Good and Wise Advisors! When I left the home life, someone told me this is the time of the Dharma's end. What is the Dharma's Ending Age? That is a time when the Dharma has left the roots and has run out to the branchtips. It is an era when the Dharma reaches its final existence. I heard this talk, and I made a vow. I said, I will not permit the Dharma to reach its end. Wherever I am I will only allow the Proper Dharma Age to survive . Wherever I am I will reduce the disasters there, and increase the blessings and wisdom of the people there. I won't let the Dharma's end to occur; only the Proper Dharma Age will prevail.

That was my vow, and I truly overstep my own strength when I say I will always speak the Proper Dharma, practice the Proper Dharma, and let the Proper Dharma be my model and standard, I propagate the Proper Dharma.

For this reason, the Heavenly demons and heretics, the cultists and weird sects, demons and ghosts tremble in their boots when they hear this Dharma, they don't even have to see my face, even the sound of my name is enough to make their spirits and souls tremble. When the Heavenly demons hear this Proper Dharma they are so frightened their hair stands on end. They run far away from any place I appear. There are, however, a few of these demons and heretics who want to leave their deviant ways and return to the Proper Path. They come to protect the Proper Dharma. This has been my experience in practicing the Dharma.

Some people deeply believe in this teaching. Other people constantly oppress the Proper Dharma. They oppose it. Why? If the Proper stands, then the deviant must go. The Proper and the deviant cannot stand together.

Those who slander me outnumber those who believe in me by a billion times. The reason is because they hate the Proper Dharma. If it survives in the world, then they are like dead people. Thus they violently oppose the Proper. They employ their spiritual powers and tricks to the utmost to oppose the Proper, but to no avail. No matter what they do the Proper Dharma is still here.

For instance, Dharma Master Great Wisdom, a Dharma-friend from Taiwan who "knows my sound." Although he knows my sound, when he came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, I thought he would whole-heartedly cultivate together, to realize the Tao, end birth and death, leave the turning wheel of rebirth, protect the Proper Dharma, etc. But he said, "I can't take it! It's too cold." And his false thoughts chased him away. Now he wants to come back and try again. At CTTB, if you want to come, you may. If you want to run away, you may do that too. We don't oppose those who come and we don't pursue those who want to leave. So there is a saying at the City that goes,

"Coming here is difficult, but not to run away;
If Bodhisattvas want to go, we won't beg them to stay."

It's very hard to come there. You have to apply, and get your visa, you have to have a physical examination, it's a lot of trouble. You aren't at all free.

Then when you arrive at CTTB all that greets you are a lot of cold, stony faces. Everyone frowns, there is no friendliness, people look as surly as Gwan Gung, for the most part.

"They are so cold there! Totally inhospitable and unfeeling!" is a typical reaction. Even Dharma Master Great Wisdom was chased away by the lack of friendliness.

In my opinion, the colder they are the better. At the CTTB, the cold expressions cover warm hearts, and genuine enthusiasm. Whether you recognize this fact or not is no problem. So coming there is not easy. You have to undergo a test or two.

Among my disciples, however, there are those on the Three Good Paths, and the Four Evil Destinies. There are all kinds. You'll find both dragons and snakes, and humans and ghosts. There are also Sages and Immortals. Some times the ghosts fear the people, and other times the people fear the ghosts. It's not for sure you will be able to take it.

For example, on this trip we have Dharma Master Heng Shun. The first time he came to Gold Mountain Monastery he was only able to stay one month. It was too bland. He saw that nobody talked at all, there was nothing warm or comfortable in the least bit. They ate only one time a day, as well. So he went to Thailand looking for his teacher, but probably no one there looked like his teacher should look, so he ran away again. He ran home and after a month, wrote a letter to Gold Mountain, asking a question.

I took one look at the letter and said, "This guy is really rotten! He could only stay a week before he ran out, and now he writes this letter. Don't answer him!"

So after another week passed, and this answer stifled him, he ran right back to ask his question in person.

I told them to give him hard work to do, and he became the dishwasher in the kitchen. One day there was a Dharma Assembly and he was still washing the dishes at three or four in the afternoon. He probably got hungry and couldn't take it and wanted to eat a bit. He stared around thee kitchen and spied a heap of delicious cakes in the garbage can. "This is exactly what I need. Those are for me!" he thought, and he opened his stealing eyes, and turned on his spy-radar to scan all six directions, to make sure the coast was clear. He didn't see anybody, and grabbed the cakes and gobbled them down. The problem off his hungry belly was cured. He assumed that all was good as gold, but what a coincidence! Just that very night, half-way through the Avatamsaka Sutra lecture, I said, "All of you should know that cultivation at Gold Mountain Monastery is extremely difficult. We only eat once a day, and then we do hard labor. So we get both hungry and tired. There is no way to solve these problems. But I will tell you a method. You can imitate mice, learn the way they run to the garbage can whenever they are hungry and steal food. There is sure to be lots of delicious food in the garbage can. Whoever is hungry can get his fill there. Then you won't feel it's so tough here."

After I said this piece, Heng Shun was so scared he ran to the third floor and didn't dare come out of his mouse-hole for days. He just locked himself inside his room, and didn't even come out to eat for several days. Although he had lived at the monastery for half a year or more, I still had never even spoken even one word with him. This time I went up to have a look at him. I knocked at the door, and he was inside, not daring to even open it. Finally he opened it and saw that I was standing outside, and he was so scared he trembled. His eyes opened as round as could be, and so he looked exactly like a mouse, ready to run as fast as a thief.

"What are you doing?!" I asked.

"I'm scared." He said.

"What are you scared of me for?"

"Because you can read my mind! You can know what false thoughts I have and what I do."

"That's nonsense. What does your mind look like? Is your mind square or round? Is it rectangular or triangular? Is it pointed or dull? What is it like? Is it red or black? Is it white or yellow? Bring out your mind and show it to me."

"I can't show you my mind."

"Since you can't find your mind to show me, what are you afraid of?" Then I turned and left. After that he came out to eat once again, once he realized that he couldn't find his mind.