Growing
and Preparing
Food
with Love:
A Better Alternative to
Genetically Modified Food
Excerpted from conversations between
Supreme Master Ching Hai and Her disciples
during the International Retreat at Youngdong Center, Korea
May 10, 2000 (Originally in English)
M:
If you love your vegetables, they grow. Really,
you must love them. There is a true story about a farmer in Scotland who
loved his potatoes so much that his potatoes grew very big. It was in the
newspaper. That is exciting, better than cheap cheating and quick profits.
If you really put your heart into doing it and if you really love it, your
plants will grow very big. In Maoli, I gave each resident a piece of land
to grow different things. But for the other ones, who didn't care and just
threw them there and planted them, who did it just because Master said they
had to plant something, who planted them cheaply and quickly, and felt there
was no need to take care of them, all the worms came and ate them. Later
they made an excuse: "Well, we have to be compassionate and let the
worms eat our stuff." Also, it didn't grow very big, but it grew to
be very tender; it looked good and the worms liked it. Other people who
grew their plants with love, I saw that the plants grew very fast and had
a lot of fruit. That's true, too.
I
will tell you my experience. When I was in America, in New York, I didn't
have money; I lived in a temple. When I first came there, there was a little
plant about that big (Master estimates size of plant with Her hands). They
told me it had been there for five years, and I couldn't believe it! Five
years, and it was only that big, and yellow here, brown there, and so small.
The stem was very small like the stem of this flower (Master points to flower).
And I said, "Oh, five years; it must be a very funny plant that doesn't
grow." So, I just watered it. And sometimes whatever was left over,
tea or whatever, I gave him to drink. Sometimes when I drank tea, he got
half or whatever was left over. And he grew, and grew, and grew: My God,
he became very big! The stem grew so big that I had to sleep outside in
the next room, because it had grown into the whole room already. It was
in a small pot like that, (Master points to pot) half yellow and half brown.
It grew so much that I had to cut some of it and put it into another pot
that I found outside, or into any plastic cup or bottle that I found; and
then I cut another. And another one grew again! I had to sleep in another
room again because two rooms were occupied. And then later I had to cut
it more, and I didn't have more pots to put the plants in. So I moved the
already grown plants outside and put them in front of the temple. Everyone
passing by could just take them home, and because I had no more room; I
had to sleep sitting up.
I
was sitting up to sleep, actually; I meditated all night at that time. I
was holier than I am now, believe me! (Master laughs.) So actually, we were
growing together. I meditated, and he grew just from the tea and water;
that's it. And the abbot of the temple asked me, "What kind of fertilizer
did you buy?" I said, "What do you mean, what kind of fertilizer?
I don't even have money; you don't give me any. How can I buy anything here?"
I
didn't have any pocket money at that time. I just worked for free in the
temple. I didn't care. So he knew. And even later when he talked about it
to his disciples, his disciples came and told me. Otherwise how would they
have known? Because they were not in New York when the abbot had asked me
about the plants, and they said, "When master talked about you, he
said you have too much love and all the plants grow so fast and so big."
Yes, when you have love, things grow, too.
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