Originally, my husband was a heavy smoker, and almost all his friends were great 'chimneys' as well. Each time they gathered, they clouded the atmosphere with heavy smoke. Sometimes, the situation was so bad that even the smoke detectors installed on the ceiling for fire prevention would go off! Recently, the absence of ashtrays has been the most unusual phenomenon for our friends who have visited our home.

"I remember you used to have ashtrays everywhere in your house. Why have they disappeared?" asked a friend holding onto a cigarette butt, not able to find a place to dispose of it.

"Oh, I am sorry! Lin has given up smoking, so we have put away all the ashtrays!"

I remember the days when we were just married. I asked Lin to quit smoking for health reasons. Unexpectedly, he refused in a righteous and stern manner: "This is my only hobby in life. What is the point of living if this has to be given up too?" Since I could not convince him, I just dropped the subject from then on.

Several years later, our children had grown up sufficiently to realize how harmful nicotine is to our body and mind. For the sake of their father's health, and to fight for an unpoluted surrounding for themselves, they began to put up signs like "We refuse to be second-hand smokers" in the house. However, my husband was not moved at all.

"How did he eventually quit smoking? It is not easy!" a friend's wife asked me curiously. "Kuang has always wanted to give it up. He used many methods but to no avail!" "I have a secret method!" Lin answered with a happy smile. Amidst the Oo-Long tea's light fragrance, Lin told his friends his story of how he quit smoking: "I was initiated this New Years Day. Since then, I have gradually felt that many of our habitual ways are not something that we must insist on, things like boasting, smoking, etcetera. So I decided to quit smoking from this Lunar New Year Festival. This is one of the great blessings bestowed by Supreme Master Ching Hai! I only had one thought in my mind -- I said that I would quit it, so I must do it. It was so simple!"

Of course the quitting process included painful struggles against the addiction and the habit practiced over many decades. However, all these were overcome safely and smoothly under the blessing and protection of Master. It seems incredible that a stubborn man like Lin could voluntarily surrender completely, but this is absolutely true.

There is a theory in chemistry stating that like dissolves like, and this also can be applied to spiritual practice. I have personally experienced this.

When I had selfish thoughts, or failed to keep the precepts clearly, thus causing my actions, speech and thoughts to be impure, I felt uneasy and alienated around Master and fellow practitioners; and even when Master passed right in front of me She would not look at me.

When I opened my mind and prayed for humanity, I would feel peaceful, blissful and satisfied; and Master would naturally give me several more loving, compassionate glances as She walked around the crowd to bless everyone.

Once during a spring seven-day retreat, I was transporting food from the kitchen. When Master was giving discourses, we were on the one hand taking care of the dining tables, and on the other hand praying that Master would bless the food so that fellow practitioners could obtain vigor and energy after eating, thus enabling their souls to soar heavenward.

It turned out that several times after Her discourses, Master came right to me to show me how to take care of the food and drinks for the fellow initiates. She said, for instance, not to add spicy seasonings to dishes, since some foreign disciples don't like them. However, we could put them on a separate plate for people to help themselves. She added that we should pay attention to whether the drinking water is adequate, and so on. Now I realize that maybe at the time I was close to Master's ideals and God's quality, so I was one with Her.

Before the end of the Ching Hai Day seven-day retreat, I prayed that God's love would help the most needy sentient beings in the whole universe, through the tool of my physical body. As a result, Master let me experience God's blessing power; my body was filled with white light, continuously emanating into the void until the vast sky overflowed with radiance, and my whole outer body was also emitting light. I thus enjoyed a taste of being a Buddha of great light, and further verified the theory that like dissolves into like.