Save the world with me. Help the animals who are suffering without anyone to rely on, without anyone to defend them, without a voice to speak out, to scream out for their suffering. Every time I cannot bear.
I was on the mountain called Yang Ming Shan. It’s a national park. It’s beautiful, isolated. And I lived in a tent then. It was so cold, so cold, so cold; very, very, very, very cold. And it doesn’t feel like the mountain is very high because you keep driving up, up, up. The slope slowly ascends, so when you are on the top of the mountain, you don’t feel like it’s very high. And some parts of the top of the mountain are flat. So, a long time ago, some people had houses on this mountain. They’re not allowed to build anymore nowadays, of course, because it became a national park. It’s become so flat. I had a small little so-called house on the Yang Ming Shan Mountain. And you had to walk a very long way, driving up to the top already, and still had to walk up the steps. I don’t know how many thousand steps or at least hundreds of steps. And then walk along again and steps again and walk again. I don’t remember how long. Maybe at least it takes… Does anyone remember that? Twenty minutes. From down there. From the roof of your hall. It takes 20 minutes if you walk. If I walk, it’d take at least 40 minutes. I just asked your Taiwanese (Formosan) brother. He told me that it took 20 minutes. But we’re already at the top, and then we take another 20 minutes to walk up. I say it’s his 20 minutes. For me, it’s maybe 30, 40 minutes or one hour. Some of my assistants say one hour because she walks, and then she has to take a rest in between.
Over there is truly nothing, but it’s a flat, big flat land, big enough for me. They have even a bamboo grove on it, flat. And the Taiwanese (Formosan), Taipei people, disciples, surprised me with a six-corner kind of house, and the bedroom is on top, hidden. And then downstairs, there is a big… big enough for me of course. I am a small person, so whatever they build is big. It’s like a pavilion. You saw it sometimes in some of my cooking shows that they showed or some of the shows they showed where I did some painting on that pavilion. And on top, there’s a bedroom, small. And then they even made a water sprinkler system on top of the roof because they are so loving. One of the brothers of yours, he went to Australia already with his family. But he built that with the other brothers and sisters from Taipei or other parts also. But mainly it was him. He’s a builder, so he built that.
They made a sprinkler system on top of the roof because they heard one time, I said that I love rain. So that is his magical raining system for me. It also cooled down the roof in summer. So, we didn’t have air-con or anything. I don’t remember that. We had a fan, and I cooked on the pavilion. The pavilion is all empty; there’s no screen, no door, nothing. And I remember the mosquitoes, a lot of them in this bamboo grove, but they never touched me, never. And I don’t remember any of the nearby assistants to me had ever been bitten by the mosquitoes, but I saw them. Wow! Groups of mosquitoes, dense, dense groups together in different places in the bamboo grove. I saw that. But I just saw it a few times because I didn’t notice them because they didn’t bother me. It's funny. And nowadays, they even bite me in the city, anywhere. It’s funny. I don’t know if my blood became sweeter or my karma became more attractive. Could be both.
I really love that place. When I went up there before, I didn’t have a lot of disciples then. I was working for the refugees from there and then going down. That’s why I had to leave that place. I never wanted to leave that place. I felt like I was so very detached from everything in the world, from anything that I wanted. It was a very simple place; just had a bedroom. I don’t remember if I had a bed, just slept on the floor. And they had a water connection, electricity even. Can you believe that?
Magical people, this group of people. I remember. He was a builder. He was a well-off person with family. They could not offer me any money, I didn’t accept, so they just went up there. That place was a private land, I think. I don’t remember asking. I presumed that it was a private land because there was bamboo growing. There was a big grove in it, and there were other fruit trees as well. These were the old times, when people already had it before it became a national park. And of course, the governments still allowed them to continue to cultivate or plant things or build a little hut. They could not build big houses, concrete and cement and all that, but a little wooden hut was OK. Nowadays, I heard that it’s a long time already and typhoons kind of damaged some places, and they wanted to go up to repair it. But I said, “Why? It’s such a long way. It’s very difficult to bring the material and all that stuff, so forget it.” I don’t think I’ll ever have that luxury to live there again, so I just don’t want them to waste their time. Just use it to meditate, that’s what I told them.
I’m not sure if meanwhile, they sneaked up and repaired it or not, for a souvenir. For later generations, when I’ve died already, then maybe they’ll sell tickets to come up, to visit. “Here, the Supreme Master Ching Hai, She lived here before. Look, here are Her shoes, and there’s where She cooked.” That’s what they do with the dead person’s houses or residences. I imagine there may be throngs of people walking up these difficult steps and a long way up, and then paying homage or taking photos or touching here, touching there for blessings. Maybe they’ll make a statue of me standing in the middle of the room or something, greeting the tourists. That is a 20-minute walk from already on top of the mountain, where you already parked your car far away because your car cannot go up. And you have to climb up many steps already. And then you can continue going further.
I used to have a little storeroom there, two by two. They used some metal sheets to cover around, just to wrap around and then put a roof on top. I used to live there next to a stream. We had a stream there. That’s what I loved about it. I didn’t have a lot of money at that time. And then we bought that place, borrowed some money from a brother. I repaid already, even though he didn’t want it, but I repaid. I said, “I don’t take anything, so please accept it.” It’s not much. It’s very little money to buy that little place. And we are not allowed to build anything, so just a few sheets of metal they somehow connected together to make it into a square room. And a few sheets on top, easy to be demolished any time. And then we had a big tent, made it a canvas tent with bamboo stuff, whatever we had. Even at that time, we were already working.
We were a small group but already working. We distributed leaflets or small leaflet news for people or for the disciples, so they continued to study the teaching and continued to be inspired and encouraged to meditate, and to keep the vegan (diet). At that time, it was vegetarian. I don’t ever drink milk, and I never thought of milk as something bad. Later, I saw how devastating, how cruel, how inhumane the practice of keeping cows in small pens without any turning-around possibility and chained and all that. Oh my God! Then I didn’t let them drink milk anymore, even though milk may be considered vegetarian. It’s not killing, but still, the treatment of cows is so inhumane. It’s not the way I saw it in my country. Âu Lạc (Vietnam), we don’t do that. The cows or the oxen, they just roam around in the fields. And maybe they help with the hard work, carrying things for the farmers or plowing the fields during the season, now and then in season. They have their own house. They go in there, and they come out in the morning with the cowboy and then go grazing. Mostly leisurely and well-fed, well-taken care of, because the farmers in some rural areas depend on the cows and the oxen, so they treat them very nicely. There was never beating or forcing of any kind. Not that I saw.
And when I was in India, I saw the cows running around everywhere, like people. And if a cow or ox happened to be having a nap in the middle of the street or even highway, all the cars stopped. You know that, right? Even if you didn’t see it, you saw it in films. I saw it with my own eyes. Everywhere I went in India, cows are respected and loved, like people. They even touch the cow’s feet or touch the cow’s behind and then they put their hand on their forehead as a sign of respect. Because in India, according to Hinduism, the cow is holy. They give milk to children. In those times we didn’t have many facilities or alternatives, so the cows gave milk to many children and raised them up. So, they consider the cows like the surrogate mother, like a second mother in India. And still, nowadays they do that. When I was there, they did that. And they feed the cows too with whatever they have. Sometimes they have leftover vegetables, they just throw it on the street. The cows eat them. And the cows are free to roam anywhere. And people have to give way to cows, not cows give way to people. All the cars stop until the cows finish with his or her rest and stand up and stretch out and leisurely walk into the meadow next door or next to the street and graze around there, or lay there. That’s what I saw.
So, I never thought that milk can be anything harmful. And also, I studied Buddhism before. When the Buddha first came out of His samadhi, He was very weak because He was following the extreme kind of practice that He learned from someone else. They say they have to really starve themselves and don't eat, don’t drink and that. Just meditate, and then they’ll get Nirvana. Later on, the Buddha realized that it was wrong. And then He stepped out of that and then the first person He encountered was a lady who gave Him some milk to drink. And that’s how He regained His strength, and He continued to go learning and practicing more. And that’s how I thought milk was OK. But later, when I saw the modern time’s animal industry is so inhumane, so wicked, so gruesome, so barbarous, that of course, we don’t take that anymore. And if any of you still did not get it, then you have to watch these films; the “Dominion,” watch PETA’s films, watch “Earthlings,” watch “Cowspiracy.” We advertise them for free anyway on our Supreme Master Television. And you can watch them on Netflix. All these similar films about the abuse, the extent of cruelty, the extent of abusive practices that the people do to the innocent, helpless, defenseless, gentle animals. Show it to your friends. Watch it with them, even though you will cry. And you’ll scream out loud from seeing their suffering, but you watch it with your friends.
Those who still eat meat and drink alcohol, even drink and drive, and all that. You show them all of these consequences. I know it’s gruesome. I could not even watch it without screaming. Sometimes I have to watch in many sections in order to finish the film, so that I can tell you. So that I can tell them to advertise it on our Supreme Master TV. We don’t advertise the whole gruesome thing because it’s too sensitive for the children. But we advertise their film, the title of the film, so that the people can find it and watch it themselves. And so that you can show it to other people in your capacity. Don't rely only on me alone. Don’t rely only on Supreme Master TV alone. Because in some corners, people don’t know our TV exists. Don’t rely on us, don’t rely on me alone to save the world. You save the world with me, OK? (Yes!)
I told you that 53% comes from Master Power, through the lectures and through the things that She embedded on the hosts, through the Godses blessing together. That’s how Supreme Master Television blesses the world. But every drop counts in the ocean. Every drop makes the ocean. So, please, save the world with me. Help the animals who are suffering without anyone to rely on, without anyone to defend them, without a voice to speak out, to scream out for their suffering. Every time I cannot bear. I have to block my intellect many times; otherwise, I’d be crying all day and suffer so much, knowing the suffering of the animals.
I have to block some way; otherwise, I cannot function; I cannot work for Supreme Master Television; I cannot work for you; I cannot work for the world. I have to be strong and tough. But I’m not always tough. In the corner of my room, my cave, alone, I cry many a time, just to release some of my anguish. I just cry naturally without thinking, without even knowing that I'm crying. Please do help. Help in any way you can. Show your friends the gruesome practice of the animal industry; of how we, as humans, lost our humanity, lost our humane quality, lost our compassion, lost our sympathy. We lose everything if we lose love.