Quan Yin Method
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The term Quan Yin Method was coined in the 1985 by the spiritual teacher, Supreme Master Ching Hai, to describe the type of meditation that she herself practices and teaches. The spelling is an idiosyncratic romanisation of a Chinese term said to be in English translation: “contemplation of the sound vibration.”
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[edit] Concept
The Quan Yin Method involves a spiritual transmission from the Master to the disciple. It includes meditation on both the inner Light and the inner Sound.
The inner Light, the Light of God, is the same Light referred to in the word "enlightenment". Its intensity can range from a subtle glow to the brilliance of many millions of suns.
The inner Sound, is the Word referred in Bible:" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. ..."
It is through the inner Light and Sound that we come to know God. These inner experiences have been repeatedly described in the spiritual literature of all the world's religions since ancient times. For example, the Christian Bible states, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) This Word is the inner Sound. It has also been called the Logos, Shabd, Tao, Soundstream, Naam, or the Celestial Music.[1]
[edit] Metaphysical Method
Ching Hai advises people to learn properly in spiritual practice. She said, don’t just meditate alone or learn from a book, because the book doesn’t empower you; it doesn’t awaken the spiritual protection from God. So you might be prone to danger or all kinds of attack from different forces, good and bad, that are all coming because there’s no guard at the door. Some people are very sensitive souls, and they’re open. Their heart is open, their spiritual center is open, but they don’t know how to deal with or how to screen the different forces that come through the open gates.[2]
[edit] Initiation
To practice this method, one needs to get initiation from the Master first.
Meaning of Initiation: initiation is to connect one back to his/her own God power or Buddha nature again and also get the spiritual protection.[3][4] After initiation, the real Master will erase the past karma for one and leave only the present karma alone. Because if everything is erased, one can’t live anymore in this world and one has no excuse to exist. By following the discipline and the vegetarian diet, which minimizes all future karma, our life will become smoother. We’ll have to deal only with our existing but not our newborn karma. So we won’t be reborn again as a suffering being but as an enlightened Saint if we wish to be reborn again in this physical world. And if we don’t wish to, we can stay in a more elevated spiritual world as a teacher or simply as a citizen of the universe, but enlightened and happy. [5]
Prerequisite of Initiation: A lifetime commitment to the vegetarian diet and keeping of the Five Precepts.
The Five Precepts:
- Refrain from taking the life of sentient beings. This precept requires strict adherence to a vegan or lacto-vegetarian diet. No meat, fish, poultry or eggs (fertilized or nonfertilized).
- Refrain from speaking what is not true.
- Refrain from taking what is not yours.
- Refrain from sexual misconduct.
- Refrain from using intoxicants. This includes avoiding all poisons of any kind, such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, Pornography, gambling, and excessively violent films or literature.
The initiation into the Quan Yin Method is not an esoteric ritual or a ceremony for entering a new religion. During the initiation, specific instruction in meditation on the inner Light and inner Sound is given, and Master Ching Hai provides the "Spiritual Transmission". This first taste of Divine Presence is given in silence. Master Ching Hai need not be physically present in order to open this "door" for you, namely, the "wisdom eye" or "third eye".[6] Because you may hear the inner Sound and see the inner Light immediately upon initiation, this event is sometimes referred to as "sudden" or "immediate enlightenment." When the physical presence of the Master is not possible, She will send a representative (Quan Yin messenger) to administer oral instructions during the process of the Holy Initiation, conveying Master's omnipotence that constitutes the source of the dharma (holy teachings).
Master Ching Hai accepts people from all backgrounds and religious affiliations for initiation. One do not have to change one's present religion or system of beliefs.
Daily practice two and a half hours of the Quan Yin Method of meditation, and the keeping of the Five Precepts are your only requirements after initiation. The Precepts are guidelines that help you to neither harm yourself nor any other living being.
These practices will deepen and strengthen your initial enlightenment experience, and allow you to eventually attain the highest levels of Awakening or Buddhahood for yourself. Without daily practice, you will almost certainly forget your enlightenment and return to a normal level of consciousness and/or "regressed" yourself into a lower kind of tendency, then the accumulated karma can still pull you toward the lower realm and/or even be judged by the lord of karma.[7]
Master Ching Hai's goal is to teach us to be self sufficient. Therefore, She teaches a method that can be practiced by everyone, by themselves, without props or paraphernalia of any kind.
[edit] Doctrine
According to the Ching Hai, there are five basic levels of enlightenment, each containing many sub levels. Ching Hai claim that only the Sound (Yin) can bring a person back to the true seat of the soul, at what they call the “Fifth Level” of consciousness (Sat Loka [hindi]/Sat Khand [Punjabi]: "True World"). Ching Hai described a cosmology of five basic levels, and noted the importance of having a fifth or above level Teacher (one could only reach the spiritual level of who they follow).
Ching Hai says that each of these five levels are vastly superior to the preceding one. Sometimes when someone reaches the top of each level he/she could be in the illusion that nothing in creation could be greater, and that the ultimate God realization has been achieved. So only a true master (from at least the Fifth Level) possesses the wisdom and power to liberate souls and bring them back up to the souls' true home at the Fifth Level, according to this theory. Meditation without a fully realized teacher is said to be unlikely to lead to beyond the "three worlds", where one is still affected by karma.
[edit] Cosmology in Detail[8]
[edit] The first level
The first level of enlightenment, corresponds to the subtle, or “Astral” level of heaven. It is said to be the emotional level. The Astral level is made up of many varied sub-levels. Souls at this level occupy the astral body and are bound by feelings and emotions. It has at least 6 kinds of miraculous power(e.g. heavenly ears, heavenly eyes, etc.).
[edit] The second level
The second level of God-knowledge is the “causal”, or intellectual level. The most striking abilities that one achieves are eloquence and highly developed IQ. The Physical, Astral and Causal levels make up the "three worlds" of Hinduism. Although the Astral and Causal levels might seem increasingly magnificent according to human conception, the three worlds are said by Master Ching Hai to be still mainly under the influence of negative power.
[edit] The third level
Only after clearing all the debts(karma)of the physical world, then the soul could go Beyond the three worlds and is said to be liberated from the authority of the negative power. However the worlds of the third level are still not everlasting and although it is not required to enter the physical world again, if it wishes to perform good works in order to climb further into the eternal world. At this level the soul has kind of creative power(Brahma)and still "believes itself to be something which it is not"(ego) according to Ching Hai.
[edit] The fourth level
At the fourth level, the soul is said to be highly realised and with greater degree of freedom. At the peak of the fourth level is a vastly dark region, like a pitch black city night. The only light comes from the souls existing here, which are waiting for a chance to encounter a master to show them how to enter the fifth level. The fifth level cannot be entered on account of any merit gained as can the levels below it. A fifth or above level soul must accompany a soul wanting to enter this level.
[edit] The fifth level
Ching Hai teaches the fifth level is the origin of all individual souls. Here we experience eternal happiness and unchanging joy and here we have absolutely reunited with our essence with only very little ego left. Above the fifth level are other levels culminating in the limitlessness of God, and these levels are generally beyond the ordinary.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "The Quan Yin Method".
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "Renewing the Soul’s Connection with God", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 1999-05-31.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "What is Initiation", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "We All Have God’s Love Within", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 1999-05-26.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "The More We Meditate, the Better We Can Deal with Karmic Retributions", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 1997-08-27.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "Through the Master’s Guidance Everyone’s Third Eye is Opened", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 2000-05-07.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "Master's Letter to Fellow Initiates", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 2006-04-16.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "The Mystery of the World Beyond", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 1992-06-26.
- ^ Supreme Master Ching Hai. "Same Action Different Incentive‧The Ways Angels Control Man", Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co Ltd, 1991-12-28.
