At the turn of 2012, an era came to an end for many. One of the most interesting efforts to inspire cultural change through mass communication came to an end.
Supreme Master Television it was called, and for five years it went out to the entire world on 16 satellite TV platforms and online streaming. If you’re interested in the name, it’s because the station was inspired and financed by the modren spiritual teacher Supreme Master Ching Hai.
The most remarkable thing about this station, besides being completely charitable and run by the volunteer efforts of ardent meditators of the ‘Quan Yin Method’ (aka Light and Sound Meditation or Shabd Yoga), was it’s total acceptance and respect for the world’s faiths.
Many spiritual or religious people tend to feel threatened by different practices or faiths. Supreme Master Television was differentialed from other free-to-air programming by it’s inclusiveness and success in reaching a diverse audience in both faith and nationality (I think the global broadcast was accompanied with up to 60 language subtitles, the most common in the main broadcast and others available separately online).
Listening you would regularly hear and see ‘Be Veg and Go Green 2 Save the Planet,’ a message that seemed to be the focus of much of the programming. Scientific, humane and more spiritual arguments were put forward as reasons to go animal free. It was from this station that I got the information I needed to move beyond dairy.
As well this pressing message, there were often scrolling excerpts of religious texts that impressed me with a powerful feeling of religious unity.
Here I’ve collected my favourite of such scrolls. The videos linked to below are direct download, WMV format, which will play automatically using Windows and with MPlayerX on the Mac. They’re 50-100mb each.
You can see the complete list at the Supreme Master Television website, which has now become a treasure trove of history. I’ll certainly be posting more videos from there in the future, as I browse the archives and select my favourites.