A long time ago, two friends took a trip together to visit and tour around. As they passed by an Indian temple, they heard someone reciting the Bhagavadgita inside. The Bhagavadgita is a very famous sutra in India. One of the friends said to the other, "Come on! Let's go inside to listen to the sutra." So both of them went inside; however, only one stayed to listen, and the other took one glimpse and went out to look for girls in a brothel.

The one that went to a brothel soon felt bored. He regretted what he had done and felt quite ashamed. He thought, 'Gosh! This is really nonsense! I am so ashamed. Why did I come to such a place instead of listening to the holy teaching? My friend is listening to the sutra now and receiving boundless merits while I degraded myself at a place for prostitutes. How demoralizing!" He felt repulsive and ashamed, so he went back to the temple to listen to the sutra. But when he arrived there, it was already over. He was truly sorry and repented for several days afterwards.

While he was feeling ashamed at the brothel, his friend in the temple was unable to calm his mind to listen to the sutra. (Master laughs.) His mind kept wondering to the brothel and thought, "Gosh! This is really boring! Why do I stay here listening to the sutra? My friend is now eating and drinking and having a good time, while I sit here listening to some sutra. How boring!" (Master laughs.) As he thought about it, he got into a bad mood.

After a long time, both of the friends died. The angel of death pulled the friend who listened to the sutra to hell, and dragged the friend who went to the brothel to heaven. (Master laughs.) Do you know why? You don't know! It is because everything is created by the mind! God does not look at our conduct alone. He looks into our hearts! Sometimes, we see a person's behavior but we don't really know if he is that way. Unless we can measure from within, it is very difficult to judge the inner person. He may appear very kind, but his heart is not kind; or he may have a very loving heart, but it doesn't seem like that from his outer appearance.

The same with some of our fellow initiates. You know that they were not so virtuous in the past; some were big gangsters and some were lady gangsters. (Master and everyone laugh.) Some have killed others or have committed some deeds that were not acceptable to society. But after they repent, they try to purify themselves and practice self-cultivation sincerely. Eventually their sins will be eliminated. While there are some others who

may not have committed any crime during their life time, but they roam around, refuse to learn meditation, and take only half a glimpse at the Master and feel nothing. They leave to look for other masters. They are always 'shopping" around; we might say that they are "shopping around the mountains" because most of the enlightened masters lived in the mountains. (Master laughs.) They jump from one mountain to another because the other seems greener and prettier. Due to their lack of sincerity in spiritual practice, they are not successful in the things they do.

Therefore, we cannot fool God by our seemingly kind outer appearance. We cannot fool God because to fool God means to fool ourselves. We are fully aware of what we want; and whatever we do, whether we are sincere or not, we know it clearly.

You have also read some stories of the ancient masters. Some of them were pretty weird, like Jigong (a Chinese master). We heard that he ate meat and drank wine, and was always drunk and falling down without dignity. Then there was the Chin-Shan living Buddha. He was also a weird monk (Master laughs.) He was always very sloppy and undignified. But they practiced and knew their own level of spiritual attainment; and the Buddhas knew as well. Therefore, even though it is not easy to judge from the outside, but as spiritual practitioners, we know from the inside whether we are sincere or not. Even if we don't know, God knows. It is not due to our outer performance that other people will believe in us, not necessarily so! God makes the judgement.

Being truly sincere is the most important in spiritual practice. At group meditation, some people may sit there quietly, but their mind is not focused. That's why Master often tells you that when you go to group meditation, you must keep your body, speech and mind clean. (Master laughs.) Otherwise, you receive no merit from sitting there; it is worse than those who meditate sincerely at home. They are very sincere and humble when they meditated every day; thus they receive more merit. (Master laughs.) But of course we will receive a lot of merit when we attend group meditation anyway, because the sincerity of the others will affect us. For example, when we come here and see hundreds and thousands of people meditating intently and sitting so seriously, we might feel ashamed and try to sit quietly for a while (Master laughs); thus very naturally we will receive a lot of merit through concentration and purification of the mind.

There was an enlightened master who belonged to the Brahmin caste. In India there are many castes and the Brahmin caste is one of the higher ones. This master was very poor. He had a wealthy disciple who was a cloth merchant, but he was a miser, and very narrow-minded.

One day, this Brahmin master needed a good quality, beautiful cloth to wrap up his religious items in, such as his small bell, "wooden Fish" and scriptures. Indian Brahmin practitioners had great respect for these religious items, so he went to ask the wealthy, cloth merchant disciple if he had such a cloth that he could give him.

The disciple said to him, "No, master! I am sorry! If only you had come a little earlier, I would definitely have had such a cloth, but you have come too late. I have just sold it. I don't have such a good quality cloth now. I am very sorry." He continued, "But I shall remember that you want a cloth like that. I will not forget. I will remember. Please always remind me and I will give it to you when I have it." Still, he always never had such a cloth. (Master laughs.)

Another day, the master came again. This time the wife of the wealthy disciple eavesdropped on their conversation. She immediately sent a servant to get the master. She asked the master, "What was it that you requested and my husband did not give you?" The master then told her the story about his need for a piece of precious cloth to wrap his religious items, etc. "But your husband doesn't have such a cloth," the master said. The wealthy disciple's wife said, "Don't worry! You will definitely have it tomorrow morning, and not only one piece of cloth, but two pieces. I promise you.'

Later, when the husband came home after selling his cloth, the wife asked, "Have you closed the shop?" The husband replied,"Yes, I have." She said, "Hurry back to your shop now and fetch me two pieces of such and such cloth." Her husband was surprised, "Oh! What is the rush? Can I give them to you tomorrow night? I definitely have some, but I will give them to you tomorrow. Is that alright?" The wife said, "No! I want the two pieces right now! At once! You are not willing to give them to me, are you? Ah?" Of course the

husband said, "No, no. Immediately, I will go and fetch them right away. Okay!" The poor wealthy husband, he was not talking to the kind and simple master; he was talking to this great wife.

That is why the Chinese call their wives "tai tai" (meaning great). Is that not so? No just "ta ta" (meaning big), but "tai tai"! Not just one 'tai". "Tai yang" (the Chinese characters for "sun") only has one "tai", but your wives are called "tai tai", with two "tai". This means that nothing is greater than them. Even the kings are only called "ta wong" (great king), while the wives are 'tai tai". From this one can see how much the Chinese respect women, how much they respect their wives. Therefore, when the wife said something, he immediately ran back to the shop. Even though it was very late at night, he had to reopen the shop and bring back the two most beautiful pieces of cloth that his wife wanted.

Early in the next morning his wife sent a servant with the two pieces of cloth to the master. She also wrote a note to the master, which said, "Master, from now on please tell me if there is anything that you need. I promise you that you will have it immediately. You don't have to talk to my husband about it." (Master and everyone laugh.) This means that this wife is even greater than the master. It is like that in this world, I am sorry to say! These facts are difficult to accept, but (Master laughs.) such situation happens! Sometimes certain situations are like this.

There are similar cases with many of our fellow practitioners. After receiving initiation, they say, "I am sorry, Master! My wife does not allow me to be a vegetarian." (Master laughs.) I don't dare ask further, "Whom do you really want to listen to?" It is obvious! (Master laughs.) Then life after life they listen to their wives. Under such circumstances, what is the use of an enlightened Master's appearance on earth? Many people ask me, "Since Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are so compassionate, why don't they initiate everyone when they descend?" Even initiation is of no use to some people, is that not so? They won't listen to you! Therefore, everyone goes his own way, and chooses different ways of life.