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 – “The Venerable Master Guang Qin: Food-free through Samadhi” – will be presented in Formosan 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 our program entitled, “The Venerable Master Guang Qin: Food-free through Samadhi,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, Buddhist monks and nuns have followed the tradition of leading an ascetic lifestyle, renouncing material possessions and attachments to attain perfect wisdom and achieve enlightenment. Their life is dedicated to the spiritual upliftment of humankind, as well as their own personal cultivation. Aside from the daily activities, most of their time is spent in meditation. Absorbed in meditation, the monks or nuns oftentimes forgo food for days or months, sometimes years, as is the case with Ram Bahadur Bomjan, the Buddha Boy from Nepal, who at one time went food-free for four years while deep in samadhi. The inner bliss of meditation far exceeds the temporal satisfaction of physical food. The renowned Venerable Master Guang Qin of Formosa (Taiwan) was no different. He had been known to live without food and drink while engaged in deep meditation.

During his one-year retreat, he didn’t eat or drink. It was true. Many of his disciples were with him at that time.

Let us now retrace the steps of history and explore the life of one of Formosa’s (Taiwan) most revered Buddhist monks. The Venerable Master Guang Qin was born in 1892 in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, 18 or 19 years after the Guang Xu Emperor ascended the throne. He was born into a very poor family. Both of his parents were farmers. When he was 3 or 4 years old, he was given to another family to be raised as an adopted son.

For health reasons, his foster mother had always kept a vegetarian diet. Therefore, ever since the age of three or four, when he was adopted, Master Guang Qin had been a vegetarian. When his foster father passed away when he was 11, he was sent to Chengtian Zen Monastery to be a monk.

At the age of 27, the Venerable Master Guang Qin was ordained as a monk at the Chengtian Zen Monastery in China. And here he learned many valuable lessons. On one occasion just after he had taken his monastic vows, he, along with the other monks, had been working hard in the field, and it was time for lunch. The Venerable Master Guang Qin was tired and hungry and began to follow the other monks to the dining hall; however, he was stopped by an elderly monk who asked him to put away the tools before eating.

The Venerable Master Guang Qin was overcome with anger and self-pity and decided to leave the monastery. After walking for a short distance, he realized that running away from the monastery would not be conducive to his spiritual progress. He put aside his emotions, thinking, “I came here to get liberation from life and death. Today, I only suffered a little bit and got depressed.” With this realization, he quickly returned to the monastery, put away the tools, and confessed to the elderly monk. The wise monk forgave him and offered his advice, “Eat what people don’t eat, do what people don’t do; someday you will understand.” Eventually, in 1946 the Venerable Master Guang Qin arrived in Formosa (Taiwan).

He had lived in many places in Formosa (Taiwan). According to some sources, in his early years he traveled to many places and spent some time in the Fairy Cave in Keelung. The environment of the cave is similar to that of the Chengtian Zen Monastery located in the mountains. Later, he came to Taipei. While in Formosa (Taiwan), the Venerable Master Guang Qin became known as the “Fruitarian Master.”

Why did people call Master Guang Qin the “Fruitarian Master” in Formosa? What’s the origin of the story? He stayed in Chengtian Zen Monastery for many years after he returned from Southeast Asia. Later, he took with him 5 kilograms of rice and went to live in a cave in Qin Yuan Mountain to practice spiritually. This cave was about 10 kilometers from the Chengtian Zen Monastery. He was 37 years old at that time.

Soon, he finished all 5 kilograms of rice and had nothing left to eat. Since he was in a retreat in the cave, he couldn’t go out to beg for alms, so he started to eat wild fruits and vegetables on the mountain. It was said that monkeys on the mountain would come to offer fruits to him. One of my Buddhist masters who visited Master Guang Qin years ago told me that he once asked Master Guang Qin, “Why do people call you the ‘Fruitarian Master’?” He said that Master Guang Qin was very modest about it. He didn’t brag about the title and simply said that he ran out of rice, so he had no choice but to eat fruits. He lived in the cave for eight years and fruits became his diet. The Buddhist master said that Master Guang Qin didn’t try to be different from other people; he did it because he had nothing else to eat except fruits. Later, he got used to the fruit diet.

Much lesser known was the fact that, at one time, the Venerable Master Guang Qin chose to give up food, living solely on prana, or the cosmic energy.

How long did you practice with Master Guang Qin? Five years. Five years. Yes, five years. We know that Master Guang Qin used to enter a deep samadhi state, when he would stop taking any food. During the time you were with him, what was the longest time he remained in the state of samadhi? When he turned 80, he started to keep silence. He did come out to let people see him and to bless people, but he didn’t talk during that period. When he was about 80 years old, he stopped eating for a year because he didn’t feel like eating. Many disciples pleaded with him, asking him to take care of himself and to eat something to keep his body alive. So, slowly he started to drink some liquid and slowly resumed his diet. But he only ate fruit. and drank liquid.

The Venerable Master Guang Qin lived a long and happy life. He was still vibrant and sharp even when he was well into his 90s. At the age of 95, a group of his disciples gathered around him, reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha. The Venerable Master Guang Qin recited the name continuously with ease, whereas the disciples had to take turns to recite with him, losing their voices and feeling pain in their chests.

One disciple considered the fact that the Venerable Master Guang Qin hadn’t eaten for nearly a month and worried that he might not be able to have the energy. So he suggested, “Master, we’ll recite, you just need to listen.” But the Venerable Master Guang Qin opened his eyes and said firmly, “Everyone recites for himself. Everyone has to get beyond death on his own.” In your opinion, what was Master Guang Qin’s view of life? I think he was a very humble person. He was diligent in his spiritual practice.

He had always told his disciples to recite Buddha’s name sincerely and diligently. His last words, which have become well-known, were: “There is no coming and no going,” and “Nothing is happening.” It shows that he was a very humble person.

For example, about his fruit diet, he could have told people, “I eat fruits because I want to practice spiritually.” He could have told people so, but instead he just said, “It is because I had no other food to eat except fruits.” From this example, we can see that he was a very humble spiritual practitioner, who just practiced diligently. That’s why he reached such a high level and was well-respected. He was so humble and ordinary. He taught people to recite the Buddha’s name sincerely. His spiritual practice reflected his responsible way of life.

The Venerable Master Guang Qin passed away in 1986 at the age of 95. His simple lifestyle and loving examples of self cultivation have touched the hearts of thousands of people. After his passing, his devoted students collected his teachings and published them in a book entitled, “Monk Guang Qin’s Aphorisms.” Currently, his sariras, or relics, are on displayed as part of the Maitreya Project Heart Relic Tour.

Cherished viewers, we appreciate your loving company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Good People, Good Works, coming up next after Noteworthy News. God bless, and farewell for now.

"Do not be pranic beings but living beings who find their way step by step, at every step." So that's basically how I got to eating prana for a decade now.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, November 14, for our program, “Reine-Claire Lussier: Prana For a Busy Lifestyle,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Reine-Claire Lussier: Prana For a Busy Lifestyle,” on Between Master and Disciples.