Front Line A Feast Of Beauty At Supreme Master Ching Hai's Painting Exhibition In Nepal Reported By The Nepal Work Team Lumbini, Nepal is near India's north-eastern border. It is where Lord Shakyamuni Buddha was born more than two thousand years ago. Lord Buddha spent most of His life near the Himalayas. In this birth place of the great saint, the Nepalese people have been waiting for the Buddha and a living Master to appear again. From birth, they wait for a living Master and the supreme method. All children and adults understand what vegetarianism and meditation is. For the opening day of "The Feast of Beauty," the Nepalese Deputy Education Minister was invited to make a speech and cut the ribbon.

Pure Hearts and Beautiful Souls

On Krishna's birthday, the streets of Katmandu were filled with news about Supreme Master Ching Hai's "Feast of Beauty". The exhibition was held on the same day. Besides displaying Master's paintings and longevity lamps, there was also vegetarian food tasting and the broadcasting of Master's videotapes. Early before the exhibition started, our work team from Hong Kong and Formosa arrived in Katmandu. With the friendly assistance of local people, the work team accomplished the distributing of leaflets, sample booklets and advertisements in a very short time.

The noble and spiritual Nepalese people attentively watch one of Masteris videotapes.

On the streets, fellow practitioners got along well with the Nepalese. No matter whether they knew us or not, due to their kind and pure natures, which are like those of children, the Nepalese enthusiastically and naturally helped us. When the local people received the leaflets, they immediately held them with both hands and bowed to Master's picture. Many people, upon receiving the leaflets, immediately sensed that Master was God and the Buddha incarnate.

A Nepalese teenager followed our fellow initiates all day long to put up posters and distribute leaflets. He also helped us to explain our objectives to a store owner and our wish to leave a poster on the front door of his store. After reading the sample booklet, the store owner gladly allowed us to put the poster up and hoped that he could keep it to worship after the exhibition.

At the service desk, Nepalese people longing for spiritual knowledge enthusiastically ask for more information.

The vegetarian food offered at the venue impressed the Nepalese people, many of whom are also vegetarian.

In the hotel where we stayed, there was also a small exhibition of Master's works of art. Since we held a vegetarian food tasting event every day, we had to lease tableware from the hotel's kitchen. A hotel employee helped us each day to display Master's books, with translation into Nepalese at the service desk, and to talk about vegetarian food at the food tasting event. He even put up posters for us. After several days of work, he was tired, but he was just as happy as our fellow initiates. Later, we discovered that he was the manager of the hotel restaurant and has been a vegetarian for more than ten years. When the exhibition started, he immediately applied for initiation. Each day he returned to the hotel, and despite being tired, he kept asking our fellow initiates spiritual questions, and longed very much to see Master.

The hotel owner normally lives in Varanasi, India, and returns to Nepal only for business. However, he especially came for Master's painting exhibition and the initiation, after which he returned to India. Many of the hotel employees, including the owner and managers, attendants and cleaners, applied for initiation. They also promised to change the restaurant into a pure vegetarian one.

During the exhibition, the hotel employees worked as hard as our work team members. On the day of the initiation, since many hotel employees were being initiated, the hotel had to be closed for the day. The owner sincerely wished that the initiation could be held in the hotel, and his wish was actually realized.

Showing Profound Affinity,
Master Touched People's Hearts

Since the first day of the exhibition happened to be Lord Krishna's birthday, it was a national holiday. Local people brought along their families and friends to the exhibition to enjoy Master's works of art. Besides the painting and longevity lamp display, there was also a big vegetarian food tasting activity, which was like a national banquet. According to the local people, there had never been an exhibition like this in Nepal before, so it was very special.

At the press conference, fellow initiates introduce Master's extraordinary works of art to the media.

After the press conference, a specially appointed reporter from the BBC, U.K. makes further inquiries about Master's achievements.

The Education Deputy Minister was invited to make a speech at the opening of the exhibition and to cut the ribbon. Many television and newspaper reporters came to cover the event and many writers, artists, poets, potters and painters attended. People flooded into the gallery. The books circulation area and information desk were crowded.

Everyone enjoyed the paintings as if they were being bathed in Truth, virtue and beauty. When they attentively listened to explanations of Master's paintings, they kept shaking their heads in agreement and sighed with admiration.

One female artist liked Master's paintings very much, stating that they were the best, most realistic and most spiritual paintings that she had ever seen. She believed each painting showed different artistic concepts and stimulated different forms of spiritual inspiration. One journalist liked the painting "Discussion" and stood in front of it for quite a while. He also admired Master's wisdom and transcendental views.

During the exhibition, many would-be initiates happily came to help. One would-be initiate was quite enlightened and said, "Everything is run due to God's power, and everything comes from God."

When a fellow initiate was explaining the meaning of Master's painting "Peaceful Night," some Nepalese people excitedly said, "Yesterday we saw a scene in the sky exactly like this painting. It had the same radiant circle of light and form. We have never seen such a scene before." This made them understand more easily that Master's paintings are different from ordinary paintings.

The color, aroma and taste of the rich vegetarian food was perfect, so it stimulated people's appetites. The local people were surprised and wondered how vegetarian food could have such rich variations. Most eat very simple vegetarian food. Therefore, they were all interested in learning how to cook the different vegetarian dishes.

One woman returned several times wanting our recipes. Another woman even wanted to attend our cooking classes. Some people came to the exhibition when they heard about the vegetarian food tasting activity. Only after they had come, did they realize that there was also a painting exhibition. Later, they even wanted to learn meditation. Therefore, serving vegetarian food is also a way to spread Master's message.

Each day before the exhibition opened, there were people waiting outside. They came to see the paintings and then watched Master's videotaped lectures. They did not want to leave even when we wanted to close the doors and put away the chairs. Only after we turned off the television did they stand up and help us to put away the remaining chairs. They told us that they would come again the next day; they were truly sincere and lovely.

Some people helped us to carry things and corrected our misspelled Nepalese words. They kept telling us that if we needed them for anything, they would be most willing to help. They truly liked to serve others. The women all looked graceful and elegant and were dressed in a noble and dignified way. They are gentle and shy by nature, which gave us the feeling that we were in a country of saintly people.

People from different religious backgrounds -- Muslims, Lamaists, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. -- attended the exhibition, and many applied to learn the Convenient Method of meditation or to get initiated. Although the Nepalese people have different spiritual beliefs, they came together to learn the meditation and the way to open their inner wisdom. They respect each other and get along well like brothers and sisters. In this country, we sensed the holy union of all religions.

One day a college professor told us that he felt very fortunate to have received one of Master's sample booklets. After carefully reading it, he was very glad, and knew that Master was the one whom he had been searching for, for a long time. He had followed many masters and learned many different methods, but was not satisfied. He always wanted to find a Master who was truly powerful and completely enlightened. Now that he had found one, he was very happy. During the exhibition, he helped us a lot with translating and contacting people. Seeing his satisfied and open smile, we were also glad that he wanted to join our big family.

Master's paintings attracted many artists as well as many spiritual practitioners because Her works of art are so spiritual. While Master's videos were being shown, one artist, an ordinary looking old man, sketched a sister initiate and finished it in only a few minutes. The sketch was so well done, it was amazing.

In this ancient country that is not rich economically, the people are rich spiritually. If you run into anyone on the street, that person may well be an artist or spiritual practitioner.

An Artist Who Is Considered A National Treasure
Highly Praises Master's Paintings

On the last day of the exhibition, a college professor in aesthetics who is an artist and is considered a Nepalese national treasure came to see the exhibition. Many well-known Nepalese painters and artists are his students. Among those who came with him several were famous artists. While enjoying Master's paintings, the professor kept sighing with admiration and explaining to the other artists that Master's paintings were delicate, subtle, superb and highly skilled. He felt that they described extraordinary realms and possessed a rich spirit.

Among the many paintings displayed, he liked "Cleaning The Pond" the most. He said, "A really good painting may not be understood by everyone. For example, `Cleaning The Pond' is a rare masterpiece. So one must carefully judge it and sense its profound and implicit meaning. A painting should express the inner reality, but does not have to be exactly the same as the real thing, because a painting is different than a photograph since it has life. The most beautiful quality of a painting is that it can reflect the reality within. Food can be sour, sweet, bitter or spicy, and so can a painting. Sometimes one has to use dull colors and a natural technique of drawing to express the inner reality.

When people see Supreme Master Ching Hai's paintings, they may think that it is easy to paint and that they can paint the same way. In fact they cannot, because they do not have experience of the inner realms. Besides, Supreme Master Ching Hai very naturally and perfectly arranges the scenes in Her paintings, and matches bright and dull colors very well. She has also signed Her name in different places, which results in different effects. Her paintings are quite extraordinary. I really like them very much and highly praise them."

Many reporters were invited to the press conference of the "Feast Of Beauty -- Supreme Master Ching Hai's Art Exhibition". Among them, a specially appointed reporter from the BBC, U.K., covered the event and inquired about the meaning and purpose of conducting the painting exhibition. After a fellow practitioner explained our objectives to her, she was very interested in finding out more about spiritual practice, meditation and how to develop one's inner wisdom.

She asked, "Can anyone discover their inner Almighty Power through meditation and create outstanding paintings like Supreme Master Ching Hai has done?" She praised Master as a great guru, believing She is a great spiritual teacher with a high level of artistic talent that creates works that express Truth, virtue and beauty. Being a female too, she felt honored and proud. She said, "Supreme Master Ching Hai is the most successful, the highest and the most perfect example for women." She then asked many questions about spiritual practice, and kept asking us to inform her should we have any similar activities in the future, because she wants to cover such events for us.

After the exhibition, due to Master's blessings and having been bathed in the Truth, virtue and beauty of Her works of art, the whole of Katmandu reverberated with a highly elevated spiritual vibration. Nepal, a Shangri-La with a beautiful and noble culture, seemed full of old souls who are ready to go back Home. Because of their deep affinity with Buddha, they are very familiar with Master's teachings and like them very much. We hope that these noble children of God will return to the holy Home soon.