~Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Los Angeles, USA. March 12,1994 (Originally in English)

Watching Video Clip: English ,Spanish Subtitles

There are many stories that are kind of like parables, reminding us about life and all the funny things in life. For example, there is one story about a dog who could catch mice. This book is a collection of the jokes of the saints. Before, we heard non-saint stories; now we hear saint stories, saints' jokes, the jokes of the saints, which are a little bit dry, but that's what people expect of saints; always talking about big philosophy and many parables about the cosmos, the microcosms, macrocosms, and macaroni... So a saint can never laugh in public. Maybe he can laugh alone; maybe the saint just buys this kind of book, a joke book, and then sits in his bathroom and reads alone. And when he comes outside, he says, "Emptiness is reality; reality is emptiness."

So he is one of those kinds of people. After the saint has studied in his bathroom and laughed his heart out, he comes out and talks about this kind of thing. If you don't tell everyone else, I will continue to read jokes to you, later.

This story is about a dog who could catch mice. Now we have heard that only cats can catch mice. How come this dog could catch mice?

Who knows? Please raise your hand. Now, don't laugh. You're not allowed to laugh in such a "serious congregation." If you have the least bit of "education," you don't laugh like that. Who knows why the dog could catch mice? No? How come? You are supposed to be enlightened!

Okay, there was a country in China a long time ago. We'll call it the Chi Dynasty. There was a person who could read the palms of dogs. In other words, he was a dog palmist. His neighbors heard about his talent, so they asked the dog palmist to go and buy a dog for them so that they could catch mice.

One year passed by. Then the dog palmist eventually bought a dog, brought it to the neighbor, and said, "This is a German shepherd; it's very good, a number one dog." So the neighbor thanked him and kept the dog. Many years passed, and the neighbor people never saw the dog catch any mice, not any mice at all, not even the hair of a mouse, and it did not even look at a mouse.

So, they went to the dog palmist and asked him whether he had read the palms wrongly, whether the dog was really a German shepherd or whether it was a Beijing terrier. Then the dog palmist said, "No, no, no, it's definitely, one hundred and twenty percent German shepherd. This dog is sehr gut, muy bien (very good)! But, you must know, this dog is trained to catch sheep or antelope; he does not want to catch mice." And the neighbors said, "Then what shall we do? We just want a dog who catches mice. We told you."

So the palmist said, "Don't worry, just bind him in one corner, and don't let him eat anything. Then if a mouse passes by, he will surely catch it." And after that, the dog began to catch mice. Then afterwards, even when they let him free, he also caught mice, because it was a habit.

This is similar to the story of humans. We are normally from Heaven; we have everything that we could ever want or not want, and we are almighty. We are powerful, and glorious. Now, we come here into this physical world and we are bound in this physical prison, this small room. Some are bigger rooms, but, still ... my room is very small! (Master and audience laugh.) Well, we are practitioners; we can only talk from personal experience.

Therefore, we catch mice. The mice in this world are money, fame, name, profit, competition, you know, fighting, bickering, being bitter, and back biting among each other - these are all mice. And pitifully, we enjoy them, because we have been bound in these physical chains. And then we know nothing else. We forget our origin; that's the way we live our life.

Well, it's not a dog's life; it's just a parable. Some people do really live a so-called "dog's life," because it's really miserable. We work sometimes very hard. Some people work eighteen hours, if they have a lot of children or they have a lot of debts to pay off. Or if they had a kind of sickness or illness that suddenly left them bankrupt, they might have to work hard day and night, just to pay for their two or three meals a day and some clothes to cover their body. That's it.

Because we have really forgotten our real Self. It's very difficult to remember, but you do remember now, a little bit, one by one, slowly. It takes time, because now to stop the dog from catching mice is very difficult. Before he wouldn't do it, but now he won't stop. Everything is like a habit. So I think we should always remember, in the midst of all this suffering and confusion, we should always remember our own, real origin. Never give in to the negative power of this world that always wants us to think we are nothing, we are sinful, we can never be anything, we can never do anything, and we can never want anything more than just a few morsels of food and a few pieces of clothing every day.

So this is very good. I have nothing to say any more because the story is very clear.