Dear Thầy Chưởng Môn Nguyễn Đức Thuận,
And Cô Chưởng Môn Nguyễn Ngọc Hải,
After encountering many difficulties, challenges, and adversities towards our journey of cultivating ourselves—we were finally allowed to open the UHBE Center in Milpitas. We began our journey on January 23, 2012, in a small rented classroom in the Milpitas City Hall, with only eight pioneers: five disciples in level 4, and three disciples in level 2. Looking back at all the challenges that were brought along the way, we owe much of our success to the faith we have in our Founder Grand Master Dasira Narada. Our belief and full faith in the Grand Master’s Dharma helped us develop our strength to conquer all obstacles that came with sustaining our meditation center.
We began our journey with all the odds against us—from the lack of resources, to personal turmoil. We rented the classroom three nights a week, two hours per night—it seemed as though we would never have a permanent facility to house the image of our respected Grand Master, as we would carry his image back and forth between sessions. Every night, whenever the doors to our meditation centers would open, we would glimpse back and forth among the eight pioneers concerning at the patient to disciple ratio—patients had easily surpassed the amount of disciples available to provide treatment. Luckily, however, with the blessings of our Grand Master, nearly all the patients healed after receiving a few treatments. We were also extremely lucky to receive helping hands from my brother and sister-in-law, Thuận and Mai, who are level 4 disciples from the UHBE center in Boston during the first four weeks of our opening.
In the beginning of March, we found a permanent location for the image of our Grand Master—the location was small, but extremely cozy. After a couple weeks of our grand opening of our new-found spiritual home, Thầy and Cô officially announced the birth of the UHBE of Milpitas to all the UHBE centers around the world on March 20, 2012. We would like to express our great gratitude for believing in us, and accepting us as the official members of the UHBE family.
Three weeks after moving into our new location, we channeled all our efforts towards organizing our very first seminar for levels 1 and 2 in Milpitas on April 16, 2012. With our group of eight pioneers, we did everything necessary to ensure that we had a successful first seminar—within three weeks, we had recruited 42 students for the class, with 20 people on the waiting list (since the maximum occupancy of the classroom was 42).
Thầy and Cô assigned thầy Nguyễn Lâm as our instructor. On the first day of the seminar, we could feel that a profusion of luck has begun to fill up our center when we were blessed with the honor of having Thầy and Cô come to visit our meditation center. We sincerely thank Thầy and Cô, as well as the instructors for leading us to a beautiful and harmonious beginning at our center. We were given the opportunity to bring together our faith in the Grand Master by meditating together, and since then, we have felt the blessings from our Grand Master. Despite the busy schedule, Thầy and Cô found spare time to come to our very first seminar to give the new students a lecture about the UHBE Discipline. The short but extremely profound dharma had become the lodestar of all the disciples from Seminar I, and since then, they have followed your guidance to embark on their path of service to others since they graduated from the class.
With a magnificent beginning and a well prepared group of individuals from the first class, the UHBE meditation center in Milpitas has built an extremely strong foundation for future disciples to follow as a role model. There were thirty-eight disciples that graduated from Seminar I, and since then, there are very few students who have dropped. Following the end of the first Seminar, there were thirty-four disciples returning to attend two-week intensive training sessions, becoming active members in the center. During this period of time, we received a lot of help from the disciples of the UHBE in Houston, we have also received monetary help from some sisters in Houston, to which we have never had a pleasure of meeting. All of the disciples from UHBE of Milpitas would like to thank you all for your precious assistance during our hardship from the very beginning—without your help, we would never have thrived the way we do.
As time passed so quickly, we began thinking about ways to prepare for the opening of Seminar II. With small classroom that only would allow 42 people at a time, we knew we had another challenge ahead of us—being able to enroll the many people interested in the class. On September 10, 2012, we found the support and resources needed to host our second Seminar, with 45 people enrolled in the class, and 20 on the waiting list. Many of the students were former patients or family and friends of the disciples from Seminar I. Seminar II had 44 disciples that graduated from the class, and of the 44 disciples, 35 came back for the two-week rigorous training sessions. During these two weeks however, many of the disciples of Seminar I so graciously meditated outside of the meditation center in order to reserve the comfortable space for the new disciples. On Friday night, we were all able to meditate side-by-side under the protection of the Grand Master. To give the disciples who had time conflicts with work a chance to practice their meditation and treatments, we decided to open six days a week, from Monday to Saturday to allow everyone an equal opportunity to continue to be active members of the UHBE.
Developing in a considerably fast pace, we decided that it was time to look for another space that would be able to facilitate all our needs as a meditation center. Once again, with the guidance of our Grand Master and introduction of our fellow disciple, we have found a spacious location with an affordable rent (the owner gave us a 50% discount). Fortunately, the new location is located in the heart of the City of Milpitas and adjacent to the Milpitas City Hall.
We moved to the new location on November 14, 2012 and had our grand opening on November 17, 2012 with the presence of members from the two other meditation centers in the Bay Area , Northern California region – Golden Gate and San Jose. There were a total of 130 people who attended the opening ceremony, including guests and family members of the disciples. The opening ceremony flowed beautifully, with thầy Lâm and Tế - the leader of the Milpitas center. The event was warm and unified, and most of all full of gratification for everyone.
Dear Thầy Cô,
We, all disciples of the Milpitas center tried our best to promote unity by extended to two other meditation centers in Northern California in accordance to the harmony and concurrent spirit of our UHBE Discipline and at the wish of Thầy and Cô. We invited 12 disciples from San Jose center and 16 disciples from Golden Gate center. We all greeted each other attentively and friendly, with hardly any feeling of boundary and resentment towards one another between the three meditation centers. We all saw the common fact that we were all children of the Grand Master and students of Thầy Cô.
We were very delightful to receive meaningful gifts and best wish from all disciples from Golden Gate and San Jose meditation centers.
We will continue to foster the beautiful relationships to help enhance the strength of the UHBE Discipline in Northern California.
Dear Thầy Cô,
The rapid strength and development of the Milpitas center would never have happened without the proper guidance and dedicated heart of thầy Lâm. On the days we had class, thầy Lâm always made time in the morning and the afternoon to answer our questions, help us review the meditation method, or to teach us techniques and the best way to transfer energy more efficiently. Thầy Lâm is both a friendly and devoted teacher. Despite his busy schedule when teaching at the Golden Gate center, he always arranged for time to come to our center as a mid-term follow up, sometimes he working sleeplessly through midnight to make sure that we know how to treat our own illnesses.
With the blessing of our Grand Master, the dedicated guidance from thầy Lâm, and with a new spacious and charming place, in addition to the determined mind of all disciples in Milpitas, we strongly believe that our meditation center will continue to expand steadily to bring the Truth of our Founder Grand Master to the residents of Milpitas and the vicinity in a wider aspect and more efficient in the years to come.
Dear Thầy Cô,
Words are not enough to express our sincere thanks to Thầy và Cô. We look up to Thầy và Cô, we will learn through your life examples of sacrifice and courage at the beginning as Thầy và Cô single-handedly built up the UHBE Discipline with all the challenges before you. We will always look toward our Grand Master and follow His footsteps to serve others. We wish that Thầy and Cô will remain healthy to guide us through the journey of cultivation so that we may continue to serve others in order to evolve.
A Disciple from UHBE of Milpitas,
November 18, 2012