Indonesia

Every year the government of Jakarta city celebrates its anniversary by promoting trade, culture, art and entertainment at the famous and enormous Jakarta Fair. The month long fair opened this year from June 15 to July 16, Golden Year 3 (2006) and attracted more than 2 million visitors.

Thanks to God’s perfect arrangement, we managed to get a spacious outdoor location. We set up a big screen, a projector as well as chairs, to enable visitors to sit and watch Master’s video lecture without obstructing the flow of other people. Many visitors were attracted to our booth and inquired about Master and the Quan Yin method. More than 200,000 Alternative Living flyers and about 1,000 sample booklets were handed out.

Many truth seekers watched Master’s video attentively until late at night. One visitor who watched, said that he saw a bright Light around Master’s head and was very eager to follow Master to pursue spiritual practice. Lots of visitors were very impressed with Master’s lectures and eagerly took sample booklets home to read. A Muslim soldier, on duty at the Fair, was fascinated by the fact that Master’s teachings include all religions. He wanted to buy a DVD of Her lecture but we didn’t have any left! We promised to bring one the next day, but he said he probably couldn’t come because he would be assigned to another area. However, surprisingly he managed to come the following day, just to pick up the DVD. He looked very delighted after receiving it.

The media, public and other organizations made numerous positive comments on our activities at the Jakarta Fair. Some people returned to further inquire about our group and seemed touched by our love and compassion for animals. We met a gentleman who has been a vegetarian for quite a long time. After he read the flyer, he returned and helped us to distribute them.

In order to continuously elevate people’s consciousness about vegetarianism, the Yogyakarta Center searched for a public event to promote the Alternative Living message. Due to God’s grace, we easily found an opportunity at the Jogja Book Fair, held in Mandala Bhakti Wanitatama from August 23-28.

Fellow initiates from Yogyakarta, Banjarnegara, and Sragen happily worked together to prepare for this big event. Centers from Jakarta and Surabaya also lent a hand by providing materials, such as books, magazines, DVDs, Alternative Living flyers and so forth. Hoping to make the best offering to Master and fellow beings and to instill harmonious ambiance during the distribution, fellow practitioners conducted overnight meditation sessions from August 22 to 28.

During the entire week of the book fair, more than 20,000 people thankfully and smilingly took the Alternative Living flyers. It differed tremendously compared to our flyer distribution effort in May prior to the earthquake.

Although our main focus was to distribute the Alternative Living flyers, we also had a booth with Master’s books on display. We noticed that hundreds of people, young and old, from various backgrounds, were naturally attracted to Master’s picture and many attentively watched Her video.

Everyday there were always some people who asked about meditation and the vegetarian life style. One university student from Nusa Tenggara Timur, an eastern province of Indonesia, called the contact person because he wanted to learn meditation. He willingly followed all the requirements, including the pure vegetarian diet.

Surabaya initiates conducted an informative program to share the vegetarian lifestyle with housewives from the Peneleh Community Center in Surabaya. The program seemed especially important since the bird flu and mad cow disease had claimed many lives in Indonesia.

Shortly after the information session, vegetarian food sampling started. Initiates served vegetarian protein satay, vegetarian steak and BBQ Tempeh (fermented bean cake). The ladies could not contain their surprise, as all of vegetarian dishes we served were very delicious. We explained that vegetarian foods are rich in high-quality fiber and pointed out which foods are high in protein, such as tofu and tempeh, two very popular foods in Indonesia. In addition, we informed them that vegetarian “meat” and dried gluten could be cooked daily and are readily available at vegetarian shops.

They were very happy since they were already searching for meat alternatives to feed their families. We ended the program with gifts which included vegetarian steak, Alternative Living flyers and our sample booklets which they happily took home.

Enthusiasm filled the air and they asked us to return to share the vegetarian message with their friends who live in other districts.

Alternative Living message printed in a biweekly tabloid

Alternative Living notepads

Initiates within and around Medan have consistently been distributing the Alternative Living flyers. Distribution has been a routine agenda for fellow practitioners after group meditation, every Saturday and Sunday. On Sundays, they divide into two groups. The first group covers the city center and the suburbs, distributing flyers to housing complexes, shopping areas and schools. The second group goes out to cities between 1 to 5 hour’s drive out of Medan to distribute flyers there.

We had the Alternative Living message and list of “Vegetarian and Vegan Elite of the World” printed in a biweekly tabloid. We also had the flyers inserted into the “Analisa” newspaper, one of Medan’s leading and most popular newspapers, with a daily circulation of around 60,000.

We distributed 3,000 flyers at an event called “Prayer of One Million Lights, One Million Hopes.” This prayer for our country’s safety was held by an Indonesian Buddhist organization at Lapangan Merdeka, Medan. We also printed the Alternative Living message on the cover of notepads for gifts, and put up a standing Alternative Living poster at Medan’s airport.

The Alternative Living poster at Medan’s airport

Since so many vegetarian restaurants thrive in Bali, fellow initiates decided to use these sites as a distribution medium for the Alternative Living flyers. Each restaurant willingly accepted an ongoing supply of flyers and displayed our posters to encourage their customers to be vegetarian.

Fellow initiates went to Renon as well as Bedugul to distribute the Alternative Living flyers. Bedugul is a famous tourist village in Bali. Many tourists, after understanding our mission, nodded, confirmed agreement and seemed very happy.

Recently, some initiates distributed the flyers in Ubud, another famous Bali tourist attraction. We also distributed flyers in Lombok, an island next to Bali.

In Renon, we took part in a long special march organized by the KVMI (Keluarga Vegetarian Maitreya Indonesia). About 1,200 marchers wore T-shirts with the Alternative Living message printed on the back. The beautiful T-shirts attracted the attention of everyone who happened to see them. We opened a small booth during the event where we distributed the Alternative Living flyers to everyone. The event was a success. Truly, the vegetarian era has started!

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