A few months later, right after
Ronnie's sixteenth birthday, his mother again applied for him to be
initiated. One of the L. A. Center contact persons then relayed to
her what the Quan Yin messenger had suggested about the Convenient
Method, and emailed the Foreign Group, which immediately gave its
permission "to try to teach" Ronnie the Convenient Method.
The contact person responsible
for working with Ronnie kept asking herself, "How can I teach
him the difficult inner concepts related to meditation?" and
requested Master's help in transmitting the Convenient Method to the
boy. Next, she spoke with Ronnie's brother, who explained that Ronnie
is a visual learner who comprehends the content of pictures but has
no understanding of abstract thought. After realizing the nature of
Ronnie's abilities, the contact person began a search of the Internet
using the terms "meditation" and "teach" and found
several articles that were very helpful. One consisted of a cartoon
series on teaching meditation, with the frames going through a simple
sequence of instructional steps, and another showed beautiful inner
experiences. These articles were downloaded and printed out in full
color.
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Another helpful teaching aid
came from a Formosan brother, who two years earlier had emailed the
contact person a beautiful illustration (see right) of a child looking
up to the heavens. This picture shows the cone-shaped pineal gland,
said by ancient mystics and the French philosopher Ren Descartes to
be "the seat of the soul," and located behind the middle
of the forehead in the geometric center of the cranium.
Two weeks after receiving permission
to learn the Convenient Method, Ronnie was able to come to the L.
A. Center with his mother and older brother for his special day. With
pictures in hand, the contact person felt ready to teach Ronnie, and
much to everyone's surprise, it took him only about three minutes
to learn how to meditate! He had already learned how to sit properly
by watching a portion of the film The Lion King about meditation.
All the contact person had to do was show Ronnie the above-mentioned
cartoons and pineal gland picture and give brief verbal descriptions
of each. The pictures were most helpful in the teaching process, as
Ronnie easily grasped the concepts with these simple visual aids.
The pineal gland image helped Ronnie to understand where Master is
located inside his brain, and in order to teach Ronnie how to concentrate
on his Wisdom Eye, the contact person put a bindi (a dot traditionally
worn by Indian women) on his forehead. The next thing that happened,
however, surprised us all!
The contact person asked Ronnie
if he was ready to begin meditating, and he immediately sat in the
correct posture, closed his eyes and entered samadhi! He then stayed
in this state until he was gently awakened at the end of the session.
During Ronnie's Convenient Method instruction session, Master had
bypassed his damaged brain and gone directly to his perfect soul.
Despite his "handicap" Ronnie is actually very blessed,
free and wonderful just the way he is. For as the Bible says, "Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God"(Matthew 5:8).
It is we so-called "normal" people, with our lifetimes of
accumulated thoughts and preconceptions, who are laden with many obstacles!
Now, Ronnie comes to group meditation with his family each Sunday
and receives more blessings every day through Master's love.
We thank Master for teaching
us a great lesson through Ronnie's pure and humble example!