Do you know why most masters make you sit cross-legged like that, or to sit on the floor? So, in case you nod off, you don’t hurt yourself, you don’t fall too far. And also, when you sit like that, you don’t sleep comfortably for too long. You might do it, but not for too long. Then you wake up and meditate again. But if I provide you with a meditation center with double beds or king size, and then what do you think? The whole meditation hall becomes a music hall. All kinds of “tunes” will be playing. So, this is a super hotel. We don’t need beds to sleep. And the reason why you sit near together like this is so that you can wake each other up as well. Everything is already thought of. “How clever [Supreme] Master Ching Hai is!” No, I’m just kidding. Anybody can think of such things.
So after a lot of our disciples sometimes go shopping around, and bargain with other so-called masters or teachers who teach the same method, and they get bored, and then they come back here. Habit. And then they eat the hygienic (vegan) food, and everything like that. So the last thing you have to do is just to keep this place tidy, the way it is, and then tidy up all the things. And move all the trailers to the other side, to the lower place. For whatever purpose, just move it there. You know why? Because our meditation center is lower than all this garbage and it makes you feel pressure. Today I just told somebody, “If you move all this away, you’ll have more luck.” You know why? Because then you will feel more “Ahh!” spacious. When you go out, you don’t feel like there’s some pressure. This is not good feng shui. (Yes.)
Because you put the garbage things on top of your roof, blocking all the view and it makes you feel narrow, with pressure in between two blocks. It’s not necessary like that. And when you walk out of the meditation center, the first thing you see is a toilet above your head. And you just don’t feel good about it. And this is a psychological feeling. When you don’t feel good, you feel heavy. And then you attract this heavy kind of atmosphere that comes to you and that becomes bad luck. And if you feel good, you feel happy, relaxed, then you attract this: like attracts like. You attract or you will create this kind of lively atmosphere and then, you’re very happy, happy. Then you attract more happiness, more light, liveliness and more kind of lighthearted feelings, and then luck comes. And that’s what we call good luck. Good luck and bad luck, we make ourselves. There is nothing superstitious about what I say that when you move that, you’ll have more good luck. (Yes.)
Same principle in your house about feng shui, anything like that, there’s no superstition. You see, feng shui is something like old science. Especially in the old times, it’s even more important. In the old times, sometimes you build a house on top of some undercurrent water and you don’t even know. And then after a while, your house capsizes, collapses. That’s no good. So, some people, they have to go and see and measure with whatever they can to see if underneath there’s something dangerous for you. Or sometimes underneath there are some mines, iron mines or something like that, which affect your magnetic field. Like, that thing… It’s called magnetic. There is some magnetic iron underneath sometimes. And if you sleep, you just... It got attracted. And you sleep like this, and then five minutes later, you become like this. Just like the needle attracted by the magnetic iron. You know that? (Yes.) And then later on, like this. Yeah. Then it’s no good feng shui, see?
So, feng shui is also a science. It’s not superstition if you know about it. It’s not like if you put the house that way and God will protect you and if you put the house that way and God will not protect you. God is not that way, this way. God is everywhere. And for example, also, if the door of your house is facing south, this is good. Everybody knows that. Why is it good? Because south has more light, representing light. So, most people, when they sleep, if they face south, it’s good for their health. So that is one of the feng shui. It just probably coincides with the movement of the universe. When it moves together in harmony, then it brings more health. And then when you’re more healthy, you’re more happy. And when you’re more happy, you attract more luck, things like that.
So, the old-time people, they emphasized more feng shui, because they didn’t have much equipment to solidify their basement, or things like that, like in modern times. They didn’t have equipment. So they had to rely on those people. Either they had their Third-Eye psychic power open, and they could see underneath water, or they had some kind of psychic ability within themselves. They could sense, like something underneath the house is not good for the owner if it’s built on top of it without a protective layer before the basement, something like that. And they just did something. This is nothing like... What does the charm say? What? (Voodoo.) Voodoo. No need. Sometimes they do something just to neutralize the force of the nature, and then bless this house. It’s OK. If you believe in that, it’s good for you. Maybe you can find a good one. Otherwise, I can also become a feng shui master. I just go “Hula-hula-ha” Five (Holy) Names. Meditate. For example like that.
Or if the wind, the north wind, the cold wind, the bad wind, always blows this way, and you face your house this way, then of course you’re bound to catch a bad cold a lot of times. Whenever you open your door or the wind comes through the gaps. (Door cracks.) (Cracks.) The door cracks? Yeah, the door cracks. And then it gives you sometimes a piercing point-kind-of headache. If you face that way to sleep or face that way to drink tea all the time, and then if you close the door, then you have some piercing kind of crack-like sharp wind coming to you. And if you open the door, then the bad wind comes in, and brings with it all kinds, of course, disasters. Bad for you, bad for your health, and that is bad feng shui.
“Feng” means wind, “shui” means water. In the old times, wind and water were very important to the people. Before we had tap water or any kind of thing like this, if you have a house, you must have water nearby. So you have to ask the person who knows feng shui. He can sense the water is where, or he has some instrument, a crude one in the old times. Or he has psychic ability. He tells you, “OK, here you can build a house this way, and then you dig a well that way, you’ll have water. And you face your house that way because feng (wind) will come this way, no good for you.” Things like that. So, they mean, feng shui like that, it’s just the position of the house in accordance with the harmony with nature. That’s called feng shui.
Similarly, this is bad feng shui, what you’ve done all these years. I suppose all of you here have a lot of “voodoo” masters, and know feng shui and all that. A lot of Chinese here studied I Ching and all that for years before I was even born, and studied feng shui and all that, all the wigwag kinds of signs, and still didn’t do anything about it. Even though I don’t study any feng shui, I know it’s no good. You just don’t feel good, that’s all. The good feeling is not there. Don’t you feel a little pressure when you come in and come out, this crack over there? (No.) No? You don’t. You always close your eyes and meditate and leave everything else to Master. That’s why I have to do it all the time. I have to clean the kitchen for you and get mad, and now I have to clean this, clear them off. And plant some crawling kind of plants, like maybe beans or something you can harvest, and also cover the fence or cut the fence to be level, or change it into a kind of see-through fence. And if you don’t want people to see, it’s fine also. But paint them in green or something together, not different colors, very contrasting, which is very disturbing to the eyes – your eyes, not to talk about artistic-wise.
Whatever’s disturbing to your harmonious sense of beauty, then it’s no good. It’s no-good feng shui. And you meditate here and everything’s garbage, and everything’s on top of you; when you come out, you feel it sends a pressure. After you remove that, you feel more spacious, more spacious, you feel more relaxed. And if you don’t worry about neighbors looking, then you just do some kind of symbolic fence that you can see through, or plant trees like the other side. I know it takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it. Once it’s done, it’s done forever. So, please work a little harder together and don’t fight so much between each other and make a lot of disharmony and create trouble for your own Center, and, in consequence, affect your own spiritual practice as well as health and happiness at home. When you’re working together in the Center, you’re working for yourself. Don’t forget that. It’s not for him, not for the contact person, or not for the residents. Don’t always rely on the residents. There are only a few women, old ones, 70 years old. And I asked if she has a boyfriend, she said “Yes, but 90 years old and in Paris.” What can I do with that? For example.
You should work together, find a time, and schedule yourself. For example, you say, “I’m sorry, but next week I cannot come.” So, join the next-next week group. Space yourself out, give yourself time, give yourself convenience. But do something, because it’s for you. Every week you come here and you come often. And sometimes you sit here two, three days a week or something. Your well-being should be taken into consideration by making the surroundings harmonious, beautiful. You are doing it well; you plant a lot of trees. And I know that took a lot of effort. And sometimes you say to me you planted a lot of trees, but then they died. And I say, “Why?” You say, “Nobody came and watered it.” Of course, if nobody comes to water in the beginning when the roots have not yet taken deep into the soil, then it dies. What you can do is very easy: So many people here. So, you take turns, even two, three persons a month. It still takes a long time before it’s your turn. You have to come here every day, a few people, just to take care of new plants and new grass, whatever you plant, because you put a lot of effort to plant something. And if you don’t take care of it, it dies. You waste money, you waste time, and you don’t have anything. And then you get bored. Because you keep planting and you don’t have anything, you feel bored.
You can plant more fruit trees over there too. A fruit tree is a little bit far away from the meditation center or the children playing area, because sometimes if you have fruit, if the flies or bees come, they might attack the children too. So, think about it, if you want to attract these flies. You can plant trees too. If they don’t attract flies so much, it’s OK; plant them. Or they also have shadows, are also green, and you have fruit. Whatever you plant, is also fine. Even just green trees are OK. Because around here, this is the only place that has some trees. It’s very good.
I think the government should give you a five-star award instead of making trouble. Because laws are only to punish people who do bad and who damage the environment. But whoever takes care, who really cares, and who makes it more beautiful, then we should reward them. Is that not so? (Yes.) Laws should not be rigid. Laws are for people, not people for the law. And we are very law-abiding citizens here and we make everything beautiful. So, even whatever government, they should consider, if they’re wise. That is just talking, don’t expect anything from the government. Alright? We don’t need [it].
Photo Caption: Invite Nature into Your Life, to Be Reminded of THE ORIGINAL CREATOR
