Whatever
you do here or anywhere, eventually the benefit will come to you.
Whatever we do good to people, we think good about people, the benefit
eventually is ours. That's why I ask you to think positive, speak
positive, and do positive things. That's the only thing we should
do if you want any good out of this life, to balance, to make our
life better than before.
Beauty is
in the eyes of the beholder. Remember that. If your mind is filthy,
dirty, and you think everything is filthy, dirty, even sex becomes
dirty to you. It's a gift from God. If it's no good, God didn't make
it. But it must go with love. If you love someone, that is a kind
of celebration of the love between you -- if you want to celebrate
it that way, if you want to express it that way. But don't think anything
dirty about it, don't try to abuse people just for the sense of pure
control or possessiveness, then abuse the gift of sexual pleasure
from God.
If two people
love each other when they marry each other, it's their business. And
if you marry each other and love each other, nothing is anyone else's
business. You can make love to each other or don't make love to each
other, it's your business. It's your entire right -- the way you try
to express yourself, the way you choose to express yourself. We choose
to express ourselves in many different ways. If our mind is pure,
everything is pure, as long as we don't hurt anyone, as long as we
have faith in God that everything God arranges is good for us even
though it doesn't look good at the moment.
For
example, like this afternoon I asked one of the brothers whether his
wife had come back. He said no that she left him for good, but then
he has another better one. Of course he had to suffer a little meanwhile.
Sometimes we think it's bad for us, but it's not. I told you that
if God takes something away from us, Hes will give something. We have
to have enough mind power, wisdom and the openness of the heart to
appreciate when Hes gives us something new to experiment with, to
have a new adventure, new challenge, new power of creativity.
Don't just
sit there and sulk, "Oh, my last one was better." It might not have
been better. She might not have even liked you. Maybe you feel it
was better because it was the past. Every time, everything we think
about the past, we cheat ourselves -- we think the past was good.
I tell you truthfully, living in the present is the best, because
the present is all we have. Even if the past was truly beautiful,
even if your mind doesn't cheat you in thinking the past was beautiful
-- like your past wife was better or your past lover better -- it's
still the past. We don't have it. Cleopatra is gone. So you might
just as well be satisfied with the Mrs. X that you are married to.
Share
Only The Beautiful Things With Others
Most
of the troubles in our lives we make ourselves. We imagine a lot of
garbage because we have preconceived ideas about how the situation
is and how it should be because of our past experiences. Then we just
fix our idea on that and demand that things happen the way it was
or the way we think it should be. Then we make our lives miserable.
If we'd just be open to new challenges, receive God's gifts every
moment -- anything with new curiosity and new enthusiasm -- and work
together with whoever is next to us to bring happiness to each other,
then everyone is an angel. Every moment is paradise.
But
we have too much garbage. If you have garbage, check yourself and
throw it out, don't bring it to the Center and share it with people.
We like to share food, love and enlightenment but not garbage. Every
time you bring any garbage in this Center, you are doing yourself
a great disservice, not to talk about all your brothers and sisters
here.
This
is a place where you should come to feel love, blessings, togetherness,
everything that is positive; because you maybe not have them at home
already. You have enough quarreling at home, you have enough negative
things at home, you have enough bad thoughts about people at home,
you have a lot of suspicion at home.
When you come
here, even if you have that, pray to the Master, pray to God, the
inner power to cleanse it for you. At least you bring that and share
it with people. Do you bring your garbage and share it with your neighbor
or whatever at home? No. If you share, you share spring rolls, vegetarian
Pho (Au Lac food). You don't bring the garbage from your rest room
to the neighbor and say, "Here it is. Please look at it. Do you ever
do that? (A: No!)
The
same with mental garbage. Come here and gossip about who is bad and
who is good. It's no good for you. Garbage should stay where it belongs.
As fast as possible throw it away. Never share it with people. It's
no good, why do you share? Most of the things we talk or think about
are not true anyhow, because you don't know how karma works. You just
see the surface of things, like this guy treats that guy bad. But
you don't know that last life he treated him worse even.
I
have told you so many thousands of stories to demonstrate, to teach
you; but you must learn it, you must digest it, and put it into practice.
Don't listen here and let it come out there. Don't just sit here like
an idiot, and don't think, don't better yourself. Clean yourself before
you clean anyone else.
In
my life, I haven't said I am perfect or anything; but I face myself
every day without shame. I have nothing that I cannot tell you. So
make your life like that. It's more comfortable for yourself.
There's
no need to poke into the neighbors' business and even share their
garbage, negative sometimes mostly untruthful information, dragging
each other down. What's the use? Suppose really that person is bad,
you gossip, you talk to a man and say, "Oh, he's really bad." Both
of you agree he's bad. So what's the good for you? Does it make both
of you better? (A: No.) You share the garbage that he has even if
he is bad.
Suppose the
neighbor has a lot of garbage, and both of you go to that garbage
can and say, "Look here, this is the neighbor's, these are full of
garbage, let's both take it and examine it." What good does it do
for you? Then you take the neighbor's garbage to your house and examine
it, and that's all there is. And you know that from beginning already,
you don't even need to examine it -- it's garbage; and it belongs
to the neighbor. You don't even have to talk about it, you don't have
to discuss it. It is so plain, so simple that it's garbage. So leave
it where it is. Is that clear to you? (Audience says, "Yes". Applause.)
You know it is a garbage can, it's full of garbage, and you still
poke your nose in it, dig your hand in it, smell it, and smear it.
"Oh, it's really garbage, isn't it?" (All laugh) Isn't that stupid?
If any man does that, do you think he is stupid? (A: Yes.) But you
do that all the time. Don't laugh, isn't that true?
A Garbage
Collector
Sometimes
you dig also into my garbage. I've told you that I have a lot of garbage.
I have never cheated you. Everything you have, I have. I collect it
so that you're clean. I collect it so that your house smells nice.
Don't criticize my garbage if I even have it. Don't smell it. Let
me take care of it. I'll take care of it in my time. I'll dump it
where it belongs, I'll destroy it so that you're clean, beautiful,
nice, hygienic and healthy. Don't criticize my garbage. (Applause.)
This is the
mistake that many of you make. It's okay with me, but there are many
things that are not okay with you. For example, you smell like garbage,
you look like garbage because you carry it around, and people know
you are garbage if you collect it. It's not your job. We have a lot
of garbage collectors out there on the streets. You pay them because
they are doing their job. Don't do their job, you have better jobs
to do. Be happy that someone else collects the garbage for you. Why
do you snatch it from them, and even examine whether it is really
garbage or not? It is. You know already.
I have never
cheated you. I told you I have a lot of karma. That's why I am often
sick, I am often in trouble for nothing, I am often in bad shape,
bad reputation. Even the people I've helped have turned against me.
The things that I do good, people use that against me, personally
also -- a lot of things. A lot of newspapers write bad things about
me which are 100% garbage, not true at all.
So
if you know already I have a lot of garbage, don't come around me,
don't come near. Stay away. Keep yourself clean and pure. Even if
I am full of garbage, it's okay, it's my problem, it's my job. Don't
look. I've never cheated you and said I am always okay. I am not okay.
I
am a sacrificed garbage can. Anyone can dump anything into it, and
I have to digest it and take care of it. It's very painful sometimes.
I don't have to go through it but I do. That's okay with me because
I don't look at garbage as garbage. I have the way to digest it, make
it into fertilizer, and turn it into beautiful flowers. But you don't
do that, you don't have the means to. You were not born to do it,
so just stay away. Leave the garbage to me. Leave the garbage to your
own neighbor whoever that is. Keep yourself clean and pure. That's
your prime duty. Your duty is not to be born to look into neighbor's
garbage or into my garbage. You have enough with your own problems.
Suppose
you have done everything to make yourself pure and clean. Then be
happy. Be happy that you are now not in war. Why criticize the people
who died in the war zone? Be happy that you are not there. Be happy
that your hands and legs are still intact, you're living in a peaceful
country, and you have enough money to live a decent life. Be happy.
Don't criticize the poor people who are uneducated, who are homeless,
and all that. Just be happy with what you have and don't criticize
people who don't have even that.
Beauty Is In The Eyes
Of The Beholder
But we never
know. Most of the things we see are not truthful because it is our
mind that sees things, that makes things not clean, that makes things
not pure because we are not pure, we are not clean. Beauty is in the
eyes of the beholder. Remember that. So whenever you see someone impure,
check yourself. Whenever you see someone bad, check yourself. Whenever
you see someone dirty, check yourself. If you're really clean and
pure, then be happy, be proud, walk your beautiful way, and pray for
the ones who are less fortunate or pray for me. I don't need but you
can.
There's something
that's not okay with you, that is No. 1. And No. 2, if you bring all
that garbage into the Center, you damage the beauty of this holy place
where people come expecting the best, the most uplifting blessing
so that they can carry on with their duty, with their heavy laden
burden when they go back home. They can deal with problems, with the
garbage at their house, so they don't come here to deserve the garbage
that you throw around. If ever you have poisonous thoughts in your
mind, then pray to God, to the inner Master to cleanse them. Don't
blame it on anything else and don't believe in that.
Negative
things are never true because God is not negative. How can God create
anything negative? Everything negative comes from our devil mind.
Everything God created is perfect. We just make everything topsy-turvy,
turn everything into bad because we are taught that way, we accept
other people as our own opinion. We learn it from other books, say
this is no good, that is no good. Then we believe in it, and we make
it into no good. So be careful what you read, be careful what you
take into your system and make your own. Be careful what you believe,
whether it is really good.
You have to
examine it. Examine even everything I say whether it is good for you
or not, whether it is logical or not. If not, you just reject it.
Really. Just tell me that what I am saying is garbage. You have to
examine everything before you take it into your own system and make
it become yours. Otherwise, it will be damaging. If you take some
garbage, some bad system and you make it into a belief, it becomes
yours, it's fixed, it's forever; and you die there, you are trapped
there. You cannot be free. Thoughts, systems, conceptions, all these
can trap people.
How
many families are unhappy because the husband, the wife believe that
sex is sinful? Meanwhile, they cannot help it. They are so unhappy,
they inhibit each other, and they make their lives hell. Does God
want your marriage to become hell like that? Does God want two people
who love each other to feel guilty, sinful all the time like that?
What for? What does it serve God over there? All these conceptions
do a lot of harm to people. I'm just citing one example. Every other
thing you have to examine yourself, I can't just chew all the food
and feed it to you. It's no good for you.
You
have to be clever. Meditate, polish your wisdom so that you can be
more clever. Then you can judge yourself what's good, what's not.
But you have to examine carefully, honestly without any judgmental
attitude, without any preconceived ideas. So pure as a child, looking
at a flower as it is without judging, "Oh, this is white. It's not
red. It should be pink, I like pink. I don't like red." Red is okay.
Pink is also okay. Okay or not okay is your own mind's problem. Your
soul doesn't discriminate.
Pay
Attention To Your Life, Make It Pure And Positive
So
we have to be very careful how we live our lives because everything
we think generates something. If it's negative, it generates a negative
atmosphere. It attracts bad luck to us, to the people around us; and
everywhere we go we bring it with us. Like if you carry a bag of poison
and it's leaking. Anywhere you go, will that poison you and will it
poison anyone who comes near you? It will.
Poisonous
thoughts are more poisonous than poisonous films or any substance.
Be careful what you think. If it's really no good, discard it right
away, recite the Holy Names, keep yourself centered, purify yourself,
enjoy the blessings that God gives you every moment that you are living.
Be thankful that you are healthy, you're alive, you have a good place
to come and relax, you have good friends like these, and you have
a good friend like me. (Applause)
I
have never asked you to do anything for me personally. Everything
I do for you is free, willingly and lovingly. You always ask me, "How
can we repay You, Master?" Don't. You don't have to repay me anything.
Just clean yourself, mind your own business, and let me do mine. That's
very simple. Because if you keep looking at my garbage, you cannot
improve. If you're looking at the neighbor's garbage, you're doing
yourself a disservice. That's all. I don't forbid you to look into
the neighbor's garbage or to do anything that you like to do. But
you have to think whether it is good for you or not.
Every
time you think negative about some people, is that comfortable for
yourself? No. Already no good, no need to believe my words, you examine
it. Every time you are angry with someone, think bad about them whether
true or not, who is the one who is the most uncomfortable? The first,
No.1, ourselves. Yes. So very simple.
It's
very easy to keep ourselves in control. Just look straight inside,
recite the Holy Names, and pray every time that the Master helps you.
Helps you, gives you loving thoughts right now or replaces the bad
with the loving ones. That doesn't mean sometimes you don't get angry
if rightfully you believe like that. Just express yourself if you
really believe like that.
Like
if you are angry with that person and tell him the reason. But you
have to examine first whether it's true, whether it's logical, and
whether it's worth it. If you are angry because he made you angry,
tell him. At least, give him a chance to clarify it or clear the air
with you. Don't just think and judge that person by your own personal
experience, low or high level of consciousness, fix him there, and
then go to talk to someone else about him without him even knowing
what you are talking about. The third guy is even more helpless. He
just sits there listening to all the garbage. He doesn't even know
anything about it. Then maybe the third guy talks to the fourth guy.
Oh God, then the whole Center is full of garbage.
Sometimes
you don't talk about it but you think about it, also no good. You
had better pray to God at that moment and say, "Take away this poison
from me," or else you poison everyone around you; because thoughts,
deeds and speech are all the same. They are powerful, especially when
we have concentration. It's very tiring when sometimes the karma comes
and you have to clash with someone. In the morning you look at yourself,
your face looks black. Something poisonous is inside you. Released
is some poison that makes you feel very tired, get old quickly, and
not look so fresh and young anymore. So keep yourself pure and positive.
It's best for you.
Unless
you can't help it -- like you have to live together with the person
and that person causes trouble, both of you misunderstand-- then you
have to clear it with each other. But that is not like thinking negative
about someone who doesn't even know anything about you, who doesn't
even know that you think negative about him, and maybe the thing you
think is not true. Even if it is true, you don't know how karma works.
You don't know what God has arranged for that or this person, for
what purpose. You know nothing.
So
better just shut up. Shut the mind, recite the Holy Names, and think
positive; because you don't lose anything if you think positive. Every
time you think negative, you lose. That's all. It's for yourself.
It's not that I forbid you or God will punish you. Your life will
be much better if you always try to think positive about everyone.
Honesty
And Trust Are The Keys To
Maintaining A Marriage
If
you have some problem with your close one, then sort it out with him
or her alone. You have no right to talk bad about your partner, whether
it is true or not, to another person. You violate his personal private
privileged honor. And if you love that someone, then it's really bad.
You really disgrace him or her by doing that, because sometimes you
misunderstand him or her.
Even
if it is true, maybe he did not intend to do that. It's his habit,
or he thinks doing that is good for you. But then it's no good for
you because you don't like it. You have to tell him or her alone because
that's where you have to work, you can't work with the third person.
If you live together like husband and wife, you have to work things
out together. Trying not to gossip about him or her because suppose
later he or she heard about that, your relationship would be gone,
finished. He or she can not forgive you. The trust is broken.
If
you live together as husband and wife, you must have trust in each
other, you must know you can turn to him or her in times of trouble,
and he or she will protect you, will honor you, will protect your
honor; not that he will sell you out at any moment to anyone. And
you don't even know who that is, you don't even know what they are
talking about, and half of the things are just in their own heads,
it might not be true.
It's
difficult I know that, but try. That's the only way to do it. I mean
there's no other choice anyhow. Any other choice brings you trouble.
You can try any other choice you want, but then it will bring you
trouble. Then you will find that this is the only choice we have to
live with.
We
have to live truthfully and just take care of whatever it is -- our
own business. We have enough problems with ourselves, with our partner,
with our children. No need to take care of his or the neighbor's.
Don't you think you have enough, or not? I can give you some of mine.
Free. I have a lot, left over and to spare.
Whew,
talking about garbage. If you really love it that much, come live
with me. Be my boyfriend, and then I'll share with you a lot, even
voluntarily. You don't even have to ask, I will give it. If you live
next to me, you will see it. How can you live next to a person and
not see the garbage. Just follow me and then you'll know what garbage
really is. Sometimes you will suffer too if you wish to know what
suffering is. So be happy that you are not with me, your life is peaceful
and normal.
A
really normal life is a blessing, don't fantasize. If you have one
partner, one lover, try to work with that person because it is workable.
In the long run it will work.
I
don't see any marriage as easy, even the so-called happily ever after
ones. Have you seen any problem-free marriages or partnerships? No.
Today I ate with my primary school teacher. He told me voluntarily
that he has been observing since he was young up till now that no
marriage is ever trouble free.
Because
he was surprised when he was young why adults were fighting all the
time, so he kept observing and checking everyone, every couple that
he knows. He has never seen one without rubbing and polishing, then
afterwards they are okay. Maybe still not okay, but then they get
used to it; they are getting better because they are getting used
to it.
A
married couple came to a master and said, "Oh Master, our marriage
is in so much trouble, please help us. Can you tell us that it is
really worth it? Should we continue?"
The
Master said, "Don't worry, I guarantee everything will be better in
the future. You will feel better soon."
So
the husband asked, "Oh how soon could that be?"
He
said, "Maybe ten years, twenty years."
Then
the couple said, "You mean at that time we will live happily ever
after finally? We'll have no more problems, no more quarreling?"
The
Master said, "No, no. It will be the same. It is just that you'll
get used to it and then you won't feel so bad." (Laughter.)
It's
just habits. Everything you just get used to it, and you don't feel
so bad anymore.
Go
Beyond The Habits And Represent The Qualities
Of Truth, Beauty And Goodness
Husbands and
wives quarrel also because of the mind. It records all kinds of garbage
information and whenever the situation is nearly the same, it puts
out the same stuff, husband and wife or partner quarrel again. You
know it's almost always the same story, same mistake again. So even
if you quarrel with each other a lot, do know that it's just the mind
that is making trouble or the karma.
Karma means
the things that have been recorded in the mind. The deeds that you
did before, the consequences, the mind records it; and then next time
it puts out the same. So do love each other beyond the mind, beyond
the physical contact, beyond the sex, beyond the troubles. You have
to love with the love of God, with the enduring kind of love and unconditionally.
Then it will last and it will sail over troubled water.
If you keep
looking at the trouble in your partner all the time or in yourself,
then you just make the problem bigger. Try hard and work together.
That doesn't mean you ignore anything that the partner annoys you
with or his or her habits. You talk about it. Hate the habit but not
the person. Throw away the bad qualities but not the person. Everyone
has to have something to work with, that is what we are here for,
that's what life is all about. It is difficult but it is not impossible.
I, myself, try to be an example of it. So you, yourself, also try
to be an example for yourself. Alright. Be happy.
Master
Says