In the Himalayan mountains and forests, in the evening it gets dark very fast. Well, when I was there, it was dark very fast. Sometimes I went to the library to borrow some books or read something there, and then even when they closed and I had to go home, it was a long way to walk. […] In those forest paths, sometimes you see no one. Rarely, now and then, you might be lucky to chance upon a monk, some elderly monk, and he has only a plastic sheet on top of his head built from some branches of trees nearby by some of his devotees or maybe himself. […]
Seeing these monks, it was always like a happiness for me. First of all, because the path is so lonely, nobody’s there. And second, because they represent to me the holy image, the connection between humans and something larger than life, something that connects with God, with Heavens. So I always treasured any time I saw any monks a long time ago. Even in a city also, in India, you can have more chances to see good monks, very pure and simple. They walk everywhere. They don’t have money in their pocket.
One time, I met a monk who later became my teacher for Hinduism, and I became a Hindu nun under him. He never had any money, so he walked everywhere. And then he walked to see his friend in another temple. At that time, I had some money. It was very dark, so I invited him to go to a bus stop, and we went by bus just one time in his very long life. Then we went to a temple, and his monk friend and assistants, and some of his female devotees there made some food for us. They were very generous and kind. And there was a big stream next to that temple, and that’s where I became a Hindu nun.
I don’t wear it (the robe) anymore, but I still am with the nun’s name Mandakini Giri. Giri is a tradition, one of the big traditional monk schools in India. I’m told it traces back all the way to (Shankara) that great Founder of one of the Hindu strict monkhood traditions. In India, all the monks I saw were mostly very, very pure. And they just walked everywhere. They had really only three pieces of clothes on their body. And if they wash one, they will wait until it’s dry, and then they’ll wash the other one; they don’t wash all in one day.
In Buddhism, the Buddha said that in the Dharma-Ending Age, the maya’s children will make themselves into monks to delude people – the vulnerable people, the ones who fear trouble in the afterlife and this life, the ones who seek refuge and protection from the monks – they will make trouble for them a lot. I heard a lot. I don’t know if in many other countries or not, but in some I heard a lot about it, and it was very sad. But I believe there are still many good monks; that’s why I told you to help them or to support them, if you can.
In other traditions, I don’t hear much about problems, like maybe in Hòa Hảo Buddhism or Nam Quốc Buddhism, also called, with love, Coconut Buddhism. Because the Founder, a great Master, Nguyễn Thành Nam, only ate coconuts and drank coconut water to live on. Oh, I love coconuts, talking about that. In (Âu Lạc) Vietnam, I had a lot of good coconuts. There are different kinds of coconuts. In Thailand, in the Philippines also, there are different kinds. The best kind is one that’s so fragrant and so sweet, you could eat forever really. And some other coconuts are not like that, they’re just more plain. You don’t have much of the flavor. When I was in Thailand, we had a lot of those fragrant coconuts, in (Âu Lạc) Vietnam also. The Philippines also has such kind.
One time, I was in the Cayman Islands because I could not stay long in America. And in the Cayman Islands, in front of my little house, there were also coconut trees. And these coconuts, on the beach actually, were so sweet and so fragrant – just like the ones you have in Thailand, (Âu Lạc) Vietnam or the Philippines. I don’t know why, maybe the beach makes the taste like that. It’s on the sand beach; it’s a kind of private beach. It’s a very cheap house. You can rent them anywhere, and that one was not like in the city. It took one hour to drive from the city, the nearest market to that house, a very remote suburb. And I lived alone there. Whenever I couldn’t stay in America, I had to go there for a while. It was very nice, and I feared nothing. It was very good.
I had few disciples then. The more people you know, the more disciples you have, the more you feel different. There’s a lot of karma surrounding them and it comes to you. And then it gives you different kinds of burdens, different kinds of feelings, even fearfulness also. But that is the life of the so-called Master. If you want to be a Master, you have to reckon with all that, which you never knew could happen to you. The more you give, it’s not the more you have – not spiritually, no; materially, yes. Well, I don’t know really, actually, if the more you give materially, the more you have or not. Just make sure you give enough and keep enough for yourself. Because you never know what karma brings. Karma might not be from yourself; it could be from someone else. So just be moderate in everything, then things should be alright.
And some of you say you don’t trust any monk to give offerings. I don’t blame you. It’s just, you have to know which monk is good to give to. And any monk who asks for some money, it’s because they don’t have money, and they want to have a little comfortable life for themselves and also for their followers. Maybe some people came in to become monks and nuns under them, and they have to take care of them. Maybe like that. That’s what I think, but I’m not so sure. Quite a lot of people complain about monks who ask for donations and who find all kinds of tricks to make people donate to them.
“Excerpt from ‘Trúc Thái Minh says the spirit is calling for offerings like the monk does’ Make a vow to make offerings! However much [the ghost spirit] asks for, we must offer money, pay all the debts to it. Then the ghost spirit will forgive us and not take our life, but it asks for our property and money, and we must offer those to it. Understand? Well, it is either lose your life, or keep your life but lose your money, what else can you do? The ghost spirit demands that you have to offer money to it, then it will be blessed and go away. No matter what medicine you take, even if it's American medicine or of the highest quality, if this ghost spirit cannot be satisfied, then you will not be saved and must die.”
“Excerpt from ‘Resolving “Karmic Debts” at Ba Vàng Pagoda: 700 Million VND (US$28,000) Per Ritual and the Story of a Living Witness’ According to L, the group was led to a large room. Inside were two women wearing brown cassocks and a monk. The group was signaled to sit on the floor, then the monk began chanting a mantra to summon the ghost spirits to possess the two women. The family that came called upon their relatives’ ghost spirits, summoning them one by one. However, in my case, the information provided by the spirits was all incorrect. L added that everyone there was asked by the spirits to pay money to ‘resolve their karma.’ Each time, the ghost would possess a person for about 5-7 minutes, after which a secretary would record the spirit’s words and the amount the person had to pay. In the case of L, there were two options. If she chose to take refuge and frequently visit Ba Vàng Temple, the cost would be 32 million VND (US$1,300). If she chose not to take refuge with fewer visits to Ba Vàng Temple, she would need to pay 700 million VND (US$28,000) to appease the vengeful spirits. When this woman said she had no money, the people in the temple advised that L could choose to pay in installments or serve in the temple for a year. Recognizing that this was a scam, the woman (L) from Cẩm Phả city refused. However, the temple threatened her with documents, saying that if L would not take refuge and make the payment, she would go insane.”
I don’t want to criticize anyone, actually. You have to know what to do. I don’t know how to advise you. If you know a monk is good and his disciples are good… You can know at least physically when you hear them talk. You have to hear quite some times in order to make a real judgment. If you just hear one or two times, sometimes you can, sometimes you cannot. It depends on what they talk about and how they talk. Some monks’ talks make you feel really put off also. I wonder why some monks talk like that. But some monks, when they talk, you feel they are very truly caring, have compassion and have a really sincere heart to follow the Buddha, to follow Christ.
When I say monks, I don’t mean only Buddhism, other religions as well. You have to judge for yourself whether your church is really led by a good priest, good monk, or not. Or see if the order that you respect and believe in has really good monks and nuns, or monks or nuns with a real holy spirit, by being nearer to them and seeing what they’re doing every day –how they talk, how they react, and how they treat others. Then you probably can see some. Because if you offer money to not good monks, maybe it’s also not very ideal.
You have to see if they use it for some bad purposes, if they have this opportunity and the financial support to preach, to teach their followers, but they do not preach in the right way – if it’s mostly just for profit, and you see how they live their life, more easy, comfortable, instead of truly wanting to practice and to uplift their own soul as well as other souls.
Photo Caption: There Is No Weight, No Gravity If U R Uplifted
