Master Tells Stories

A Magical Chair

Long ago there was an old man. He lived at the foot of the mountain and was very poor. He had no possessions. His straw hut was his only property. In fact, this person was very lazy so he deserved it! One day he heard that in a certain place there lived a very powerful yogi who had the supernatural power to create anything he desired. After hearing this, the very lazy person, who did not want to work, wished to go there to ask the yogi to use his supernatural power to create things for him so that he does not have to work any more. After thinking in this way, he left.

He walked a very long way to the mountain cave where the yogi lived. When he saw the yogi he prostrated. The yogi was quite nice, he politely entertained him and asked him about his purpose. The lazy man said, "Respected and beloved master, I am a very poor person. Besides a small straw house, I have nothing else. Now I am very old and not able to work, so please, compassionate master, please help me. Grant me some possessions to live on. I know you have a lot of supernatural power. You can immediately create anything you desire. I believe you are able to help me."

That yogi closed his eyes and sat there quietly without a word. Perhaps he was too tired listening to all of this. This old man than continued to ask him. After requesting for a long time, this yogi reluctantly gave him a chair and said, "After you go home, anytime you think of something you want, you can sit on this chair. But you have to wash you hands, face and take a bath before sitting on the chair. Then think about anything you desire. This way you will surely get it."

After thanking the yogi, the old man took the chair and immediately rushed home! After reaching home, he did not waste a bit of time. He immediately washed his hands, face, took a bath, then he sat on the chair right away. At that time he was very hungry, so he immediately thought about food. Then food immediately appeared. Oh! Very beautiful, very nice and a very bountiful meal. So he enjoyed all the good food until he was very full. After eating he felt tired and desired a bed to rest. Immediately a bed with a thick mattress appeared. He lied down to sleep, but he could not really rest, because in his heart, he was always thinking of wanting things and money. He jumped up from the bed and sat on the chair. Now he started to think about transforming his straw hut into a palace. As he was thinking this, the straw hut immediately disappeared!

This old man's palace was very, very beautiful with jewels all over. The doors were made of gold. The floors and the ceilings were made with gold, even the pillars were of gold inlaid with very precious jewels. Thus he was very happy and felt very comfortable. He continued to think, "Ah! Such a big palace should not be without any servants." He just thought and many servants appeared waiting for his commands. Later he thought, "The servants, the palace can not be without money!" He thought of a lot of gold, silver and money. Suddenly all these appeared together. It made this old man very happy in deed. But he suddenly became worried. He thought, "Ah! My palace is so beautiful, with so many possessions, if it happened that an earthquake should come, what to do?" (Master and all laugh.) He just finished the thought and the earthquake came. (Master laughs.) His possessions and the palace were squashed into the earth.

What does this story tell us? Our mind has to be clean and pure first. It is not good enough having supernatural power or power of practice. Therefore we have to clean our body, speech and thought before having the power. If we have the power but our body, speech and mind are not clean, precepts are not kept properly, then we could do bad things. Our own power could hurt ourselves. Sometimes this power could hurt others. Thus since ancient times, those masters, before taking in any disciple, would test the disciple for a long time until his body, speech and mind were completely clean before giving him the power.

The Master often tells you not to practice supernatural power. The ordinary people outside can practice the supernatural power easily. They do not have to keep any precepts and do not have to be vegetarian. When we still cannot control our mind, if we think about bad things they appear at once, because at that time we get whatever we think. The power in the universe is immense, but we should know how to use it. Otherwise, it can cause a lot of harm, harming ourselves and damaging the world. Some disasters we see in the world are sometimes not necessarily the karma of the people, but due to some people who practice supernatural power. They practice towards the bad direction or because of their messed-up thinking, they then mess up the world. We can say that these people created trouble or were possessed by the negative power. Really there are such people.

Thus when we practice we have to think about God everyday, think about those fully charged names of the Buddhas to protect ourselves. Sometimes it is not entirely our own karma that causes our obstructions, but sometimes it is the negative, maya power around us that affect us. Therefore, we have to always remember our goal, remember the power of the most high, and recite the five Buddhas' names to protect ourselves. Thinking a lot about God Almighty, our mind becomes clean and then we do not desire anything. To us, at that time supernatural power would be of no use, because we would be one with God and there would be nothing we could not have.

At that time, we would be very satisfied inside and we would know that after we have left this illusive world, we would go back to our homeland where we have everything. Compared to that place, this world is junk. Nothing could be offered to us here. After our soul has returned many times to the homeland to take a look, our mind would understand and would be very stable. Then we would not want anything. Even if we want we would only want those things that are good for others. Our heart would be very kind, always thinking of positive things. Once thinking about positive things then the positive things would come.

The Method Of The Big Boots

In India, long time ago, there was a very, very nice and kind good King. He loves his subject very much, and so he rules with the love and compassion and consideration for his people. But then every time when he see one of them, you know, he saw always their feet. That's in the old day, you know, people don't have shoes yet, so their feet are always hurt by the stones and the thorn, the thorn from the bushes. They sometime fall on the street. So people walk all over and the thorn stick into their feet and it hurts, and sometimes it bleed and is infected.

And so the King feel very, very heartbroken about this. So then he order his armies to get the fur and the skin of the dead animals to pave, spread it on every road so that his subjects, his citizens will walk on it and don't feel hurt. Not only the road but he order his people to put skin all over, on top of all of the earth of his country.

So there was a very old and wise minister told the King he has a better idea. He say, instead of spreading skin all over on the earth, this is not convenient and it took a lot of time and a lot of money. Instead you can just put them on each bodies' feet, his peoples' feet and then they can walk anywhere they want.

Master comments. This sounds a very funny story, but it just symbolize something. Yeah, just like many people or ourselves sometimes we want to make the world equal, peaceful, prosperous, friendly, loving and etc. etc.., but then it's not possible. Just like the thorns or the stone, it keep falling on the road or sometimes even from the sky, and on top of the earth. Doesn't matter how much time you cover, there would be stones and thorns falling back again, even on top of the skin. So it is better then we just take care of our own feet.

So the Quan Yin Method, it is just like the shoes for your feet. Even though the world it's still full of trouble, with thorns and stones, but we can just walk over them. And we feel safe in the world of trouble. Because as long as many people do not practice the Quan Yin Method, the world still has trouble. So if we want to be free from the trouble, we just protect our individual person. Then no problem. Perhaps problem still exists, but not so much for ourselves. You feel less and less affected by the trouble of the world. Sometimes if we do feel affected, it is because we have love, compassion for the one who is affected. (Thus, identify their feelings as ours.)