I have read many books before, yet I retained very little from them. The book that revealed the tale of Shakyamuni Buddha’s past life incarnation as a little parrot, however, I still recall:

One day, there was a forest fire. The birds and other animals were crying and hysterically running away to escape. Their crying in pain deeply touched the heart of a little parrot. So, he ran quickly to the nearby riverbank and took a few gulps of water to help douse the blazing fire. Back and forth he flew without being aware of his own pain and fatigue. The violent blaze tarnished his feathers and stained his body with smoke. Moved by the parrot’s action, heavenly fairies created a heavy rain to pour over the forest. The fires were stopped and the forest animals were saved.

Most of all, the story reminds me how Master would like us to serve others selflessly and unconditionally. If we can serve others, like the little parrot did, we will receive God’s assistance in our endeavors of service.

A similar incident took place that involved me. Every time I went to group meditation, by train or by car, I would usually see eye-catching billboards, some with very negative messages on them, i.e., cigarette advertising, etc. I wished that I could replace them with noble spiritual advertising. Since these billboards easily catch people’s eyes, I thought it would be nice if they were showing more lofty messages.

About three weeks before the premiere of the Supreme Master Television in Europe, we were thinking how to give our support to promote the television program. The first thought in my mind was to use the giant billboards along the city streets. I searched for advertising companies to inquire about display ads.

The staff in many of these companies quickly recognized me as one without any experience. After several trials, perhaps one company felt a sense of pity for my naïveté because they later extended their help to me wholeheartedly. Or perhaps, the innocence and sincerity awoke the Godly nature within them.

After collecting all the information and details, I told the company representative honestly that the price was quite high and that it was beyond our financial capability. He thought about it and several minutes later called me back and dropped the price to 1/3 of the original offer. Since I could hardly believe it, I made sure with him several times before I quickly grasped this opportunity. And then everything proceeded accordingly.

We placed 40 big billboards in Hamburg and 60 in Berlin for one week. Large posters with Master’s image were displayed in bus stations along the streets, in train stations and in the large public transportation concourses. Everything was so arranged by Master that our billboards stayed up for three additional weeks, free of extra charges. I was happy and remembered the story of the little parrot.

This is the outcome of our eagerness in sharing Gods’ message to the people. It is the longing for people to know God for their quick escape from the suffering and ignorance in this ephemeral world. It is this positive thinking that leads us to the accomplishment of every task.

Sometimes we tend to think of our work as tiny, as “a piece of sand in the ocean” that is of no use to anyone. But we should just have a powerful thought that everyone will benefit from it, like the little parrot with each gulp of water to help put out the forest fires.

Sometimes, I go to distribute flyers for Master’s television program and for the Alternate Living as well. Since I have small children, I cannot plan to go with other initiates. So I just go out when I have available time. On a sunshiny day, I walked the streets alone to drop a flyer into the mailbox of each house I found. Looking at the thick stack of flyers in my hand, I felt a little discouraged for I had not distributed a whole lot. Upon recalling the little parrot story, I continued walking to each and every house and felt blissful again to go on with the rest of the distributing. I long for people to know God and the noble way of living and I strongly believe that it will become a reality. I would like to share this thinking with everyone in the working teams, because this has helped me a lot and kept me moving ahead without giving up.

Each gulp of water from the little parrot did not put out the forest fires, yet his devotion and God’s heartfelt help did!

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