Peter’s Enlightenment Story
My enlightenment process actually happened in three stages. As I have shared, I met Master Sha for the first time on October 15, 2000. Within two days, all my energy centers, all my chakras opened. It was a totally amazing, shocking, and extraordinary experience. Little did I realize that this was just preparation for what was to come.
We did not talk only about energy issues at our first meeting. Master Sha asked me, “Why did you come to see me?” I said, “You know, Master, there is some evil force that is destroying my life. It has been sabotaging me throughout my life. I understand that this is karma, but I do not know how to get rid of it.” Master Sha looked at me and said, “There is not an evil force; it is you. It is the result of your wrongdoings of your past lives and in this life, and that is what is coming at you to make you suffer.”
This answer shook me to my core, but it rang true because it did reflect some wisdom from Buddhism, and I accepted what he said. I asked, “What can I do to dissolve my karma?” Master Sha gave me an answer that didn’t make sense to me at the time. He said one sentence:
“Ask God to forgive you.”
I couldn’t understand this; it seemed too simple. I had read in the holy books that one had to sit and meditate, do special practices, and suffer to clear bad karma. I was thinking, “My goodness! A saint like Shakyamuni Buddha sat in a forest, tortured himself with ascetic practices for five years and almost died, then sat under the Bodhi tree for forty-nine days until he became enlightened. Milarepa sat in a cave for twenty-five years. He had to spend so much time to become enlightened.” It did not make sense to me that dissolving karma could be as simple as sincerely saying one sentence: “God, please forgive me!”
At our first meeting, Master Sha gave another key instruction to reaching enlightenment. He said that when we chant a mantra such as A Mi Tuo Fo (pronounced ah mee twaw faw), we need to give our total self to A Mi Tuo Fo and become totally filled with the mantra; then we are A Mi Tuo Fo. We become the mantra. As with the first instruction, my awareness was simply not opened enough to understand this teaching fully.
I left this meeting for my home in Canada to finish my work. I was just winding up my academic position at the university.
Three months later, I returned to meet Master Sha for a second time. I spent a weekend with him as he offered public lectures. As one lecture was taking place, I suddenly started to feel extremely sorry for all the wrongs I had done. It is very hard to explain this clearly, as this is a very special condition to be in. It is not a state you merely want to get into, but is something you may suddenly find yourself in.
As we were chanting, I suddenly felt very sorry that I had so many weak points, that I had so many negative feelings or thoughts. All sorts of mistakes I had made in my past came to mind, and I felt such regret about my behavior. I felt deep pain that I still had bad attitudes in my mind despite years of effort to purify myself.
I responded to this pain by saying I was so sorry to all of Heaven. In my heart, I felt that I had done so much wrong in this life and in my past lives. I bowed to God. I felt deep regret and apologized to God from my heart. I told God, “You give me so much, yet I still have this negativity in me, and I feel very sorry for that.”
For a fleeting moment, I went into a unique state that I could not understand.
When I finished the meditation, Master Sha looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well, it looks as though you have reached something new.”
I was so moved! When I tried to explain what and how I felt about myself, one of his students, Shu Chin Hsu, said to me, “How could you say that? You are such a nice person. Why would you think you are mean? Why do you feel that you are bad to people? You should not feel that way. It is not like you.”
At that moment, I did not know what to think. The only thing that was true and I was vividly aware of was that I had reached some state in my mind, and when I was in that state, I was very sorry for everything that I had ever done wrong.
Master Sha just smiled and said nothing. We parted, I returning to Canada and he to his work in San Francisco.
When I got home, I desperately wanted to become enlightened. I was so into that pursuit that I cleaned up a shed in our garden, covered its walls in white, put in a new floor, and brought in a meditation mat.
From that January in 2001, I spent most of my time in that shed. Every morning, I sat there for two or three hours, emptying my mind and trying to reach enlightenment. I took a break at noon and resumed this practice after lunch for the afternoon.
As time went by, I slowly became calmer but could not reach that big emptiness of mind or any enlightenment either. I had several moments while chanting A Mi Tuo Fo when a big lotus suddenly opened in my chest, but I did not know what it meant. I continued to purify myself and continued to meditate. Eventually, I started to practice Zen meditations. I tried to empty my mind. I thought this was the only way to become enlightened, but it just didn’t work. The more I tried, the worse it got. My mind was filled with racing thoughts.
In August, Master Sha called me to meet him again in San Francisco. I arrived on a Friday morning and we had lunch, followed by a little rest. Then Master Sha said, “Let’s go outside and meditate.”
We walked together toward the Golden Gate Bridge, sat down on the beach, and meditated for two hours. While I was sitting next to Master Sha, I noticed that I could enter into the state of emptiness almost instantly. My mind just went blank instantly!
It was much later that I understood that just being in the presence of an enlightened being purifies the mind. It is because an enlightened being shines light from himself, and that creates a very special energy field. In this special field, I was able to reach emptiness right away.
We meditated for about two hours. Then Master Sha said, “Let’s go home and finish the meditation there.” We were walking in the marina, alongside the boats, when Master Sha suddenly said, “Peter, you are so stuck! Why are you trying to follow only one way? You are trying to empty your mind, using only one technique. I can learn from anything.” And then, he just opened his arms and turned around in a circle. He said, “I can learn from the whole universe. There are so many different ways. You are just stuck on one way—to empty your mind.” I looked at him and completely stiffened up. Then Master Sha touched my chest and said, “Why don’t you just open?”
As soon as he touched me, there was a blast! It was as if I was encased in a glass bell that suddenly broke apart. Instantly, I felt completely free and open—united with everything around me. My heart felt connected to the whole universe. There was complete openness, without any boundaries.
This is a difficult experience to explain unless you have personally gone through it.
Until then, I was not at all aware that I was closed, that I was isolated from the outside. But as soon as this isolation fell apart, like a glass wall shattering, I suddenly felt totally open.
Master Sha and I just looked at each other and laughed and laughed spontaneously like two little children. We went home, had dinner, worked on something, and then went to sleep.
In the morning, we went to the home of one of Master Sha’s students who later became my very good friend. This was a workshop with a doctor who wanted to have a private teaching. It soon became obvious that those private teachings happened in a very special way. Master Sha gave a talk like never before—a very deep teaching.
Then we began to chant God’s Light. After ten minutes of chanting, I started to cry. I felt embarrassed and felt much pain in my heart for the many mistakes I had made in my life and for the hurt I had caused so many others. I started to see things that I had done that I would never before have considered bad. I thought of arguments where someone had made me mad and I felt fully justified to zing them back with sharp words, saying something to put them in their place, and I felt right and justified in doing so at the time.
Memories of many things like that which had happened in the past
came to my heart like attacking beasts. I felt so sorry for everything I had done: the many blunders in my life, the many mistakes.
Then I thought about my previous lives. What had I done in those lifetimes? I started to cry again and felt so sorry for my wrongdoings in all my lifetimes. That special feeling I had experienced in January returned again, but this time it was much stronger. I had no idea what to do, but suddenly I recalled a sentence that Master Sha had told me in October 2000:
“Ask God to forgive you.”
I bowed down to the floor and asked God for forgiveness. I said, “God, I love you so much. Please forgive me. I don’t know what else I can do. I fully realize that I was so bad in my life and in my past lives, and I am truly and sincerely sorry for that. Please forgive me.”
And boy, what happened! The light in the room was like an explosion. There was golden light and purple light everywhere; the whole room resonated with light. My whole body vibrated like crazy, and I just kept crying and crying. Then, while we were meditating further, I suddenly noticed a golden buddha sitting in my chest, and from my chest a huge lotus opened up and enveloped the whole room.
Master Sha had opened my heart the day before, and the next day, his chanting produced such a powerful light field that my soul became purified to the degree that it became enlightened and slowly moved up from my abdomen to my Message Center.
The enlightenment process continued the following day. We started to meditate, and within a short time, I noticed that I was becoming a golden buddha. I was aware that my hands were turning golden, then my face and whole body were becoming golden as well. I was like a golden buddha sitting on a lotus. That was something!
I approached Master Sha and asked, “Master Sha, could it be possible that I have become enlightened? I mean, I am golden all over. I sit on a lotus, and I am like a golden buddha.” Master Sha smiled at me, checked with God, and said, “Yes, congratulations! Finally it came to your awareness.” This is the process. If you were to just kneel down and ask God to forgive you, it probably would not work. You first have to get into a very special state of mind.
It is not a matter of logically understanding it or wanting to be in that state. You need to completely open your heart and soul and be in the appropriate pure field; only then can you get into that very special state. When you are in that special state, if you ask God to forgive you, it will be valid.
However, I remember vividly that on both occasions when I was in that state, I had absolutely no understanding or awareness that I wanted to become enlightened or that I wanted to get something. Absolutely, definitely not! This was a state where all I felt was sincere sorrow for all that I had done. Then somehow, the idea had trickled into my mind that I should ask God to forgive me for all my wrongdoings.
If you are not feeling that intense sincerity and you are not in that unique condition, your request will probably not work. You need to be in that state first.
The process of enlightenment is in fact very simple. However, to actually reach enlightenment is extremely difficult, and to do it alone is almost impossible. That eventful Friday morning on the beach, when Master Sha touched my Message Center saying, “Why don’t you just open?” caused my Message Center to open up. When Master Sha opened my Message Center, my mind opened completely, and I reached unity consciousness with the universe.
Once my mind had opened, it was a matter of opening my heart. My heart opened when I was in that intense condition where I felt regret and sadness over all the wrongs I had done. I opened my heart, felt sincere sorrow, and wanted to apologize to just about everyone I had ever offended. That opened my heart even further.
While we chanted God’s Light, Master Sha invited the Divine and many holy beings, saints, and buddhas to come. The Divine and the saints were flooding me with an incredible amount of light and virtue, which further purified my soul. Once the Divine and holy beings see a sincere heart moving toward enlightenment, they will grant enlightenment.
In the Lotus Sutra, there is a perfect description of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment. When he was being enlightened, gods were showering flowers on him. When they wilted, they showered even more flowers on him. This went on and on. Those flowers are symbols of virtue and light.
Once God and the holy beings blessed my soul so that it became pure enough, my soul slowly ascended higher and became seated in my chest. I had reached soul enlightenment. Once my soul reached soul enlightenment, I was ready to go on to the next stage.
The first was an opening of the heart; the second was purifying the soul so that it rose to the empty and purified heart. Finally, there was the third stage, of which I had to reach a realization myself. Master Sha didn’t tell me; he led me to open my awareness so that I would understand who I was. That was the final stage.
It was very difficult for me to accept that I could become enlightened. How could I deserve that? As soon as I became enlightened, compassion further opened in me. My heart opened and I felt guilty that I could have what others wanted so much.
During the precise time I became enlightened, my whole family back in Canada went suddenly berserk. Once I knew that I had reached enlightenment, I phoned my wife and said, “You will not believe what happened. This visit, I became enlightened.” My wife replied, “Yes, you know, we all went totally berserk around that time. Your mother and I just couldn’t stop laughing and the dog and our son were wildly running around the table. Mathias was chasing the dog, who kept barking like crazy. It was just one big rampage, like someone had filled the room with laughing gas!” My family had perceived very clearly what had happened to me, even though they were three thousand miles away. So that was the process of my soul enlightenment.
Immediately after enlightenment, I became incredibly happy. I had a feeling of happiness that is hard to describe. It was like being a ten-year-old again and awakening to a warm May morning. You open your bedroom and look into a garden full of blossoms. The sun has just come up, the birds are chirping, the bumblebees are buzzing; you see butterflies fluttering all around. You feel young and so alive.
You have absolutely no plans for the future, and no worries; you just look at the beautiful garden and bathe in the light. You are full of beautiful strength, peace, and joy, and resonating with vibrant youth, bliss, and a happy mind. That is how I felt.
As well, the concept of time ceased. Time stood still. I had no feeling of yesterday, today, tomorrow, morning, noon, or evening. It was all just one big nothing.
Again, this is very difficult to explain. You have to be in that state where you feel no relationship to what is going on now, to happenings in the past, and have no thoughts of future consequences for your current actions. You just exist. This incredible feeling lasted for days and days.
When I went home, my wife wanted to celebrate this very special occasion, so she borrowed a lovely movie from the library called Little Buddha. As I watched it, I again felt a pain in my heart. I saw Tibetan monks living in a monastery from childhood to old age and death. Every day, they sat and meditated, chanted mantras, and memorized holy books in their search for the enlightenment that I now had. I literally felt a pain in my heart. How was it possible that I could reach that state and they hadn’t?
The desire to teach and help everybody reach the level of happiness that I now have is one of the strongest motivations in my life.
Divine Healing Hands
IN MOST BOOKS with spiritual themes it would be logical to end the book with the previous discussion of enlightenment from Master Peter Hudoba, but that would not fit the teachings of Dr. Sha as appropriately as a chapter that emphasizes his world healing mission and his directive that “you can create soul healing miracles.” Dr. Sha is a spiritual master who can lead his disciples to enlightenment but he sees his primary mission as teaching the world to heal, to teaching every individual interested how to heal themselves and heal others.
This chapter includes the successes as a soul healer of Nurse Brenda Gartner, who you met
in Part One on page 73. In addition I included the amazing story of Sharon Lawrence and her entire family. The entire family now has Divine Healing Hands. Sharon has suffered from systemic lupus erythematosus and other major illnesses. Her mom does as well. Her dad, at the time he met Dr. Sha, had skin cancer and clogged coronary arteries. Sharon suffered from infertility and only through the efforts of Dr. Sha was she able to overcome the obstacles and give birth to an incredible child. Sharon’s husband also had health challenges. In the end, each and every one of these people used Dr. Sha’s teaching to heal themselves and is now using these techniques to heal others. You can do this. Anyone can do this. Be inspired by this dialogue I had with Sharon and her account of self-healing and her family’s ability to perform soul healing miracles for others.
BILL: I understand that your entire family has experienced soul healing miracles. Please describe your family, profession, and background information.
SHARON: My name is Sharon Lawrence and I live in Dixon in northern California.
BILL: Where did your parents come from?
SHARON: Long Beach, California.
BILL: What is the cultural background of your family?
SHARON: Norwegian and German.
BILL: What profession did your parents have?
SHARON: My dad was a production manager at a company that manufactured drywall. My mom was a registered nurse.
BILL: Let us start with the basic facts of your life.
Dr. and Master Sha Page 28