I remember when I first wished for something, when I wasn't enlightened, before I became acquainted with the Quan Yin Method. It was the first Buddha (statue) I took home in Germany. That was not the first Buddha but the first Buddha in Germany. My Buddhist teachers believed that if I took a Buddha alone home, without the presence of a master, a teacher, a nun, then the Buddha is no good. I mean the Buddha will be good for nothing. So, if you want to worship a Buddha, you have to ask a monk or nun to bless it for you. Bring it to your house and have a ceremony with flowers, incense and food. Just symbolic. Then, you have to bow to the Buddha, then to the teacher and then make a wish. If your wish is to be granted, all the incense will curl like a spiral and never drop on the floor. Normally when incense bums, it drops like cigarette ashes. But when your wish is sincere and accepted, then all the incense will curl like a spiral.

We burned a lot of incense, not only one. That was the problem. I don't know why the Buddha has to test people's sincerity to this extent. So many incense and each of them had to curl like this. Oh, God! I was thinking, I don't think I will make it. Ha! Look at all the incense; and I always saw the incense ash drop immediately after it burned. So, anyhow I just did as I was told. I wished, "Okay! I don't mind that people told me that human life is very suffering, and that we have to make a lot of merit in order to get out' of human life. I don't mind if I stay in human life because it's not so bad for me. So, whatever good I have, it should be distributed to people who need it most, and don't let me even know about it."

That was my wish. Then, all the incense curled like this. (Master laughs, audience applauds.) I was thinking that my teachers had bought special incense for me, that was for sure. A special one already curled in advance, or not the spiral incense, the incense stick very straight and they have to curl by themselves with the ash, you know. (A: Yes!) That's how the Buddha tests the people's devotion. But I was thinking it was the blessing of my teachers. Yes, they were very holy, these people - the Buddhist nuns and monks at that time. The whole family had become nuns and monks. I think they helped me a lot in my time in Germany, taught me a lot of things. I thought they were very holy, and due to their blessings, the incense dared not go straight or drop but just curled. I thought that they had magical power, something like that.

So, they were very happy for me. They thought, "Oh, whatever you wished will come true." I was not supposed to tell them what I wished inside, I just did it alone. So, today I am telling you just to let you know that I am very good. (Master laughs.) Okay, anyhow, you don't have to believe it. But after I've told you I don't know if I am good anymore. I don't know if I should have told you. It was just by tile way.

When I read this, it reminded me of my thing. At that time I didn't practice the Quan Yin Method yet. I just recited Buddhist's sutras, recited the Buddhist's great compassionate mantras and recited the Quan Yin Bodhisattva's name and the name of the Medical Buddha and whatever. Everyday, I was busy with all these thick books, of which I didn't understand half. (Laughter)