This program discusses the possibility of breatharianism, or living without eating food, and is not a full instruction. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance.

Today’s Between Master and Disciples – “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years” – will be presented in Chinese with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech-Slovak, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

In scriptures, the human body is often referred to as the temple of God. Yet, it is quite an uncommon privilege for any soul to attain this sacred abode that houses the Divine, as it is truly a blessing to be reborn as a human being. On several occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai has spoken about the rarity of this phenomenon:

To be reincarnated in the human world is hard. You have to have enough Human Quality. You have to have affinity with the parents and with the society, with the people around which you are born. Very difficult. To be a human, you need some merit. You have done something good in the past in order to be able to pick a human birth.

As a living temple of God, the human body is fully equipped with miraculous wonders that can be awakened in those who are spiritually conscious and have complete faith in the Creator of all life. Inedia, Latin for “fasting,” is the human ability to live without food. Since time immemorial, there have always been individuals who can sustain themselves on prana, or the vital life force. Through the grace of the Providence, inediates, people who follow a food-free lifestyle, can draw the energy from nature to nourish themselves:

They live on the chi from the ground, or from the forest, and from the sun and from the air. They make use of all that. Or they live on love, on faith alone.

These individuals are known as breatharians(pranarians or inediates), solarians, or waterians, and they come from all walks of life, from different cultures, and all corners of the world.

Indeed, the possibilities and miracles in this life as our benevolent Creator has designed for us are endless; we only need to connect within to recognize our abounding largess as God’s children. Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly recommended a weekly series on Supreme Master Television to introduce those individuals of the past and present who have chosen to live food-free on Earth. May their spiritual stories enthrall you; may hearts be opened, and horizons be expanded. We now invite you to join us for part 1 of our 5-part program, “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Whenever I meditate under the Sun during the day, my soul would go out and fly to Heaven. My being would not be on Earth anymore. Now I live as a breatharian, and I hope I will be like the sun, giving light to the Earth, protecting the world, and giving warmth to the world.

Since July 1990, Nun Shi Hongqing of the Lotus Temple in China has been living food-free, drinking only water when her body feels a need for it. Astonishingly, Nun Shi Hongqing has experienced periods of living food-free since she was three years old. At first, it was a month, half a month, and the longest was six months. It’s the longest this time, since 1990 until now. Between three and four years old, three months was the longest time; that was between three and four. Between five and six, the longest was four months. Four months.

Later between 13 and 14, I used to fast for seven months. Between 16 to 18, I did it for nine months. I felt nine months was too short. Between 19 to 23, I did it for a year. When I was 23, I became a nun and I have been food-free till now. That’s the progress. In the future, I might eat again, but we’ll have to see. But not eating is not something unnatural. It is natural. Many people didn’t believe me. After living with me they knew I could do it.

All her life, prior to becoming a breatharian, Nun Shi Hongqing was a vegetarian, even while she was still in her mother’s womb. Before I was born, my parents weren’t like this. During the pregnancy, when they eat animals their mouth would decay and they would get sick. My mother gave birth to nine children; she ate meat during eight pregnancies. But when she had me, she ate vegetarian. So your parents used to eat meat, but after they had you they became vegetarians?

When my mother was pregnant with me, she ate vegetarian, but after she gave birth to me, she went back to eating meat. When I was nine years old, she started to eat vegetarian gradually. So during the time your mother was pregnant with you, she was a vegetarian? She kept her vegetarian diet a month after I was born. A month later, I stopped living with my parents. I started to live with my maternal grandmother, so since I was born, I’ve always been a vegetarian. You’ve never eaten meat your whole life. Never.

What about visiting neighbors and friends who ate meat? I never visited their houses because I would vomit when I smelled meat.

When I was little, my sister and brother would hide meat under the rice, but I wouldn’t eat the rice. It happened a couple of times. Then by the third time, I had a fight with them, and I wouldn’t talk to them anymore. I was very little and I stopped eating, but I had a lot of strength.

As a child, Nun Shi Hongqing naturally gravitated toward spirituality. She loved to spend her time among vegetarian people, monks and nuns, and paying homage to the Buddha statues for hours, sometimes, several days, in the village temple.

For some time, when I was three or four years old, it was quite interesting, actually, that I could sit in one place like a Bodhisattva statue motionlessly. Once, we went to play on a hillside. Later, I didn't return home, but no one looked for me. They thought I either went to one of the grandma's places or was with my mother; they just wondered where I was. Actually, I went to the Wind Spirit temple, and sat under the Bodhisattva statue in the worshipping hall. There was nobody guarding the temple at that time.

Later, someone told my parents, “Your daughter has been sitting in the temple for a few days already.” My parents replied, “Really? I thought she has gone to one of the grandma’s places.” This happened when I was three or four years old. Later when I was five or six years old, I often went to the temple and brought my own incense to burn there. I was with people who were vegetarian and recited Amitabha Buddha’s name or Quan Yin Bodhisattva’s name. I stayed with them and didn't return home. My family didn't look for me either. When I was young, I was quiet.

When I was a child, I was almost mute. I didn't talk. Why didn't I talk? I felt our conversations were boring, not what I was interested in. Therefore, everybody said, “This child is like a mute, she doesn’t talk.” I didn't even say hallo to my parents; I only bowed to them.

So when you were young, your parents didn't find out that you went without food for many days? No, they didn't know, because we had three homes. Grandma's from my father's side, grandma's from my mother's side, as well as my mom's place. Therefore, my parents didn't know anything about it.

When I was seven to eight years old, I didn't like to stay at home. I went outside to play all the time, but I didn’t go to other people's home to play. I only went to the places, where I could find Bodhisattvas, vegetarian food and recite the sutra.

There was a small Wind Spirit Temple nearby. It was very close by. I always spent my time talking to the Bodhisattva and bowing to her. It was my favorite thing to do. It was when I was seven or eight years old. Later on, when I was nine or ten years old, I wanted to take refuge in the Buddha.

My father has the heart of a Bodhisattva; he is very compassionate. My father took sympathy on me, seeing me not eating properly because my other three sisters were very rough to me. When there was meat, they would eat it all. When there was no meat, they would eat my vegetarian food. After they ate all the tofu in my bowl, I only had a bowl of rice with water left. The three sisters continued to treat me like this every day. I then decided not to eat ever again in my life, that way, there would be no more fights. That was why my father took sympathy on me. He asked the monk Xiao, “Could you please accept my daughter as a renunciate in the temple so she could live a better life and enjoy food and life better?” The monk said, “Okay, but it also depends on her destiny.”

Master Zhoug Jian from Ganzhou city had turned away many people before. After I got there, we came across each other, when I was going up the steps while he was walking down. After we met each other, he conducted the ceremony for us to become Buddhists. My mother and I both took refuge in the Buddha. At that time, I was only nine years old. When I was about eight, or nine to ten years old, I felt comfortable when not eating any food.

Generous viewers, thank you for your warm company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again next Sunday when we return with part 2 of the 5-part series, “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years.” Coming up next is Good People, Good Work, right after Noteworthy News. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. With gratefulness, may our planet and all beings continue to be immersed in Heaven’s boundless mercy. Literature on Living Food-free

When I was little, I used to play in the stream. After I stopped eating food, I would meditate here. It was a great place to meditate because no one came to disturb me. Every day I would just drink some water. The wind was blowing and it felt so comfortable while I meditated that I would forget to eat.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, April 10, for our program, “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Generous viewers, thank you for your warm company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again next Sunday when we return with part 2 of the 5-part series, “Nun Shi Hongqing of China: Breatharian for Over 20 Years.” Coming up next is Good People, Good Work, right after Noteworthy News. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. With gratefulness, may our planet and all beings continue to be immersed in Heaven’s boundless mercy.