During the retreat, a sister complained to Master that her elderly mother was in the hospital and her children were unable to stay with her so she was experiencing personal problems. To help the sister resolve her predicament, Master lovingly offered the following insightful advice.

Don't stay where the illness is; don't even go there. Don't go to that miserable situation or to the places where your soul doesn't belong, but instead concentrate on the present and the blessings you have. Concentrate on whatever's at hand that's nice and lovely. If you always focus on the bad side of things, you'll forget the goodness that's right in front of you.

You have so much, but you don't realize what you have. So I feel very sorry for you--not for your sickness but for your stupidity, for your whining quality, for your thinking, which is damaging to you. We have everything; we already have exactly what we need at exactly the right moment, and we chose it to be that way because we're perfect.

When you whine too much or pity yourself too much, you make yourself less than a dignified person. No wonder your life is no good and you have sickness all the time! Because that's all you have. That's all you concentrate on, that's what you think about so you become it. You let everything pile up over your head and overwhelm your happiness, and then it controls your life instead of you taking control of everything. That's why your life is miserable. But no one can help you except yourself. You have to be fed up with this kind of mentality in order to get well.