(If we think more deeply, how profound was Milarepa’s faith in His Master, and to what extent? Should you encounter such kind of Master, I can tell you, by the second test, You all would have run off.) (One moment He could get drunk, and another He could deny what He said, and even His wife didn’t believe Him. How could we ever believe in such a Master? But then…) Wonderful, wonderful. It would be wonderful to have such a Master here. (Besides, when They met for the first time, His Master even told Him to kill people with black magic, to kill many people in the nearby villages with hail. His behavior was fundamentally unacceptable to normal people. But Milarepa still accepted it.
Of course, He had gone through lots of hardships, to build that house, He even had sores on His back. His Master’s wife saw it and shed tears. She went to talk with the Master, but exited with a hard scolding. Instead of comforting Him, His Master gave Him, as you know, a harness, telling him to do the horse[-people]’s work. He said all horse[-people] have that, an instrument to lay on His back, and told Him to return to work. Just imagine, if a Master tells you to wear that… Yet He continued to work. He could not stand it after the second time. His skin was ulcerated. So again she took Him, His Master’s wife, she told Him, “I have seen horse[-people] and donkey[-people] having this ulcerated skin due to their labor. I have never seen this happen to humans, being tortured to such an extent.” Even His Master shed tears at that time, but He still…) Did He? (He did. His Master said…) Could He have applied white flower oil? Would people like Him shed tears? I really doubt it. Maybe He was just sweating.
(Because His Master later explained that He had to endure nine great disappointments in order to eliminate the karma of His present life, and to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. If He had not survived these nine major calamities, those big ordeals and big disappointments or countless small tests, He could not cleanse all His karma. That’s why His Master… there was this one time He could not bear it and snuck away, and His Master secretly shed tears, praying to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, dragon gods, and Dharma protectors to swiftly get His disciple back.
Therefore, we sometimes see Master reprimand someone, or see Master drive disciples out, or see Master’s disciples run away. Do not think that Master is very fierce. Actually, each time when Master went back… Because I have more chances to be near Master, Master really was very sad and in pain. You cannot feel that kind of… a Master’s painstaking effort. The moment I saw those happenings, the more I saw, the more I shed tears and cried. I could feel Master’s… enormous hardship, which She endured in order to teach Her disciples. She often had to endure a lot of our misunderstandings. That kind of misunderstanding was really unbearable. When we criticize, but dare not voice it out, then from inside of us, the energy of resistance would be fuming. That really would… Ordinary people like us certainly cannot sense it, but Master is very sensitive, and She will immediately feel that uncomfortable inner atmosphere of yours.
And Milarepa finally… Not finally, but halfway. His Master’s wife could not stand it so she stole His Master’s token, and wrote a letter for Him to go elsewhere, to go to another disciple of the Master to ask for initiation. When He went, that disciple also gave Him the initiation. But after I read the book carefully, even that senior disciple did not practice the Quan Yin Method at all. He only imparted a method of contemplation to Him. We immediately realize that it is Light meditation. Milarepa practiced it for a long time but had no experience. Then that senior disciple told Him, “This is impossible. Unless you did not have Master’s permission.” He eventually came to a conclusion and said, “Only if you hadn’t got Master’s permission, then this would happen.” Then, Milarepa admitted and said, “Yes, in order to get this Method, I fraudulently used Master’s name to ask for initiation.” Therefore, sometimes we see disciples go out, trying to copy Master. They want to bless people and give initiations, or to teach people to chant the Five Holy Names. All those wouldn’t work at all. Because without the permission of a Master, it’s just a waste of time for us to transmit those things, causing harm to ourselves, and doing meaningless things to others.
And after He had obtained the Dharma, that senior disciple… His Master told Him to come back. So, after going back, He asked His Master to transmit to Him the most special, most extraordinary ear transmission method, the “secret ear transmission method.” This secret ear transmission method, when we hear it, we immediately know that it’s the “Quan Yin Method.” Just under a different name. This ear transmission method, eventually, another senior disciple of His Master, wanted to transmit to another person and chose another different name called “the secret method of extraordinary music ear transmission.” Sheng Yin, that’s the “Sheng” from the word “extraordinary,” of music… “the secret method of extraordinary music ear transmission.” Then it is more obvious to us that it is the Quan Yin Method. It’s just that in the same era, one called it “the secret ear transmission method”, and the other called it “the secret method of extraordinary music ear transmission.” Then it became different. Let alone in this era, many terms are often different.
His Master transmitted this very extraordinary “secret ear transmission method” only to Milarepa. Milarepa also did not transmit this to many people. He did not have many initiated disciples. I’m wondering, why in those times, it was so difficult to receive this extraordinary method? When an enlightened Master came to this world, why sometimes He only transmitted to just one disciple, or a few dozen, or just seven to eight people? Because in their times, that was the affinity. Those few Masters, Their affinity with people, or Their mission was just like that. Perhaps They were reluctant to harm Themselves too much. Their vow wasn’t that powerful.
I can feel that in this era, being able to be in the same era as Master, and the method Master is transmitting to us, to everyone, with such simple requirements. Just be vegan and meditate, all free of charge, offering it to all sentient beings like this. I think, since ancient times, in those books I’ve read, it seems that there had never been an enlightened Master who dared to do such things. Because in so doing, they would encounter a lot of obstacles, demonic obstacles, disasters, and a lot of ordeals would all befall on the Master. Therefore, you see, Master also suffers the most. Ever since Master started to transmit the Dharma till now, you can see so many disasters, difficulties, all befell to Master, until sometimes Master was almost unable to withstand these ordeals both from inside and outside.
That’s why we feel… Nowadays, sometimes when it’s too easy to receive this Method, people won’t cherish it. If you look at those who seek the Dharma, in order to receive this most extraordinary Method, the mental and physical effort, they have to live through. Also with the devotion for the Tao, and even then, sometimes they still can’t get that kind of Method. So, today we are all able to receive this Method. If we still don’t practice it, it’s really… I don’t know how to say it. It seems that we’re really letting down the Grace of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Some people even complain that meditation hours are too long; complain, and even slander. These people really don’t deserve to come here to learn.)
(Also I feel…) Still more. (There’s some more. So far, Master also has done some very special work which makes me feel that She is different from all those past enlightened Masters. You see, all the scriptures that we are reading now, like the Bible and others, any scripture, they were all recorded and compiled by disciples after the Masters were gone. Of course, during the compilation, the spiritual level of those disciples could be different. Also, the environment, the time, the situation, and the audience when each Master gave the lectures were completely different. And so sometimes They said different things. For the same thing, the explanation could be different. But after the enlightened Masters were gone, then they began to collect and compile it for people to read. Sometimes it’s really not accurate. Those scriptures are not necessarily suitable for everyone. After many translations, passing of different dynasties, a lot had been omitted, or the original meaning was misinterpreted. The original meanings were not conveyed completely.
So, I feel what Master is doing now… All the scriptures, after being compiled by disciples, are personally checked by Master by reading or listening so that She has peace of mind. In the future, situations like misinterpretations of scriptures or distortion by people will definitely not happen. Not even after billions of years. From English, Aulacese, to Chinese. For every single book, for every translation it goes through, as long as She understands, She’d read through it personally. This job really seems very tiring. At Her level, Master still has to do this kind of mundane administrative work. It’s so tiring for Master; more often than not after listening to a few sentences, Master would often fall asleep.
Really, oftentimes I don’t know how to work with Master, and Master cannot work either. Therefore, in order to have a book thoroughly read through by Master, sometimes it really depends on luck, and the blessed merits of sentient beings. If they pray more sincerely, Master will be more anxious. Master often doesn’t feel like doing it, but She feels the pressure behind it which keeps on pushing and pushing. Then Master will keep forcing Herself to do those administrative tasks. But Master also knows that She cannot avoid it, because it affects future generations, innumerable generations. They need to receive these accurate insights to avoid misinformation and misunderstanding. This is a task that can’t be omitted; also, it seems no enlightened Master has ever done this before.) You didn’t see it. How do you know? (No one has written that in books.) Those things were not written down. Any more? (No more.) No more? (I don’t know.) You don’t know? I’m asking you.
Continue talking. It’s also good for me to have some rest. It’s only 5 o’clock. (Then I’ll tell a joke.) Oh, everyone likes jokes. (When I first arrived in Japan, we had temporarily rented. We rented a house nearby. In front of the house, there was a machine. The machine was the kind which we could put a few dollars in, press it, and immediately a can of soda or something would come out.) (Vending machine.) You know that very well. (The machine just happened to be right next to the door. One day, a monk had just arrived. He was kind of dumb, and so I fooled him, saying, “You can take money there to buy soda.” He said, “I don’t know how to put money in.” I said, “You just put your money in, and then it will come out,” I also told him by the way. He said that he didn’t have small change, and I said, “It’s alright if you don’t have small change; you just stand in front of the machine and tell it, ‘I’m KC’s friend.’” Because there was a monk among us who was in charge of buying those things when we first went there.) The American monk.
(That’s why he and the machine… We joked that he was like a good friend with the machine. Very familiar with it. I said, “You can go to the machine and stand in front of it, tell it that you are KC’s friend, and that you forgot to bring money today, and you’d like to have two cans of soda on credit. After saying that, you give it a salute, and press it, and the soda will come out.” Wow, after hearing that, he looked very surprised and said, “Wow! Why is KC so amazing? How did he manage to communicate with it? How was he able to do it, able to borrow money from it, and purchase on credit?” He had that kind of astonished expression. The more I looked, the more I was amused, so I told him, “That’s not all. There was one time when KC forgot to bring money, small change, and he needed to make a phone call, but he had no money. He could even get money from it. He borrowed a few hundred dollars of small change from it. You stand in front of it and say that you need some small change, and say that you’re KC’s friend.”) Borrow it temporarily. (“Then you press it and money will come out.” Wow! He believed even that. And then he said in an even more surprised tone, “Ah! Really? How can he be so terrific? How can he… can you do that?” He asked if I was able to do it or not, talking to it like that. Finally, seeing that he seemed to trust me too much, I said, “I was kidding you.” He scolded me fiercely. I tell this story to illustrate that sometimes our fellow initiates are really very simple-minded, so much so that he even believed this.) This is called dumb, not simple-minded.
But in Japan, that was how we joked with each other. The same between Master and disciples. One time, we were talking nonsense, saying, “The machine trusts us very much. Maybe in the future if we have bought the wrong thing we don’t have to go out. We just say, inside the house, “OK, please deliver two bottles of Coca-Cola or whatever.” Then they’ll come to our doorstep by themselves. Two bottles of Coca-Colas will come to knock on our door. And then give us the change, and just like that, cash on delivery.” It might be possible to have this kind of robot in the future. The kind of robot which we can make a call to, and it says: “OK. Two cans of Coca-Cola. Delivered to the door.” It could happen. If people continue to develop machines, one day this could come true. In the future, you don’t even need to sleep. Just rent a machine and make it sleep for you. The same with meditation. Push a button and set it to meditate for two and a half hours. If you want to attain Buddhahood quickly, set it to meditate in full force. Yes, it could come true.
Have you ever heard about those UFOs? Have you finished with your talk? (Finished.) There are some UFOs, what is it? UFO, UFO. People caught some UFOs or some beings coming out from UFOs. They looked very much like humans, but actually they’re not human. They’re a kind of robot. Is this how to say “robot” (in Chinese)? Robot. (Robot, robot.) Robot. Yeah. They come out, gathering things and materials and then go back to make reports, to conduct experiments on us. And study the situation on Earth. (Aliens.) Those are not aliens. Mostly those are robots. Robotic humanoids. In the future, if they can even drive a UFO, delivering two bottles of Coca-Cola is nothing. In the future. Yes. In the future, maybe when we barbecue here, it will be also done by robots. We humans will just sit around grabbing the food. We’ll grab the food right after it has been roasted.
If people can invent the kind of robot which can meditate, our fellow initiates might be the first customers. Quickly place your order, two robots for each person, in case one of them breaks down. What? (That’s absurd.) That’s absurd. Yes, let one meditate, and the other is a spare, set aside just in case. Just in case one day, it runs out of oil, runs out of electricity, or it just simply stops on its own and breaks down, and can’t be fixed on time. What if there’s not enough time to make up two and a half hours of meditation on that day? Or someone like our fellow practitioners, who are so eager to attain Buddhahood, they’d relentlessly make it sit for 24 hours a day, plus intensive classes and such. And even during the Lunar New Year and Christmas. They won’t give it a break. It will definitely break down often. So, need to buy two. In case it’s available, should buy two. Then our fellow practitioners will also build their own machines. They’ll then compete to see whose machine is better at meditation. (They might even make the robots talk about their experiences.) Tell them not to share their experience. And then, they’d also compare which machine emits more light, etc. If Milarepa’s Master were to test us, it would not be a problem. We’d just bring out the machines once in a while to build the houses! OK, got it? That’s about it. It would be too pitiful if we didn’t practice.
Photo Caption: “Beautiful Till the Last Moment!”
