When I was in India in the ashram, nobody told me what to do. Well, nobody did anything, so I did it. I cleaned the yard, I watered the plants, I cleaned the house, I cleaned the steps. I washed two, three sinks full of dishes. Because everybody chased after the master. Or sat like a Buddha. I worked, because nobody worked! Two big sinks like this – they made a big sink for the public – two like this. Full, full up to the… higher up. Full of plates and dishes. They ate, and then they just threw it in there, and then they all chased after the master. […]
If other people can clean 40 rooms in one day – and clean everything, I mean, change the sheets, polish the bathroom and clean the toilet, everything like new… It’s not just cleaning the way we do at home now and then and once a week, a big cleaning. It’s not like that. A hotel has to be perfect, especially a first-class hotel. Four-star or five-star, then you have to do it like that. So, you cannot say that there’re not enough people here. I don’t expect them to clean 20 rooms per day, of course not. But every day, two, three rooms, then every room’s always perfect. And whenever disciples come, will always have rooms.
I said, “Like this, if they come in, they stay, they’ll get sick. You’d like to go and live in such a room like this, smells like that?” Does it smell, your room? Tell me the truth. (No.) Any? (No.) Smells moldy? No? How come you say nothing? You’re protecting them. I told them to clean, but I haven’t gotten a chance to inspect it. But I guess they did well. (It’s much better.) Yeah? (Much better.) Much better? (Yes.) Only better? Oh, you saw it before, right? (Yes.) When? (Maybe…) A month ago? (Two months ago.) So, it was very bad? You came in, you had to clean? (No, no. It just felt moldy. It smelled.) Yeah, I know. (It’s humidity.) Yes, yes, yes.
Because of not opening the window and door and all that when it’s fresh weather. We have everything. We even have air con, so if you turn on the air con – take turns to turn on air con every two, three rooms here, two, three rooms there whenever necessary – then the smell is not too bad. Or open all windows and really clean well, then it won’t be like that. Or change the bed sheets and all that. So, you know now. Last week I came back here. I checked and – oh, just one room, then I knew every other room. Two rooms, I looked in two rooms. Then I knew. Even my office, it smelled awful. Smelled like many years nobody cleaned. Yeah, incredible.
So I’m telling you, don’t say that you don’t have time to meditate. If you have time, you don’t do anything also. You don’t meditate that well. You also sleep like that. In fact, because you’re working outside, you come home, you appreciate more your free time, and you meditate even better. You’re more appreciative, more eager to meditate. People who have a lot of time don’t do anything. Don’t even meditate well. That’s why their level is still low. Even low positive, not to talk about low level yet.
One of the residents is here; I’m not talking behind their back. I said, “What do you mean ‘don’t have enough people’? How many more people you want me to have here?” Are you sure only six people? At least eight people. What I mean is we have eight people or ten people here. I said, “How many more people [do] you want me to put in this hotel?” We have only 20-something rooms available. Ten people take up ten rooms already because nobody’s here, so they take up the rooms. So, if I bring more people here, then the whole hotel, the whole Center is full of cleaners and grass cutters, olive pluckers. No room for disciples anymore. Then what is the purpose here? It would defeat our purpose, right? We have to clean the rooms, make it empty for disciples to come to enjoy.
And I told them when I was in India, as a so-called disciple, every day I cleaned the yard, the meditation hall and the steps to the meditation hall. And I was so happy cleaning, I felt so honored. Because I was thinking I’m cleaning the steps of the saints. That’s what I was thinking. I was singing all the way and cleaning it. How can anybody complain that you don’t have enough time to clean, you don’t have enough people to clean? If I put more people in here, then where do you go? Only workers in here? I buy a hotel just for workers to stay! And not to talk about there are Loving Hut people, six people there also, right? (Yes.)
So how many people already in here? Fourteen, at least. We have only 20 rooms available. So, the rest six rooms are for you. Thank you very much. And still smelly. No, it’s not an answer. No, no. So, I’m telling you, don’t think that, OK, you become residents, and you have nothing to do. Yeah, you have. And then I do everything. Everybody just comes, say, “Oh, I love You, Master.” That’s it. And then I do everything else. Just love, that’s it. I’m not sure if you really love me! I said to them, “Because if you love me, you do things that please me. I don’t see anything you do that pleases me at all. Except what you have to do, or you are told to do. And the rest, you don’t do it.”
When I was in India in the ashram, nobody told me what to do. Well, nobody did anything, so I did it. I cleaned the yard, I watered the plants, I cleaned the house, I cleaned the steps. I washed two, three sinks full of dishes. Because everybody chased after the master. Or sat like a Buddha. I worked, because nobody worked! Two big sinks like this – they made a big sink for the public – two like this. Full, full up to the… higher up. Full of plates and dishes. They ate, and then they just threw it in there, and then they all chased after the master. So, after working in the office, helping to answer the letters, I’d go in the kitchen and clean up these piles of dishes. And I was very happy for the opportunity to serve. I felt very, very good.
But the Indian disciples are not the same, I’m telling you. When I was in India, of course, I was just like one of you. Sometimes I traveled from one place to another, and I stayed in another disciple’s house. Oh, he was so happy, happy. He said, “Wow, what an opportunity to serve the master through You. Please, come in. Please forgive our humble house, but it’s all Yours, it’s all Yours. Tell me where You want to stay. It’s all Yours.” And they cooked for me, they cleaned, and they wanted to wash my clothes, clean my shoes. Oh, my God. So happy to have a chance to serve the master, through cleaning the disciple’s shoes. Yes! They are saintly, I’m telling you. And I had a kind of similar feeling like that.
Because the master had a secretary [in] one of the ashrams. And she is very… She’s German. Sorry. I only talk about German men, I don’t know German women. Very… But she loves the master very much. Oh, she’s very… Wow, she’s very possessive. But I felt, because she served the master, if I serve her… Because she is… You know, the master is all hers, nobody can serve the master. Sometimes I’d feel the master talked a lot and the voice was maybe a hoarse voice. Because he went out, lectured, and came back, talked to us. So I made lemon juice in the kitchen with a little sugar and gave it to him. He liked it, and she said, “Don’t ever give that to him again.” I said, “Why?” “You don’t know what he wants!” I said, “He liked it. He drank it all.” It’s like that, for example. Very, very possessive. Maybe I should have asked her permission, but I didn’t think. “He’s also my Master,” I said. “Why can you just serve him and nobody else?” But I didn’t always do that, only now and then.
Or like when he’d go and sit, and they didn’t give him a proper seat. The Germans, they took up his seat. Like, they prepared like this, but not on like this, not so obvious like this. They’d just put one small sofa in the middle of the room. And one woman, German, went there and sat on top of it. So, the master had nowhere to sit, he’d just sit on one of those Indian cots. The Indian cot is like this: they have a frame… I’m sorry, it was really a German group. No, that master attracted Germans a lot. And the secretary was German also. Therefore, they are very, “Everything is in order, and there must be order.” Everything has to be in order, peep-pop. And so, the Indian cot is like this: they have a frame, wood frame, and they weave some kind of, like, coconut thread around it. Like this, like this, you see, like this. So, the frame – when near… You know it, huh, love? Near the frame, it’s high. And in the middle, it dents down a little bit.
So when the master sat on it, he was like this. I felt so sorry for him. I tried to get the… I should have kicked that woman out of the chair. But I was not used to being in authority like the German secretary. And she wasn’t there. It’s only one time that I accompanied this master. So, I got some cushions from somewhere and I put them for him, so that he could sit more comfortably. That’s what I did. But normally I wouldn’t dare to do it because she was always the one, only that time she was not there. So I had the opportunity, but I still felt, “Oh, should I?” “Could I?” You know, you get used to being… not to… But why am I telling you all this? What was it? (The way the Indian disciples are.) Ah, the way the Indian disciples are. Yes!
But the Indian disciples never sit in the same height as the master. You can if you want to. It’s just here, I have to sit high so that you can see me, that’s all. And in the Buddha’s precepts for the bodhisattvas and the monks also, you don’t sleep or sit on the high or big bed. Of course, if you have an assembly like this and everybody brings their king size bed here, what do you think? Where would the next person go? Most Indians in those times, the poor people, they didn’t even have a bed much, and they sat on the floor, they slept on the floor. It’s hot climate anyway – it’s cooler like that. So, the Buddha didn’t let the monks or anyone, if they wanted to come in retreat, sit on the high bed. So it became like a tradition. But it’s logical, no?
Because where the Buddha went, must be a lot of people following Him or looking at Him. And if everybody brought a big bed from Germany so high and so big, then nobody can see the Buddha anymore. That’s why there’s that precept. Not because if you sit on it, then you die or something, it’s not like that. Also, one of the precepts for the lay disciples, meaning the ones who want to come to retreat, to be a saint for a few days, you have to bring your hammock with you. They call it a thread bed, the hanging bed. That’s a hammock now. Remember when you went to Miaoli (Taiwan [Formosa]) before, we didn’t have any roof – not much, very small – so everybody was hanging in the hammock, including myself. We were cool. I liked that very much.
I normally don’t like big houses. It feels too big. Maybe I’m too small, I don’t know. I feel better in a smaller area, so I can concentrate better, and it’s warmer. You don’t have to have a lot of heaters, or you don’t have to have a lot of anything. Very simple. And you clean the house in just a few seconds, done. Actually, I don’t know. I’m very happy in a cave, but if a house has a lot of spiritual energy, then I just have to go in. I don’t care where anymore. But I prefer the cave, if possible. And I prefer a small bed or lower bed. Just preference, not because of monks’ precept or anything. It feels cooler like that, and easier.
