It has been a very long time since I have felt pampered, loved, and cared for as the youngest child in a big family. Now, I have found a sense of absolute peaceful sentiment as I “returned” to the spiritual home of the Universal Human Body Energy.
Although this was the first time I've been to the Head Quarter of the U.H.B.E. Meditation Center in Seattle, I felt like I was at a very familiar place - years ago - as I stood in front of the alter of our Grand Masters and prayed for a long time. Through the teachings of my masters - Thầy Thuận and Cô Hải, and after Thầy Lưu explained the meaning of the song "Reunion", I began to understand more clearly why I had such a feeling of "returning” home. I had learned that it was not by coincidence that I became a member of the UHBE family in my present life, as it resulted from devoting myself to spiritual cultivation in many past lifetimes. The more I have known about the Dharma of the U.H.B.E., the more I have treasured being honored as one of the lucky disciples of the U.H.B.E. family. I knew that I must continue to follow the Bodhisattva’s path – the path that Thầy Thuận and Cô Hải encourage all disciples to continue to conduct - in order to help and support the evolution of humankind. I have definitely learned that through meditation, I can maintain a keen mind and be fully aware of the disturbances in the surroundings, but without agitation.
I have changed significantly through the three short days upon completing the level five class; especially, I have become more mature in the way I think about life. The U.H.B.E. center in Milpitas, Northern California, had been granted permission from Thầy Thuận and Cô Hải to open on March 20, 2012. In order to have our own spiritual house in Milpitas, the pioneers of the center had to overcome an enormous amount of challenges one after another! There were times that I thought about giving up but once I sat down to meditate, my mind kept reciting each sentence in the poem “The Truth” from the Founder Grand Master Dasira Narada and my faith revived immediately; my friends and I continued working together to overcome all hardships to keep moving on our journey to cultivate ourselves.
On Sunday morning, while waiting at the hotel lobby before departing for home, Thầy Thuận and Cô Hải joined us for breakfast and continued to teach us valuable lessons through informal talks. I was deeply touched when Thầy Thuận shared amazing stories – while crying - about all the trials and the hardship of the early days that Thầy and Cô had to face while executing the sacred mission of bringing the Truth of the Founder Grand Master Dasira Narada to all people around the world. At that moment, I started to see my hardship as just a grain of sand in the ocean compared to my masters’ hardships!
After three months of trying continuously to build a strong foundation for the U.H.B.E. center in Milpitas; I, as one of the pioneers of the center, have been leading all disciples to practice the “Bodhisattva conduct” with love and compassion. I have thought that I have given them plenty of love! But, once again, my thought has been changed significantly after the three days I had been in Seattle! I was kind of feeling shameful to admit that the love that I have been given to my fellow group in Milpitas was just as sprinkle of rain compared to the storming rain of unconditional love from Thầy Thuận, Cô Hải, and all the brothers and sisters who came from other U.H.B.E. centers from far away.
Once our group were at Seattle airport at night, Instructor Norman greeted us with a big smile on his face even though he had been at the airport since early in the morning to make sure that everyone had arrived safely to the U.H.B.E. center. When we arrived at the hotel, Cô Susan – also with a beautiful smile on her face – had been waiting for us at the counter to help us settle into our room.
However, the class would not have been a great success without plenty of delicious food that had been prepared and cooked with love from the hearts of our U.H.B.E. brothers and sisters who came from far away! I could sense and feel the affection for love and care from each bowl of “pho”, each slide of delicious cake, and each cup of wonderful sweet been soup. Until now, I can’t forget the echo of a lovely and sweet voice from Cô Ba when she invited us to eat her dessert.
On the last challenging day - when we had our chakras open – I continued to acknowledge the attentive care and the extended compassion of all brothers and sisters who help organize the class while Thầy Thuận and Cô Hải had opened our chakras.The six extended hours felt like ten centuries; right at the moment that I felt like I was about to collapse, my mind was all over the place in panic, I suddenly felt that someone had been giving me the wonderful energy that I had been waiting for. They had given me energy without touching me! I felt revitalized at once and my mind was back in the stillness stage right away after receiving the miracle help from an “unknown” brother or sister!
Right after I had my chakras opened, there was a short time that I was allowed to open my eyes to prepare to meditate in a sitting position. I had curiously looked ahead and my heart was sinking due to a speechless sense of love when I saw that Thầy Thuận was kneeling on the floor in order to open the chakras on the feet! There are close to 90 disciples in the class, which meant that Thầy Thuận had to nearly crawl on the floor for five hours. There was certainly no words could be used to describe the love, the compassion, and the sacrifice that Thầy Cô devoted for us.
Dear Thầy Cô,
Now, I realized why you wanted us to meditate in a standing position. You wanted us to keep our mind “still”; at the same time, the standing position would help us to excrete the impurities from our system more efficiently. During the two months that I got training in standing position at my center, there was times that felt miserable - and blamed Thầy Cô for being too tough by demanding us to do such hard work - when my knees were aching and my feet are swollen as elephant’s feet! I would like to thank Thầy Cô for guiding me, encouraging me, helping me to go through tough time, and finally pushing me through a long spiritual cultivation journey full of challenges and trials that definitely makes me achieve a great progress in a short period of time.
With the valuable knowledge that I have learned from the Dharma of the U.H.B.E. discipline - from Thầy Cô - for the past three years and especially after the class of level 5, I will continue to try my best to use the meditation center as a material means to nurture the seeds of love and help these beautiful seeds grow and spread endlessly. I will try to make the meditation center as an ideal place for everyone to come and develop faith in the U.H.B.E. discipline and the Dharma of our Founder Grand Master Dasira Narada. I will listen to the Dharma delivered by Thầy Cô and hold these lessons in my heart. This will help me to keep and develop a noble mind so I will forever be a good child of Grand Master Dasira Narada.
A disciple from the Milpitas Meditation Center– Northern California
July 25, 2012