Prayers do help (Yes.) when you’re sincere. All the Saints are all around all the time. (Yes, Master.) They never left us. It’s just we leave Them. We forget. We forget the holy life, we forget Their energy, we forget that They’re helping us all the time. A lot of people pray for many things, it happens, it works.
(Master is beautiful.) This is my destiny that I must wear beautiful clothes. (A beautiful destiny.) A beautiful destiny. OK. Everybody good? (Yes, Master.) Wow! Very good. Whoever can come just come. Whoever has a place, can come in and eat. The Korean, the Westerners, wow! A lot, a lot…Come! Korea, Mongolia… And then Westerners, go eat. There is a place empty, you go inside. Somebody else sits there.
I am going to sing you a Buddhist liturgy. Shortened version, like offering to the Buddha, and offering to the hungry ghosts, and all other beings. And hope the ones who make our food will be good, strong, healthy, and hope that the ones who eat, also become strong, healthy spiritually, and otherwise. Like that.
Offering to the Pure Dharma Body, Vairocana Buddha, the Myriad Transformation Body, Shakyamuni Buddha, Land of Ultimate Bliss, Amitabha Buddha and Buddha of all directions and all times. Great Wisdom Manjusri Bodhisattva, Great Conduct Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Great Compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, All Venerable Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas, Maha Prajna Paramita. Offering three virtues and six flavors to the Buddha and Sangha. Together with all sentient beings in the Dharma Realm, we render this universal offering. When taking meals, we wish all sentient beings: May Dhyana bliss be their food, and spiritual bliss be their fill. Saptanam, Samyak Sambodi, Kotinam, Tadyatha, Om Cale Cule, Cundi Svaha. People who give alms will surely benefit from their deeds. People who delight in giving will surely have peace and happiness. The offering has now ended. We wish all sentient beings to be successful in their practice and attain full enlightenment.
Thank you. Good appetite. God bless. Thank you, the kitchen team and everyone. Thank you, everyone involved in preparing this meal. Thank you.
I can make (vegan) mince pies, very beautiful, if I have the instruments. Looks like (vegan) mince pie. Wow! Like Christmas! I love that. I love (vegan) mince pies. In Hong Kong, I used to bake a lot. The Hong Kong people loved it. (Vegan) mince pies, lemon tarts, strawberry tarts, all kinds of (vegan) tarts. Custard tarts, I make vegan. Beautiful! I love to bake. I love to bake (vegan) bread, (vegan) apple pie, (vegan) plum pie, all kinds of things I used to do. I love them so much. It’s really relaxing. It’s a pity that my talent is now put to sleep. No time. One day, I will find time. I love to bake. But I have to buy these cutters, to make it more beautiful. Because this means they don’t have the proper cutter, so it doesn’t have a little bit of artistic shape. Thank you. But also, it tastes good anyway. Christmas came early. Mince pie!
Is it really mince inside? Smells like it, but maybe not. No, it doesn’t look like it. Just smells a little bit of the cinnamon only, so I thought it’s mince pie. It’s not. Mince pie you have to have minced meat. Of course, it’s vegan, it’s not meat, but they call it “mincemeat” in England. Oh, I love that. Maybe we can go to a foreign supermarket and buy (vegan) mincemeat and put it there until whenever I have time. I’d really love to cook for you guys, honestly. I have no reason to tell you a lie. I only lie to myself. I say “you’re tough, you’re tough, you’re tough. You’re OK, you can bear it. Keep it up, keep it up.”
When I eat with you, it tastes so good. When I eat at home, you ask him, he always brings food for me and he bring the same back. If my dogs are not around, then it’s the same, almost the same amount goes back.
I can also make some special… It’s not a kind of pie. It’s maybe a tart, but it’s a big one. They call it “Zwetschgenkuchen” (plum pie) in German. You slice the plums, big plums, sweet, and then you lay it on top of the pastry bed you made yourself, and then you bake. It tastes wonderful. Then you eat with cinnamon, sugar and vegan cream. That’s the life I left behind. Now they give me sometimes just tofu, white rice, soya sauce. That Zwetschgenkuchen not everyone can make it. There’s a secret. Because the pastry bed cannot be too soft, cannot be too hard, and has to be thin enough. If you make it too thick, you only taste the flour. And if you make it too thin, then it may not be compatible with the plum. And the plum should not be too sweet, so that you can have room to put sugar and spice on it, cinnamon.
Now I can make all kinds of pies and tarts, and it looks so delicious when you… The tart, you don’t cover. But when they say “tart,” that means you don’t cover it. It’s similar to this. But not covered, so you can see the strawberry; chop-chop, half-half and with some liquid, (vegan) strawberry jam on it. And you make it yourself; it’s the best because it’s still fresh and red, and looks jelly-like. Oh, wonderful! And then you can see the blueberry on it. You can see (vegan) lemon cream on it. You can see it. Because this kind of pie you cover, so you don’t even know what’s inside. When I lay the whole table full of all different colors, oh man! Even God would come down! I’d come down because of that.
Thank you very much that you stay. You understand my Spanish? Because I don’t. Was it correct? That he stays, I thank him. (“You stay.”) You stay? Not “Te quedas,” stay! (Stay is “quedarse.”) Oh, “quedarse,” yeah! I almost made it. He understood. We have inside communication, so he understands. That was very brave. Strong man. Hero. Not every man can do that. Not every man can. (Not every man can.) Yes!
My Spanish is still working. At least my Spanish was good enough to change the taxi driver into a non-smoking taxi driver. Whatever I know, I gave it all to him, and he changed. (Wow.) Two months later, I came back, he was not smoking. So, no matter if my Spanish is good or not good, at least it was beneficial. The taxi driver in Villajoyosa. He took me back and forth, several times only. And I scolded him so black and blue with my broken Spanish, and he understood everything. And he quit smoking. (Wow.) He’d smoked all his life. He was about 60 already. Difficult! Especially his son was still smoking in the house. They lived together.
Oh, I praised him so much with my also broken Spanish. I scolded him “broken,” I praised him even more “broken,” but he understood. And I went out and bought him a kind of silver necklace with a silver cross, with Jesus on it. I said, “If ever you’re tempted to smoke again, you touch the cross and Jesus, and remember how Jesus suffered more than you, more than you. Even if you quit smoking, it’s very suffering, difficult, but Jesus endured more than that. So, you remember that and Jesus will protect you and save you. It was very good that you quit smoking.”
It was just coincidental, it was Father’s Day. And I wasn’t driving with him. I drove with somebody else. And then we stopped there to eat some ((vegan) churro.) churro and drink some cacao. And then I met him there. There’s a taxi stand as well, so I invited him to come in with my own driver. Not my own driver, another, my own taxi driver, and then we were all eating chucru together. “Chucru,” right? (Churro.) Churro, churro. Oh, I forgot. Churro, churro. It’s a stick like this. Full of calories, nothing else! It’s pure flour and pure sugar inside, and outside more! Churro, churro. If you eat more of that, then you’ll become very prosperous, fertile. And then we ate together. And I said, “Oh, I don’t smell smoke from you anymore.” He said, “I quit.” (Wow.) Wow! Sorry, it was a year, not two months. No. But he said he quit two months after he last saw me. Yeah, yeah. That’s what it was. Wow! I hugged him. I gave him a kiss, kiss. Here and here, here. I said, “Very good. Excellent!”
It was Father’s Day, so I went out to buy him the necklace with a cross and Jesus on it. He was very happy. He liked me a lot because I didn’t just drive with him, I gave him a good tip. And when if at mealtime and he was in my house, I cooked for him and we ate together. And then when his son had nothing to do, I let him come mow the grass, and gave him some money for study, buying some shirt that he fancied, that he could not afford. They were very happy. Because I told him, logically, because of him, his son smoked. When I scolded him, I spared no words, I spared no politeness, nothing. I said, “You already could not take care of your family, so your wife ran away from you already. He lost the mother. And now you smoke, if you have cancer, you die in agony. Who will take care of him? He’ll lose another parent. You are no good.” I said, “You have only one son and he has only you because the mother already remarried and is far away. Rarely see each other.” I said, “You are the only one he has.” But I told you this story already, so I don’t want to repeat again. I said, “If you die, what will happen to him? Nobody will love him as much as you do and take care of him as much as you do, so please take care of yourself for your son’s sake.” So, he quit.
I don’t know how I could speak so much Spanish with a taxi driver. Half an hour long I fed him with my boiling concern for his son. His son was only 15, and already smoking. (Wow.) Wow. After he quit, his son still didn’t quit because now he was used to it already. Young people, they grab whatever they have at their age, just to grab onto something. So he didn’t quit. Also, friends, buddies, chums; if you don’t smoke anymore, they will go hang around you and tease you, or whatever, bug you. I mean the son was still smoking in the house, and he (the father) quit. So, I thought he was a fantastic father. I praised him another half an hour. Just to equal the half hour of scolding. So, balance. I said, “Thank you, thank you. Because you quit smoking, many people benefit, not just your son; secondhand smoke in the taxi, secondhand smoke where your friends are, etc.” He said, “No, I have to thank You, because of You. You talked me into quitting, then I have enough strength. Because of Your talk, I could quit.” Because he said he’d tried before, he could not. This time, more than a year, so that’s stable. I gave him Jesus to take care of him, to make sure. To reinforce.
(Master, in my house, my mother smoked since she was 13.) Your mother smoked. (Yes.) And then? (She tried to stop smoking.) Yeah, but she cannot? (She couldn’t. But one night, she knelt down and prayed to Jesus Christ very sincerely. The next day she went to the kitchen, drank coffee, and then the whole day passed. And then suddenly she remembered, “Oh, I didn’t smoke.”) The whole day. (Yes.) And then, no more. (And after that, no more.) Oh! OK. (Yes.) Prayers do help (Yes.) when you’re sincere. All the Saints are all around all the time. (Yes, Master.) They never left us. It’s just we leave Them. We forget. We forget the holy life, we forget Their energy, we forget that They’re helping us all the time. A lot of people pray for many things, it happens, it works.
Is that real? Paint on. (Paint on.) Oh. (It’s not real.) Why? Is there a festival or something in India? (I was going for the event, but I could not, so I meditated there.) OK. I thought how come you go ahead and have a tattoo? Don’t you suffer enough already? The life we live, some people think it’s suffering already. So, I thought, why she went out to make a tattoo? I could make you suffer more if you want. Like living in the cave without any fan, without any heater in winter. Everybody, whoever likes, come on. My friend. Thank you.
When I went out sometimes... You see, I’m working also, so I earn my meal. Sometimes I went out or I go out, or driving in the car with somebody, I saw people bicycling uphill and training for a triathlon or whatever, Olympic. I said, “My God, this guy he doesn’t suffer enough at home. Maybe he should come and live with us, then he will never want to touch a bicycle like that again.” They’re training. Drive uphill in the summer sun, midday even! I said, “Oh, wow!” And somebody complained to me that we are too ascetic. That’s why he cannot stay. My God, he doesn’t know what ascetic is. Driving uphill like that, for me is ascetic. Some people like that.
