Supreme Master Ching Hai shared with initiates a story of the cloth bag monk.

This monk was always seen carrying a large cloth bag, and the question was often asked of him: "What does the bag have inside?" A poem by the cloth bag monk says, "I have a cloth bag/ Empty and free from hindrance/ Without, it permeates throughout the universe/ Within, one can perceive his own free Self-nature." Supreme Master explained that the cloth bag refers to our body, it is empty; however, the entire universe is included when it is opened; the Self-nature is revealed when we are within the bag.

The cloth bag monk also left another poem for the world before his retreat to Nirvana: "Maitreya, the true Maitreya, with hundreds of billions of manifestation bodies/ Reminding the worldly people all the time, but the world remains unawake." Supreme Master said that unfortunately it is only after the final ascension of a Master that people then build large temples of worship, losing the precious opportunity to follow a living enlightened Being.