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Chapter 5: I Drink Tea made from the Top of the Ginseng plant! Are renunciates really without sexual desire? How do they deal with the problem of sexuality? The path of cultivation is an arduous one. In Buddhism, the precepts for monks and nuns prohibit sexual desire. Many practitioners use the method of concentration and contemplation.
The wisdom of transformation that includes the contemplation of a skeleton, the contemplation of impurity, and the contemplation of emptiness, is for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. During the twenty years that I lived in Seattle, the U.S., I drank the tea that is made from the top of the Ginseng root. The monks and nuns at the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple knew that everyday I drank the tea made from the top of the Ginseng root. Many of my students also knew that I drank this tea. Many students who lived in far away places searched for the top of the Ginseng root in Chinese traditional medicine stores, and would send it in large bags to the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Seattle, knowing that I, Living Buddha Lien-sheng, drank the tea made from the top of the Ginseng root. What is this tea that is made from the top of the Ginseng root? Let me give an example to explain. Lien-hua Li-e is the manager of the Ch'an-kuan society, which is located in North Carolina. While I was teaching the Dharma there, she made a special trip to a Chinese traditional medicine store in China Town in North Carolina, in order to buy the top of the Ginseng root and prepare this tea for her Guru. Lien-hua Li-e requested, "I would like to buy the top of the Ginseng root!" The Chinese pharmacist declared, "We cannot sell it to you." "Why not?" Lien-hua Li-e was puzzled. "It is because the top of the Ginseng root can harm people." "Harm people?" Lien-hua Li-e did not understand. The Chinese pharmacist explained, "If you buy the top of the Ginseng root and make tea from it for your husband, he would become impotent. If your husband becomes impotent, then shouldn't this be considered as causing harm to someone? Therefore, we cannot sell you the top of the Ginseng toot!" "Oh!" Lien-hua Li-e was speechless at that moment. Finally, Lien-hua Li-e persuaded the pharmacist to sell her some tops of the Ginseng root, and thus she resolved the issue of providing me the tea. Let me tell everyone, sincerely: In Chinese traditional herbal medicine, the middle part of the Ginseng root is the most nourishing, and the fibrous roots of the Ginseng is a cool substance that helps to decrease internal heat. As for the top of the Ginseng root, nobody eats it, and so it gets cut off and thrown away. The Chinese pharmacist believed that no one should consume the top of the Ginseng root, for it is of a very yin and cold substance. If one consumes it, then one would become impotent. Moreover, one's penis will also keep shrinking until it becomes like a small bean or a peanut. This is the reason why Lien-hua Li-e, when she wanted to buy the top of the Ginseng root, was suspected by the Chinese pharmacist of attempting to harm her husband and make him impotent. However, the top of the Ginseng root has its benefits. Supposedly, by consuming a little bit of the top of the Ginseng root, one can stop a bleeding nose. I have been drinking the tea made from the top of the Ginseng root for twenty years, and am I impotent? Has my penis become a small bean? I will let everyone guess! Aha! I have been practicing the meditation of internal fire, which is to transform the coarse fire of one's whole body into a pure fire in order to eliminate the impure fire and free one from ignorance. This impure fire refers to the ignorant fire of temperament that irritates one and generates one's fire of desire, such as the fire of sexual desire. This kind of impure fire ought to be completely extinguished. Therefore, I drink this tea made out of the top of the Ginseng root, because this cold, yin substance can neutralize the yang element of fire inside my body! People of contemporary society do not realize the importance of restraining from sex, and many people even risk taking those blue-colored little tablets (Viagra). Supposedly, Viagra is the best selling drug on the market, and it is a favorite commodity of people at large in our contemporary society. This contemporary society is a time of taking Viagra. I'm the only one who drinks the tea made out of the top of the Ginseng root. Suddenly, I realize that I am drifting further and further away from people in general. It is not just a certain distance, but in fact it's in the opposite direction. I'm not interested in what people desire, and people generally are not interested in what I pursue. People in general take Viagra, and I drink the tea made out of the top of the Ginseng root. Which one is better? Very well! Very well!
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