At the end of November 2001, initiates in Japan enjoyed a wonderful two-day retreat at a venue provided by two initiates in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, a suburban county near Tokyo.

I was deeply touched by an experience on the eve of the retreat. As fellow initiates began to arrive in the afternoon, we took advantage of the little time we had before the retreat to learn the song “Little Lambs Want to Go Home.?The song has a beautiful rhythm and touching lyrics; we all liked it and practiced it many times. Later, a Quan Yin messenger joined us for tea and a chat, and just as we were enjoying ourselves, five initiates arrived. The Quan Yin messenger asked four of them to meditate in another room to retrospect upon their body, speech, and mind, but forbade the brother who drove them to the retreat to enter the venue. Later, we learned that the brother had failed to observe the precepts and had come to the retreat with his wife and the other three initiates at her encouragement. His wife had worried about the brother’s behavior and hoped he could introspect on himself during this retreat.

At that moment, our smiles disappeared and the tension in the room mounted as we all listened and thought seriously about the situation. After a short while, the Quan Yin messenger suddenly suggested, “Let a sister lead you in singing songs.?The song “Little Lambs Want to Go Home,?which we had practiced before the retreat, served our purpose. As we sang the song, we understood the lyrics much better, and meanwhile reflected on our past behavior. Later, the initiated couple decided to leave, so as not to affect the purified atmosphere. As soon as they did, the Quan Yin messenger invited the other three initiates to join us in the retreat.

As the singing voices once again filled the air, the three initiates joined in the chorus and the tense atmosphere melted into warmth and harmony. We then sang the song in a different frame of mind. Some of us were moved to tears. But somehow I smiled, both inside and outside because I saw the perfect revelation of Master’s wisdom and love through one of Her tools. I smiled because I thought that every initiate present was very pure, sincere and lovely. I smiled because I was filled with love. Through this real-life experience, Master taught us a perfect lesson in love, compassion, and selflessness in that the benefit of the majority is our most important goal.

Thank You, Master, for this lesson, for I now understand that each role we play on the stage of life is but an ingenious arrangement of God, whose great wisdom guides everything. We are just actors on the stage, who go through tears and laughter, pain and joy as the play develops. For good or evil, all of the actors should help each other, while learning, maturing, and enjoying every detail of the play. When the drama ends, everything will return to its origin and melt into the Lord’s great ocean of love.

 

Spiritual Interludes: Motivated to Face a Challenge