If you would like to have background music while you are reading, please click on the arrow below.
Once again my connection to Zero Limits made itself apparent in my life on August 8, 2009. On this day a great tragedy hit my home state of Taiwan when over 600 people died during a catastrophic flood. My heart broke as I watched the unstoppable flood rushing down the mountains, devouring everything and everyone in its path. For three days, I stared at the TV and kept cleansing myself…”I love you, and I love you.”
People were not injured as they were evacuated from the hotel even before the typhoon started.
As I watched the news, I witnessed politicians, commoners and everyone on screen viciously and desperately pointing fingers of blame. The truth was that the land was completely overdeveloped, overpopulated and mistreated – but what single person could accept fault for this? In the end the entire Administration was forced to resign.
While I knew the catastrophic events that had taken place were no more my fault than yours or the residents of Taiwan who had been swallowed by the flood, I knew that I had become apart of the situation through the simple, yet painful awareness of its existence. According to Dr. Len and the philosophies he set fourth in Zero Limits, awareness of a problem makes us responsible for it. In these situations, we must cleanse through prayer and mantra: I am sorry, please forgive me…”
As I prayed, I flashed back to Day 1 of the 2nd Zero Limits workshop. As usual, Dr. Len read a poem to the class in English and then asked for volunteers to read the poem in their native language. Seeing that no one was volunteering Chinese, I stood up and performed the reading in Mandarin. On Day 2, Dr. Len asked for the woman who read the poem in Chinese to read the opening prayer. When I realized that the woman he was referring to was me, I was caught off-guard, as this was not normally how Dr. Len began each day. Nevertheless, I flipped open my workbook to the opening prayer and prepared to start reading.
Flood waters brought by Typhoon Morakot submerge a house in Chiatung, Pingtung county, in southern Taiwan, on August 9, 2009. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)
I stared down at the English words of the prayer and became a little overwhelmed by the task of translating them into Mandarin without preparation. I closed my eyes and told myself let go of my fears and simply read from the heart. By the time I was done with the reading, I was nearly in tears.
As I got ready to sit back down in my seat, Dr. Len stopped me and asked me to remain standing. He looked at me and said that my reading was very moving. Then, he gazed out at the class and said that as I read the prayer he saw thousands of blue birds flying up to the sky followed by a vision of Kwan-Yin. The name Kwan-Yin means “she who harkens to the cries of the world,” as she is regarded as the Mother of Mercy in Taiwan and in the East. Six days after my reading and Dr. Len’s visions, the great flood hit Taiwan, bringing with it the biggest disaster the island had seen in over 50 years.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/typhoon_morakot.html
Was it possible that his inclination to request the prayer be read by me, the only native of Taiwan in the room, coupled with his visions of Kwan-Yin were some sort of sign of what was to come? Whatever the explanation may have been, the moment I inherited an awareness of the tragic flood, was the moment I truly came to understand the key message in Dr. Len’s Zero Limits…
You see, until we are able to accept responsibility for everything and everyone contain within our individual realities, our personal limitations will prevent us from experiencing freedom and happiness. In order to change our realities, we must start from within: “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.” As we begin to make things right within ourselves, we’ll begin to transform the reality of the world around us. As Dr. Vitale puts it: “Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.”
I decided to name my Chinese blog Zero Limits not just because of a new philosophy I learned through a book and a few workshops, but by a new way of life that I wanted to inspire others to venture into along with me. In this new way of life, we must realize that there really are no limits to what we do or what we become. We can write books, visit the moon or learn to farm if this is what we want for ourselves. We are truly that powerful. You are truly that powerful.
I’m exploring the world of acting, dancing and writing. What will you do now that you realize your potential is limitless?
The following is the prayer-
“I” Am The “I”.
“I” come forth from the void into light,
“I” am the breath that nurtures life,
“I” am that emptiness, that hollowness beyond all consciousness,
The “I”, the Id, the All.
“I” draw my bow of rainbows across the waters,
The continuum of minds with matters.
“I” am the incoming and outgoing of breath,
The invisible, untouchable breeze,
The undefinable atom of creation.
“I” am the “I.”
(The prayer is from I am the I – IZI LLC http://www.self-i-dentity-through-hooponopono.com/i-am-the-i.htm)
