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The Magic Monastery

Maria YuDecember 24th, 2006

On my drive back home from a Christmas party hosted by a spiritual teacher for her students and friends, this story of crystal ball came to me. This story is from “Tales of a Magic Monastery“ written by Theophane the Monk. In this book there are 42 tiny stories of one or two pages long, yet each tiny story makes me ponder for one hundred folds of it’s length and beyond.

The crystal ball story is about “me” going to a monastery and having a glass of wine given by a monk. After drinking the wine “I” felt a crystal ball arising and encompassing “me”. The crystal ball expanded rapidly to enclose both the monk and me. “I” then saw the monk become extremely beautiful. The monk was ordinary just a minute ago but now he is magnificent inside the crystal ball. “I” wanted to tell the monk how beautiful he is, but “I” could not speak a word. After this happening “I” was surprised that when anyone “I” ran into accidentally entered “my” crystal ball “I” saw them become magnificently beautiful and “I” knew this beauty was absolutely true. “I” asked myself if this is the real meaning of being a monk - to see the beauty of other people and keep silent!

The first time I read this story and the book was in 1988, a Chinese translation version. I wondered what this magic wine was and still I wonder.

Is it the Holy Communion I receive at the Eucharist?

Is it the compassion or respect I have for people?

Is it the “colorless” glasses I wear or change of my perception?

Or is it the Christ Consciousness?

The crystal ball now has a new meaning for me after I learned Merkaba meditation and sacred geometry. It seems to be the unconditional love we hold in our human light body expanding from the prana sphere to sphere of Leonardo.

I don’t fully comprehend “keep silent” yet.

Does that mean when I see the marvelous beauty of other people I should not tell them?

So they do not get overwhelmed? So they can preserve and keep growing that beauty?

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I met Karen at the party and we talked about doing healing for people and we asked ourselves what it is in life that we are looking for to feel meaningful and fulfilled. Now this tiny story in “Tales of a Magic Monastery“ came to me - What do they need?

“There is a monk in the magic monastery who does not give guidance but questions. People said that his questions may be useful sometimes. I said to the monk I am a diocese priest and I came to the monastery for a retreat, could you ask me a question? The monk said sure, the question is ‘What do they need?’ I was disappointed. I left the monk to think about this question for hours and I wrote down some answers. Finally I went back to the monk and explained to him that I am not interested in thinking about my parish work during retreat, I want to meditate about my spiritual life, I ask him to give me a question that’s about my own spiritual life. The monk said, oh, now I understand, then my question is ‘What do they REALLY need?’”

What do people need? What are Karen and I looking for that will make us feel we are contributing?

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Another story that came to me now is: Write my own bible?

“I forgot to bring my Bible with me to the New Year Eve retreat at the magic monastery so I asked the monk to borrow a Bible. The monk said, ‘why don’t you write your own bible?’ He continued, ‘write your own bible according to the chronicle order of the Bible, write your own stuff.’ So I wrote my own bible and then lived my life accordingly for the following year. At the same time I wrote diary and recorded my experience during the year. That year was a wonderful year, I truly lived my life according to my own bible and my daily meditation was never ever so focused. It’s been forty year since I do the same thing - every year I write a new bible and a new diary and throw them in the great fire at year end.”

This seems to a good resolution for the New Year. Write my own bible and live accordingly. That could to be to write down my goals and intentions, and what/how I want my life to be then set out to work on them and manifest them. And to keep a dairy about how things come along (plus all the coincidences) and keep my focus.

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I certainly saw beautiful people and met kindred spirits at the party.

Before I went to the party I set a pure intention of having good friendships and my intention manifested.

Into the Reflection

Into the Reflection - pastel painting by Maria Yu

SynchroDestiny

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Where Would You Fly If You Had Wings?

Maria YuDecember 18th, 2006

Where would I fly if I had wings?

To the Neverland or to Harry Potter magic?

I don’t know…, I thought I knew what I wanted to be and do when I were “free.”

I know I want to be me, but who is “me”?

I know I want to create, to create art, harmony, peace, love, healing, abundance, and magic.

What is magic?

Is it something that can come out of nowhere, form nonexistence to existence?

From void to matter?

From dispersed to whole?

From none to infinity?

From despair to enlightenment?

From emptiness to fulfillment?

From visualization to manifestation?

From imagination to reality?

Magic is beyond time, space, and belief.

We can be on time, in time, and at times.

We can somehow manipulate our physical space or transform it to make it like “magic,” within 3D.

The real power is the belief.

It is the belief that sets the limit and boundary.

It is also the belief that takes flight to immortal.

Belief system is a framework, a construct which we use to form our reality.

Isn’t it also our energy of being and our expression of awareness?

Shifting perception will let me see beyond my current belief and expand my reality.

Imagination opens doorways to consciousness.

Consciousness is to know with to do, to be aware of oneself.

Oneself is one self and is connection to all life.

If I can be aware of myself then I am connected to all life and I can have right action at any given time. (I can seize the opportunity the Universe presents me at that given moment.)

Imagination is an act of creation.

Seeding the unconstructed imagination with constructed intension I affirm what I want.

Voicing (in words, Light Language, or whatever) my pure intension with clarity and passion I create reality.

I don’t need an invisible cloak anymore.

I appear only at the right time at the right place.

I am invisible because I know right action at any given time.

So where would I fly if I had wings?

It seems I don’t even need wings.

I have imagination.

And I have clear intension with great passion.

I can fly anywhere because I create my reality.

Illuminated reality.

Be it Neverland or Harry Potter’s.

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Inspirited by reading Dr. Joe Vitale’s “Beyond Manifestation” and from my notes taken at the Illumination of Consciousness class.

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Three days later after I wrote down these thoughts I happened to come to “Decode a Birthdate” at The World 13 Moon Calendar. I was presented with this poem:

I Empower in order to Dream

Commanding Intuition

I seal the Input of Abundance

With the Overtone tone of Radiance

I am guided by the power of Magic

Infinity - pastel painting by Maria Yu

LifeLock

Sound Health, Sound Wealth Book

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Cost of Personal Development and Spiritual Growth

Maria YuDecember 13th, 2006

After I set out my path on personal growth, spirituality, and healing modality I found it’s not for everyone. It costs a lot. There are many classes. workshops, conferences and retreats but they are not cheap. It seemed to me in general the tuition for personal development costs the least then spirituality then healing, but there are lots of exceptions. The more “esoteric” the class is, the more expensive it gets. Personally I think “personal development” is a day-to-day cultivation and requires the “mind and body coordination” to make it happen, therefore, I found it’s better to learn from reading and practicing. Presently there are many free on-line postings and less than $100 eBooks available (for example, Dr. Joe Vitale’s ZState). Steve Pavlina’s web site is really a good one, he writes from his own experience and it’s free. Just to find out what’s the cost for personal development I did a Google search by typing “personal development” and here is one of the paid-ads: The Fenix Event - two and a half days, course tuition $1,995, reviewer tuition $200. Nowadays, it’s popular to offer discounted rate for “review,” people seem to forget what they learn?

I have not heard about this above program but there are established institutes and centers I have learned about or gone to (Kripalu for animal communication and Rowe for sound healing conference) which offer a variety of personal development, spirituality and healing courses.

Kripalu, weekend program tuition $195-240, sunday-friday tuition $280-550
Omega Institute, weekend program tuition $235-325, sunday-friday tuition $290-925
Rowe Camp and Conference Center, program cost based on income
The Monroe Institute, 6-day intensive, $1,795 includes tuition, lodging, meals, and local transportation
Institue of Noetic Sciences, 5-day, tuition $1,625
Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., weekend program tuition, $275-285, sunday-friday $595

There are a few healing techniques I got interested and they claim to be powerful and effective:

Energy Medicine 5-day Intensive, Donna Eden and David Feinstein, 5-day $1395 includes tuition, breakfasts, lunches, reception, and double occupancy accommodations
Six Sensory Certification level 1, Sonia Choquette, 4-day $1600 includes tuition, breakfasts, afternoon snacks, and refreshments, prerequisites required
Angel Therapy Practitioner Certification, Doreen Virtue, monday-friday $1,777 includes tuition, breakfasts and lunches
Rising Start Healing System, initially developed by Derek O’Neill, 1 day tuition $700 same cost charged by all US practitioners, the amount was said to be channeled by Jesus?

This last class I am just not quite sure about the cost and channeling. It’s hard for me to believe Jesus would want to charge a one day class for $700. It is more inclined for me to believe that he would want more people to learn it rather than less.

There are some “newer” healing modalities I encountered recently:

Adept, 2 days, $495
Adam Kadmon, weekend $495
Intra-dimensional Webworking, 2 weeks $3,920
Diveine Intervention and Spontaneous Remission, 2-week intensive $6,401

Someone please tell me they really really work miracles.

I had taken Reiki I and II from a teacher who decided not to join the Reiki Alliance. She believed more people should learn Reiki and the Alliance’s cost guideline was not for everyone. Her tuition was about half of the standard. That brought out a good point. Don’t we want more people to become integrated and healthy so the world and the Earth would be a more peaceful and joyous place? Or is it because people have a false perception that expensive means good?

Even the tuitions at these established institutions/centers are reasonable, still the cost is not everyone can afford or would want to spend. So who goes to these classes, workshops, conferences or retreats? The people I met at classes that I went to didn’t all seem to be wealthy wealthy people. They might be just like me who has a great interest in spiritual growth and wants to learn to heal. Maybe it is like in the IRA structure that the middle-class bears the burden so is us, the middle-class in “spiritual growth” who sustains the human evolution?

One thing I observed was that people “rely” on teachers, people lean on “gurus”. When they find one or some they stick with the teacher(s) and think their growth and healing all depend on the teacher(s). Many people don’t seem to have the confidence to make what they learn to be their own. They keep going to classes or sessions and they go back for “review” and “reactivation.”

For me I want a teacher to show me the way then I am able to do it myself and walk on my own journey. It seems to be like taking art classes. After taking some art classes it’s better to quit taking classes and develop your own way. I had taken three pastel workshops from three renowned pastelists. This famous third teacher charged $900 for a 5-day workshop in 2004, and he only stood by me two times. I listened to what he said to an assistant who went to the workshop year after year. He told this student assistant what I had discovered when I was painting on my own at home. I said to myself, that’s it I am on my own.

Not every artist can teach or teach well and it seems to apply to teach spirituality and healing. Not every practitioner can teach or teach well. The two teachers from whom I took animal communication and Hsin tao movement criticized students a lot, which I didn’t think to be appropriate.

Now as an earnest learner in healing I need guidance and directions. How to justify the tuition cost is one thing, where to find a real teacher is another. I know I want to learn energy healing, animal healing and multi-dimensional healing, and I want to develop my intuitive abilities and connect to spiritual guides and higher dimensions. If you have any thoughts about the topic please comment on it. If you have taken a good class or know of a good teacher please let me know.

As I Wish pastel painting by Maria Yu