If you think, "Oh, I am a meditator, I don't need to take care of the outer appearance." It's wrong. The outer is the inner, because actually we don't have an outer and inner. Everything is inside the universe. How can you make this corner of the universe lousy, dirty, messy while you claim that you belong to another universe which is more beautiful, more clean, more fabulous, and thing like that. It's not correct. Then we still live in discrimination, thinking that this world is no good so we'll make it even worse and we will immigrate to another place anyhow! But this is not yet to come. We're still living in this world.
We have no right, no right absolutely to damage, to spoil, to ruin this only house for the whole population of the Earth planet. You don't have the right to ruin any corner of this world whether you like it or not. And in the name of meditation, of a practitioner, don't make yourself a laughing subject or a degrading subject for other people to look down upon. Whatever you do, you represent the Most High; because we follow the highest path, we worship only the Most High. So we have to represent Hirm in speech, actions and thought -- at least, speech and actions. Though people do not know much of what you think; but at least your speech, your actions are easy to detect. So please remember this.
Now, it is similar to inside progress. Sometimes we think we have already improved, but actually in many other corners of our soul, our spirit is still not yet looked after.
The light and the sound are the elements inside that cleanse our souls and our thinking. Our virtuous life will be more evident after we practice the light and sound. But the outside also we should take care; because the more we are elevated, the more we see that cleanliness is necessary. It is the way of life. It's not that someone is cleaner than the other, or someone loves more cleanliness. It is the inner, the inner expression of beauty, virtue and Truth -- the saintly way of life. We should live a simple life, not the poorest life. A simple life, not a messy life. Simple is different. If you happened to go into my tent, or visit my tent, my tent is just like any of your tents but it's spotlessly clean. Everyday it is cleaned, everything is in order. It's not that it's too much order like I have to measure how many millimeters I fold my blanket and things like that. But it just looks beautiful and comfortable. Very inviting, very welcoming, very warm; and you know that it belongs to you.
I am also very sorry every time I have to point out to someone, specially the close disciples, how dirty they are and how messy they've made their environment become. But I have to do, someone has to do it for you. Do not say that I am too over critical. I just want to point out to you that your level must match. Inner and outer must match because we live in the universe. There is no need to say inner, outer anymore actually. Inner and outer is just a way of speaking in the beginning of the practice. Afterward, you should level the frontier. There is no more, because it's the universe we've born in, with the Most High. We live with it everyday. We're swimming in it. We're breathing in it. We're eating in it. There is no outer-inner universe. It's only the universe. Everywhere in the universe is okay. It's perfect, as long as we make it perfect. Suppose you go to the Buddha's land and you are messy just the same like in the Center. The Buddha's land will become what? Messy land. Yeah! (Laughter)
It is just very logical to say that the inner level matches the outer arrangement, the environment duly, how you arrange your life. Now, look around you and you'll see my logic. It's not that I'm over critical. The human beings, where do they live? Huh? Houses, palaces, mansions, buildings, don't they? Where do the pigs live? Huh? Pig stalls. Where do the horse live? Horse stalls. Do they look the same? The two houses, the horse houses and the human houses, look the same? Huh? Same smell? Everything, same arrangement? Tea table, teacups and everything in the horse stable are the same? Same or not same? [A: No. (Laughter)] No. Okay. And where do the pigeons live? They live in cages, or on some branches. Yes, yes, yes, nests. So, every beings has their standard of living.
Now, suppose you are saints. But you have to live as a saint, you have to form your saintly standard.
Because we are practitioners, we should be more clean even. That is an automatic thing. It should not be even taught. No one taught me when I was young to keep my clothes spotlessly clean everyday, that even the principal of the school always took me out as an example. I was so embarrassed always standing in front of hundreds, of thousands of people to make an example for them.
I was only in second or third grade of primary school. I washed and ironed my clothes everyday myself because I did not trust the servants to do it. I thought, "They come from poor families, they can't do it. They can't do the way I want and they are not used to it." So, I did everything alone. I earned the prize from the principal of the school. I earned it myself actually. If the servant had done it, then it was the servant who made it clean. It was me. So, actually it was me who earned the prize.
These things should not be taught, they should come automatically. If anyone tells us that we should be clean, we should be thankful for it instead of being upset, feeling offended, feeling degraded or something like that or looked down upon. It should not be so.
Many times we have a temptation to resist a teacher's teaching and we only regret afterward. It's all right. It's all right to learn by mistakes, but the fewer mistakes, the better, the quicker; because the more mistakes we make, the more time we waste, the more burden we feel sometimes in our conscience, and we spend a lot of time feeling regret and correcting our mistakes instead of pushing forward and doing something more important and more fulfilling for our life. That is all. (Applause)
Even though they are not so clean, they will be after today, after I have cleaned the whole house from inside and outside. And I will give them some pattern to follow -- after today you have to do like this. Actually it's difficult, very difficult. I already cleaned the whole area and made the picnic table there for its good looking. Normally they didn't exist -- the table, chairs and thing like that. Then they would come with their cups or their umbrellas and put them right on there immediately. Because there was nothing there for them to put things, so they didn't. Now there are something there, so they immediately use them. Ah! It's terrible. Everywhere they make it become like a storeroom.
The question with many of our houses is not that we don't have enough room, it's that we don't organize things well. We spread everything out and everywhere becomes like a storeroom. Just now when I came to New Jersey... everywhere. Sometimes, when I come back to a Center, everywhere is like a storeroom; there is no space. The storeroom, of course, you can not go in to sleep. But then the living room you put umbrellas, shoes and plastic bags, everything. Everything that when you happen to pass by and leave there, it stays there forever. It's a part of eternity, perhaps. So you have to represent it by putting things forever somewhere and anywhere.
So when I went back to the Center, the one that was supposed to be the living room was full of boxes. Everywhere was boxes. But the living room also had boxes. The corridors also had boxes. The dining table full of boxes. So what is the use of putting a dining table there? Really it is not that we don't have enough place, because if we didn't have enough place, I couldn't make all these things disappear. After I came, I said, "All these things must go, go, go. Go storeroom. This goes there, goes here." Then nothing was there. This is how we clean the inside, and clean the outside also.
Remember in the Zen stories, many Zen masters let the disciples first come to do some labor work, like cleaning the hall, sometimes shining the Buddha's statue. All these things are not nonsense, really. Actually some Zen temples a long time ago -- you know long time ago when there were still good and enlightened Zen masters -- they still kept the Buddha's statue. Not that they were attached to the Buddha's statue. They knew it already, but still they thought some people are very much attached to the Buddha's statue still, so they kept them. So they let the newcomer disciples shine the statue everyday, and dust the Buddha. They cleaned the table for the Buddha and changed the water, changed the flowers everyday, cleaned the floor. That's what kept them busy and concentrated, and not thinking nonsense. Also to give them good habits of being clean and being orderly, putting things in order and returning things back to where they belong. That was the rule, strictly followed in most of the Zen temples. Even till now.
I think it is a very, very good way of training people, only if they train together spiritually as well. Not letting this habit become like an empty ritual and just keeping the outside clean and inside nothing. So these are the two extremes. Sometimes we see some people just keep the outer rituals of any kind of religious sect; and some others just keep the inner, everyday sitting twenty-four hours in a cave or something like that and don't worry about the world, and don't dust themselves even. These two extremes we should not follow. If we just keep the cleaning outside, the Buddha outside, and we do not know anything inside, or our concentration just rises a little bit because of the cleaning, then it's not enough. We have to do both.
So I hope this is not too much nonsense for you. By the way, it's good for your house also, and it's very practical. Everything that doesn't belong to the living room just don't leave it there, very simple; and you'll see how your life will improve with the spacious house, with the cool feeling, with the warm welcoming atmosphere when you come home.
Do not complain that your husband runs away or your wife fails. If everyone just makes the house become like a garbage place, no one likes to go there anymore. That's why most people go out drinking late at night, go to the clubs, go dancing, go anywhere, damaging their health, their spirit, wasting their time. Just because they can not stand it at home. They feel nothing, nothing there in the home to keep them. Whereby I stay at home all the time. I hardly walk out of the door if I have nothing to do. I hardly walk out of my own room door because I am comfortable there. It's my heaven. What for do I walk out into a messy world and no one else cleans? If a house is comfortable, it's like a santuary. It's like a church. You feel peaceful.
That's why many people including non-initiates like to come to my place. This morning I had a guest. He just loved my place. He said, "Oh! It's so quiet." And you feel even your soul become quiet just by the environment alone. You only hear, now and then, a little bit here and there, the birds chirping. Nothing more. And the rushing of the leaves among the trees. Nothing there. No disturbance. No dust. No confusion. So even in that kind of environment, where everything's so clean and cool, you will feel cooled down. You know, the passion, the lust, the anger, the ambition, everything becomes just calmed down.
Very important to keep your place holy, clean for yourself and also for the sake of this world, for the sake of the universe. It is a corner of the universe. We live in it. Even if we lived in heaven, it's also another corner of the universe only. Why don't we respect the corner that we stay in now? It is a dedication to God. Clean your house as a dedication to God. Cook the food with love as a dedication to the universe. Do everything as a dedication.
There is no menial work. There is no dirty job. There is nothing that is not worth your attention, because everything composes this universe. Every little particle of the universe belongs to the whole, and we taking care of a part means we take care of the whole. So, do not think this is a dirty job -- I clean the garbage, I clean the floor.
I do things myself when my time and schedule allow. I cook also. You know that. There is nothing that I don't do, and there is nothing that I don't do well, because I am dedicated. My soul, my body are very dedicated to the work I do. It's not that every time I do something, I say, "I dedicate this to God. I do it because of dedication. Da da da da...." But it becomes natural, you know like your own nature. It's very natural just like you love someone. You don't have to recite it. You know you just love him or her, and you do everything out of love. Similarly, a person who practices the way of love. You know, light and sound are supposed to make you grow in love and wisdom. So if we practice the way of love, we should do everything with love; and everything that comes out of love is naturally beautiful and perfect.
If you do anything that is not yet perfect, or not yet beautiful, know that your love has not yet completely developed. You have not completely used the power of love which is inside you.
That's the way to reflect, to know if we've progressed or not. Don't always write letters and ask me, "Master, am I already in the seventh level or not? Or do you think I am on the eighth?" What is the use? Everywhere is inside the universe. While you live here, you are the saints. While you live in the Buddha's land, you're also the saints. You live anywhere as a saint. There's no need to choose one place or another. Heaven is just illusionary talk before we know the real heaven within ourselves. If after practicing for some time, you still long to see heaven and Buddha and all that, I think you should just meditate for two years in the Himalayas and reflect on yourself. This is no use. Heaven is here and now. Anywhere you go, make it a heaven. If you're happy, it's heaven. If you're not happy, even if the situation around is very merry, very boisterous, you still feel miserable. Is that right? (A: Yes!)
Master Says