On July 18, 2002, the
contact person of Chile's Santiago Center invited me to visit
a woman psychologist, who worked in a local prison and was on
maternity leave at the time. As we walked out of the elevator
on the tenth floor of the large apartment building where the woman
lived, the sound of a baby crying echoed loudly down the hallway.
We soon discovered that the psychologist's apartment was at the
far end of the floor, and that the cries were coming from her
newborn daughter. The crying was so loud that it could be heard
several apartments away.
As we entered the psychologist's
apartment, the baby saw us, immediately stopped crying and smiled
sweetly at me. Surprised by this change in the child's behavior,
her mother said, "That's incredible!" The infant had
been crying for a long time and would not stop even when pampered
and fed. But when she saw us, she smiled like an angel and stared
intently at me.
We then sat down for a chat,
our conversation focusing initially on the baby. As we talked,
the contact person held the child in her arms, and the topic switched
to spreading Master's teachings in the prison. A few years ago,
a Quan Yin messenger had visited the prison and provided gifts
for the inmates - a tennis table, some chairs and many other material
items. At that time, the Quan Yin messenger also introduced Master's
teachings to the prisoners. We were visiting the psychologist
to discuss how to continue this meaningful work.
The baby continued to rest
quietly in the contact person's arms, but after a while, began
to cry again. I thought perhaps she was bored and so I held her
against my shoulder. She looked a little tired, and eventually
fell into a sweet sleep. Seeing this, her mother was again surprised
and said, "That's really amazing!" She told us that
her baby daughter did not fall asleep easily, and she was surprised
to see the baby doze off so quickly in my arms. She added that
there was a very peaceful ambiance around me. I thought perhaps
it was because I sleep so much that I was carrying a "sleeping
atmosphere" around me. Zzzzzzz!
The baby woke up after a
while, and then peacefully sat on my knees, listening to us talk.
I took this opportunity to encourage the psychologist to become
a vegetarian and learn meditation, emphasizing that meditation
would not only be good for her and her child, but also very helpful
in her work. She appeared very interested because through her
daughter she had seen the extraordinary effect of the magnetic
field of a spiritual practitioner!