Numero: 982
Data: 8 settembre 2008
Luogo: Europa
Occasione: Europe International Seminar (Seminario internazionale di Europa)
Lingua: vietnamita
Sottotitoli: arabo, vietnamita, cinese semplificato, cinese tradizionale, olandese, inglese, francese, tedesco, ebreo, hindi, ungherese, indonesiano, italiano, giapponese, coreano, mongolo, farsi, polacco, portoghese, punjabi, rumeno, russo, spagnolo, tailandese, turco, urdu.
Supreme Master Ching Hai shared with initiates a story of the cloth bag monk. Supreme Master Ching Hai shared with initiates a story of the cloth bag monk. This monk was always seen carrying a large cloth bag, and the question was often asked of him: "What does the bag have inside?" A poem by the cloth bag monk says, "I have a cloth bag/ Empty and free from hindrance/ Without, it permeates throughout the universe/ Within, one can perceive his own free Self-nature." Supreme Master explained that the cloth bag refers to our body, it is empty; however, the entire universe is included when it is opened; the Self-nature is revealed when we are within the bag.
The cloth bag monk also left another poem for the world before his retreat to Nirvana: "Maitreya, the true Maitreya, with hundreds of billions of manifestation bodies/ Reminding the worldly people all the time, but the world remains unawake." Supreme Master said that unfortunately it is only after the final ascension of a Master that people then build large temples of worship, losing the precious opportunity to follow a living enlightened Being.