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Quan Yin MethodThe term Quan Yin Method was coined in the 1970s by Suma Ching Hai, a popular and controversial spiritual teacher who professes that she is a manifestation of Godand the Buddha, to describe the type of meditation that she practices and teaches. It is a Chinese term lending to the English translation, ?contemplation on the sound.? According to Master Ching Hai, the BodhisattvaAvalokitesvara, popularly known as Quan Yin by many Chinese Buddhistsand Taoists, practiced this form of meditationto become fully enlightened, in ancient times. Admirers of the Bodhisattva did not know her real name, so after she died, they named her Quan Yin Bodhisattva because she practiced meditation on the inner sound. However, Master Ching Hai describes the Quan Yin Method as meditation on the inner sound and light of God. The term likely refers only to the sound because the inner light is an aspect of the inner sound, according to the spiritual leader.
DoctrineMaster Ching Hai maintains that the Quan Yin Method is the only avenue by which a person can become fully enlightened, or God-realized. According to her doctrine, there are five basic levels of enlightenment, each containing many sublevels. Only the Quan Yin Method can bring a person back to the true seat of the soul, at the so-called ?Fifth Level? of consciousness. While other gurus claim to be completely God-realized, Master Ching Hai claims that they are God-realized only at a lower level of God than the true Supreme Lord, which resides at the Fifth Level. The First LevelThe ?First Level? of enlightenment, according to Quan Yin doctrine, corresponds to the subtle, or ?Astral? level of heaven that is widely recognized by psychics and meditators or all kinds. This is considered the emotional level. The Second LevelThe Second Level of God-knowledge corresponds to the ?causal? level that is also widely known about by different spiritual groups and discussed in many books on spirituality. At the causal level, the soul is only encased by the mind, but is no longer subject to emotions. The Fifth LevelParamahansa Yogananda?s 1952 classic, ?Autobiography of a Yogi,? mentions the causal level of enlightenment. In the book, Yogananda?s guru refers to the causal cosmos as the ?Final Beatitude? that a dedicated yogi could achieve. According to Master Ching Hai, however, the causal cosmos is only in the second region of heaven?far, far below true God realization at the Fifth Level. Few spiritual traditions are even aware of the existence of anything beyond the causal level. Master Ching Hai says that each of these five levels are so vastly superior to the preceding one, that whenever someone reaches the next level he or she is immediately convinced that nothing in creation could be greater, and that the ultimate God realization has been achieved. Only a true Master (soul from 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. Metaphysical MethodThe Quan Yin Method is not merely a series of techniques, as are many other types of yoga. It involves a spiritual transmission from a Fifth Level Master in which a person?s third eye (located in the center of the forehead) is opened, allowing him or her to see and hear on higher spiritual planes. The term third eye is basically a misnomer. Of course, there is no actual physical, or even mental ?eye? there. According to Master Ching Hai, the third eye is the window to heaven, allowing a person to connect with the Wordand enter samadhithrough sincere concentration at that point. She says it is really located at the center of the brain, but focusing attention in the middle of the forehead is how a person may access it. It is possible that a persistent meditator can open his or her own third eye through personal effort, and thus attain samadhi, but Master Ching Hai does not advise that. She states that self-effort can only get a soul partially enlightened (probably up to Second Level at the most) and leaves the meditator vulnerable to the negative power, or maya. In Quan Yin literature, mara is the force of illusion in creation that causes suffering by entrapping the soul in a mind. It is personified by the Devil and is the reason why souls no longer experience the bliss of oneness with God. Master Ching Hai maintains that only a true Master, like herself, is able to protect a soul from the countless pitfalls and tricks that maya can present during meditation. Without such protection, she says, no soul has any chance of ascending all the way to the Fifth Level, where perfect happiness exists. Initiation
Sometimes these initiations are performed en masse, immediately following a public lecture of Master Ching Hai?s. Other times, they are carried out in small groups by a representative of Master Ching Hai?s, without her being physically present. According to Quan Yin practitioners, Master Ching Hai?s power is everywhere and so it is not necessary for her to be physically present during the initiation. For a person to be accepted for initiation, her or she has to agree to meditate two and a half hours a day and obey the five precepts, taken directly from Buddhism. The precepts are:
The first precept requires that the student maintain a strict vegetarian diet. Eggs are also not allowed because that is still considered ?killing.? Abstaining from intoxicants entails that the Quan Yin student does not drink nor smoke. Pornographyand gamblingare also cautioned against. Master Ching Hai's use of the Quan Yin MethodMaster Ching Haisays that the Quan Yin Method is a practice, not a religion, and therefore does not call for initiates to leave their current religions and ?convert? to Quan Yin. She says that whatever religion a person is in before initiation can be continued, with Quan Yin meditation and observance of the precepts added onto that. Master Ching Hai herself was a Tibetan Buddhistnun for ten years after she claimed to have became fully enlightened in the Himalayas She continued to dress like a Tibetan Buddhist lamauntil around 1990, when she started wearing her own fashion designs. There is no charge for initiation and initiates are not allowed to donate to their master. Master Ching Hai makes her living independently as an artist and fashion designer. Her paintings, clothing line, jewelry, and other artwork are available to the public at a considerable price. Criticisms of Master Ching Hai tend to focus on the fact that her disciples buy much of her artwork, which they see as indirectly donating to her. CriticismThe Quan Yin Method has been criticized by some people. It is said that the method is similar to the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga from the Sant Mat tradition. It is a spiritual path consisting mainly of a meditation on light and sound and effects the transport of the soul through different spiritual levels of existence to a final merging in God. Sant Mat is generally the name used for the path. See also
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Categories: Shabd paths| New religious movements| Meditation
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