April
29, 2000
Sri
Lanka, rich in spirituality and famous for its Ceylon tea, is a small
island country in the Indian Ocean, south of India. Gorgeous Buddha
statues, illuminated at night, stand nobly at the corners of many streets
in capital city of Colombo.
On
the warm and sunny afternoon of April 29, people began entering the
spacious Grand Ballroom of the Trans Asian Hotel. This beautiful facility
in Colombo has a five-star rating and is located in a harbor on the
country's west coast, facing the Indian Ocean.
It
didn't take long for the lecture hall to fill with people. One Dutch
man who attended the lecture said that he had flown all the way from
the Netherlands to meet Master. He added that he had searched for many
years, even going to India to seek the Truth, and was waiting now for
an inner "signal" to tell him that the Quan Yin Method was
the right path for him. Another person, a man from England, came to
see Master because he was still not at peace with himself, even after
becoming a monk in a monastery.
To
introduce Master's work, the new videotape entitled "Looking at
the Past... Stepping into a Bright Future" was shown, which described
Master's European Lecture Tour from May to June 1999. Then, a local
Kandian drum dance team led Master to the front of the hall, passing
a respectfully standing crowd. (Kandy is
a
Sri Lankan city located in the middle of the country.) Wearing a light
violet blouse and long, dark purple skirt, Master looked youthful as
Her long, brown hair flowed down to Her shoulders. To pay Her respects,
Master humbly bowed to the Sri Lankan monks sitting in the front row
of the audience. Then, following a local tradition, Master lit a string
in an oil lamp with a candle and passed the candle to other local people
so they could light the remainder of
the
strings. To the delight of Master and the audience, the colorful dancers
and drummers then performed a Kandian dance accompanied by chanting
and drumming on tablas (traditional drums used in India and Sri Lanka).
The
lecture began with a prayer for peace in Sri Lanka. Master said that
although many of the people in Sri Lanka already have peace and happiness
in their hearts, She asked everyone in the hall to pray for the people
who have not yet found this happiness, and thus are suffering.
Master
pointed out that peace and happiness are our true Nature. We might try
using such means as violence or force, thinking that these are ways
to get what we want in life, but ultimately we have no better choice
than to find peace and happiness within. This is returning to our Self
and our own God Nature. She went on to explain that the way of the Buddha
and of all saints since time immemorial is the way of peace and love.
That is also the way of our True Self. Some have attained this peace
and love through deep meditation or prayer.
The
Buddha came to this world to show us that we are also God. In one of
the Buddhist sutras, it is mentioned that enlightenment is like a light
that is passed from one to another. Hence, we still have candle-lighting
ceremonies in the Buddhist tradition. Some people who have heard the
name of the Buddha and may have even studied the scriptures of the enlightened
ones still have not found peace and happiness, perhaps because their
light has not been lit. Enlightenment is like lighting one candle with
another already-lit candle. A person must have a lit candle before he
or she can light those of others.
By
remembering our own God Nature, we can remind others of their God
Nature, because we are all born from God. The Buddha said, "I
am the Buddha; you are the future ones." The God Nature inside
the Buddha and inside of us is exactly the same. That is why we can
also become God. The reason we do not see our God Nature is because
we have not tried. If we sincerely want to try, we will be shown the
way. It is written in the Diamond Sutra that no matter how long a
room has been dark, it takes just one second for a light to make the
darkness disappear.
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