Promoting the Ideal of Life
-Saving and Vegetarianism at the Johns Hopkins Spring Fair

By Maryland News Group

From April 21 to 23, Golden Year 3 (2006), fellow initiates from Maryland set up two exhibition booths to promote vegetarianism and share Master's teachings at the annual Spring Fair convened by the Johns Hopkins University.

At the fair, fellow initiates served a wide range of vegetarian delicacies including vegetarian barbecue, fried noodles, deep fried dumplings, steamed dumplings, cookies as well as roasted vegetarian meat slices. We also displayed Master's photographs, reproduced prints of Master's paintings, Longevity Lamps and played Master's lecture videos, which attracted many spectators. Due to the continuous rain the venue was not crowded, still many visitors gave us positive responses.

Very much impressed by the vegetarian food we served, they wanted to know the location of our "restaurant". Some came back during the next two days just to buy the same kind of food. Many people stopped to read the Alternative Living poster attentively and contemplated on the message. Some people were already vegetarians or very interested in the vegetarian diet, but they did not know how to prepare the food. Therefore, they were really amazed to see that we were able to offer such a great variety of delicious vegetarian food.

Some guests were not interested in the food, as they were mesmerized by Master's lectures and just stood there watching for a long time, not even the rain could deter the craving of their souls! Two security officers from the university watched the video for an hour in the rain and later invited their friends to come watch it with them. We would also like to mention that there were two other groups in the fair also promoting vegetarianism. We are very glad to see other people are also committed to the ideal of animal protection.

Missouri

A Rewarding Time Sharing Master’s Teachings in Missouri

By Missouri News Group (Originally in English)

In response to Master’s instructions to extend our love to animal beings and promote a compassionate world, a small group of initiates from the Missouri Center, USA, participated in two events: the Spiritual Seeker Expo and the 2006 Earth Day celebration. They also placed the Alternative Living message in newspaper ads and inserted flyers into newspapers in several major cities, as well as distributing the flyers on streets and university campuses and posting them in libraries and stores.

On April 9, Golden Year 3 (2006), the Spiritual Seeker Expo was held in the St. Louis Southwest Holiday Inn. Fellow practitioners took this opportunity to obtain a booth for their fourth consecutive year of attendance and this year to distribute Alternative Living flyers. At the exhibition booth, initiates displayed Master’s Longevity Lamps, books, DVDs and video tapes. Initiates also prepared two vegetarian “meatless meat” sample dishes for visitors to taste. After sampling, many visitors showed great interest in the vegetarian diet and requested the recipes for these two dishes. In addition to vegetarian samples, fellow initiates also shared Master’s teachings and answered spiritual questions from interested visitors. The initiates noticed that this year, while the visitors still enjoyed the delicious sample foods, they were keener than ever before to obtain information about the Quan Yin Method of meditation.

On April 23, brothers and sisters attended the 2006 Earth Day Festival in Forest Park, St. Louis. When they departed in the early morning to drive to the city, rain was pouring down. Since this was to be an outdoor festival, initiates prayed to God for a beautiful day, and with a strong faith in Master they happily departed. On the road to St. Louis the rain continued, but when initiates entered the city limits of St. Louis, it stopped. By the time they arrived at Forest Park, the sun was shining as if to personally welcome them for their first participation in the Earth Day event.

Many people stopped by the booth where Master’s books, pictures, video tapes and flyers were displayed and asked about Master’s teachings and the vegetarian diet. Initiates gave away “The Real Heroes” DVD to interested visitors. Some teenagers also came to the booth and asked about Master’s teachings. One little girl who was around 9 years old said she would really like one of the News magazines. She wanted a particular issue and promised she would read it at home. Fellow practitioners found that more and more young people were already vegetarian and showed an interest in spiritual teachings.

Visitors also took fortune cookies from a big basket placed on the table. Many stood and read the aphorism inside. One little girl of about 8 years of age touchingly read Master’s message out loud to her young brother.

In the following week, on April 29, initiates held a video seminar in the St. Louis County Library. Although the number of attendees was not too high, every person was very sincere about spiritual practice and they all stayed for the Convenient Method of meditation. One young man was very interested in receiving initiation. He told us that he became acquainted with Master’s teachings from a sample booklet he received during an Expo four years earlier. Since then he had been interested in pursuing the spiritual path, but he had not been ready until recently for initiation. He also came to the Center to attend group meditation the following weekend.

San Francisco

Bringing about Positive Change
in the World and Ourselves

By San Francisco Center (Originally in English)

On April 28, 29 and 30, Golden Year 3 (2006), the San Francisco Center, together with Master’s restaurant in San Jose, participated in the New Living Expo. The food booth, one of the favorites among Expo guests and staff, had five delicious dishes which were constantly being made on site throughout the event. Guests were truly amazed at how good the vegetarian food tasted, especially the soy meat; and on Saturday, our booth was the busiest it had ever been since it began participating in the Expo.

Thanks to Master’s blessings, many wonderful things happened throughout the event. On one occasion, a gentleman who was normally a meat eater desired to try vegetarian food. He tried it early in the day and later came back three more times! He was surprised at how delicious the food was and began to express a desire to become vegetarian. More importantly, he became interested in learning meditation and asked about Master Ching Hai and the Quan Yin Method. He spoke with fellow initiates, watched Master’s video, and took home a sample booklet and Master’s magazine. Eagerly, he learned the Convenient Method of meditation the following weekend.

A man operating another booth at the Expo related a beautiful spiritual experience. At one point, when he looked over at our booth, he saw a dragon flying overhead! He was astonished by this and immediately came over to us to inquire about our method of meditation.

One other highlight of this event was that we gave away bags with the Alternative Living information printed on them. As the guests left our booth, they were given the bag as a courtesy gift. Later some of them were seen walking around the Expo using the bags to hold their personal belongings, and even days after the expo had ended, one was seen using the bag outside. These bags will surely remind people to eat more vegetarian food and about the benefits of the vegetarian diet.

While the New Living Expo was a tremendous success, the ongoing flyer distribution project has been great as well. Some of the methods used to share the Alternative Living news in San Francisco are passing out the flyers by hand in crowded areas, placing an ad on the radio that airs every day during the week, placing an ad in our local Au Lac weekly newspaper, placing stacks of flyers in local bookstores, libraries, health food stores and other businesses, and sending out the flyers through mass mailing. The flyer is also being displayed on television for 12 seconds every two hours, 24 hours a day for one year.

We have already received positive feedback from our recent efforts. For example, one individual, a teacher, liked the Alternative Living flyer message so much that he asked for a large stack of them in English and a smaller one in Chinese so that he could share them with his students. Afterwards, he gave the fellow practitioner a hug out of appreciation. Also, a vegetarian thanked us for our work and exclaimed that we were so cool! Finally, she too asked for a stack of flyers to take with her and share with others.

On Saturday May 20, San Francisco disciples had an opportunity to have a booth at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco. After many months of rain, this was the first week of sunshine. Even though the forecast predicted that it would rain on the day of the street fair, miraculously it did not. So the San Francisco disciples seized this opportunity to pass out flyers and brochures about Master's teachings.

This very unique event took place in Sun Set District of San Francisco, which is predominantly a Chinese immigrant community. Many flyers in Chinese were distributed. Some people recognized our booth by seeing Master’s picture which they saw in the daily local Chinese newspaper advertising the T.V. Program “A Journey Through Aesthetic Realms”. They were very happy to get the sample booklet and brochure about Master's teachings. One woman, who had moved to San Francisco from Hong Kong, was very happy to see our booth. She came to know about Master’s teachings while in Hong Kong and loved them. She was very happy to encounter our group in America and eager to learn the Convenient Method. So we gave her the address of our Center and invited her to come. Also we got a surprise visit from the Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom. He was very happy to receive our flyer.

Thank You Master for showing us how to bring about positive change in the world and within ourselves. We hope our efforts, with Your infinite blessings, continue to bear fruit in the future.

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