The following brief statement made by David Ward of Sacramento, California after attending a Kuan Yin Bodhisattva Great Compassion Empowerment Ceremony was one of several offered by those attending the ceremony held in Clovis, California, on January 8, 2017 by the Holy Vajrasana Temple. David’s comments are very poignant, because he has suffered for most of his life from the debilitating and very painful and chronic conditions of Crohn’s disease for which there is no known cure. The abbot of the temple, Zhaxi Zhuoma who conducted the ceremony, could tell that something had happened to David when she saw him break into a beautiful smile during the event. David told the other participants:

“Something said to put my arms down and I put my arms down. And then I’m standing there looking straight ahead, neither up or down, left nor right, eyes closed, and I was told to look down and I did. The first thing that I noticed was my pain disappeared when I looked down, but it was grey, not black, but grey—dull, nothing there, but my pain was gone. I was looking around, then I was told to look up, so I looked up and looked straight ahead and I was told to look higher—not much higher, just a little bit higher and it was golden—not a bright gold, but like an early morning sunrise, shining on a wheat field and you could feel the warmth. It wasn’t hot, but it was warmth. I could feel my pain again, but I could also feel the warmth and I knew in time that my pain would be gone—not disappeared, mind you, but goonnne—as long as I continued to look up, and as looking up, I could see in the distance, a long ways away, a simple lotus, just a bare outline of a simple lotus. I know where I need to go.”