Sister A: It was eight years ago. I was on a local Hsinchu bus when I saw Master. She was sitting opposite me, only one seat away. But I didn’t know Master at the time. When the bus passed by Chungli, and arrived at Lungtan, Master got off the bus,, and She turned and smiled at me after crossed the road. I thought, “Why, this person makes me feel good!” The next day, I saw a poster in the same place, saying that a Master from the Himalayas was going to give a lecture. Only then did I realize that the person I had seen the day before was the Master on the poster.

Master: Maybe She was taking the bus to the lecture at the time. (Master and audience laugh.)

Sister A: I thought so. But later a sister nearby said that Master was on a retreat; besides, She couldn’t be traveling alone.

Master: Right, I don’t remember Her ever taking a bus in Formosa, but maybe She had no money at that time! (Laughter) Or maybe She snuck out alone to do it, and didn’t tell me. (Master laughs.) Some non-initiates have also seen the manifestation form of Master at their homes, but after that they became fellow initiates.

Sister B: About seven or eight years ago, upon arriving home, my tenant told me, “It’s a pity you weren’t home - your Master was here! (Laughter) She asked me, ‘Are you hungry? Have you eaten?’ And I said, ‘I’m not hungry. I don’t want to eat.’ Then Master said, ‘You should eat. Come, let me wash the rice and cook it for you.’ Your Master is really powerful! She even knew where you stored your rice!’” (Audience laughs.) My tenant said she didn’t trouble Master with the cooking, and added, “It’s really a pity that you didn’t come back in time.” She was completely unaware that she had seen Master’s manifestation form!

Master: It’s a pity that she didn’t eat the rice cooked by the Master. You didn’t see it yourself?

Sister B: No. I’m very happy already that Master came to my home!

Sister C: Master, the following is not my personal experience, but a story that a sister initiate told me. Her neighbor was over eighty when he passed away recently. Before he died, the sister initiate showed him Your photo, which reminded him of something that had happened some forty or fifty years earlier, when he was recruited by the Japanese army and sent to Manila, the Philippines. The boat he took to Manila sank to the bottom of the sea while crossing a very deep ocean trench. From the ocean depths, he saw the manifestation form of Master come to rescue him, and was thus saved from drowning. When he saw Master’s photo on the cover of Her Aphorisms book, he found that the Lady in the picture looked exactly like the person who had saved him many years earlier. He was very grateful to Master for saving his life.

Sister D: Master, my father-in-law once told me that when he was hospitalized, he saw Master come to see him. At that time Master was in white and asked him, “Do you know who I am?” And he answered, “You are just an old woman!” (Laughter) Master then replied, “Look again, and look carefully.” Then he thought to himself, “Well, maybe She is my son’s master - Master Ching Hai!” Then Master said, “Take care of your health; you will be all right.” Hearing this, he was so happy and touched that he began crying, and Master soon disappeared. The following day, my father-in-law received a call from us, telling him that we would come to pick him up and he could live with us. He was very delighted. Thank you, Master!

Sister E: Over ten years ago, I paid a visit to a friend and got lost on my way home. I got stuck for a long time and still couldn’t find the right directions home. Later I saw Master in front of me, looking the same as in the photo in which She is dressed as Quan Yin Bodhisattva (the Goddess of Mercy)! I then followed the directions of the manifestation form of Master, and found the right way home!

Master: Great!

Sister E: Later I bought a copy of that photo. (Master and audience laugh.) After my experience, Master wore the dress I saw in my experience.

Master: The photo of me in a white dress led you home?

Sister E: Yes!

Master: There are still many people who have had experiences! What we are talking about is Master’s manifestation form that can talk to you physically. It’s a special situation, and not the way you see in your meditation. What you see in your meditation is an inner vision. What we are talking about here is Master’s manifestation form communicating with someone in the realm of the physical world, and this is different from what you see in meditation. In these cases, Master comes down from above to reach you. But when you see Master in your meditation, it means you have elevated to a higher dimension. If you see the Master with your eyes open, it means that Master has come down to communicate with you in this world. The Master you see here now is neither “up” nor “down.” It’s called the level of the “Tea Party.” (Master and audience laugh.)

Brother A: I have two stories, but they are not about my own experience. The first is that of my wife’s nephew. When my mother-in-law was a new initiate, one day she took her grandson to the Taipei Youth Park. There, the child said that he wanted to go to the washroom, so my mother-in-law strolled about while he was inside. After emerging from the washroom, the child couldn’t find his grandmother, so he became frightened. At that moment, he knew that he shouldn’t cry for he was afraid he might be taken away by bad people because if he cried, others would know that he was lost.

Master: How old was the child?

Brother A: About four or five. During the time when the boy was very afraid, Master came up and talked to him, saying, “Follow me, and don’t cry!” He followed close behind Master and found his grandmother after they had gone by two places. Then he told his grandmother, “I saw Master just now. She led me to you.” This was the first time I had heard of Master’s manifestation appearing near our home. Before that I had only experienced being tested and awakened by Master in my dreams. (Master and audience laugh.)

The other story I have is about a Hsinchu sister initiate’s experience. One day before she was initiated, she went shopping for food at a market, where a small nun gave her a sample booklet, and told her to go to a lecture. When she looked at the booklet, she thought, “Gee, isn’t this person in the photo the nun who gave me the booklet?” (Laughter) But she couldn’t find Master when she turned around. Master had not only appeared before her, but also spoken to her. Of course, she was later initiated.

Master: Your work is not perfect enough! You see, I have to hand out the sample booklets myself! (Laughter) Lazy workers! You missed one of my disciples and I had to look for her myself! You see, it’s better for me to rely on myself! (Master and audience laugh.)

Sister F: My daughter has had frequent communications with Master since she was little. But I try not to ask her about them because we shouldn’t ask about others’ experiences. Once she acted in a very strange way. When I was chatting with an initiate, she kept bowing here and there. I found it very weird so I asked her, “What are you doing?” And she said, “Master has come!” I replied, “If Master comes, bow to Her only!” My daughter then said, “But She keeps moving!” (Laughter) And I responded, “Tell me where Master is so I won’t bump into Her!” (Laughter)

When my daughter was two or three years old, I took her to the suspension bridge over Taipei Bitan (the largest lake in Taipei). I put her on the bridge and told her, “Sit here. I have to buy something. If any bad people want to take you away, shout for me.” She answered, “I’ll call Master, not you!” (Master and audience laugh.) The other day, my daughter and I went out with some initiates. I saw a big rock, and told my daughter and another little initiate to stand on it so I could take a photograph of them. To get a better picture, I asked them to move back a little. After taking the picture, I came up to my daughter and found that right behind the rock was the ocean. The children had been standing on the edge of the rock and had almost fallen into the sea! I asked my daughter, “Why didn’t you tell me?” And she replied, “Master is here. I’m not afraid!” Around that time, she had often talked about Master coming, and this time I didn’t expect that Master had really come. After the photo was developed, we could see that my daughter’s arm appeared to be transparent, and the sea behind her could be seen through her arm. The owner of the photo studio was very surprised and asked, “What happened?”

Master: Maybe something was wrong with your film. (Laughter)

Sister G: Seven or eight years ago, I drove to Yangming Mountain one day and gave a woman hitchhiker a ride. I gave her a copy of Master’s sample booklet because she seemed to be a Buddhist. When she saw the booklet, she said: “Gee, I seem to have seen this Master before!” Finally, she revealed that several times while she and her husband were riding a motorbike on the way to the Yangming Center, they had seen a nun jogging along the road. The woman said she felt strange because the nun jogged even on rainy days, and seemed to be insulated from the rain even though she didn’t wear a raincoat.

As I was giving the woman a ride home to Wanli, my car went by the Yangming Center and she pointed to a certain place and said, “The nun I saw disappeared here, but I don’t see any temple!” The place she pointed to was the location of the Center, where Master had previously stayed. But Master was abroad and not in Formosa at the time the woman saw Her. The woman then said, “When it’s sunny, she jogs; when it’s rainy, she still jogs.” (Master and audience laugh.) Both she and her husband had seen it. Then I gave her some issues of Master’s News magazines and a sample booklet, and asked which form of Master she had seen. She said it was the one on the old version of Master’s sample booklet, in which Master was dressed as a nun. Thank you, Master! (Audience applauds.)

Master: Why are you thanking me? I just jogged. (Master and audience laugh.) People thank me just because I do exercises. Can you believe it? (Master and audience laugh.) I was just bored on Yangming Mountain, because they boxed me in there, so I had to jog a little to get some fresh air! When talking about your experiences, you can never finish! (Laughter)