Why We Cannot Tell Others
Master does not allow you to talk about spiritual experiences because She worries that it will raise your arrogance and other people will defame you. It is because they do not have inner experience through spiritual practice and do not understand what you are talking about and look on you as having strange thoughts, talking about profound realms, Buddha and Bodhisattva, light, etc. and those worlds are different from the earth. Therefore, the Bodhidharma patriarch also did not allow people to talk about spiritual experience. He states very clearly in the Bodhidharma Blood and Vain Scripture, "When we see the light brighter than the sun, all the past habits we have will be dismissed immediately. At that moment, we are enlightened and realize our inner nature. It is enough we know ourselves and do not tell other people."
Not only is there a realm brighter than the sun, there are many other realms which are totally different from our world. If we use our worldly language to describe the realms, maybe it will create misunderstanding in other people, they will defame us, give us a lot of trouble and create a lot of obstacles for us. Also, invisible beings will get jealous and create obstacles for us. Therefore, we cannot tell other people our spiritual experience. But we can say, "I have experience, or so do other people who are practicing the Quan Yin Method." We can encourage others with saying this, but we cannot tell the details of what I can see and to which level I have attained. Without Master's permission, we had better not tell other people our inner experience.
Sometimes we do have experience but we may not be aware of it. Being a practitioner of the Quan Yin Method, have you ever experienced that sometimes your husband or wife wakes you up suddenly while you are sleeping? At that moment, it seems as if you had lost a realm, and as if we fell down from a very high level. Have you ever experienced this? (Many people answer: Yes.) Many people nodded their heads. I myself also experienced the same. Sometimes not by husband or wife, but we may be awakened by the noise outside, that is the same condition. Also, if we are in deep meditation and enter a very high realm, our mind cannot record it because our mind can only record the experience within the three levels and cannot record anything above them.
For example, there is a commanding officer who has a driver especially working for him. This driver can take the commanding officer to attend conferences at the President's office. He drives for the commanding officer and they arrive at the President's Office together, but the driver is not allowed to go in. He only knows his duty is to take the commanding officer there to attend the conference with other officers discussing nationwide affairs. He is not permitted to go in. Therefore, he does not know what kind of conference is being held and what matters are being discussed. Also, the commanding officer will never let him know.
When you have just a little bit of practicing experience, you tell
others immediately. Practitioners of higher levels will feel you are
ridiculous. It is because that experience is still of a low level. They
will say, "You have just got such a little bit experience and you speak out
so loud. How arrogant you are!" As for the practitioner of a low level or
the people who do not have inner experience, they cannot understand your
inner experience, so they will laugh at your "strange" stories. Therefore,
we cannot speak about our experience until we have become a Buddha then we
can say we are Tathagata (omnipresent).