(I would like to offer…) (Give this musical CD collection to You as a gift.) What is it? A CD? From Phượng Vũ’s house? Ah, thank you! Thank you, brother Vũ! Thank you to your wife! (I would like to take this time to thank everyone who went to the premiere day of this CD.) They did? (Yes.) They attended? (Yes, they did.) They went there to eat, or what? Wherever there is food, they will be there. (Yes.) Wow, you wrapped it so nicely; I don’t know how to open it. Up until now, I’ve never accepted anything from anyone. Open for me, love. Why the more I try to open, the more it tightens! I’m not used to opening presents for a long time. (My wife always wraps everything so tightly, Master.) You tightened it, afraid that it would fall, right? (Yes, yes.)
OK. Is this a CD? (Yes.) What else? (The CD has 20 songs, Master.) Oh, yeah. OK. Wait a moment. Oh, this is not together with the present? (No, that one is underneath.) Anyone want to take this? (Base.) See it? See it? They take anything. (Yes.) What kind of disciples are you? Do you want to take this? (Yes, I do, Master.) “Tà Áo Tím,” right? Is there any song that I know? Maybe not. (They are all new songs, Master.) All new songs? (“Silently Love the Purple Dress,” Master.) “Tear on a Lotus Flower” from someone... (Yes.) Quỳnh Như, right? (Yes.) Where did Quỳnh Như disappear to? (Right, Quỳnh Như hadn’t seen You for a while.) Where did she go? Did she become a hermit somewhere? (Yes, maybe so.) Hmm. I don’t know these songs. (Yes, they are all new songs, Master.) New? (Yes.) Yeah. That’s right. (Similar to the ten songs in [CD] “I Love You.” No song in this CD is old.) You want it? (Yes.) It’s all broken. It’s all broken. Whoa! (Master, please keep throwing.)
All new songs, right? (Yes, twenty new songs, Master.) “Raining in Cali, Missing Sài Gòn.” Wow! Little Sài Gòn misses Big Sài Gòn, right? (Yes.) OK. Thank you, Phượng Vũ. (Yes. Thank You, Master.) These songs, I don’t know how to sing any of them. I’ll just take them home to look at. (There is a CD in there that You can listen to, Master.) Is there? (Yes.) All of those songs are in there? (Yes.) This CD has them all in it? (The CD which I sent to You last year is also in there.) Oh. Really? (This CD is in here, too.) No. There is no “Tear on The Lotus Flower” in it. (Yes. It is in this CD this time, Master.) Ah, this CD has that song? (Yes, it does.) That’s right. The previous CD didn’t have those songs. Now this CD has a lot of songs. (Yes, they are all in here.) Got it. OK. (Yes.) OK. Thank you very much. (Yes. Thank You, Master.) Are you done? (Yes.) The show is finished.
(Please try to sing for us, Master.) Try to sing? No, don’t try to sing. If you want to listen, then go buy it. (Yes.) Buy your own. Silently loving, secretly missing… If you love someone, say it out clearly, don’t love silently, understand? (Yes.) Silent love is very painful. Silently love someone, and that person goes and loves someone else, then don’t cry then! “Silently Love the Purple Dress.” OK. If you want it, then buy your own; don’t just listen to someone else playing the CD! Bye. Take care. Take care. Take care of yourself. The Mexican there – take care. (Thank You.) Bye-bye, see you. Bye-bye. (Bye. Bye Master.) Everyone, please go to eat late-night (vegan) congee. (Yes. Thank You, Master.) See you!
(Master, how are You?) I am fine. Thank you. I feel very good. (The other day, he (Ngọc Nôi) promised me that he would follow Master, but in the end...) Never mind. …so then no way he would follow me. No, it is OK that way. (Yes.) What would he follow me for? What can he do? (Yes.) Every once in a while, he would play the flute, not all the time. (Yes.) OK. If you want to marry her, do it quickly, OK? (Yes.) If you love her, love her decently, right? Don’t love silently and leave it there; it is not good. (Yes.) You should not. (Yes.) Loving silently, then it turns out you picked the wrong person who’s already married, but you keep on loving silently. Silent love is tiring! Love silently and later on, if the secret leaks out, the problem only gets bigger! (Yes.) OK. Bye. (Yes.)
You’re not meditating? Hey, you’re back. (I snuck back, yes.) What’s the problem? (There’s no problem. I just came back for a vacation.) Vacation. Really. Where’s (…)? (She’s taking care of some personal things. My daughter’s getting married in February, so that is some business for the center.) Oh, really. You’re not closing your eyes. You’re supposed to, no? I thought I came to a house of meditators but everyone is like this… How come the Canadian is still here, not gone home? (Because Master blessed us to stay here, so I stayed.) Who said that I blessed? Why are you staying here? Where is your wife? (She is sitting somewhere on that side, Master.) Oh, both of you are here? (Yes.) Goodness! You are rich! (Yes, because Master gave us money. Without it, we could not go.) What blessing? What kind of money? That money was for dental implants; not for… Implanted already? (Yes, I did, Master.) So beautiful! (Thank You, Master.) Now you have a charming smile!
I thought you all were meditating, so I jumped in to meditate with you. Why are you all sitting here wide-eyed? Hey, I thought you were meditating, so I came and joined you, and then everybody opened their eyes big like a rice bowl. OK, just to say hallo. We meditate, or what? (Yes, please.) (Yes.) Or something you want to tell me? No? No, huh? Really nothing much. How come there’s so few people? I thought today is a one-day retreat, right? (Yes.) How come so few like this, especially males, nobody. If the Canadian is not here, it’s empty. And Steve also. If both of them are not here, I don’t know whom to count. This is my monk from Miaoli. All imported. All imported practitioners. Oh, wow. Talk about… oh, (…) is also my monk. See, there’s nobody here, nobody is local.
(…), what are you doing here? What? No, not him. No, it looks like he’s not. Looks like very much. He’s a monkey, not a monk. Looks very much like (…). (Yes, that is […].) What? (Yes, that is […], Master.) Is it? (Yes.) How come he is not answering me? Oh? Is it really (…)? What are you doing here with glasses and all that? OK. That’s it, finished. Let’s meditate, OK? (Yes.) It’s nothing. I’ve just come to visit and meditate. It’s nothing. My goodness! Now have to walk. My goodness! Now you have found an excuse to all come in here? Who is it? OK, that’s it, huh? Nothing interesting, right? Nothing? I just came to surprise you.
Is it Hải? Who is in there? Hải, right? (That is Hải.) What? (Yes, it is Hải.) Hải, why are you there? I heard your wife is in Washington, [DC], how come you are sitting here? Where is your wife? (My wife’s in Virginia, Master.) Virginia, yeah. Why, why are you here? (Somebody asked me here to do some work. Some translation work.) Oh, wow, wow, not again. No, you’re a married man, you belong there. You can bring it there and translate. (OK.) Don’t let her be alone too long. I would hate it if my husband were translating somewhere else. You lost the first one already. Be careful. Don’t just, when you get it then you take it for granted. Learn from Steve’s example. Wherever she goes, he’s sure to follow.
How is Thailand? Are you going back there, Steve? (Yes, in November.) Oh, really, after the marriage, right? (Yes.) Oh, February. (In February is the marriage. We’ll come back again.) Oh, oooh, oooh, oooh. (Yes.) Thailand’s economy is bad, but Steve is on top of the world. What are you doing there, both of you? Just retiring? (Not really. We bought some boats, and we rent them out to the tourists.) Oh, you rent it to the tourists? (Yes, we stay on the beach all the time.) Wow wow wow wow. Wow. Wow. That is wow. You know how to do business, huh? (Well, I’m learning.) Yes. (It’s quite a bit of work, really. It’s much more than I anticipated.) Was it good? (Yes, it’s… But it’s really dangerous. Sometimes the wind gets a little bit heavy, and the boats are too dangerous.) Oh, really? (So, it’s not always nice and quiet.) Oh, really? (Correct.)
Where are you? In Pattaya or Bangkok? (No, we’re down by Surat Thani. All the way down south,) Oh. (a little island out in the ocean called Koh Samui.) Wow, wow. Wow. This is the best spot in Thailand, Koh Samui. Wow. Wish I was there. And the business is good? (Yes, it’s OK.) Yeah? Good for you. (Thank You.) How much did you make so far? How many million baht? (Baht?) Baht is different. You know a million baht is nothing. (It costs a lot and we make a lot. But it’s... We just kind of watch. We’re making OK. We’re breaking [even]; we’re paying the bills.) So while you are on holiday, who’s taking care now? (Oh, Gunter.) Oh, yeah? (Yes, he’s a German. He said he’s a master of windsurfing, and he’d like to say “Hallo” to You, The Master of meditation.) Gunter. Aha. How does he know about me? From you. (We have Your pictures there.) Oh. (And we talked about You.) Because he can’t escape, of course, the “poor guy,” all over on the boat. Oh, no wonder I got sea sick lately. I thought it was the food. (No, You are on the boats too.) OK, OK. And it’s fine. (Yes.) Only two of you and Gunter. (Yes.) Oh, that’s fun. (It’s...) Combined business with pleasure. (Generally.)
Koh Samui is a beautiful island. (Yes.) Island? (Yes, it is, a big island.) Koh… Koh, you know Koh means “Island.” I only know that in Thai, “Koh” You know the water is like jade, very transparent, and the sand is very beautiful and (slurp-slurp) wow, all the... (Fresh fruit.) Huh? (A lot of fresh fruit.) Yeah, yeah. A lot of nice things and nice people and nice Americans, like Steve and his wife, nice Aulacese (Vietnamese). I’m glad you made a good business there. That’s why when I was in Bangkok, I looked for you, but I didn’t see you. People said you are in Thailand but I only saw you once I think. (Correct.) Yeah. Because he goes where the money goes. Where the money is at.
Oh. Then you plan to stay there for long, huh? (Really, we don’t know how long.) How do you get the permanent visa? (We don’t have a permanent visa. We have to leave the country every three months.) But the south is so hot, huh? (Sometimes it’s very hot. But the month before we left it was mostly cloudy, cool, windy, rainy.) It’s not bad. OK. Well, tell me where you are. (OK.) Give me telephone number, address, fax and everything. (OK.) And a motor scooter. (Yes, we have. A Honda Dream.) Yeah, and fresh coconut (Yes.) with a straw. (Yes.) That would be nice.
They are having a retreat soon. (In Thailand?) In October. (Oh, yes?) Twenty-second. It’s supposed to be Ching Hai Day. (Oh yes, yes.) Yeah. I don’t know. They’re making a retreat for themselves. Maybe for Asians. (Yes.) Asian retreat. And then December probably American retreat. Is that right? I don’t know. I said probably. I heard. It’s just a rumor. It’s not for me. Not for me. I heard it from somebody. Yeah, it would be nice for you. (Yes.) Sit there until your bottom falls off, and become bottomless Buddha. And have a bottomless merit. “Bottomless” means limitless also. What a nice Buddha, a bottomless. It’s a new name. Only for Ching Hai’s disciples. (Yes.) Trademark. OK so that’s good.
And what else do you do there? (Seven days a week, we just take care of the beach.) Oh, yeah? (Yes.) Wow, seven days? No day off? (No day off, that’s why we came here.) But how [come] you don’t look tan? (No, I have to wear sunscreen all the time, otherwise we get sunburn, so…) Oh, really? (Yes.) You look just like before. (True, truly.) Oh, really. Oh, pale even. (Yes. Well, over here I don’t go out in the sun too much.) But you just came back a few days ago and no kidding. (No, three weeks now.) Three weeks? (Correct.) How come I didn’t see him? When I first came here, the first one I asked about is you. (Correct.) Right, remember? (Yes.) But you were nowhere. Was it three weeks ago or four? (More than that.) Oh, really? (More than that.) I thought [it was] just three days ago. Oh, wow. Time passes so quick, huh? (Yes.) Really. What should we do with time? Possible, it’s time; it’s terrible. My God, I’m getting old, you know, Steve? (I think we all are.) Your granddaughter is getting married and I feel… (Daughter is getting married.) I feel like an ancient Buddha.
Photo Caption: “Save Who Can!”
