Lightandsoundmeditation

Wells of Compassion

The Living Master Returns his Love to his Homeland

On 25^th March 2013, I was fortunate to join a group of Master Ruma’s disciples from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, representing Master Ruma’s love by providing sources of clean water and donations to poor villagers in Vam Ray village, in Southern Vietnam. Master Ruma has a special affinity for Vam Ray because he had lived there with his family when he was around 8 years old and considers it his homeland. Vam Ray is a small town in Binh Son Commune, Hon Dat District, Kien Giang Province, South of Vietnam, close to the Cambodian border.

Vam Ray is a small village along the river. There is a long narrow road going through the village all the way to the waterfront which is connected to the open sea. Village life here is mostly connected to the river but they do not have access to clean water for their household use. Most of villagers there are still very poor. They use the water from the river for all activities: washing clothes, dishes, bathing, etc. The water in the river is obviously not clean but the villagers have no other choice because there are no sources of clean water. This problem of contaminated water is known by the local authorities but they have not been able to provide a solution to this problem. Master Ruma, being concerned about this situation, decided to provide the necessary funding to build 50 wells for the 50 poorest households in the village.

A Cambodian woman who lives in this village said that she and everybody in her family very much appreciated the kindness of Master Ruma for enabling her family to have a well. Everyone in the family had been forced to use the unclean water from the river for many years. Their life has been improved since she got the well. Now no one in the family has to go down to the river several times a day to fetch water for bathing or washing clothes and dishes. She thanked Master again and again and wished him good health and success in his life.
The builders worked day and night to build the wells. Although electricity was not available at night time, they worked with flashlights in an effort to finish the project as soon as possible.

Many people in the village remembered Master Ruma as a child and were very glad that Master did not forget his hometown and came back to help his "brothers" and "sisters" in the village. Everybody that we met was grateful and very happy. We could tell this from their excitement when they welcomed us and in their joyful eyes. Their life will change for the better from now on thanks to the love and compassion from Master Ruma.
Furthermore, Master Ruma and his disciples donated over USD 10,000 in supplies to the village, including 5.5 tons of rice and 3,000 notebooks for students.

The representative of Master Ruma, one of his disciples has shared some words to the villagers: “We are the disciples of the Master Ruma, a living Master. Today, we represent him to visit the homeland. Master Ruma has left Vietnam for the United States to study and grow up there at an early age. While living in adequate conditions, but he has always been aware that the wealth, no matter how much it is, could not bring us the true happiness and liberate us from the circle of life and death. Only the spiritual practice can help people escape from the sufferings. Therefore, he has determined to travel seeking for the truth that has led him to have chance to practice with the enlightened Master in India and to be completely enlightened to become a living Master. This is an honor and a glory for our clans, people, homeland and the country of Vietnam.

Today, our group of Master’s disciples represents him to bring his love to this area where he has led a strenuous life in his childhood. Wherever he went to, he still remembers his homeland and relatives here. Even though the gifts are small, they convey his love to the homeland.”

Two weeks later, on 10^th April 2013, Master Ruma and his disciples from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand brought his love to Binh Giang commune by providing 62 wells to supply clean water for the 62 poorest households. Master Ruma and his disciples also donated more than 7 tons of rice, 3,000 textbooks for students of Binh Giang commune and an additional 1,000 notebooks for Binh Son commune. The total value amounted to more than USD 14,000.

The ceremony to receive the wells was held at Ba Chua Temple of Tam Ngan Village. Attending the ceremony were many people from the village along with local authorities and neighbors from nearby villages. Villagers and local authorities expressed their deep gratitude to Master Ruma for his support: “This is a memorable event today and we are honored that the ceremony takes place in this temple, which was formed by Master Ruma’s grandfather, who was a paragon of virtue for him to follow. We all know that Master Ruma used to live here when he was a child, but then he moved to another country and finally found the ultimate Truth. He has plenty of responsibilities to help people to get out of the Birth-Death Cycle, but never forgot his roots. We all feel very appreciative of Master’s support to our village this time and we are proud that he was once part of this community. We wish him good health in order to continue helping people to get liberation and know the true Dharma. We sincerely thank Master Ruma and his disciples.”

These projects are ones of several projects that demonstrate Master Ruma's compassion for less fortunate people in South East Asia, in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Since 2004, he has been travelling around the region to help people who suffer physically and spiritually from natural disasters, diseases, and poverty. Master Ruma provides financial support and spiritual support to help relieve people’s pain and sorrow and to uplift their hearts and spirits. Having personally experienced the suffering of poverty when he was a child, the Master has a deep compassion towards those who are in the same situation as he was, and always tries in every possible way to help them to have a better life.

Master Ruma teaches us that whatever happens to us in this life is due to karma - the law of cause and effect. All our sufferings are due to the karma created by our actions in previous lives. However, the destiny can be changed by living a noble life, giving love and compassion to all beings, being vegetarian, and meditating every day. In this way, we can change our life. Master Ruma provides us with a shining example through his words and his actions. He said that he was poor and had been through lots of sufferings, but he could change his life and pushed the darkness away. He could turn poverty to prosperity. He could do it, everyone could do it. With the power of love, meditation, and his grace, we can liberate ourselves from the grip of our past karmas and put an end to all sufferings and the reincarnation cycle of samsara.

“The Light and Sound Meditation Method is a spiritual meditation method, contemplating on our internal vibrations, i.e. listening to the vibrations of our inner sounds. Light and sound are both from God. Light represents enlightenment. Seeing the light in meditation means we are enlightened. You can experience this when you are initiated."

“You can more easily follow the dharma if you can harmonize the real life work and your inner spirit. It is difficult to achieve this if you do not follow the five precepts.”

“You are busy the whole day with your work. You have various thoughts wandering around, and you are very busy earning your living and trying to support your family - how then could have enough time for meditation? However, if you do not meditate everyday, it is very difficult to make a true progress.”

“The main purpose for compliance with the Five Precepts is to cultivate the purity of your Movement-Word-Idea continuum in the way you communicate, your ideology, and your actions in your daily life. You need to be very prudent and aware in all aspects and you should not do things like lying, stealing or harming others.”

“ We must approach all people with our noble compassion, our bright wisdom, our immense affection, and pure action and ideology. This is the way of all disciples of the true Dharma.”

“If you want to properly follow the Five Precepts you need to achieve absolute serenity. Everyday, we have the self-check the three essential aspects of “ideology, word and action” and evaluate if we have achieved genuine virtue. We need to be sincere with ourselves, our parents, siblings, spouse, children, friends, neighbors, fellow disciples, and everyone we meet.”

“When you make a mistake you should sincerely admit and confess to yourself. Confession does not mean you torture or fine yourself, but rather that you make a conscious effort to understand what you did wrong, what you need to do to correct it, and how you can try to avoid such a mistake in the future. This is the way of the enlightened mindset.”