Lightandsoundmeditation

School of Love

While Vietnam is the motherland of Master Ruma, Cambodia also has a place in his heart; it is his place of birth. Although he had left the country when he was young, in recent years he has had the opportunity to return and travel around to visit places from his childhood memories. He has dedicated these trips to help people who were facing difficulties in their life, including poor people and people affected by disaster. He has been giving his Grace and support to Cambodian people for many years and is loved by many villagers. His efforts have been recognized and appreciated by respected high-ranking authorities in the country, and senior military.

Kampong Chhnang is one of the poor provinces that Master Ruma usually goes to visit. At the end of 2012, Master Ruma went to visit the area again and heard that Sala Sarey Chey Mankol Village still lacked a school for children. The local authorities had tried to build a school for several years but were not successful due to lack of funding. Hearing about that story, Master Ruma immediately offered help by diverting funds saved for building a meditation center to build a school for the village instead.

Education is an issue that Master Ruma always gives high priority. “I was born in Cambodia, and lived my childhood life here. My family was very poor. We couldn't go to school because we didn’t have enough money. I therefore understand deeply about the feelings of children who want to go to school but do not have a chance, and that a proper education gives hope for a better future and a way out of poverty. When given the opportunity, I will help as much as I can". After only 4 months of fervent construction, the school was completed at a total cost of nearly USD 20,000.

To commemorate the first day of the new school, many of Master Ruma’s disciples from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and nearby villagers came to the school to prepare for the opening ceremony. The night before, a Cambodian band played local folk music loudly, attracting villagers to gather together and dance in a circle per local tradition. As the night went on the circle grew bigger until there were hundreds of people of all ages gathered at the school grounds. The sound of music and laughter was resonant in the midst of the silence of this remote area. It seemed like everybody was preparing to celebrate the opening of the school and excited to welcome Master Ruma in the next morning.

March 10, 2013, the date that everybody had been waiting for, finally arrived. Hundreds of people arrived to participate in the opening ceremony of Sala Sarey Chey Mankol School. This included high-ranking politicians, soldiers, governors, students and their parents, people from the local villages, and Master Ruma’s disciples from all over. Everybody was thrilled to welcome Master Ruma to this auspicious event. Children excitedly stood in rows waiting to see the Master and to celebrate the new school.

When the morning sun rose higher, Master Ruma arrived with a warm, shining smile. Everybody kneeled down with hands together to welcome him respectfully. Master Ruma walked into the school ground as a military band played a formal welcome song.

The representatives from the government said “The children in this area have never had a school before but Master offered help to build the school. Now we have it. We are very pleased and appreciate Master’s help. We thank Master for your vision. When we give donations of food it will be gone in a few days. But Master built a school. It is a long-term investment for the education of children so that later generation has opportunity to study to be the future of the nation.
Master not only provides us with material things, but also gives us moral and spiritual support. We sincerely appreciate and are indebted to the Master. We do not know what else to say. Thank you Master.”

Master Ruma said “Although I left Cambodia when I was young, I have never forgotten my childhood memories and the tough life I had. Even though I went to America, I always have love for Cambodia. I would like to thank the Cambodian government for maintaining peace within the country and wish to give my blessings for Cambodia and Cambodian people to have happiness, peace, and prosperity forever. Your country

as been through too much hardship and suffering for too long. The time is come for Cambodia to enter the Golden Age and for its people to once again be happy and free from poverty.”
In addition to building the new school, Master Ruma and his disciples donated to villagers 8 tons of rice, 750 bottles of soy sauce, 350 kgs of salt and gave 1,000 notebooks and assorted learning equipment to the school, total value USD 1,000.

A statue of Master Ruma stood gracefully at the school ground. Master Ruma gave his blessing to the statue. Everybody was quiet in this sacred moment. After that the formal opening of the school took place as Master Ruma and one of the representatives of the government cut the red ribbon. When the red ribbon fell, the crowd applauded cheerfully. Children ran into the classrooms, shouting and jumping with joy. It was such a blissful moment. Seeing that the children were overjoyed, Master Ruma smiled happily. Although the school is small and has only three classrooms, the children were so happy to have it. It is a valuable gift to the community.

Before going back, Master Ruma gave candies to all the children and touched their heads gently. Putting his palms together, he asked for blessing from heaven to bless the whole village. Every pair of sparkling eyes was directed at Master Ruma’s graceful and compassionate gestures which could be perceived in their souls only. Innocent smiles appeared on villagers’ faces, whether they were young or old, as if they had temporarily forgotten all their sufferings. Today they received love and compassion from the Living Master, both materially and spiritually – a gift that they will never forget.

As Master Ruma’s disciples, we have learned about the love and compassion that Master has for all beings. He has taught us to “love everybody, no matter who they are, or what nationality they are.” Looking at people’s faces and eyes today, I realize that anybody who was born in this world has happiness and suffering with no difference. No matter their nationality or status – Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Cambodian, poor or rich – they are the same. Although they may look different from the appearance, the insides are the same. Children’s sparkling eyes, laughs and smiles when they received candies from Master; grins on wrinkling face of elders when Master Ruma warmly touched their hard-working hands; they are not different. They desire happiness in their life. They desire to free of suffering. They want love and care. True love is borderless. There is no line between nationalities or classes. The grace of god pervades extendedly all over the universe to all beings. We would like to thank Master Ruma for being an example of what he teaches us. True love cannot be expressed in words, but can be seen by action, and touched by the heart.

“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.”