News 102, Special Reports

A Spring Breeze Brings New Life

By Los Angeles News Group, California, USA
(originally in English)

On March 21, 1999, after the early morning group meditation session, fellow initiates at the L. A. Center were delightfully surprised by an unexpected visit from Master. Just coming out of samadhi, some practitioners thought they were in a dream when they saw Her.

Wearing casual white pants and shoes and a taupe colored sweater, Master looked relaxed and joyful. Walking around, She said "Hi" to the disciples and all were overjoyed by this surprise visit on such a beautiful spring day.

Soon, everyone gathered at the foot of the stairs leading to the meditation hall. Master lovingly comforted an elderly practitioner who was unable to move easily without a wheelchair. They sat side by side and Master chatted with her in Au Lacese for quite a while. She joked with the lady and asked her about her Buddhist practice, while much of the time the lady folded her hands as a show of respect to Master. Then, Master put Her own earrings on the venerable woman, who responded with a very contented look. People in the crowd smiled with understanding.

Master then patiently answered questions about meditation practice and life's problems. One new disciple told Master that her job involved taking care of seriously sick infants, many of whom die. However, since her initiation, no babies have died during her shift.

Someone else mentioned that he had difficulty meditating. Master recommended adding one more minute of meditation each day to his practice. Sometimes we are very tired, because in this life we work very hard. We have headaches, responsibilities and pressure from business, associates, friends, and family. Then we just sit there and the body just does not listen because it is so worn out. We live with all kinds of pressures, so we should take it easy on ourselves.

"If you're too tired, drink something that calms you down, like some tea; or rest first, until you feel better; or go for a walk in the fresh air, and then come back and sit again. If after thirty minutes you're finished, and you cannot sit any more, then get up and go for a walk, listen to music, or do something that you like. Later come back and sit again, thus adding up to a full session."

"So sometimes if you don't meditate well or have problems, it might not be all your fault. If you check everything and you feel you're all right spiritually- you're a good vegetarian, you usually meditate well and your faith is still strong, someone near you or someone you're thinking of may be affecting you. Or perhaps a deceased person or a relative far away from you is having trouble, and because of your spiritual sympathy, you automatically share the burden of that person, so your spiritual practice is slowed down a little; but don't worry. Or if you feel fed up and don't want to meditate, don't meditate. The next time, the next day, you can meditate. Or just meditate a little bit and then go to sleep and when you wake up and you want to meditate more, do it. Take it easy, take your time and live forever."

"We cannot regress. We can only progress slowly or quickly. But if we do not meditate well, we have a less smooth life. We have more problems, and that's how we come to appreciate our spiritual power inside when we do meditate. When we meditate more, we remember God more and our lives become better. If we meditate a lot more, we uplift ourselves to a higher level, and if we don't meditate, we sink down to a lower level, or we stay in the middle, and don't experience a higher, smoother life, a better situation. When we are on the lower level, we sink, and many bad things come upon us, because we are in a bad area."

When asked how to balance spiritual practice and daily life, Master delivered an excellent speech, stating that She now lives by Herself, without the help of attendants and must do everything on Her own. She has thus learned more about our lives and the hardships of worldly living. Master said: "It is so hard so that we can understand what to do, and we can become stronger so that we overcome it. So we should not let the world pull us down, but instead rise above it, and that's how we become strong. We have the Master inside, and we have all the angels standing by waiting to help us. We must never ever forget that, because you are what you think. You get what you believe."

"So just believe in yourself strongly, and you can do anything you want. It's just that the world always tries to pull you down and tell you that you're weak, you're bad, you can't make it, you're stupid and so on. Try not to think that way, and instead think more positively. Believe in yourself, because the Master is always there for you. You have to call for help at any time. Don't forget that. Later on, you will know that the Master is your own self, your own strength, and you will have no fear, and no problems."

Master also talked about how difficult it is to always remember how great we are. Even She cannot always remember Her own greatness. Jokingly, She said that if She were caught by the police for speeding, She would be scared too. She said: "You are very great, but when you're working, when you're doing things, when you're under pressure, you don't remember it, but that's all right, as long as you remember it sometimes. That is OK; it's better than never remembering. In your subconscious, you still know that you are the Master, you are God, you are one with God. We are God's children at least, but when you're doing things in everyday life, you can't remember all the time. Then it's OK. Besides, it's OK not to remember. If we remember all the time that we are God's children, we wouldn't want to live here anymore. We're working like mad for just a few dollars an hour, and we are God's children! What a ridiculous conflict. So it's OK if we don't remember."

"Don't wish to die early, since it's also fun to stay here. Just hang around, and take it easy, one day at a time, and stay in the present moment, always in the present. Because you think too much, you get into trouble. "Oh, what will happen tomorrow, because yesterday was terrible, and the day before it was even worse?" Don't think too much. Take one day at a time, one minute at a time, and everything else will be OK. As long as you always concentrate on the present, everything else works out perfectly. You give life a chance to work out for you, give the Master Power a chance to arrange things for you. Because if you think a certain way, everything you think about will come true, and the Master can not help you if you think that way, and want it that way. Don't bother about it, live one minute at a time, do whatever is in front of you at the moment, and do not bother about the rest, because we can't have it. The past is gone, and the future has not come yet, so why worry, because it doesn't make any difference." Master said that we should just live one day at a time, one minute at a time, and our lives will be much simpler, we'll save ourselves a lot of energy, and we'll live longer, if we want to.

Master said not to worry if we have problems. She has run into many difficulties, not Her own problems, because She doesn't have any, but problems that arise because She is related to us. So our problems become Her problems. For example, when people need Her, She has to run, but each time She goes through the airport, Her heart skips a beat. Sometimes going through customs can be a very trying situation! With God's blessing, it will be better for us in the near future!

So even when She just comes to see us, just to do good things, She has to go through a lot of trouble. Even if She applies for permanent residency in the U.S., there are many conditions, such as having to prove She is a good citizen. She has to provide proof of Her income and bank account; even if She wants to open a bank account, She has to have references from other banks. She had nothing, because She has never used Her name to open a bank account. She never needed to worry about money in the past. So Master has to come and go. But She doesn't mind all these things.

We all know that a very enlightened and highly spiritually developed Master will bring a great deal of blessing to any country where She stays. For example, when Master stays in the U.S.A. for a longer time than usual, America's economy becomes better. Although it's the truth, such an abstract thing cannot always be proved. We hope that every country can cherish the Light that an enlightened Master brings to the world. We hope also that Her wish that there be no frontiers between nations will be realized very soon.

During Her speech, Master encouraged everyone to be happy. "Whatever situation we are in, we are really lucky. Think of all the people who don't have what we have. Spiritual wealth is the best thing that we can possess and we have it. We'll never lose it. How many people out there do not know this, suffer very much, and don't know where to turn? When they pray to God, God doesn't answer them because they aren't connected. Their telephones are cut off. But when we pray we get a response, although we have to suffer sometimes due to fixed karma that we chose before we came here. We chose to be like this, and we chose to be like that. It's our noble choice so we shouldn't think that we are suffering, but doing our duty. We should think that we are training ourselves in our situation to be stronger, better, more noble individuals. It's a blessing to be anything. Look at Jesus; at the most tragic moment of His life, He still blessed people. He didn't curse them, and He didn't feel sorry for Himself. He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." And He also said, "Father, how You glorify me." He still remembered God in the most painful moment of His life.

Master's "Will Power" is worthy to be followed as an example. Sometimes Her legs felt bad, and She has to plead with them, "Please, I still need you, so come on. We can go on holiday together when we are in the grave." She tells them, "We have a long time to rest, so don't worry, now just go on working." Then, they come back to life. Or sometimes Her body is very tired and wants to sleep very much. But She has things to do, so She says to Her body, "Don't worry. We will rest for a long time in the grave later on. Now get on with it."

Master also mentioned that we're stepping into the 21st century soon. There are many technologies that are being developed now in the world. So we have to not only be involved with them, but we have to go with the flow of the world.

Master reminded us once again that we should put a note-pad beside us while meditating. Even during sleep, She wakes up a lot of the time just to write down notes about what She has to do, because if we don't write these things down, we'll forget them very soon. We don't have time to remember everything.

Later on, Master met two teenage boys who knew how to "break dance" and She asked them to teach Her. Master learned several movements from them. Still new to this field, She did amazingly well. Watching a living Buddha "break dancing" with two "cool" teenagers we felt that Master is really very fascinating! She commented that dancing works, because it expends energy and gets rid of frustrations. This is better than fighting or causing trouble.

After having lunch with several lucky disciples, Master left while the rest of us meditated. She permitted an initiation for that day, and excited mothers brought their children for half initiation, and others who were practicing the Convenient Method came for full initiation. The blessing power was very strong during the initiation and disciples swayed like flowers in a gentle breeze. With the dawning of the Spring leading to the next millennium, Master blew a warm, pleasant breeze into the world, enabling the flower of life to bloom in everyone's heart.

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