Good morning, everyone! (Audience: Good morning!) Every time I speak the Dharma here, I always let others speak first while I myself am the last one to speak. However, since I see that many people are arriving late today, I shall speak first. Why? Speaking the Dharma has to be flexible; it shouldn't be rigidly fixed or done in a monotonous way. It can be likened to directing an army in battle. If you can use tactics which your enemy does not expect, you will certainly be able to defeat them and gain victory. For this reason, today I am going to speak first, making it so that those who arrive late will miss my talk. Do you all think this is fair or not? (Audience laughs.) I asked those who are supposed to speak today to prepare beforehand. Now they are all prepared to speak, but they won't get the chance to speak first; they'll have to wait until later to speak. What do you think of that? (Audience laughs.)

Na mwo sa dan two su chye dwo ye e la he di san myau san pu two sye. (3x)

Now we are all in America, at a time when Buddhism has not yet become widely accepted in society. Therefore, it is not easy to propagate the Buddhadharma in this country. If we want the Buddha's teachings--the Buddhadharma--to flourish and become widespread, then each and every one of us must take up the responsibility of developing and expanding Buddhism.

In what aspect should we start to develop Buddhism? In my opinion, we should start with education. If we simply speak the Dharma, we can't plant the roots of Buddhism into the soil. We have to work on education, to infuse the spirit of Buddhism in children's minds. Only when they understand the principles of Buddhism and can practice them in society, ?stopping all evil and cultivating all good,* can the roots of Buddhism be planted. Chinese Buddhism ignored this point in the past. People only spoke the Dharma and expounded the Sutras, without knowing how to guide children to the profound and wonderful teaching of Buddhism. For this reason, Chinese Buddhism was virtually wiped out when it encountered times of great unrest and upheaval. If we can teach children to understand the doctrines of Buddhism, then when they grow up, the Buddha's teachings will naturally flourish and become widespread.

This is a point to which every Buddhist should be attentive. Don't let the focus of everything you see, hear, and talk about be solely on making a fortune, which is of no benefit to Buddhism. Every one of us must take the responsibility for educating the next generation to understand the Dharma. This is an important matter.

In American society today, men go out to work and make money, and women also go out to work and make money. They have completely neglected their children's education. They think when they send their children to school, the children will learn what they need to learn. However, once they start going to school, children become worse from one day to the next. They become less and less obedient with each passing day. The teachers in school have lost contact with the parents, and they tell the students, "you're the most talented one, and you will certainly make a lot of money in the future. You can become the world's most famous celebrity. However, you must first instigate a revolt at home and overturn your parents' authority." The teachers sow the seeds of dissension in their students' families, causing them to be disobedient to their parents and elders at home. Alas! With schools like this, one would be better off not going to school!

We should take up responsibility and try to do some voluntary work. What kind of work should we do? Those of us who are knowledgeable and wise, but who go to work in the daytime, should volunteer some time in the evenings for education, at a school or at home. To volunteer means to do the work but not seek for any compensation or salary. We should fulfill our responsibility at school or at home to teach the next generation well. Only when the next generation is taught properly can blessings for the world be attained. If the next generation has not been taught well, then it will be like here in America, where juvenile deliquents fill the streets. Children everywhere are bold enough to kill, set fires, steal, and rob. This happens every day. Especially in Los Angeles, people feel in peril and their lives are insecure, because at any moment, they might be shot and killed. Every day, the number of deaths are uncountable. There are probably more people who die from shootings than from the war in Iraq.

What is the reason for such an outcome? It's simply because people have neglected education and value money instead; since they value money, education has become nothing but a mere designation. Particularly in the case of parents: not only do fathers go out to earn money, mothers do, too, because women demand equal freedom with men. As a result, they've neglected their children at home. The children are sent either to childcare centers or to nursery schools. There are many children in those places, and they are influenced by the improper and indecorous things they see and hear there. Because of this, the moral standards of the world sink lower every day, and each generation is worse than the last. This is all because education has been neglected!

Why is it that the moral standards of the world have declined and people have become so upside-down, so that each day is worse than the day before? What is the root of the problem? It is because everyone is fighting for profit, and in doing so, they have forgotten about education. The universities compete to accept more students so that they can make a greater profit. Whether they can provide a good education for their students is not their concern. Therefore, education has become something meaningless. The so-called education nowadays encourages romance between male and female students; it fosters the policy of laissez-faire and excessive freedom. This has caused young men and women to become infatuated and absent-minded; they have forgotten the principles of being human. Education has lost all value.

Because of the desire for profit, sometimes teachers ask for pay raises. Other times they just go on strike. They gamble with young people's futures and try to intimidate the society by going on strike. Why do they act this way? It's because they wish to gain profit. Because of this, the people in this society and country have lost their basic concepts of morality and their original ideals. They have gone astray by chasing what is superficial and so the world is now in great chaos. The educators will not put their effort on education because they wish to make a profit. The students do not behave like students either, because of their desire for profit. Out of their desire for profit, people of the world live and die in drunken confusion. They no longer know the meaning of virtue, nor do they know what is meant by humaneness and righteousness. They fail to understand filial piety, brotherhood, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, integrity, and modesty. They have no sense of remorse and no thought of repentance. This is all because of their wish for profit.

Especially in America, although parents certainly know how to give birth to children, they don't know how to educate and teach them. They let their children develop freely and give them freedom in all respects. If a child wants to kill someone, they will let him try; if he wants to commit arson, they tell him to go ahead. For instance, that person from Chicago caused a great fire in Chicago when he was only four, causing an untold number of people to be burned to death. Nevertheless, his father and mother considered that a good sign! As a result of his free development, he became a leader of the underworld society who did nothing but steal things. Take a look at this: the outcome of free development!

Ah! All of you should think about what a serious problem this is. Now I am promoting that those in the field of education should work voluntarily; they should do the work they like to do as volunteers. Do not act like the people in the past who fought for salary raises, this one wanting money, and that one wanting money, too.

There was someone who had lived at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas for more than ten years. She was introduced by a Dharma Master who said that she was out of work, and that she would be content if she were given a place to live, food to eat, and a little pocket money. This woman knew French, and she could do Chinese brush painting. She could also write Chinese calligraphy, but her skill wasn't that good. However, she thought she was quite extraordinary. When she first came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, I gave her $300 every month. Now, ten years later, seeing the teachers from outside being paid more money, she formed a gang with two other people and came to demand a pay raise. If we refused to raise her salary, she would just go on strike. See, it was all because of money that she had this idea. After hearing this, I announced that the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas would be closing its doors. How could we continue operating? Each month we have expenses totalling at least a hundred thousand dollars. We have no source of revenue to generate these hundred thousand dollars, but we have all these expenses to pay. So now I have declared that the teachers in both the secondary and elementary schools have to be volunteers. If anyone still wants to ask for a pay raise, he or she can leave the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

This being the case, what about those teachers coming from outside? Some teachers live far away and in the past we paid them for the one or two hours they spent commuting every day. We also had to pay them for the time they prepared materials, and for the time they supervised students at school. Everything takes money. Money, money, money... ?Money is something one cannot be apart from for a single moment.* Coming and going, it's all about money. We spend money, but we don't generate it; our income is very small. The outgoing expenditures exceed the incoming revenue. That's why I have announced that all teachers at our elementary and high schools have to be volunteers. Since the classes in the university are more complicated, and the instructors have higher academic standing, they will receive a little money as an ?Honorary* reward. Now that we are doing this, those who were demanding pay raises have disappeared without a trace, and there has been no further mention of strikes.

This is the very illogical method that I thought of today. When President Bush was running for re-election, I saw that he was too indecisive, always dragging his heels, and would not be re-elected. Although his chances were slight, I had a way to help him get re-elected. What was that? I suggested that he announce that if he were re-elected as President, he would not accept his salary and would donate it to the society. In the White House, everyone studied the principles in my letter for over a week, but in the end, they did not adopt my suggestion. As a result of not accepting my advice, President Bush lost the election. Although it is now a time when demons are strong and the Dharma is weak, I still felt that there was some hope for President Bush. If he had adopted my suggestion, I said in the letter that he would definitely win the campaign; and if he did not adopt it, he would surely lose. And now, as I predicted, he did not win. This is a great matter concerning the future of the United States. We will have to just wait and see if there will be any other changes.