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Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Hsihu, Formosa,
December 24, 1991 (Originally in Chinese)

When you cook, you use too much ginger. It is not only wasteful but also not delicious. Money is not the only thing you waste; you waste many other things as well. Fields where ginger has been grown cannot be used to plant other crops for several years. I hear that it is because the soil has become too pungent. If you grow carrots in such soil, they will become pungent carrots. (Master and everyone laugh.) (Fellow practitioner: No other crops can be grown for six years.) Wow! After growing ginger, the soil cannot be used for six years. Can you imagine that? Therefore, it is very wasteful; it is not just a matter of money.

If every one of us can do things considerately and frugally, we will not be the only ones to benefit. The whole country and even the universe will, too. Therefore, we must not spend lavishly just because we have money. No! The materials in this world are to be shared by the world. It is because people do not think considerately, but act wastefully instead, that there are people starving to death in the world. Some developing countries sell their food at low prices to developed countries, and later domestic food shortages cause starvation among their own people. Therefore, when some people are too wasteful, others will suffer from insufficiency.

The ginger that we use in cooking is used as an herb in other countries. Drinking a little bit each time or using a little to prepare ginger soup will keep us warm for a whole day. But here, we cook entire woks full of ginger for several thousand people. You know how big our woks are. God knows how much ginger you cook! It takes a long time to grow this ginger! Ginger is mostly planted in the mountains. Farmers have to carry fertilizer up the hills, and plant the ginger in lines on the slopes; it is a very laborious and difficult task.

The more we waste, the heavier is our karma, because people have to work extremely hard to grow it , with sweat and tears! If we waste too much, in excess of our blessed reward, we have to pay for that excessive amount, for other people's karma, effort and pain. When you sometimes eat very complicated or highly processed food, you don't feel good in your meditation that day. You don't have to wait until you have violated the precepts or eaten meat. Just by eating excessively processed food, or food requiring much preparatory work, we will also be hindered. Because people are very tired from working, their grudging atmosphere will go into the food.

Since ancient times, spiritual masters have advised us to live a simple life, as simple as possible. Of course, I am not saying that you only need to eat brown rice seasoned with salt every day. (Master and everyone laugh.) What I mean is that, in every aspect, we must try to be as frugal and simple as possible. This is good for us, our country, and the whole world.