International Reports

[Peth] Local initiates have been working hard in recent months to show people that vegetarians can also eat "chicken," "ham," "pork" and "duck" without compromising their ethics or their often hard-to-please taste-buds. Consequently, it was only logical to celebrate the Third Anniversary of "Ching Hai Day" with a grand barbecue that included a cooking demonstration to show how simple and easy it is to prepare such delicious vegetarian foods.

Not surprisingly, more than one eyebrow was raised, but even more appetites were satisfied, when guests sampled the special vegetarian "chicken" kebabs. Over double the number of expected guest came for the celebration _ no doubt as a result of a national, ethnic radio station advertising the event on their weekly Au Lacese program. Fortunately vegetarian "chickens" and "cows" grow much larger than the average feathered and mooing variety, so there was sufficient food for all.

Not satisfied with cooking delicious meatless "meat," two local initiates, who formerly owned a bakery before they were initiated, baked a scrumptious 4-tired "Ching Hai Day" cake without cracking one egg shell. Could this mean that the humble chicken could soon find itself free to roam the range, so to speak? Judging by the satisfied grins on the cream and kebab smeared faces of guests, our feathered cousins should opt for early happy retirement as soon as possible.

A truly joyous day was had by all and ended in riotous laughter when initiates watched themselves on TV when the video recording of the day was played. All this must surely go a long way to proving that while Quan Yin initiates can certainly be accused of being down-right meatless and eggless at the very best of times, they can never be accused of being lifeless.¡¹

[Los Angeles] The airing of the very first segment of the program began in early October via KSCI Channel 18 and ICN (International Channel Network), bringing Master's grace and love to millions of viewers in southern California and around the country.

The program comprised of Master's recitation of Au Lac poems, in two separate collections entitled "Nhung Vet Tien Than" (Traces Of Previous Life) and "Duong Vao Tinh Su" (Path Of The Love Legends), has been broadcasted regularly every Saturday morning from 8:30 to 9:00 am PST since then with the second collection scheduled to be aired in mid-November. The successful broadcasting of Master's poetry has earned high comments from the Au Lac poets circle, including Nguyen Sa and Tran Van An, two prominent poets.

As requested by the audience, the fellow initiates continue putting this marvelous program on the air to inspire the poem lovers and those longing for spiritual Truth.Moreover, the airing of our program could not be made possible in an amazing short time without the help from the producer of the existing one hour program who offered to move his program time forward to make room for ours.

Besides television, fellow initiates in Los Angeles have become also actively engaged in the meaningful work of spreading Master's teachings via radio broadcasts. Three programs are currently being offered to the local listeners weekly in three different languages -- Au Lac, English and Chinese -- on channels CaliFM 106.3 FM, KPRO 1570 AM and KAZN 1300 AM, respectively. May this wonderful program be extended to many other cities throughout this beautiful country so that more people will have the opportunity to watch Master and receive Her great love and blessings.

Whole Life Expo In California

Sharing Spiritual Knowledge And Experience With Others...

[Los Angeles] Each year, a popular event called the Whole Life Expo is held at different locations throughout the United States. At this event, various vendors meet to share spiritual knowledge and experiences or healthful products with attendees. This year, we were fortunate enough to acquire a booth and participated in this special event.

The video of "Supreme Master Ching Hai Celestial Fashion Show" had captured the attention of many Expo participants and kept them in awe. Her unusual and elegantly designed outfits marveled even the most critical of spectators. One woman had stopped by to gather information on how to acquire one of her favorite fashion designs. Some wanted more information on their favorite jewelry. Still others wanted to just leave their names and numbers so that they could be contacted when Master comes.

Free booklets and magazines were offered to those interested in knowing more about Master. They were accepted in gratitude. One man breathlessly rushed to our table, and while trying to contain his excitement, he exclaimed, "Who is teaching this Quan Yin Method?" He then showed us his necklace bearing the word "Quan Yin" in Chinese characters.

Another man had commented that it does not take a highly developed being to recognize the soothing, magnetic field emitted at our booth due to Master's omnipresent blessing power.

Whole Life Expo In Colorado

[Denver] The Denver Whole Life Expo was exciting, fun, informative and diversified in content -- spirituality, the latest spiritual publications, anewly discovered remedies, chemical free and herbal based medicines.

The Denver Center, in conjunction with the Association's vegetarian restaurant, brought a fresh, bright and enlightening aspect to this spectacular event through a dynamic display of Supreme Master Ching Hai's publications and photos; as well as through a taste of "beyond this world" vegetarian cuisine. With inspiration to the body, mind and soul, everyone felt blissful and elevated with the days events.

Promoting Vegetariansim In Washington

[Seattle] Recently, the Taste of Health Show took place in Seattle. This show was organized by Earth save, a non-profit organization founded by John Robbins, author of "Diet for a New America" and "Reclaiming Our Health".

Vegetarian restaurants from around Seattle were invited to come along and serve samples of their cooking to the visitors at the show. Even though our group does not have a restaurant, we participated in the show to promote vegetarianism by selling Chinese and Vietnamese style vegetarian food. At the same time, we could display Master's works of art, publications and explain Master's teachings to those who showed interest.¡¹

[Warsaw]A very profound body, mind and soul elevating Expo was held in Katowice, south Poland. Inspired by the event, the Warswa and Katowice Center participated, creating a wonder display of Supreme Master Ching Hai's publication, works of art, photos, etcetera.

The peaceful atmosphere, love and enlightenment emanating from the booth touched the hearts of the visitors. Even children as young as two years old stopped, encouraging their parents to have a look at the magnificent display.

Through many soul-stirring conversations with the Polish people longing for the Truth, it was discovered that most Polish people are faithful to their religion. This Expo gave the Warsaw and Katowice Centers an opportunity to help people reconnect themselves with their great inner beauty, virtue and Truth. With the enlightenment given through Master and the Quan Yin Method, it is hoped that their daily and spiritual lives may be further enriched by incorporating the Quan Yin Method of meditation as part of their life style.¡¹

S.M. Celestial Jewelry collection was displayed in the Third International Jewelry And Watch Exhibition in Peking. It was the most attractive, having the most perfect designs among all the jewelry. Many experts on the exhibition, including TV entertainment companies, news media, writers, jewelry designers, and jewelry dealers all praised the S.M. Celestial Jewelry. Every visitors' eye and the lovely smile on their faces filled the whole exhibition with love and warmth. Several officials in charge of the jewelry exhibition extended an invitation to us.

They welcomed us to exhibit our S.M. Celestial Jewelry in the future, and were happy to see the S.M. Celestial Jewelry would be like mountain flowers blooming prosperously in Mainland China.¡¹

Actually, the ways of conveying the Truth to others are various, but we often don't think about it carefully. Miss Park has always lived in Korea, she is talented in art so she majored in sculpture. One day she visited the Ching Hai painting exhibition in Insadong, Seoul. She wondered at all of different techniques used in the paintings, at the many childlike, pure ideas, humorous explanations, wonderful symbolic meaning and daring colors. This inspired her to be initiated in Pusan. After one year, she left Korea to study computer graphics in the USA. It was there she had the opportunity to give a presentation in English despite her limited language power. She decide to write and do her presentation on vegetarianism.

She read Master's booklet more and more, and digested it. After she delivered her presentation tremblingly and stammering, the tutors and students applauded and asked the details of how to become vegetarian.¡¹

Usually, every month the Paris Center holds a two-day retreat. This time, the retreat was in the south of France in a house of a practitioner. It was a perfect location. To participate regularly in a retreat is a great help to our practice, specially when fellow practitioners live far away from each other and find it difficult to join group meditations. We were all so happy to get together in this most beautiful area, far from the big cities and meditate with Master's blessings. We all felt Her love. At the end of the mini-retreat, a tree in the garden was full of birds. Did they come for God's blessings too? We all felt happy and very enthusiastic to spread Master's teachings more, especially in those areas where there are only a few practitioners. For the inspiration, enlightenment, spiritual growth and the opportunity to practice together, we must be grateful to Master whose loving heart, superlative examples and supreme efforts bring us endless benefits every moment of our lives.¡¹