The mother used all her logic to persuade him to go back to school that day, but he didn't. He said he didn't want to and was very insistent and stubborn. The mother was weaving a piece of silk at that time. After he had been so stubborn, she took a knife and cut across the piece of silk she had woven. And then she asked the child, "Can we use this piece of silk now? Can it be useful?" And the child said, "Of course not! Why did you destroy it? Why did you cut that piece of silk when it was so perfect?" And the mother said, "Well, it is like your education. If you don't continue, it's of no use. If you break it in the middle, what is the use of before and after? Something broken in the middle is of no use."

It's the same with our practice. We should also continue every day. Otherwise, even though it's beautiful before and it might be beautiful after, if it's broken in the middle, it's not a continuous flow. And we will experience some kind of difficulty or obstacles or uneasiness in our life. We cannot expect things to go smoothly and easily, the way we want, all the time. We must learn to take and to give, to be strong and also to be flexible, when the situation requires. Otherwise, we will have a lot of trouble during our life, and we will never grow up.

If the mother of Meng Tzu had been a very ordinary mother, then today we would never have heard of the name Meng Tzu. He would never have left his name in the history of sainthood. And in China, there are so many people, a vast number of people, with vast lands. To be listed in the names of these vast people and vast lands-as one of the handful of saints-is not easy. To make a name for yourself in China, where there are so many people that you cannot count them all-to make a name distinguished from these masses-it's not easy! And they have four or five thousand years of history; to be distinguished as one of the few is not common.

But people have forgotten his mother. They don't know who she was or what she did, only that she cut pieces of silk and moved three times. But her actions were worth more than all the lectures that Meng Tzu ever offered to the public. She is worthy to be a master, a master of all time. She was master of all mothers, of all the masters! If she weren't a saint and a wise woman, she could have never sacrificed so much in her situation and in her poverty.

Can you imagine what Meng Tzu would have become without such a mother-a brilliant saint who would have been contented with killing animals every day for a living? So you see how saints are made. We can make saints out of stones. I think I will start a manufacturing plant for building saints. We could! Just give them good examples, a good environment and good lectures, and they will become saints.