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- Book 16 - Encounters with the World of
Spirits
- By Grand Master Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by Janny Chow
- Copyright© Purple Lotus Society
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Acknowledgements
 First
of all, I would like to thank the following persons for making this
book possible:
Grand Master Sheng-yen Lu (Living Buddha Lian-sheng) for His blessing
and guidance; Master Lian-hsiang and Master Samantha Chou for their
encouragement; Pamela Ziv Johnson for English editing; K.C. Ng,
Hsiang Yuan Hsia, and Christine Chan for proofreading; Kevin Henderson
for desk top publishing; and Ellen Hsu for the cover design.
Encounters with the World of Spirits (previously titled Experiences
in Spiritual Reading) was first published in Taiwan in April, 1975.
Although it was the sixteenth book written by Grand Master Lu, it
is usually considered to be the first of his "spiritual"
books.
If I were to pinpoint one particular book that has exerted a pivotal
influence in my adult life, this would be that one book. A friend
loaned it to me in 1986, and, immediately after finishing it, I
went to bookstores in San Francisco's Chinatown to scout for more
books written by Grand Master Lu. I also started reading all the
books in English that I could find on the subjects of karma, reincarnation,
channelling, etc.. What a wealth of information existed out there
of which I had not been aware before!
Later, I could not help but wonder, was it mere coincidence that
in the early seventies, while such Western authors as Jane Roberts
and Carlos Castaneda were heralding the New Age Era, Master Sheng
yen Lu was writing in the Orient and advocating a spiritual reawakening?
Although this is the first time that the complete book is available
in English, part of the book was previously translated into English.
In 1984, twenty-one chapters from this book, together with sixteen
chapters from Grand Master's fourteenth spiritual book, were published
under the title of The Flying Carpet of the East.
Janny Chow
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