily attaining anything. It is truly like that. I speak from my own experience too. Once we only seek the Kingdom of God, we truly have everything. Even when we don't want it, it just comes from nowhere; it forces its way to us. Sometimes, we don't want to but we just have to accept it. It is very difficult also, very difficult to reject sometimes. Sometimes, as you know, we are very strict here. It is good for me. Otherwise, presents, gifts, and all that would be laying all over everywhere. Before I said that I don't accept gifts. Then people would throw them there and run away. Things like that. Poor me. I would have to collect them and give them to someone else. So what is the use? Because I don't really need anything. It's funny, like the Bible says: The one who has, will have more. The one who does not have anything will have less. But that doesn't mean that if you have nothing, you'll have less. It's just that when you don't have anything, mostly, you keep on wanting and the wanting energy is acting just like a wall, stopping everything coming to you. Similarly, we have to be sincere in our spiritual practice, not be greedy and not be like a materialistic spiritualist. Like what I said yesterday. Everything will come naturally. We may pray, but with sincerity, not with greed and demand. Yes, there is a very, very slight difference. If you can know the difference between desire and yearning, longing for liberation, longing for wisdom, longing to know the Truth... Between yearning to know the Truth and the greedy desire, there is a very slight difference. And if we don't balance ourselves well, we will step to one side or another. It's good when we step on the other side, more spiritual yearning. Then, that day, we will meditate very well. But we don't have to pray everyday like that. Only when we can't make it. Sometimes when it is black or when things look dark and gray, you pray earnestly to the Master and then it happens. It always happens. True Love - Be Open And Accepting Before I took over this business, very rarely did I see the Master not answer; the inner Master, rarely, rarely, refuses your prayer. When the Master refused, that meant that request was not good for me. That's all. Later I found out. Sometimes, the Master takes away something from us and then we feel very miserable. We think Master doesn't care. “Master knows I like it, so why does the Master take it away?” But it's not true. Later, you'll be so happy that he got rid of it for you. Yes, it is like that. Sometimes, we love someone; you fall in love or something like that. And then, the Master suddenly sends someone else, prettier, more beautiful, more clever. We think: “Oh my God, it is very rare that I catch a good fish and the Master told someone else to snatch it away from me.” Then we cry a river over these things. And maybe some time later, we meet someone better, and then we look back and say: “Oh! This one is much better.” (Master laughed.) At this time, we may pray to the Master: “Master it's okay if you want to take this one away too, (Master and audience laughed.) because maybe in the future, you'll give me a better one and it's alright.” We never know what is truly good for us. We must always be open and accepting. Then we will find our life is terrific, is completely in harmony and beautiful, and is a blessing everyday, twenty-four hours. No problems. That is the time when we know true love, love without preconditions, demands, love without expecting anything because everything will be a blessing, everything will be good for us. And then, sometimes, even though God takes away the things, or the person we love, later we find out -- “Wow! So much better. I'm free, liberated.” It doesn't matter what kind of love the other person offers to us, there's always some trouble, some binding, because we have to tend to that person, we have to be kind, be good, be friendly to him or her. Otherwise, just one sentence wrong or sometimes we do something it's not wrong but the other person misunderstands and then we're finished. Then we always have to worry, he will leave me because of this and that. He came because of that....why is she gone? You must make her happy, buy her more jewelry, for example like that, or she will go away. Of course, every treasure, every precious thing takes a lot, demands a lot of attention and takes our energy in order to keep it, to polish it, to keep it always shining. Even love and marriage take a lot of effort and work. Is that not so? Have you had that experience? You did? It doesn't always work. Then we have so much headache and trouble that we wished we never began. But then it has already begun and it's difficult to be away from it without feeling guilty and blaming ourselves, blaming others and making a bad atmosphere, and having a very miserable experience over a period of our time. Sometimes we look back and we feel very sorrowful because of that too. Sometimes, our relationship, our normal relationship with everyone else is also affected by this bad love sick experience and then we withdraw. We are scared of other people and we become antisocial, or anti-opposite sex, something like that, because of this. It takes a long time to heal such a heartache. So, nothing is really good for us in this world. I don't think. Practicing To Develop The Inner Power So they run away and become monks |