by
the Seoul News Group
[Seoul]
On April 4 and 5, 2004, while enjoying beautiful spring weather,
Korean initiates held a blissful two-day retreat and an Arbor Day
event at the Youngdong Center. After the retreat, the practitioners
planted approximately 160 pine trees and countless flowers, including
royal azaleas, around the Center’s newly built meditation hall.
Youngdong’s
large temporary meditation hall, used in the past for international
retreats, is not suitable for use during the winter months. Thus,
to satisfy a long-cherished desire of Korean initiates, last December
a new meditation hall was built that can hold around 450 initiates
for meditation and has a 4 x 5.5m (13’x18’) wide screen
for viewing Master’s videos.
However, the only thing that remained to be done was
to beautify the hall’s natural environment. So, during Korean
Arbor Day, the initiates lovingly planted trees and flowers in the
area. Brothers moved and placed in the ground large trees while sisters
cleaned up the surrounding valley area and gathered spring herbs from
the mountainous land of the holy Center.
When the resident-brother responsible for the Center’s
landscape architecture went shopping for trees at a local store, the
owner, seeing the brother wearing a Buddhist robe and thinking that
the plants were for a temple, was very helpful and even provided some
free of charge. Then later, after talking further with initiates and
learning about the supreme teachings, the shop owner even learned
the Convenient Method of meditation.
The gardening work is scheduled to continue for one
month, and in May, the area around Youngdong’s new meditation
hall will be reborn into a beautiful Heavenly landscape with numerous
trees providing plenty of shade, and a pleasantly cool pond constructed
by initiates.
The
City of Light Shines More Brightly
after Hearing Master’s Words
by
the Seoul News Group
[Gwangju]
On April 25, 2004, Gwangju City, whose name literally means “City
of Light,” played host to a public video seminar at the Namdo
Art Center. Two months earlier, about fifty Gwangju initiates had pulled
together and begun preparations for the event to make it the area’s
most successful seminar ever.
While promoting the activity, the sisters and brothers noticed that
the citizens of the Golden Age were very positive and elevated as
many passersby paid great interest in the posters being put up on
the streets. For example, one elderly couple asked if they could have
a poster to display in their home. And another person saw a poster
that had accidentally fallen on the ground, felt indescribable delight
and deep emotion, took it home, and later came to the seminar and
learned the Convenient Method.
On seminar day, approximately one hundred people attended and listened
intently to Supreme Master Ching Hai’s message. After the video-lecture
presentation, the guests asked many insightful questions about Master
and the Quan Yin Method, and also attentively read Her publications.
Many of the attendees already knew about Master; for instance, a
man who had read several of Her books revealed, “I’ve
long thought that She’s a great Master. Today’s lecture
also delivered the Truth in the simplest way possible.” And
another guest commented, “From the scriptures I’ve learned
that the Light and Sound meditation is the most efficient way to reach
the Truth, and I partially affirmed this knowledge after learning
the Convenient Method here today.” A number of other guests
also received Convenient Method transmission after the seminar.
Also, after reading Master’s sample booklet at home, an elderly
gentleman who attended the seminar but did not learn the Convenient
Method realized that his remaining life should be in accordance with
Master’s teachings so he later traveled a great distance by
bicycle to the Gwangju Center to learn the practice.
In addition, since the seminar many other Truth aspirants have visited
the Center such as one person who had heard of Master ten years ago,
saw Her poster and website, and then came to the Center to be taught
the CM. Also, a taxi driver who could not make it to the seminar because
of his job later came to the Center and learned the Convenient form
of practice.
Thanks to Master’s great blessing, after the Namdo Art Center
video seminar, the City of Light was filled with even more light,
and thus shined more brilliantly than ever!