An Old Initiate's Testimony

Narrated by sister initiate Xiao, Shi Xiuchu, Yilan, Formosa
Compiled and written by sister initiate
Zhong Wen Hong, Yilan, Formosa

        When I was initiated in 1987, Master was living in Xin Dian while my family lived in Yilan. However, Master knew everything that happened in our home. I asked Master, "Master, why are You so fantastic?" and She replied, "If I were not, how could I dare to be your Master?"

        For a certain period when Master was conducting lectures in Yilan, She stayed in my house. She was very amiable, and we were just like one family. One day, I prepared a sumptuous breakfast to serve Master, but a monastic disciple told me, Sister Xiao, why have you prepared so much food? Master never eats any breakfast." So we consumed the breakfast together, and just when we had finished eating, Master came down from upstairs and asked, "What are you doing? What are you eating? Why didn't you invite me to eat with you?" Master was always warm and affable like this.

        When staying with us, Master one day used the toilet on the ground floor. Feeling embarrassed, I asked Master, "Why didn't you use the toilet upstairs?" and She gave me this humorous reply: "You don't use the toilet downstairs, so you never clean it!" Usually, I used the toilet on the second floor and would clean it after each use. My husband usually used the toilet downstairs, which I never cleaned. Master took the opportunity to pinpoint my shortcoming, exposing an imperfect corner of my spiritual cultivation.

        During that period, Master stayed in the room of my son, who was away in Taipei studying medicine. However, Master knew exactly what was happening in his life as he studied in school or practiced in the hospital. Later, my son was also initiated and he liked Master a great deal, so he once gave Her photo to a colleague. However, his colleague's home was a mess and he could not find a proper place to put the photo. Finally, he put the photo on an empty mahjong (a type of Chinese card game) table. Shortly afterwards, the colleague's wife and my son both witnessed Master come out of the photo in the form of a living person and complain to them: "Why do you put me in a casino?" That was an amazing example of Master appearing in Her manifestation form!

        One day, the colleague's wife was watching a cable TV broadcast of one of Master's lectures. She suddenly saw Master's manifestation body walk out of Her physical body and then return. All the while, Master's physical body was still giving the lecture. This lady originally had possessed the ability to read the past and future. And after coming to know Master, she also began seeing Master's manifestation form, the Quan Yin Bodhisattva, and some superior dimensions.

Laying down the slaughtering knife and
becoming a saint instantly

        In 1988, I followed Master to help with Her lectures in Taitung. We pitched our tents by the riverside in Zhiben. The day before the lecture, an aboriginal inhabitant of Zhiben who was over sixty years old came to see Master. He spoke Japanese, but not Chinese. He told us that he used to be a soldier when he was young (during the Japanese occupation), and had killed people. He told us about his miserable fate; his wife and two children had all died within two years of each other, and his other children were not filial to him. Living with a couple of friends, he sustained himself by catching snakes and foxes, and eating snake meat. He also smoked and drank. He next asked Master to tell his fortune. Master told him that She didn't know how to tell fortunes, and then gave him some biscuits and a red envelope (a traditional Chinese offering containing money), telling him to buy some nutritious food. Master also advised him not to smoke and drink too much. In return, he played the harmonica to entertain Master, Who even asked for an encore. Mercifully, Master gave him an opportunity to earn the blessing derived from entertaining an Enlighten Master with his music.

        He took the biscuits and red envelope and then left. But very soon after he walked back along the stream and returned the biscuits and red envelope to Master. A monastic disciple asked him, "Why are you coming back?" He replied, "I want to follow Master." The monastic disciple told him, "But then you have to become a vegetarian." He said, "I can be a vegetarian!" The monastic disciple next asked him, "Then how about the cigarette that you are holding?" He said, "That's simple! I'll just quit smoking right now." And immediately, he threw the cigarette into the river. The monastic disciple gave him one more challenge: "To become a monk under Master, you have to shave your head bald." He said, "No problem." Then, Master shaved his head and told the monastic disciple to take him to the river and have him wash himself. He was so covered with dirt that it took five or six washings to really cleanse him. Then everyone contributed some clothing to dress him. A monastic disciple happened to have brought a spare pair of shoes, which fit the man just right.

        After he had cleaned his body and put on the monk's robe, he looked as if he had been reborn. There was a tranquil, peaceful and pious aura about him such that we had difficulty recognizing him as the ill-fated man living on snake meat, who had come that morning asking Master to tell him his fate. Of course, all these changes were due to Master's great compassion and infinite power in shouldering the immeasurable karma of sentient beings. Master told us, "He has shaved his head and cleansed himself. Three days after listening to my lecture, he will be initiated and attain sainthood immediately." This was truly a case of "laying down the slaughtering knife and becoming a saint instantly".

        In subsequent years, I followed Master when She gave lectures in the United States, Formosa, Canada, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Brazil and Southeast Asia. In Costa Rica, Master spoke at a beautiful Christian center. The person responsible for organizing the lecture felt Master's vibration during Her talk and so he received initiation. Upon returning home, he had a fierce quarrel with his wife. The next day, he poured out his grief to Master, who gave him these words of comfort: "Never mind, just go home with love." Eventually, his wife changed so that she began to love Master very much, and was initiated as well. The couple even invited Master to visit their home. As they saw Master off at the airport when She was leaving, his wife cried like a baby because she sincerely did not want to see Master go.

        There was a resident disciple in Hsihu who never wanted to go anywhere. However, when Master asked him if he would like to go to Costa Rica, he said yes. When Master went to visit the host of the Christian center at his home, this resident brother also requested to go along. The host had a one-year-old son, and when this resident brother saw him, he carried the child in his arms as though they were relatives. Incredibly, the child called him twice in Chinese: "Elder brother!" His parents were delighted to hear their son speaking Chinese. Later, Master revealed to us that the two had been brothers in a previous life. However, in this life, they were born in Formosa and Costa Rica, respectively.

        At one time, we were leaving San Jose, U.S.A. in a rush for our next destination. Only fifteen minutes were left before our take off time, and some Aulacese initiates had not yet arrived to see Master off, but Master still refused to board the plane, saying, "Those Aulacese fellow practitioners are definitely coming. They must have been delayed on the road. If they finally make it here but do not see me, they will be very disappointed." A person on the public address system kept urging us to board the plane, but Master stayed near the boarding area, waiting anxiously. Finally, the Aulacese disciples could be seen from afar running towards Her as fast as they could. Master then went forward to meet them, and gave them some last minute words of comfort. This was a scene of a mother who had just recently met her children, and yet had to part with them quickly. Their sadness and emotion moved even the most apathetic people present. The airplane's engines were already roaring, and the flight attendant was urging us to board as Master dashed at the last minute onto the plane, which took off as soon as we had seated ourselves.

The death of my husband

        After traveling with Master to many countries, I stayed at the Hsihu Center for over a year. One day, my son, who was a doctor, called me on the phone asking me to get packed quickly; he was coming to fetch me home to take care of my husband. After making an incidental health checkup of his father, he found that my husband had unknowingly had liver cancer for many years. His cancer was then in the terminal stage, and he had only four months to live. I found it unbelievable! My husband had never felt any pain and he lived a perfectly normal life. He went to the market and took strolls just like any healthy person. When he went to the Hsihu Center, I saw that he could still run very quickly, and eat large bowls of food. Yet the health report was not lying! If it had not been for Master's merciful blessing, he could not have lived that long after suffering from liver cancer.

        Several days before his death, my husband asked me, "Do you mind if I leave before you?" And I replied, "Whether I mind or not, all people have to go one day." In return, I asked him, "Do you really feel no pain at all?" He told me, "How can there be no pain? But with Master's blessing, I can endure this little bit of pain." I asked him further, "You said you are going; did Master tell you so? Or have you had an inner experience?" He said, "All of Master's books, audiotapes and videotapes say that She will let us know! Besides, I also have had an inner experience!"

        In the few days before he died, my husband suddenly spoke very standard Chinese with a Beijing articulation, while he normally used to speak very poor Mandarin. Perhaps it was an impression remaining from his previous life!

        One day before he died, in the hospital, he asked our daughter-in-law and his nurse, who was also a fellow initiate, to read him Master's Immediate Enlightenment books. On the day he left this world, our daughter-in-law was still reading Master's book to him, as usual. Finally, observing that his eyes were closed, she stopped reading. However, my husband immediately opened his eyes and said, "Continue." In this way, he died peacefully while sleeping with the divine sound of Master's teachings in his ears. I nursed him for twenty-one days in the hospital, exactly the same number of days that he had once nursed me in the hospital after I was injured in a traffic accident. We seldom had any quarrels. Obviously we had had a good affinity, and owed each other nothing.

        Three days before his demise, my husband told our son that he could make it to the seven-day retreat in time. I calculated to myself: "Unless my husband dies tomorrow and then is cremated on the next day, and his ashes are taken back to Yilan, it will be impossible for our son to catch the coach and join the retreat at San Di Mun in Pintung." Our son was then working at the Veterans General Hospital in Taichung, and my husband was also hospitalized there. If he really left us on the day that I had calculated, he could be cremated on the next day and his ashes taken home to Yilan, and other family members could take care of the rest, while our son took the place of his father who had signed up for the retreat, thus taking advantage of his funeral leave from the hospital. Otherwise, he was so busy at work as a doctor that he seldom had the chance to join a retreat. Eventually, both of us made it in time to catch the coach leaving for San Di Mun and participated in the Christmas Seven-day Retreat of 1992.

        After the consecutive deaths of my husband brother Xiao, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law, my son went to work in Kaoshiung, leaving me alone in Yilan. Therefore I went to stay with my daughter in Taipei. I slept with my young granddaughter, who said she felt very comfortable sleeping with me. One day, she told me, "In my dream, grandpa told me that I must find Master and practice spiritually when I grow up."

        For over a decade, I have traveled to many places with Master and experienced many fantastic incidents. Each footprint in the journey of my life is a testimonial to Master's almighty power.