The Wisdom Of An Old Beggar Woman

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
at Austin Center, Texas, U.S.A.
August 27, 1994 (Originally In English)

Most people who know don't talk, and the people who talk don't know. Of course those masters like Buddha or Jesus, they went and preached, but that is different. They had to do it. Otherwise, they wouldn't want to. You know what I mean? Their mission was like that. Even though they suffered, they didn't want it. But that doesn't mean they'd always go out seeking the opportunity to debate. That is the difference. You understand what I mean? They would abhor and run away from such an opportunity. They just had to do the job, to teach the disciples, those who came to them. But they would not go out and argue with other people to show off their knowledge. That is the difference.

Now this Tiloba (Tiloba was the great-grand master of Milarepa's master ) was one of those who ran around all India showing off his knowledge of books. And everywhere he went, he won. No one could ever win because his knowledge of books was so extensive. Well, in many countries we have these people. Yeah! Not only Tiloba.

One day he stayed in his house, reading one of the most famous and valuable books at that time. Then there was one beggar, an old woman beggar, looking filthy and very thin, very undernourished, who went and passed by him, and said something like, "You are reading so passionately, but do you even understand any bit of it? (Laughter) Oh? Tiloba was very startled. Such an old, ugly beggar and dared talk like this in front of a pundit like me? You know, a learned professor like me? And he was kind of startled and didn't know how to react. And then the old beggar woman spit into his book and went away.

He was so angry because she dared to spit into this holy book. So he ran after her. But when he ran after her, she just murmured something in her throat and suddenly he cooled down, he didn't feel angry anymore. And then he stopped there. He went back home and started to think. Maybe he felt something was wrong about the way he was learning from the books. So he thought, thought very hard. He also thought very hard about why an old beggar woman would dare to spit into the holy book which all India has revered for thousands of years.

People even worshipped in front of the book, and offered money to the book. They still do that nowadays in some of the countries including India. I know, I've seen. They'd just bow to the book, offer money and flowers to the book, and believed that that's all there was about knowledge and wisdom. But the book is the book. You are you. How can you bow to the book and get anything from it, huh? Can you believe it? But many people believe it. Anyhow, that's their business.

So this Tiloba thought very hard. He was also surprised at how an old woman, so weak and who just murmured one or two sentences, and his anger which was like fire...put out by water. So after sometime considering he left his job, and didn't argue anymore. He went all over to search for the old woman, the beggar, trying to find out what it was that he didn't understand.

One day he found her in a jungle alone. He tried to argue with her and use his eloquence and knowledge to beat her in the argument in the jungle. But it didn't matter how hard he tried, she always won. The old, ugly, poor, undernourished beggar always won (Master laughs.) Finally she told him, "The things I know, the wisdom that I possess and understand is not in the books. You cannot find it, therefore, you can never argue with me.

Finally he bowed to her and accepted her as master and asked her to teach him. She did. What she told him finally was that whatever you want to know is not in the books and it's not in this world. You have to go and find heavenly beings to learn with. So the way is initiation. We go up inside, then we find these heavenly beings. That's what it means. And then we learn with them. Even if I teach you, even if any master teaches you it's only verbally, only physically with you. But if you want to learn something better you still have to go inside, to a higher level of consciousness and learn with the inner master, the all pervading master, not the physical one. The physical one is only a ladder, to bring you up to higher stories of consciousness. There you learn with the higher master, even with the same master or with a different master, but at a higher level of finer consciousness, understand?

So the same thing she told him, here. I understood it because we are on the same path. If it were not that we have been studying this inner wisdom, we wouldn't have understood what she meant by going to the realm of heavenly beings and studying with them. Then afterward Tiloba forsook everything and tried hard to go to the heavenly realms, to meet these heavenly beings and study with them. The road to these heavenly beings is full of tricks, full of hardships, but he made it.

This was Tiloba. Even the greatest, knowledgeable man had to go and bow to an old, ugly, hungry, beggar woman for wisdom. So there is nothing too humble for us to go and bow to anyone who has wisdom, who can really show us the way to liberation.

So most of the masters of the old time were very poor anyhow. You remember some of the stories I told you? Jesus was a carpenter, he never had so much wealth. Buddha had a lot of wealth but he forsook it. (Master laughs.) So he also had nothing. And he ran around India, begging for food. He also became a beggar anyhow. Most of the masters don't possess anything. If they even want to do it, it's also fine.

One of the Sikh masters, the tenth Sikh master, he was very illustrious. He kept his wealth. He looked very wealthy, and he wore a lot of jewelry like a prince. Yes, he never shied from that. And he looked just like a prince. He always dressed very well and wore a lot of jewelry. But other Sikh masters go around the country begging for food also. So there is no need to say the master should be this and that or another. No problem.

You see the Quan Yin Bodhisattva, she has a lot of ornaments; her hair is very long and beautiful, and she wears fine clothes. And in heaven people are beautiful. Their ornaments are natural, attached to them, according to their merit. So there is no need to say the master always has to be poor. It is not necessarily so. But most of the masters, because of their inner realization, they choose the simple life. But the master always acts accordingly. It doesn't mean it always has to be like that, because if the master is so attached to poverty, to a simple life or to simple clothing alone, then it's also a kind of attachment. You understand what I mean? Always clinging to one thing or to another extreme, then it's also no good. The master must be detached inside, but outside it doesn't matter. It depends on your situation and your background, or whatever you have to do to benefit sentient beings.