The annual Carnival in Brazil is the country's biggest festival. Every year during the festival, the Brazilians have a grand costume party. Dancing to the beat of the samba, everyone enjoys to their hearts' content.
Fellow practitioners also decided to enjoy themselves by finding inner happiness; thus, they swiftly planned a three-day retreat. When fellow practitioners received the news, they were all truly delighted. Some drove for hours through the night to attend. There was even one fellow sister who had had a high fever for days; she still steadfastly insisted, "If I have to crawl, I will crawl there."
During these happy festive days, this group of children, devotedly loving God, immersed and intoxicated themselves in the vast ocean of Master's love and in the light and sound of God Almighty. They had experienced the holiday in one of the most enriching and beautiful ways. They also plan to have another one!
Following Master's instructions, fellow initiates in Costa Rica visited a nursing home for lone elderly people. They brought vegetarian cakes and desserts, along with Master's books, video and cassette tapes, etc., to share their brotherly love and God's blessings.
With loving care and attentively assisting them to walk, fellow initiates gathered everyone to watch Master's video tapes. The atmosphere was extremely peaceful; it was as if they were intoxicated by a spring breeze. They enjoyed the vegetarian snacks very much, and welcomed the fellow initiates to introduce vegetarian cooking to them. Some fellow initiates invited the elderly to dance, while others read Master's News magazine with them.
As the fellow initiates were leaving, the seniors went to the door to see them off. Leaning on the railing, their true feelings, that they were reluctant to let them go, were shown. By seeing that, the fellow initiates felt deeply that their own inner love had been awakened. Master has said, "Helping others is helping ourselves." By taking real action, the fellow initiates received the proof of this statement!
The second shipment of three thousand tons of rice from Formosa to relieve the food crisis in Cambodia has arrived at Kompong Som Seaport.
After having carried the sacks of rice one after another into the warehouse, the dozens of wharf workers assigned to unload the rice then sat on the ground. They silently watched the Rice Donation Ceremony, witnessing an expression of love which extends beyond nationalities. Representing the Cambodian Government to accept the rice was Minister Nhim Vanda, delegate of the First and Second Prime Ministers.
The six thousand tons of relief rice were distributed continuously to the people in need. His Majesty King Sihanouk, the First Prime Minister Prince Ranariddh, the Second Prime Minister Hun Sen and Minister Nhim Vanda personally participated in the distribution of the rice to the people in the various provinces. The Cambodian Government has once again sent a letter of appreciation thanking Master for Her righteous action in aiding the weak and needy, and for Her saintly ideal of treating the whole world as one family. (Refer to the appendix.)
In addition to the rice, Master has also made a donation to the country's Development Organization Fund for the building of Kong Pisei Secondary School to aid in promoting education.
Caption:
Representing Cambodia, Minister Nhim Vanda presents a gift to the captain of the freighter that transported the relief rice from Formosa.
A relaxing scene! The Prince and Princess Ranariddh bath a child during the distribution of the rice.
(Appendix)
February 14, 1995
(Originally In Cambodian)
The Kingdom of Cambodia
Nation, Religion, King
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
To: The Representatives of the International Supreme Master Ching Hai Meditation Associations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Dear Sir/Representative,
I am most honored to have this opportunity to express our deepest
gratitude and how deeply touched we are. We are grateful to the Supreme
Master Ching Hai and Her disciples for their concern and sympathy towards
the destitute Cambodian people. Generously during the first stage, three
thousand and two tons of rice were donated.
We have distributed this three thousand tons of rice to different
provinces. Enclosed is a detailed list showing the destinations and
quantities of the distribution for your reference.
The amount of the rice remaining after the distribution will be further
allocated to other provinces in need. We will inform the Supreme Master
Ching Hai of the details later.
Yours sincerely,
Nhim Vanda
Special Delegate of the First and Second Prime Ministers
Nation, Religion, King
The Royal Cambodia Government
February 20, 1995
(Originally In Cambodian)
To: The International Supreme Master Ching Hai Meditation Associations
The Revered Supreme Master,
The three thousand tons of rice, a gift from the Supreme Master Ching
Hai to help those in need of food, has been received by the First and Second
Prime Ministers of the Royal Cambodian Government.
The Royal Cambodian Government is most grateful, and highly praises the
charitable actions of the Supreme Master Ching Hai and Her disciples, and
the noble friendship extended to our people.
The First and Second Prime Ministers sincerely wish the Supreme Master
Ching Hai and all Her disciples happiness and to be blessed with the
Buddha's blessings!
With our sincere respects,
The First Prime Minister
Ranariddh
The Second Prime Minister
Hun Sen
The Industrial Research Institute was going to hold a Birthday Celebration Garden Party. A fellow initiate, being one of the working staff, was suddenly inspired with an idea: Why not register for a booth to promote the concept of vegetarianism!? First of all, on that day, the booth could serve anyone who loves vegetarian food. Secondly, it could also help to promote the idea of vegetarianism. Backed by the inspiration and having discussed it with other fellow initiates, a decision was made to register for two booths: one for vegetarian food and one for Master's publications. They hoped a complete feast could be served, both materially and spiritually.
When Master's photograph was put up at the publications booth, it immediately drew the attention of the entire place. With the belief of advancing courageously, the fellow practitioners never miss an opportunity to spread Master's teachings. Exquisitely prepared vegetarian food and drinks were served to the continuous stream of people coming to the booth, overshadowing the neighboring booths offering foods with meat. This made everyone firmly believe that, with proper effort, delicious vegetarian food can also touch people and awaken their inner nature.
Master has said, "The more we work, the more we learn." If daily meditation is for developing wisdom and love, then work is for putting this wisdom and love into action. Work teaches us how to forget the ego, how to use the wisdom, and how to consolidate the power of the fellow practitioners. At the same time, it also helps Master spread the true dharma and purify the world. Work is truly the touchstone for the tempering and cultivation of the fellow practitioners.
Caption:
Master's photograph is so dignified and majestic so that the publications
and vegetarian booths set up by the fellow initiates both attract large
crowds of people.
Nantou fellow initiates all eagerly registered to help when they learned that the Nantou Home & School for Mentally Handicapped Children was in need of volunteers to bring the school children to a garden party of love.
Not only did the initiates arrive early at the school to become acquainted with the children and welcome them warmly, but they also patiently taught them to play games. The atmosphere inside the school was so full of joy and harmony that the person in charge of the activity asked repeatedly what kind of a service group this was! Some fellow initiates also went early in the morning to meditate near the site of the garden party. When the party started, they distributed sample booklets. That day, besides taking the school children to the activity and distributing sample booklets, the initiates also picked up the trash in every corner of the area.
Seeing the school children with their happy smiles, they knew that, due to Master's blessing, the spirit of love and joy had filled the atmosphere.
caption: In bringing mentally handicapped children to a garden party, initiates from Nantou Center share the spirit of love and joy.
Once again the initiates went to the Hualien Veteran's Home to visit the severely paralyzed. Besides distributing Master's exquisite photographs and magazines, they also chatted with them about daily family matters and gently massaged their bodies. These old people are like delicate children. Slowly and quietly they talked about the contents and their thoughts on the last issue of the News magazine. They frequently praised and thanked Master.
When a young patient received a gift of Master's photograph and a tape-recorder, his eyes sparkled and a rare smile appeared. The person in charge said he had never seen him smile. As his body was severely paralyzed, he could only lie there quietly having no communication with people. After hearing Master's teachings, his heart opened and he happily accepted everything to begin anew.
When the initiates were about to leave, an old man, thin and shrunken with age, insisted that the initiates should wait for a while. Seriously, he searched through his pockets, cupboards and drawers. Finally his trembling hands took out a five hundred N.T. dollar bill from his inner pocket. He wanted to give it to the initiates as a fund to help other people in need. Everyone present was touched. As a token, initiates only accepted ten N.T. dollars. This ten N.T. dollars was truly of great value!
In constant response to Master's appeal to "restore the beauty of Formosa", the initiates chose the beach at Hong Mao Harbor to be the site for the cleaning activity this month.
Using different means of transportation, fellow initiates arrived at the destination. Previously very beautiful, the soft and gentle beach was now full of various objects that had been brought ashore by the sea waves and garbage dumped at random by the neighboring residents. The scene appeared so disharmonious. It made people's hearts ache that such a beautiful place was treated like this. The initiates took the garbage bags and started the cleaning work immediately. All worked diligently, quickly and efficiently. Bags and bags of garbage were put into the big garbage truck sent by the Environmental Protection Bureau to support this activity.
Finally, the beach recovered its bright and beautiful appearance. The garbage truck left fully load. For a moment, before leaving, the initiates also enjoyed the clean seashore scene. The Hong Mao Harbor gave people a new and different feeling compared with the previous appearance!
caption: After the cleaning, Hong Mao Harbor's seashore look so bright and beautiful. Everywhere so clean!
On a weekend with warm and sunny weather, initiates from Hong Kong went to visit the fellow practitioners at Whitehead refugee camp. They took along with them canned food, clothing, toys for the kids and Master's love. Although it was their first meeting, the feelings were familiar, like when meeting relatives. A child of an initiate in the camp told them in fluent Cantonese that she had started to be a vegetarian and had been meditating. Although she had not been initiated yet, she believed in Master very much and also believed that Master surely knew about their inner longings. In her innocent, child's heart, she still remembered the time when Master came to visit them in the camp.
Though their bodies were physically in a formidable environment, the inner hearts of the Au Lac fellow practitioners had not lost their brightness and optimism. They laughed cheerfully, and were not a bit worried about their fate. They are really the best examples of the saying, "Find the inner Kingdom of God, then you have found eternal joy."
With the blessing of Master's love and the help of many dedicated fellow practitioners, a new Book Circulation Center has been set up at Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. The response has been very good, making it a good place for people in the northern New Territories to go to practice the Convenient Method and to read Master's books.
Ever since Master's lecture in Singapore, besides the soaring increase of new initiates, many people, who were interested in spiritual practice but could not completely switch to a vegetarian diet, had also enrolled to learn the Convenient Method.
At the local meditation center, there are Convenient Method group meditation sessions each week. (It is also open to fellow practitioners at all times.) After watching Master's lecture video, everyone meditates together. After the meditation, some of them stay behind to continue watching the video or to discuss with the Quan Yin messenger or fellow initiates.
The facilities at the center are efficiently utilized. Diligent meditation and cultivation are most helpful to spiritual elevation, and at the same time the most direct and efficient way to purify the society.
Fellow practitioners tried to spread Master's teachings in the form of a seminar. They rented a small lecture hall at the University of Toronto, and very enthusiastically the work to inform the public of the activity started.
When the seminar began, the continuous flow of the crowd filled the venue. Firstly, a fellow practitioner introduced Master, Her teachings and the Quan Yin Method. When the video tape of Master's lecture in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. titled 'Find Your Inner Master' was played, everyone listened very attentively. Master's humorous way of lecturing continuously brought the audience to laughter. The atmosphere was almost as though Master was giving the lecture in person. The final program of the seminar was a discussion session. Fellow initiates and guests interacted in a lighthearted manner, enjoying coffee and vegetarian biscuits while discussing Master's teachings. The questions of the guests were also answered during this time.
Many people wished to know more, and there were some who applied for initiation. Among them was a Truth seeker who has been a vegetarian for several decades and hoping to get initiated as soon as possible. There was also a young couple who were fashionably dressed. The gentleman expressed that he had listened to the lectures of many masters. He felt that Master's words really came from Her inner enlightenment, and not just from books or scriptures. They also enrolled for initiation.
The fellow practitioners in Toronto were very happy with the perfect results of the seminar. The greatest encouragement for the fellow practitioners was seeing more souls longing for liberation who will be receiving the guidance and care of the compassionate Master.
Ever since Master instructed fellow disciples to proceed with the clean-the-environment activity, the Arkansas Center, this past year, has earnestly participated in a highway cleaning project. They even received a little recognition and encouragement. Fellow practitioners will carry on with this activity of beautifying the environment.
Although there are not many fellow practitioners in the area, everyone does their best to display the sample booklets in the public places of the cities in which they live. The Fayetteville Public TV Station is broadcasting Master's lecture videos one night a week for one hour. The TV Station also gives out the contact phone number of the Branch Center, so that people who are interested in Master's teachings can obtain further information. The TV Station manager said that he has never received any calls about any of the other programs, only Master's program.
Also, the fellow initiates have changed their habit of giving each other gifts for birthdays and special occasions. Instead, they donate the gift or money to a needy group or person in their area. For instance, several fellow practitioners had birthdays recently, and they donated the money to help a couple whose house had burned down. This loving activity is carried out smoothly, and everyone feels that sharing with others in this way is a great experience.
In high spirits, fellow practitioners spread Master's noble teachings by participating in the Exhibition on Healthy and Abundant Life-styles, organized by the city of Pittsburgh. This activity brought the best tidings of spring to the city.
Fellow practitioners coming from Canada and the neighboring areas brought along their working experience and their secrets to success, enabling the exhibition activity to be carried out smoothly. For this occasion, the fellow practitioners brought portable computers to the venue for quick and accurate entries of particulars of people. Anyone who wished to receive information or the News magazines, as well as those who wanted to learn the Convenient Method were recorded, thus enabling easy communication in the future.
An elderly gentleman, after reading Master's sample booklet and News magazine, was full of praise for Master, saying that: It is amazing how this petite, young lady can make such great contributions to the world! Other spiritual groups that participated in the exhibition often found time to watch Master's lecture videos.
After the exhibition, the Pittsburgh Center continuously received phone calls from people who were interested in the Quan Yin Method. Fellow practitioners discussed Master's teachings and answered their questions over the telephone. They also offered them Master's video tapes and books for viewing, as well as invited them to the center to have vegetarian meals.
With Master's love and blessings, a few would-be initiates were born!