Yuan Miao talked about Joyful Yoga and what we can all do to achieve a profound spiritual transformation. Yuan Miao shared the Guan Yin teachings and transmissions she has received throughout her life and her own Phoenix Rising process.
Excerpted from host Heidi Woolard’s interview with Miao on The Unsung Goddess:
"Om mani padme hum. This mantra I give to each one of you…if you have pain…if you’re worried, if you’re fearful, angry, confused. Now, deeply breathe and receive the frequency of the mantra. This comes from Guan Yin to help you rebirth from any kind of ashes. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. The lotus grows from mud. The mud looks dirty, terrible, dark, but the mud has rich nutrition. All kinds of suffering are bitter, just like mud. The lotus comes from mud. Just like all life, all enlightenment beings come from suffering, from challenges. Just keep going. Keep the belief. Keep the direction. Don’t run away. Don’t run away. Stay here…Yes, let’s walk hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart and together, stay here. Stay on the path."
On witnessing Grandpa Zhang’s death at the ripe, old age of 7:
"After a few days, I was in some kind of trance…every night, when I went to bed, my consciousness went to the graveyard–into the coffin. I saw Grandpa lonely, hopeless, cold. I understood him, his whole feeling. This experience somehow opened the door of my consciousness. I realized life and death. But at that time, I was so scared. I was scared about death, about loneliness, about people having no love.
This experience left me with big questions: Why did we come to the world? Who am I? Where am I going? What is the purpose of life? Why am I here? Why do people have to die? How can we overcome 'impermanent' life? There was nobody to teach me, it just came out of this experience–thinking about life. What is the purpose of life? Why do people have to die? Are we not going to have eternal life? Continually, these questions emerged for the benefit of my 'later' life.
For Tibetan esoteric dharma teachings or to learn Dakini teachings-what kind of foundation is necessary? If you don’t know death, you cannot receive esoteric dharma teachings. Later, I knew this; before I didn’t know this. The whole experience about Grandpa Zhang taught me that if you overcome the illusion of death, overcome the illusion of life, you can realize the Truth."
