Pureland Buddhism

 

 

LISTEN TO THE SONG
 OF THE GANGES RIVER

Author: Dr. Guo Hui Zhen
Translated into Enghish: Ed Huynh

 

Introduction:

 

Dr. Guo Hui Zhen was an oncologist.  She was very motivated, enthusiastic, and wholehearted in her work.  Her compassion and sincerity not only encouraged the sick but also wakened the healthy ones, causing them to study Buddha Dharma (referred to Buddhism) and to recite the Buddha’s name.

 

The following is a very rich and emotional speech with friends at the “Wisdom Buddhist Study Society” of Zhong Yuan University.  Despite suffering from severe cancer herself, Dr. Zhen endured the pain and manifested her sick body to speak the dharma (hence, “dharma” refers to the teaching or principles).  By relying on her extremely solid faith- and-vow in the practice of Buddha’s name recitation, she continued to give the dharma talk.  After acknowledging that she had cancer, Dr. Zhen said, “Now it is time for me to single-mindedly recite the Buddha’s name and to prepare for rebirth in the Pure Land.¹” This saying moved the audience deeply and earned her lots of praises. (After this lecture, Dr. Zhen resigned from her post and ascended the mountains to become a cultivator).

 

In this life amidst the sea of suffering, we are always attached to things before our eyes and unable to let go.  Everyone is busy from dawn to night throughout his or her life.  Toward the end as the final minute arrives, we look back and lament that life has passed in vain.  Dear all, what would you want your life to be like?   How do you escape the binding of the life-and-death cycle?   We believe that this lecture will bring the emotional facts and awakening to help you to find the direction [back to your original homeland]!

 

All Respected Teachers and Friends:

 

Standing on this podium, I feel very uneasy and embarrassing, especially when I see that the majority of the audience is equivalent to my seniors and teachers.  First of all, I would like to explain why a person with such little education like me could go up and speak with you all?  The reason is due to the influence of one of my patients, and I often retell the story of how this patient helped me to understand many issues in life.  We often have to pay a very high price in order to understand one sentence in the Sutra², even if it is a very simple one.

 

This patient was only thirty-some years old but she got colon cancer.  She kept crying when she came to the hospital.  At that time, I was only an oncologist intern. Looking at her medical history, I found that she went through two previous surgeries but the cancer kept coming back.  Indeed, there was no cure.  She kept crying until she could not talk.  She was not sure what to do.  She wanted to talk to the doctor to find more about her condition.  After my shift was over that day, I visited her in her room and at the same time, introduced her to some basic principles of Buddhism.  Unexpectedly after hearing, she was deeply moved and opened wide her eyes and said, “All these years, how come nobody ever tell me about these principles?  Why do I have to endure thirty some years full of sufferings until toward the end that I can hear about the Buddha Dharma³?” Although these were just a few short sentences but they seemed to penetrate through my heart.  Afterward, she cried miserably and so did I.

 

At that time, the Snow-like Elder Master (referred to the aged layman Li Bing Nan)⁴ was still alive and he lectured on the sutra on Wednesday of the week.  Every day after work, I usually stayed behind in the hospital to talk with and to comfort the patients, except on Wednesdays because I had to attend the Venerable Master's lectures. That patient saw that I was very happy on Wednesday as I prepared myself for attending, so she said, “I hope that I can go too (listen to the lecture) but regrettably, I do not have the chance.”  I replied, “In the future, you will have the opportunity.”  Finally, she did make it to the sutra lecture.  When I arrived at the Flower Adornment Hall of Tse Guang Library, I saw her sitting in the one of the front rows.  However, half way through the lecture she grasped her belly, cried and walked out.  Her conditions deteriorated and caused her too much pain so that she could not listen to the sutra lecture any longer.  At that moment, I suddenly understood the meaning of one sentence in the Opening Verse⁵ of  the Sutra:

 

          “The unsurpassed, deep, and profound, and wonderful Dharma,

          In a hundred thousand million of eons is extremely difficult to encounter,

          Now that I’ve come to receive and hold it within my sight and hearing,

          I vow to fathom the Thus Come One’s true and actual meaning.”

 

Because of her influence so from that day on I am no longer mindful about my scanty understanding. Rather I always try to work harder, and urgently introduce the essential principles in Buddha Dharma [that I can understand] to the audience [public] about the happiness that Buddha Dharma can bring about to us.  Money cannot buy this kind of happiness, and thieves cannot steal it.  Regardless of circumstances and states, and how people try to measure the this kind of happiness base on their worldly concepts of “blessing” and “disaster”, our inner mind always have the full peace, happiness, and brightness.

 

I asked the Head Dharma Friend (leader) in the Buddhist Study Society about the topic they are investigating or the sutra they are studying in this session.  Mr. Xu told me that all of you are studying the “Sutra of the Eight Great Human Enlightenments”. Surely, everyone has looked over this Sutra and possibly memorized it as well.  

 

The First Enlightenment is:

 

“The world is impermanent. Countries are perilous and fragile. The body is a source of pain and composed of the four elements⁶, ultimately empty. The five skandhas⁷ are not the true self.  Life and Death are nothing but a series of transformations….”

 

Despite knowing the principles by heart, most of us do not believe in them. Although the Buddha said that the world itself is full of sufferings and impermanent, but on contrary, you feel that it is a very happy place.  Every morning you get up, drink soymilk, eat hot cakes… open your eyes and see, oh, the clear sky and the white clouds - life itself is so beautiful and happy!  If this is the case, then it is normal.  However, the moments of happiness pass by so quickly.  Suppose in one moment, some challenges or difficulties suddenly arise and you will not see the clear sky and the white clouds anymore.  You will not see the blooming of hundreds of flowers⁸.  Your mind will no longer feel happy.

 

Hence, I would like to tell you a few true stories that I encountered in the hospital.  In these stories, each patient was my teacher.  Each of them taught me a principle that Buddha talked about in the sutras.  They verified and proved the Buddha’s teaching.  They caused me to have absolute faith in the Buddha’s words and that the Buddha was “The one who tells the truth, and never lies.”

 

Many patients asked me, “Doctor, how old are you?” 

I replied, “Thirty - two years old”.

They then would ask, “Are you married yet?  I can introduce you to…?”

 

I would then ask them, “Do you live a very happy life?”  Strangely, no one ever said “Yes!”

 

Until one day, I encountered a patient with uterine cancer.  Each time she came for a visit, she put on her make up very nicely, with red lips and polish nails on her fingers and toes.  After the examination, she wanted to introduce me to someone.

 

She said, “My nephew works at the Guo Tai Hospital.  He is a very courteous and a gentleman.”

I asked her, “You are very happy, aren’t you?”

She replied, “Yes, my husband treats me very well.  My children are very filial, and we are well off.”

 

If that is the case, I would like to congratulate her.  She was the only one who said that she had happiness.  I was happy for her.  Because when patients came to the hospital, they often cried and lamented:

 

“Doctor, you don’t know.  I have to borrow others’ money for the examination.  My children are not happy at all.”  Or,  

 

“Oh, when I go home, no one pay attention to me.  I have been sickened too long and people do not take care of me anymore.”

 

Also, no one asked, “Dad, have you eaten yet?”

 

Or, “Since I got this illness, my husband left me.”

 

The majority belonged to this last type of people.  The details of each case might vary, but the content was quite similar.  Only this lady was very lucky to have happiness.  A short while after her visit, one of the nurses read the newspaper and surprisingly found that the lady had killed herself.  The nurse told me, “The newspaper reported that her body was found by the river in….  She left her home for about five days, after which she committed suicide.”

 

I asked, “That lady was very blissful, very happy.  Why did she commit suicide?”

 

Honored audience, try to think about it.  Why could her husband’s love not change her suicidal thought?  Why was the filiality of her children also unable to pull her back?  Why could money not buy a peaceful mind?  Her husband’s love and the filiality of the children still could not replace the pain in her body.  Why was that such a beautiful woman had to run away from home, wandered around, and finally jumped into the dark water?

 

Probably, before that she felt that life was so beautiful.  She never experienced any suffering, and she did not know that “The world is impermanent, the countries are fragile.”  Therefore, her mind was not prepared psychologically and so when challenges arose, she could not handle them.  She did not have the “immunization” to protect her from these challenges, and she was not capable of fighting back.  She could not endure the pain and have to kill herself instead.  I was very regretful that I did not introduce Buddha Dharma to her so that she could change her mind and turn toward the light, turn toward Amitabha Buddha⁹.  For these kinds of sufferings perhaps everyone may think, “This is only a minority, only few would commit suicide.”

 

In reality, there were many suicidal cases.  I worked in the oncology department.  If there were one single day that we did not encounter patients wanting to take their lives, then that day would be considered as a very rare day, a very auspicious day!  The truth was that everyday I often heard the saying, “The sooner I die the better.”  When people wished for better health and caring but did not receive them, they often wanted to take their lives.  At night in the hospital, I usually had to resolve these suicidal cases.  It was not that people did not want to live anymore, but because the pain from the illness was too much.  They just did not know how to handle it.  

 

Besides, there were patients who could neither live nor die.  They laid and moaned miserably in bed.  There was one patient with a cancerous ulcer in the area below the abdomen.  Surgeons had to create a temporary anus on the abdomen but there was no way to cure the cancer.  The excrement just came out directly from the gut.  This patient’s room was on the third floor, but you could smell the odor all the way from the second floor.  It was not that this patient had anything special, but any of us when encountered similar situation would be the same.  When her children took care of her, they had to wear a mask covering their mouths and noses.  Everyday she wanted to kill herself but she did not have the opportunity.  One day, her son went out to get her breakfast, she tried her best to get up and to climb over the window of the third floor and jumped down.  At that moment, her son had just returned and witnessed this.  He quickly ran over to help her.  In the end, with the jumping she did not die but hurt herself seriously.  Having already suffered from the illness and with the additional injury, every day the pain was beyond description for her.  She could neither live nor die.  Her life was not over yet, and suicide was no use.  Even if she succeeded, she would permanently descend in the revolving six paths.  The endless pain and sufferings will cycle itself.

 

The poet Rabindranath Gore has said:

 

“To live like a beautiful summer blossom, to die like a beautiful autumn moon”

 

You want to live like “a beautiful summer blossom?”   Perhaps, it is not difficult to do so.  However, to die like “a beautiful autumn moon” you need to work very hard to prepare for it!  Many times, there were people criticizing those who studied Buddhism and said, “Oh gosh, how come you all like to talk about ‘dying’ and about the ‘end’, as if you don’t care about life anymore.  There are many things to do in life, especially for those of you who practice the Pure Land Dharma Door. Every day, you recite ‘Amitabha Buddha’ to prepare to be reborn in the West.  This is too pessimistic.”  The truth is our life journey is similar to that of painting a dragon.  Each touch, each color is very important.  The time of passing is similar to that of putting the last touch to the eye of the dragon.  The times of birth and death are very important.  There is no single touch that can be done casually.  Reciting Buddha’s name is the best thought for the mind.  Work hard at it while we are alive and toward the end.  This is the best of the best.

 

I have been speaking for a while now but I still have not talked about the main topic of the day, “Listen to the Song of the Ganges River.”  A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit India and I sat on the boat that was sailing along the bank of the Ganges River¹⁰.  At that time, my mind was very calm and peaceful.  The sounds of the river gave me the feeling as if I was moving in the water of Life and Death”….When listening to these sounds, I heard the sounds of children and of adults, of crying and of laughing.  All of these sounds blended together to form the 10,000-merited holy name “Amitabha Buddha.”  You look at the images of the Ganges River- of every single bobbing wave, of your own shadow, of your relatives and friends, of the setting sun, of the bird and the floating clouds in the horizon.  All these images blended to form the river of “Life”.  Let us look together at these images and listen to the Song of the Ganges River, from the Song of “Life-and-Death Cycle of the Ganges River” to the Song “The Enlightened Buddha.”  With us, the Ganges is a very familiar river because in the sutras, the Buddha often used the terminology “sands of the Ganges River” to depict the meaning of “measureless and boundless”.  In this “Ganges River of Life”, we are the people swimming across the river.

 

The boat kept advancing to a place by the riverbank where people were cremated. The Indian way of cremation is very simple.  They do not need a coffin, but use only a piece of cloth to wrap the corpse.  Then they burn the body by the riverbank. Even Mrs. Gandhi was no exception (she had the flag to wrap her body).  The rich folks have enough firewood so they can burn the corpse completely to ash and scatter it into the river.  The poor ones, on the other hand, just burn the corpse casually and dump the remains into the river.  When I was sailing pass this area, I saw a remaining blackened leg that had not yet burned to ash.  Let us try to ask this half-burned leg belonged to whom?  Not so long ago, it also had a very soft skin; and it was embraced in the bosom of its mother.  Some time later, this leg was walking on the green grass.  Possibly, many young men wanted to get close to it.  With passing time, this leg became dry and hardened as its owner got older.  Finally, it turned into a half-burned and darkened leg, beneath the ash.  After some more time, it would eventually turn into a pile of sand in the Ganges.  Let us look carefully one more time at these images and listen to the song by the Ganges River.  Although these images are Indian but possibly, they may well be ours.

 

There was a man who like to chew betel nuts, as well as smoking and drinking. Afterward, he developed a cancerous lesion in his mouth.  By the time he came to the hospital for examination, the cancer site already spread to the jaw and penetrated through the cheek.  The ulcerous site kept oozing yellow fluid.  With eating or drinking, the food would leak out through the hole.  Even as he drank his favorite wine, it would still be very painful.  When he chewed betel nuts, it would hurt as if he was “swallowing hot iron pellets.”  His once strong and muscular body got skinnier and skinnier due to his inability to eat or drink.  Eventually, we had to put a feeding tube from his nose into the stomach. 

 

His wife expressed remorse and said that they used to quarrel a lot previously.  She told me that she cursed him, “Fine!  You keep scolding me.  You will get mouth cancer- I curse you to have mouth cancer.  Unexpectedly, he really got mouth cancer, and I was the one who suffered the most.  Besides taking care of his wounds, I had to go everywhere looking for doctors to treat him, in addition to trying to find money to pay for the treatments.  It was miseries beyond description”.  Had she know today’s miseries ahead of time, she would appreciate the good time and tell him, “When you scold me, I would rather bow to the Buddha one hundred times and transfer the merit and virtue to you.  I would invite you to eat good food and also not to use evil words to curse you.”

 

Is it better for two people to recite Buddha’s name together amidst the kind-and-compassionate wisdom light of the Buddha instead of arguing?  Regrettably, we often chose the way that caused pain and miseries to each other.  When we are not sick yet, we torture this body mercilessly.  When we get sick, we blame the heaven and the earth.   Hopefully, in this life’s very short and temporary union, we treat each other with compassion and sincerity.  Hatred and anger only create before us, a road full of thorns and sufferings.

 

The man above really loved fishing.  With the betel nuts and wine along with the fishing rod in hand, he strolled toward the riverbank and felt very excited.  Not until he got ulcerous mouth cancer did he awaken and realize the feelings of the fish when the hook penetrated through its mouth.  He spoke with great difficulty because of the ulcerous mouth.  When I took care of his wound, he tried to bear the pain and expressed his remorse.  He realized because of the desire to have a little fun for the moment, he caused sufferings to the fish.  The same sufferings of having a punctured mouth now came back to him.  When he swallowed food, he felt as if his throat was burning or stabbing with a knife.  It was so painful so that he wanted to twist his body just as a hooked fish twisted its body trying its best to escape the hook.  He taught me an unforgettable lesson.  Indeed, “Cause-and-effect is not off by a penny.”

 

There was a poem as following:

 

Don’t look down on the weak living beings.

Their flesh, skin, and bones are no different from us!

Do not shoot the bird on the branch.

The young birds in the nest are waiting for their mother.

 

There was another person with oral cancer.  He went through a series of complex surgeries to remove the cancer cells from the cheek, followed by a transplant of his own skin from the chest area to close the defect of the wound.  These complicated operations required lots of endurance.

 

At night, when I was on my rounds, I could see him staring at the ceiling.  It was already late, but he still could not sleep.  Outside, the sky was dark and cold.  His tears were also very cold and pitiful.  How are we going to comfort these patients?  He was waiting for the second operation but did not make it to the last one.  Probably, we often postpone doing something but we may not live until then.  Therefore, good things need to be done right away.  Recite Buddha’s name, recite immediately!

 

When taking care of patients with oral cancer, I often thought that sometimes I got inner mouth sores.  It was already very painful, especially when eating sour or hot food.  This would cause burning pain.  Far worse was for these people with cancerous mouths.  They would shiver in pain even with cold water.  When we open our mouth and speak improperly, even for a few seconds, we may cause lifelong pain to the hearer, and the retribution we would receive is just as painful as people with oral cancer!  Although betel nuts and wine can bring you a little enjoyment for the moment, they can also bring unrelievable pain once you fell ill.  We ought to be careful since one second or minute of happiness passes by very quickly, one day on the sickbed however, seems to last a hundred years.

 

 

Examination Rooms No. 1 and No. 2 of the hospital were connected by an automatic door.  One day, I saw a lady about fifty some years old lying in Room 1.  She had breast cancer and she needed a certain kind of drug but her labor insurance had not yet agreed to pay for the medicine.  Besides dealing with pain, she needed to find money to defray medical expenses.  She often cried silently for unable to bear the great pressure. 

 

Room 2 at the time had another lady with breast cancer whose was about thirty some years old.  She learnt about the story of the lady in room 1, so she took all her money from the pocket and told me: “Doctor, please give to the lady in the next room.”  She was crying and saying at the same time, “We both suffer the same misery.”  I was deeply moved; and I praised her Bodhisattva’s compassionate mind.  I understood that her situation was far worse than the other lady was.  Her children was very young and she had to hire someone to take care of them.  Her husband’s salary was very low and there was no medical insurance.  All their savings were gone to defray hospital and surgery cost.  When she was referred to the hospital for radiation therapy, she was about to let it go and did not want the treatment since she had no money.  She just let her destiny ran its own course.  However, when she saw the phrase on the wall: “Even if tomorrow is the last day, tonight I still must plant a garden full with lotus flowers.”  She thought it over and then went to her mom to borrow money and to continue with the therapy to maintain her life.  She said, “Life itself is indeed impermanent and there are many painful challenges.  Although I have no great ability, I have a little wish that hopefully, I can do my best, to help out people in similar circumstances so that they can leave the sufferings and attain happiness.” 

 

I was deeply moved!  Both persons had cancer but one was sad and miserable.  The other got out of her sufferings to help, to comfort, and to wipe the tears of others.  She was able to develop her potential power.  While alive, she could plant a lotus flower every day.  Gradually, she would get a pond full with fragrant lotus flowers.  Think about it.  Treating critical illness requires lots of endurance and torment.  If we replace the torment with a life of sadness and miseries, is it very sorry?  Why don’t we plant “pure lotus flowers” in our inner mind, so that even a smile is still considered as a giving that can bring happiness to us and to others.  There is a saying that, “Develop one single thought of compassion, serious illness is no obstruction!”

 

          There was a 6 years old boy with lymphatic cancer.  Even with that young age, he already endured many sufferings.  Each time his white blood count went up, the doctor had to inject him a drug that had nauseating and vomiting side effects.  The boy was happiest when his white blood count went all the way down to such a low level so that doctor could not give any more chemotherapy for fear of life-endangered-infections.  Each time he encountered this phenomenon, he was as happy as if he was released from the jail because temporarily, he was “exempted from the torture”.  He told me,  “Everyday, besides watching TV is still watching TV.”  His family was fairly well off so he got his own room in the hospital and watched TV everyday.  He told me, “My aunt is getting married; she invites me to be her bride boy in her wedding.  If I can grow up, that would be best.  But I am not sure if I can grow up?” 

 

These were the words of a six-years-old boy.  Indeed, they caused people who heard feel so sorrowful.  On some occasion, he sat in the room waiting for the injection.  Before that, he was very happy when he brought the toys along.  However, as he got to the door, he recalled the “sufferings are coming, they are about to start” so he lost all his interest.  Sometimes, he bit his teeth tightly, and found a blood vein on the hand himself and said, “Get the blood here.”  Other times, he was very sad and refused to enter the room.  He cried but no sound came out.  He only cried softly and the tears wetted his eyelash.  The first time when he came for a blood draw from the ear, he cried for the full two hours.  Until now, he had been endured so many times.  He realized that crying or spoiling would not help so he courageously endured.  What a pitiful boy!  In life, if we do not want to get  old, we have to die young.  If we don’t want to die young then we have to get  old!

 

          There was one thirty some years old person who had the final stage of nose cancer.  Normally, if people die when they are only thirty some years old, then perhaps, you will say, it is a short life.  However, this lady was only thirty some years, and her family members already could not stand her anymore.  Her husband had to take care of her and the children so he kept asking for days off and as a result, he lost his job.  The entire household was desperate financially and had to request Tzu Chi Foundation¹¹ for help.  Tzu Chi Foundation agreed to give her a large sum of money to help her with hospital cost.  Her mother had been waiting for too long so she lamented, “Why is it too long but they have not bring us the money?  Too long!”  I replied, “People do not owe you money.  The money comes from the Foundation’s members who painstakingly save, and compassionately give out to help others.  They cannot bear to see you suffer but it is not that they are rich.”  She heaved a deep sigh!  Not worry about money anymore!  But the air in the family was still very tight.  The patient herself also did not feel comfortable to live on.  Her mother being exhausted from taking care of her, so she said, “Why don’t you die soon?  You make  us suffer with you!”  Her husband having been suffered too much, so he kept asking me, “How long will she prolong?”  I replied, “Please do not use the word ‘prolong’, will you?”  Being able to live one day in this life is already very precious.  Being together in one day is very rare indeed.  If we focus our attention only in the miseries and the darkness in our life, then even without illness, we will still “prolong” our life.  If we think optimistically about good things, then even if life is very hard, it is still worthy to live on.  If we cherish life, then living up to thirty years old has the twice the longevity of a fifteen years old.  Compare with a 6 years old person, you live five times as long.

 

          Mind ground (your mind) can change the destiny.  I had a friend about thirty some years old who had bone cancer.  Totally before and after, she had to go through twenty surgeries.  One time, the veins kept bleeding and one leg was amputated.  Her life was much more difficult than the person mentioned above was.  However, because she knew how to apply Buddha Dharma and used the grateful mind to treat each other, her family lived happier than before she was ill.

 

          She told me, “I am very lucky.  I lost one leg but I can hear Buddha Dharma.  If not, I don’t know how much bad karma I would commit and subsequently, I  have to reap the painful retribution.”  Her husband waited outside the operation room for all these twenty surgeries.  Do you know his feelings?  He took care of her as that of a Bodhisattva, not complaining the least.  After knowing Buddha Dharma, she used the crutch and together with her husband, they cooked and brought the food to patients with similar illness, and advised them to recite Buddha’s name. 

 

I promised her, “You memorize the Amitabha Sutra, then we will go to the mountain together.  Both of us can walk and bow to transfer the merits to cancer patients.”  Therefore, her entire family studied the sutra with her.  Her son who was still in grade school, told her that: “If mommy can memorize the Amitabha Sutra without missing a word, I will give you 500 dollars as a reward.”  She stayed home to do craftwork and to study the Sutra or to recite the Buddha’s name.  At night, she recited the sutra back to everyone to hear.  The day she memorized the entire sutra, she said, “My entire family has never been happier like on that day.”  Including her son’s reward money and the salary she earned while studying sutra, she had 4000 dollars.  She offered the entire amount to the Triple Jewels (The Buddha, The Dharma, and The Sangha).  Because she wanted to go to the mountain each night when her family members were in deep sleep, she had to practice bowing to the Buddha.  You would be moved to tears if you see how she bowed with one leg.  Her husband tried to obtain donation to get her an artificial leg.  She replied, “If you can secure donation to 10,000 dollars, then please give me the money so I can give to others because having one leg is enough.”  She pointed to the two crutches and said, “I am not missing one leg but contrarily, I have one extra leg.”  When she said this sentence, her cancer cells had spread to her lungs so she needed surgery and chemotherapy one more time.  Her face was pinkish and she often had a very bright smile.  Many times her smile was brighter than those who are not sick.  She said, “Although we are not rich, but now we are lots happier than before my leg was amputated.” 

 

People who recite Buddha’s name can live in the Pure Land right in this very life.  They can live in a happy and peaceful atmosphere of daily life.  Like the majority of cancer patients, she also could not avoid financial difficulties.  Someone invited her to open a store for children to play electronic games so she could earn lots of money.  She said, “I want to test my husband, so I bring this idea up to him.”  She was very happy when he said, “We are people who recited Buddha’s name.  We afraid our children will get trapped by electronic games, so how can we bear to hurt others’ children?”  I really admired and respected this couple.  Although they faced difficulties but they had very superior behaviors.  Many families fell into darkness because of financial difficulties.  On contrary, her family because of illness was able to turn toward the Buddha.  They changed the obstacles into bundles of fragrant flowers.  They deserved to serve as the model for others.

 

          There was a person with jaw cancer had to undergo surgery to remove cancer cells, and in the process, his lower jaw was removed as well.  Doctors had to remove the skin on the chest and used it to cover the surgical site, and hesitantly, he became a person with no lips.  He could not eat but only drink soup or liquid food.  He could not sit and eat as a normal person would.  Rather, he had to lie down to eat or else the food would come out.  With him there was no such thing as “close the mouth” since he had no lips.

 

You look at these people on how they could do their best to endure and to struggle against illnesses.  Many times, I asked myself why am I luckier than they are?  While suffering as such, but whoever worked hard could overcome the challenges.  Although they had different circumstances and attitudes, and ways of looking at things, nevertheless, they all deeply believed in what the Buddha said.  When I explained the Buddha’s teaching to the young, many times I had to say until my throat turned dry but they still did not believe.  However, with the ones who were in sufferings in the hospital, I did not have to say but just ask, “Is it uncomfortable?  Is it painful?”

 

          They replied, “Very uncomfortable, very painful.”

 

          I said, “The Buddha said the world is a sea of sufferings. Let’s recite Amitabha Buddha, turn our mind toward the light, leave the sufferings and attain bliss.”

 

          They did not say anymore, but immediately recite Amitabha Buddha.  No wonder why there was a saying that “The Buddhas of the three periods¹² and the ten directions take eight kinds of sufferings as the teacher.”  “Sufferings” is the best teacher, but why do we wait until then?

 

          Then, there was another one with jaw cancer.  He was blinded and cancer cells already spread to the neck.  Yellow fluid kept oozing down from the cheek.  His daughter-in-law said, “At home, I had to spray with countless perfumes but could not deodorize the odor.”  After hearing that, I told her privately, “I usually see you to take your father-in-law for examination.  You are very filial.  Taking care of cancer patient is very hard, but the Buddha had said, ‘In eight fields of blessings, taking care of the sick is the best field of blessings.’  If you really take good care of him and make him happy, naturally, your blessings will be measureless.  One day we will get old and sick.  The way in which we treat our elders, our children will follow our suit and treat us the same.  We have to pay close attention.  Even a single action, a very casual saying, we need to be compassionated and pitied the patients.  Patients do not want to have the odor.  Today, one in three or four people will contract cancer.  If that person is you yourself then you will have the odor as well.  It is not up to them.  Therefore, if you have some more tolerance, you will have more blessings.”

 

          Because of his blindness, he inquired very carefully about his medical conditions: “What is the real condition of my illness?  Doctor, tell me the truth.  It does not matter.  What I worry most right now is I still have a son who has not married yet!”  Oh, people indeed has endless afflictions.  He had serious illness but not worried about.  Instead, he kept worrying about the “son who has not married!”

 

          When a person is not capable of helping himself, then he has no power nor way to worry for others.  If you cannot cross over your own sea of sufferings, then you cannot save others and help them to cross over the sea.

 

          There was one patient with dragon and tiger tattoos on the chest.  He probably belonged to some gangs previously.  From the day he contracted mouth cancer onward, he started to repent sincerely.  He said, “I deserved it.”  He had no complain, but sincerely repented and helped other patients.  He tried his best to do good work.  After many difficulties, he finally overcame….

 

          I often heard patients complaining, “In my entire life, I did not do bad things nor hurt anyone.  Heaven indeed has no eyes.  Why let me have such painful illness?”  This saying makes me think.  Is it really that way?  Really never do anything evil?  If this is the case, then we are all sages.  Look at the Buddha’s teaching.  Since young until old, we got angry when encountering things not in our way.  When we opened mouth, we scolded others.  Because of desires for food and drink, we did not care about the baby chicks losing their mothers.  We paid no attention to the piglet having a life-and-death separation from its family.  We did not tell the truth.  We did not work hard.  We argued and not followed our parents’ words…etc..etc...There was nothing that was not under control by greed, anger, and ignorance. 

 

People who planted vegetables knew that although the seeds were small but they grew up into big vegetables.  When retribution was not here yet, we even dared to talk ill about others.  Or, while we were angry, we spoke of harsh words to hurt others.  We dared to invite others to eat live seafood.  When retribution appeared, we realized that the sufferings were unbearable and we prayed in order to eradicate our karma.

 

          Venerable Master Guang Yin¹³ has said:

 

          “Must eradicate the roots of the karmic obstacles from the body, mouth, and the mind.".

 

          In other words when greedy for food,  think that the carp, the catfish is also a living being that the Buddhas of the Ten Directions have the love and compassion for.  Speaking so, then they are also our siblings.  They are someone that the Buddhas have the pity for and their mothers are waiting for them.  When we want to get upset, understand that everything is like a dream.  Therefore, do not get angry anymore.  If we cannot stand anymore and want to scold others, think that they are living beings that Amitabha Buddha has been waiting for day and night to save and to bring them back to his land.  These living beings are also bound by the power of karma, and they have afflictions.  Therefore, change our mind to think about the Buddha and recite the Buddha’s name.  If we can work hard to change ourselves and not allowing our habit of language, behavior, and thinking to obstruct us, our karma will be eradicated.  The sufferings of illness will also be neutralized and lessened by the soft and compassionate mind.

 

          I met a high school professor.  He was an extraordinary patient.  Each time passing by the hospital beds, I used the searching and studious mind to watch the patients.  When this patient was hospitalized, cancer already spread to the spinal cord and compressed against the nerves so that his two legs could no longer move.  After a period of radiation therapy, he could walk reluctantly with the crutches.  The toilet was next to the bed but with him, it was quite a distance.  He often struggled very hard in order to sit up and to go to the toilet.  Although his body was very weak, his eyes were full of spirits.  He spoke with great difficulties because of the brain cancer.  When sleeping, he could not close the two eyes.  Later on, his leg bones were broken. 

 

In spite of serious illness, he said, “Regretfully, I cannot teach anymore!”  (He was a very devoted teacher to the students).  He said, “Having been through this very painful illness allow me to understand more about life.  Understand the sufferings of everyone.  I will love and take care of my students even more.  Regrettably, I don’t have the opportunity anymore!”  I replied, “You are a much respected professor.  Just look at your aspiration while being sick is enough to tell.” 

 

On bed, he tried hard to sit up but could only raise his head three inches.  When we want to sit up, we sit up immediately.  He struggled so hard until he sweated all over his shirt but he could only “near” sitting up.  However, he was very happy and said, “Today I can move quite a distance.”  With me, when he could sit up about 30-40 degrees, he deserved more respect than those far-jumper athletes in the Olympic.  Besides struggling physically, he still aspired to continue teaching and caring for the students. 

 

Ordinary people is healthy and full of spirit daily.  However, we often calculate and petty only to bring afflictions upon ourselves.  We usually complain about our work.  We have the ability and the strength but we do not want to do good work.  He was a bedridden patient but aspired to come back to teaching and caring more for the students.  Although he could not do so physically, his vast and sincere vow already brought him to lecture hall forever, and he became the professor for ten of thousands of people.

 

          There was one person who had final stage of tongue cancer.  Cancerous cells from the tongue already spread to the lower jaw.  In the beginning, he was healthy enough to stand and to walk by himself.  Then, he needed two people to support the two sides in order to walk.  Next, he had to sit on wheelchair and finally, he could not move anymore.  Yellow fluid kept oozing out from the cancerous sites.  Each time I came to change the dressing, he often asked me, “Why is it getting bigger?”  He could not speak clearly.  When I cleaned the wound and changed the dressing, his eyes looked at me as if asking, “Don’t know if I can recover?  I am near dead, is this correct?”  This fearful mind is the picture of the “life-and-death on Ganges River.”

 

          When living beings have to confront life-death, every one feels lonely, fearful, terrified.  Even an eighty some years old mother curled herself into my bosom and cried like a baby…One day I went to sutra lecture and passing by T.H. Street.  It was very cold at the time.  There was a newly opened shop that selling deer meat.  I rode my motorcycle passing by and saw three deers standing shyly in the cage.  Their eyes were very familiar to me.  They looked like the eyes of the patients who were currently in the hospital, as if they were saying, “Am I about to die?  Quickly, quickly save me.  Whatever medicine, whatever method…”  Poor three deers!  Let us release them!  Release them back to the forest!  Once their respiration stops, there is no way to make them breath again.  Quickly, quickly find the shop owner to beg him not to kill them.  I turned around and bought the deers to liberate.  When the shop owner heard that we want to liberate the deers, he said emotionally, “I am the one who raises the deer and love them very much, and never would kill them.  However, because of financial difficulty, reluctantly I have to sell them today for meat.  I myself is also in lots of pain!” 

 

I was very moved after hearing that.  Living beings created karma and received retribution.  They all had unwanted sufferings.  The truth is everyone has the Buddha nature.  This is also the very reason why Amitabha Buddha is always tolerant, compassionate, and waiting for us to have a single thought of returning to his light.  We bought the deers and had them to take refuge with the Triple Jewels (The Buddha, The Dharma, and The Sangha or the Buddhist Monastics), and released them to the forest.  Hopefully, they would not be captured back.  We also prayed for the hunters to bring forth the bodhi mind (enlightened mind), to meet good conditions to change their occupation, to end the killing karma so that they would not suffer the evil retribution.

 

          Patients usually put a catfish¹⁴ or a carp in a pot or a washbasin under the bed or on the table as a nutritional food.  When I visited these patients, it seemed like the fishes were struggling.  One day I came to the bed of a patient with breast cancer.  She was a young Christian of about 27 years old.  You can imagine her sufferings?  Her two hands were always cold.  There was a fish underneath her bed.  I told her:

 

          “There is someone asking for help underneath your bed?”  She opened wide her eyes in surprise.  I then asked her:

 

          “When you find out that you have this disease, you really hope for someone to save you, aren’t you?”  She nodded, I continued:

 

          “The fish below your bed knows that it is about to enter a hot pan.  Its feeling is similar to your feelings right now.  Would you like to be Jesus Christ to save this fish?  The fish is requesting for your help.  You can see.”

 

          Her eyes redden (wanting to cry),  I added:

 

          “You bring forth the mind to save them.  When you have difficulties or accidents, naturally someone will save you.”  She happily agreed to liberate the fish.  Afterward, a dharma friend of Specialty Tai Chung University helped her to liberate the fish….

 

          Many times, I told patients, “Sell me this pot of live fish, ok?”

Patients usually replied, “If doctor wants to eat, I will give them to you.”

 

I replied, “I am a vegetarian.  I do not eat fish.  I want to buy these fishes to liberate and to transfer the merits to you with the hope that you are also like the fish to be released, regain your health, recover soon and reunite with your family.”

 

Normally, patients who had been suffered too much or had experiences near the door of Life and Death, understood that “their conditions are similar to those of the fish.”  They often brought forth compassionate mind to liberate the fish.  The mind to liberate the fish could often give them happy feelings.  It encouraged them to love life and to enrich their lives much more than to eat the fish itself.

 

          There was a young man who walked in the city at midnight.  He were stabbed in the belly by some bad guys and fallen down on the street.  Afterward he was taken to the hospital.  His wound was so big so that his gut fell out.  His liver and gallbladder also were injured.  At midnight, we had to operate on him.  Because he had no family members to accompany, we had to take picture of the wound before the surgery so that in case if the operation did not go well, we would have some evidences to show that he had injuries previously….(In present society, saving people is also not an easy thing!)  This young man just was engaged not so long ago.  You can imagine the confusion and worries of his fiancée when hearing he was wounded?  The stuffs inside our belly indeed are nothing nice.  The Buddha told us to “contemplate the impurities.”  Let us try to contemplate.  If during engagement, take the picture of the bloody belly wound and show it to the partner, surely very few people is willing to engage you!

 

          One patient admitted to the hospital for bone treatment.  Above the leg, there was a metal stick inserted through the bone and went all the way through the muscle of the other side.  Below the leg, another metal stick went through in the same style.  You can imagine the face and the painful screaming of this patient when inserting the stick through the bone.  If that person is you yourself, then can you still smile?  We can try to guess.  You see where people hanged the roasted birds at night market?  There are about five to ten birds strung together into a bundle and hanged in front of the shop.  The painful sufferings we caused to other living beings will come back to our bodies one day.  When that happened, we will feel extremely painful, not the least comfortable.  However, we often cause sufferings to other living beings indifferently, and treat as if nothing happens.  Think about the sufferings of other living beings and the long-term happiness.  Everyone, please stop doing that, so that we “do not laugh when take a life of an animal, but lament when enter the hells.”

 

There was a person who had uterine cancer who cried each time she saw me.  She was divorced and struggled very hard to raise the children by herself.  The young one just entered primary school when she got this illness.  She passed the day with sadness and afflictions…In reality, her illness was almost cured previously.  If she had some wisdom in life…then she could have live happily.  People can cure cancer, but the pain in the mind is not curable unless we use wisdom and listen to Buddha Dharma.  She was treated with radiation therapy, with surgery.  She only did not invite the Buddha to be the surgeon for her mind.  The most effective surgery is the surgery of the mind.  Get rid of the roots of affliction.  Stop her from holding on to the big old tree of afflictions daily so that she will not mistakenly thinking that the tree actually holds on to her. 

 

          There was an old lady admitted to the hospital with the bandage fully covering her eyes.  As I opened the bandage, I felt a sharp pain in my heart!  This old lady had a very gentle face.  Her eyes were scooped out of the sockets due to cancer.  Do we ever think of using the chopsticks to scoop out the eyes of the fish on dining table?  Let’s try to think about Helen Keller, a great person but who was deaf, mute, and blind….wrote like so: “If my eyes can brighten up for only three days, only three days…”  We may run into some circumstances and lose our eyes.  However, when we still have both eyes, we keep looking East, looking West, and bring afflictions to ourselves?  Why do we not look at the compassionated eyes of the Buddha?  Why do we not look toward the direction of the Measureless Light?¹⁵  We often use our precious eyes to look at rubbish around.  Take others’ rubbish and put them into our mind.  Over long period, the entire inner mind is similar to the stinky trash container; and we have to be separated from the Bodhisattvas in the Great Pure Sea-like Assembly¹⁶.  Please open wide the eyes of the inner mind.  While we can see, see the niceties of others.  Study the strong points of others.  Feel a little more.  Look at the “adorned and majestic eyes as wide as the four seas of Amitabha Buddha.”¹⁷  Look at the extremely adorned and beautiful sceneries of the Land of Ultimate Bliss and the hearts as vast as the sea of the Bodhisattvas.

 

          There was one person with esophageal cancer and breathing was very difficult for her.  She got two tubes- one from the nose to the lung to help with respiration and the other into the stomach for feeding.  Sometimes she had to work hard in order to cough.  With each cough, the pain was so intense as if her liver and guts were tearing apart.  Her entire body shivered with pain.  Her husband could not stand to see so he ran out to the balcony to cry.  Sometimes I went to the market, I saw chicken hanging on the meat counter was as just as pitiful.  Each chicken’s neck was drilled a hole so that it could be hanged, and very few people pitied their pains.  However, when the person got the breathing tube in the nose was your wife, or children, or mother, then you would be in intense pain when they coughed or breathed out.

 

          There was a butcher.  He had lung cancer for a while and passed away.  I heard the story from his wife and children that when he came home he was unconscious a few days.  However, he kept screaming and yelling:

 

          “Quickly, quickly take the pig livers hanging on the wall away.”  Or,

 

          “Quickly take the pig’s head away.”

 

          He kept screaming like that day-and-night for a few consecutive days.  Everyone in the family was terrified until their hairs stood on end but they did not understand what he was talking about.  The states when he was dying were frightening.  He endured many sufferings.  From that point on, his family members realized the cause-and-effects of killings.  While he was in the hospital, I advised his family to recite the Buddha’s name.  But they replied that while they are in sadness and sufferings, so how could they recite?  Although Amitabha Buddha has the great kindness and compassion to take people at the time of death who can recite Buddha’s name ten times to the Land of Ultimate Bliss.  Even when we are healthy, it is still very hard to recite because we are confused by worldly emotional desires.  Much less so is the time of death when the pains of illness are torturing us! 

 

Let us pray that other people will hear and see this patient’s manifestation story. May they understand his experiences so they can avoid similar sufferings.  Also, pray that the merits from warning other living beings of this person will help him to leave the sufferings and to receive by the Buddha.  Also, pray that living beings that were killed by him will rely on the sweet dew water of Buddha Dharma.  They will untangle the karmic knots in their heart and jointly recite Amitabha Buddha, jointly reborn to the Western Pure Land, jointly reach Buddhahood.

 

          Healthy people often complain not get enough sleep.  In hospital, there were so much tears, so much prolonged sufferings!  People, who were not destined to die yet, lay flat on bed and complained that the alarm clock was too noisy.  People, who met their destiny, fought and struggled with life and death all night. 

 

There was a person with cancer of the lower jaw that already metastasized to the throat.  He could not swallow anymore.  His breathing was also difficult. Doctors had to drill a hole in his abdomen to insert a feeding tube into the stomach and another hole in the neck to help respiration.  We can eat and drink without the feeding tube or breathing tube.  This is quite precious, truly appreciative!  A few days before his passing, we could say that he bled some blood everyday.  Once every 2-3 days he would bleed more blood.  Blood came out from the mouth and the nose, from the breathing tube.  Nurses and resident doctors really wanted to save him, but they could only stand on the side to hold a basin to catch his blood.  Then they had to transfuse the blood back to him because the blood came out from the areas where they could not stop.  One time his blood stained my body.  His eyes reddened and swelled up in a very frightening way.  The whole night we were at his side to take care of him and to catch his blood.  In the morning, I still had to see patients so I requested a friend to bring me a dress.  I could change mine but not his!  Do you know, each time he moved there would be more bleeding?  We had to transfuse blood continuously to him but we still could not keep up with the blood coming out from his body.  No medicine worked.  His body kept bleeding and tortured him all day and night.  People wanted to close their eyes peacefully but it was not that simple!

 

          From that day on, I understood some more about life-death matter.  The reflecting image in the Ganges River could well be my own shadow.

 

          A sixteen years old boy was in the top of his class.  He had brain cancer.  He went through four brain surgeries, three of which were in the same year.  This time he was hospitalized to receive radiation therapy.  His skull bone was cut a portion and his head had a depression.  Fortunately, he was still alive and had the chance to hear Buddha Dharma.  One day I received a thankful postcard from his dad.  In the card, the dad mentioned that his son requested him to write and hoped that, if it is convenient, please send his son a Buddha statue so he can bow.  The dad was very formal and afraid to bother me, as if he was very reluctant to request for the Buddha statue.  I was moved into tears and immediately, I went and got an Amitabha Buddha statue for his son.  He lived in Fung Yuen.  I was so busy and requested a nurse to bring it to him.  The nurse told me later that when she just arrived, the boy immediately sat up.  Because half of his body was nearly unmovable, so he walked wobbly.  However, he was very excited and vigorously to make bowing to the Buddha.  Seeing that, the nurse was moved and said:  “My four limbs are well but I never want bowing to the Buddha previously.  Seeing the boy’s sincerity and gathering all his might to make bowing to the Buddha make me feel very embarrassing.” 

 

When people are healthy and can move around well, they think it is normal and they do not appreciate it.  The healthy body does not last long.  In previous parts, we mentioned that people could lose their mouth, throat, even the brain.  Today while we still have the mouth, we should learn to speak nicely and harmoniously, to encourage and to support each other to recite the ten-thousand-merits holy phrase “Amitabha Buddha.”   We do not know when we may lose our brain; we should use today to think about the lights and the compassion of the Buddha.

 

          Amitabha Buddha.  Amitabha Buddha.

 

          When I was the first year medical resident, I was on call in the emergency room one night.  At midnight, we got a patient who got clots in the heart vessels.  Respiration already stopped and patient was in a coma.  His face and tongue turned dark purple.  EKG and blood test results indicated that his heart had been severely damaged.  According to the physician-in-charge’s experiences, even for people with less severe conditions, it was still not curable.  Much less was in this case.  Therefore, we should tell the family members of this patient to “prepare mentally.”  I just followed my daily routine of reciting Buddha’s name and taking care of the patient at the same time.  After using many kinds of medicines, we still could not measure his blood pressure.  He was still in a coma and unable to breath by himself.  His wife was deeply hurt and told me:

 

          “People said that Heaven loves and helps good people.  But why Heaven does not love me?  Doctor, please try all means to save him, even if he will turn into ‘vegetative person’, I am still willing to take care of him.”

 

          Feeling that she was very nice and honest, so I advised her:

 

          “When people encounter major calamity, they need to make great vow to recite Buddha’s name then hopefully, they can overcome.”

 

          She asked, “How do we make great vows?”

          I replied, “Use your sincerity to make great vows.”

         

          She immediately said, “From now on, both of us will become vegetarian and recite Buddha’s name.  He is a teacher so he can propagate Buddha Dharma when he recovers from illness.”

 

          I gave her and the children each one a recitation bead and told them: “Tonight even all of you wait anxiously in the ER will not help.  Better off to keep your worried mind at ease to recite 10,000 times Amitabha Buddha’s names and request for the Buddha’s help.  The Buddha’s power is inconceivable.  We will do our best to save him.  All of you recite Buddha’s name on his behalf.  If his lifespan is meant to end, then he can reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.”  That night three of us physicians kept looking at the EKG and blood pressure monitor and adjusting medication doses from 7pm to 3am.  One of the three physicians lamented that,  “We three stay up all night to take care of one person but we still could not measure the blood pressure!”  (Meaning that this patient could not breathe by himself without the breathing machine.)  Strangely, to about 4-5 am his blood pressure gradually increased and he slowly woke up.  Immediately, I notified his family members.  I was deeply moved when I opened the door and saw his family members sitting in a line reciting Buddha’s name faithfully.  His son wrote on a piece of paper, “Dad, I really want to see you open your kind eyes.”

 

          A young man came to visit him and wept tearfully so that I thought this is his son.  The young man said, “He is my teacher.  Previously, he lived in a shabby house and spent all his salary to support us the students.  If we do not have the teacher, I will not have today.  Doctor, you must save my teacher.”  He cried again before finished talking.  Afterward, I learned that this patient was selected as one of the “ten teachers who have the greatest love for students.”  After regaining consciousness, he had to continue using the artificial respirator for three more days.  He started to recite the Buddha’s name during this time.  Besides heart attack, he also had lung disease.  Finally, he did recover and step out of the hospital by himself.  Afterward, he returned to the hospital to find me and we collaborated in printing sutra.  Those doctors that reviewed his EKG and blood test results all felt unimaginable when they saw his health gradually improving.

 

          There was a very beautiful girl who used to be the beauty of her school previously.  Her face had cancer and swelled up to about the size of three heads clustered in one place.  When I first saw her, I felt as if there was a child sitting on her head.  Although she had to endure this big suffering but I thought, she was still lucky.  During this painful time, she learned about Buddha Dharma.  She lamented, “Regrettably, I hear Buddha Dharma too late!”  However, if we can bring forth our mind soon, it is not that late.  In these painful circumstances, others would have lamented to Heaven and Earth.  On contrary, she was able to recite Buddha’s name.  She turned the sufferings into sweet dews of compassion.  She changed the sadness and sorrows into the cool refreshing light.  Her heart relied on Amitabha Buddha.  She gave all her personal property to make offerings to everyone and to remind them about the great matter of death.  Many Dharma Masters¹⁸ and Lotus¹⁹ Friends were moved; and they compassionately recited the Buddha’s name for her.  One day, she gave me $500 to buy flower seeds to plant in the temple or in front of Pure Karma Pure Abode Buddha Recitation Hall.  She said when the flowers blooming, we could offer them to the Buddha.  There would always be blooming flowers to offer to the Buddha. 

 

We are healthy people but no one has the mind as beautiful as hers.  Perhaps you will say her face is very ugly, not as pretty as before.  However, think about it, do we have the mind as beautiful as hers?  She handed to me her most precious necklace that her mother gave her previously and said, “Doctor please sell this necklace and use this money to print sutra, to make offerings to the Triple Jewels...whatever as long as it benefits living beings.”  This is truly rare.  While she suffered ten thousands of pains but she had such a beautiful mind, can you not feel the power of Buddha Dharma?  Many people visited her.  She said, “I got this illness because of karma²⁰ [of evil deeds that I committed previously].  All of you visiting me, do not do evil things.  Do all the good deeds.  Always remember so.  Must store the food  in case of hunger.  Quickly recite Buddha’s name so that you don’t waste your trip to visit me this time.”

 

          There was an eighty years old man with lung cancer came from nursing home.  He said that, “When he was five years old, he lost his dad.  Eight years old, he lost his mom.  He lived lonely until reaching 80 years.”  We could say that he experienced all kinds of happiness, sadness, separation, and union in life.  Now he was old and developed severe illness, and he had to lie on bed all day long.  One night he sat up holding his knee and talked to himself: “I want to go back, I want to go back”;  His voice was deeply sad.  However, when standing up, he could not maintain the balance.  He fell down and injured himself.  His teeth had lots of scum.  Each day, the nurse spent lots of time to convince him to brush his teeth.  He persistently refused and said, “For a person who wants to die, brushing is for what use?”  For nearly two months, he was not willing to eat anything.  Therefore, he almost died out of starvation.  With great difficulties I managed to place the food and medicine in his mouth, but he consistently refused to swallow and decisively chose to die .  Afterward, he could no longer control his urination and defecation.  He had to urinate and to defecate right on bed.  He had no family.  There was not enough workers in the hospital.  No one stayed at his side to change bed cloth or his cloth.  Afterward, he did not have the strength to dress and he also refused to change.  He only had a skinny and bony body left lying on bed.  Because of his refusal to eat, therefore we could only inject medicine.  His hand was full of needle wounds for injecting medicine or taking blood. 

 

Here was the sufferings of old age.  I advised him to recite Buddha’s name, but he could hardly do it.  Each time seeing him, there was no pen that could describe all the heart-broken pains and sufferings.  He had been healthy like us at one time.  He had been walking quickly and crossing mountain and rivers..  Just like us, he looked for food when hungry and smiled as bright as the blooming flowers.  But the life-and-death waves of Ganges River do not stop for one minute, nor one second…Our body is just like a house that can ruin and fall down.  Living in an old and shabby house that is wet with rain is indeed very hard, very difficult.  If at that time, we recite Buddha’s name and place our mind to reside at the Western Pure Land.²¹  This is the Land with freedom and self-mastery, solid and pure.  We can move house whenever, then we will have a very adorned and nice place.  If you are just sad and sorrowful to accompany the old house, we concern that in the future you will move to another house that is even older and shabbier than the current one, and suffer life after life!

 

          There was one old patient.  Someone said he is 80 years old.  Others said he is 90 years old.  It seemed like he was the former professor of Beijing University previously.  His face appeared intellectual.  He was not the patient in my specialty.  When I first saw him, he was already in a coma and unconscious.  Each time I entered his room, I could only whisper ‘Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha’ into his ears.  For two months or so, he showed no reaction.  Finally, he regained consciousness and had some reactions.  He looked at me and tried all his might as if wanting to recite “Amitabha Buddha” but he had no strength to utter the sound.  His hands appeared to clasp together.  Clasping hands is very easy with healthy people.  But for him, it was extremely difficult.  Was his skin not soft and pinky when he was young?  However, the world is impermanent.  Good looking, fat and pinky, and young people will gradually turn into weak, old, and humpbacked.

 

          It seems like I take the images of old people and pull them down to the bottom of the deep pit, is that too cruel?  However, if I do not describe clearly so, then everyone will not understand the real life stories and do not let go.  Thus, we cannot attain self-mastery happiness.  If we do not turn our head and recite Buddha’s name soon, we will regret forever for the future kalpas²²  to come.

 

          For the majority of people that are about to die, respirations become very difficult.  If they are in the hospital, doctors will insert a tube into the mouth or into the nose to transfer oxygen to the lung to maintain respiration.  When respiration problems become serious, then they will be transferred into rooms that have permanent nurse staffing to look after them.  Sometimes, a nose mask is used to help patient to breath.  All over the body wherever a tube can be inserted, a tube will be put in.  For example, urinary line has a tube inserted to collect urine.  The mouth has a tube to put in to feed food into the stomach.  The nose has a tube to place into the lung.  Only one thing is missing.  There is no tube to conduct the light of Amitabha Buddha into people’s inner mind.  One room in the intensive care unit is similar to one hell on earth.  Perhaps these modern equipments had saved many people; but to the patients, this is a very fearful hell regardless of whether or not they can recover.  No one like to enter it another time. 

 

Previously when reciting Earth Store Sutra²³, I often thought that the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas²⁴ concerned that living beings may commit evil deeds.  They purposely said that in order to threaten living beings.  There was no Burning Hell, Tongue-Ripping Hell²⁵…all kinds of terrifying sufferings as if threatening people.  Until I entered hospital, I realized that every sentence the Buddha said was so truthful, and I also understood why the Buddha in the Sutra had many times, requested and commanded Earth Store Boddhisattva²⁶: “Do not let living beings fall into evil paths [even if] for one day and one night.”  Must tell clearly so for living beings to know about the painful sufferings in the cause-and- effect.  Do not let living beings fall into the evil paths and suffer painfully for even a day and a night.” 

However, normally, do we pay attention and understand the compassion of the Buddha?

 

          Patients called me at midnight when I was very tired and sleepy, but I still had to wake up to see them, to take care, to get them medicine or therapy.  I saw that living beings are enduring the sufferings on the verge of life and death.  The sentences in the Sutra of the Eight Great Human Enlightenments²⁷ appeared in my mind: “Life-death is burning; afflictions are endless; bring forth the great vehicle mind; save all living beings; vow to endure endless sufferings on behalf of living beings; cause living beings to attain the complete happiness.” But once you saw the suffering scenes, then tell you to go and to endure on behalf of living beings, can you do it?  Let us ask about the sufferings mentioned previously, can you go and endure for one night on the patient’s behalf?  I do not say to ‘substitute’ is too difficult.  Only standing aside to take care and to comfort patient continuously for a few nights without sleep, for both day and night is already too difficult (normally you will feel your head is heavy.  Your heart will beat faster than before… ). 

 

Cultivation in Buddhism besides compassion, we also need to have solid faith, great vow power, diligent recitation of Buddha’s name in order to have the ability to transcend the revolving six paths of  life-and-death sufferings.  In reality, we do not need to say to ‘substitute’ for others to endure the sufferings, we only need to ‘hear’.  Sitting all day from morning to night, you hear people lamented, “How much I suffered?”… “My house has endless sufferings”.  Let you listen 24 hours a day consecutively for a few days, then you will understand.  After I ‘listened’ for a while, one time I was reciting “Homage to the Great Kind and Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva.”  I heard someone else was also reciting “Homage to the Great Kind and Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva.”  After hearing this sentence, I was moved into tears unknowingly.  This is correct.  Do not say you will substitute for living beings and endure endless sufferings on their behalf.  Only let you ‘listen’ to the sufferings is enough to know the unbounded kindness and compassion of the Bodhisattva.  He vowed to “listen to the sufferings in the world.”  Wherever there are people in suffering, he will immediately come and rescue them.  We keep our mind at ease to recite the Bodhisattva’s name.  From one Bodhisattva’s holy name, we know the unlimited kindness and compassion of the Bodhisattvas, of their inconceivably vast minds.

 

          When both my eyes saw the sadness, the fear, the terror of the near death people, and when my two ears heard the innumerable cries of separation at life and death, I turned back to recite the “endless light and endless longevity of Amitabha Buddha.”  Naturally, my eyes were tearful and I could feel the compassion and the kindness, and the unbounded closeness contained in the holy name of Amitabha Buddha.  Indeed, Amitabha Buddha had long known about the darkness, the sadness and the fear in the life-death cycle of ordinary living beings like us.  He is emitting endless light everywhere to save and to comfort living beings untiringly.  He never rests nor takes ‘vacation’.  Day and night, his forever vow is unceasingly to help living beings in the sea of life and death.  He brings the cool and refreshing states²⁸ in the Land of Ultimate Bliss and gives them away to living beings.  Do you pay attention to that it can rain consecutively for a few days, but the sun is still not disappeared?  Measureless Lights and Endless Longevity²⁹ are a source of eternal compassion and kindness.  They shine endlessly and cause no feeling of insecurity because the lights are never lost.  There are no sufferings of life and death separation.

 

          There were late nights in which sleeping pills and pain pills did not work anymore.  I often stayed beside patients’ beds to help them to recite Buddha’s name (realistically, I had to say the ‘Bodhisattva patients’ helped me to recite Buddha’s name, because without them, I would not be such diligent to get up at midnight to recite Buddha’s name).  Mixing together with the respirations and the recitations of the patients, I recited and listened to each sentence, each sound peacefully.  When medicines were no longer effective, extremely sincere praying to Amitabha Buddha for help had the best efficacy.  It could comfort both the painful sufferings of the body and the mind of the patient.  Listening to one sound immediately relieved one from sufferings.  If peacefully listening to every word, every single word, then the sufferings in each minute would disappear just as fogs would disappear when the sun rose.  Amitabha Buddha is similar to an electric company that supplies electricity at no cost.  You do not need to unplug the cord, then you will receive an endless source of energy.

 

          There was a person with nose cancer.  Here, I want to introduce this person because there is a special meaning.  This person’s cancer had metastasized far out until she had difficulty breathing.  This was when she was admitted to the hospital.  By then, her illness was extremely painful.  For a brief time before her passing, she vowed to be vegetarian.  She pulled my hand and said, “Doctor, if I have no hope for curing, please pray for me to quickly reborn to the Land of Amitabha Buddha.”  She was transferred from another hospital to our hospital for radiation therapy.  Nose cancer has a very high success rate of curing.  It only needs to be diagnosed and received therapy early, then it is curable.  However, her case was diagnosed too late.  At midnight, she experienced difficulty breathing so people took her to our hospital for help, but it was too late.  That night I was not in the hospital.  The following morning I came, she already stopped breathing for a while ;  and she was considered dead.  Her family members prepared for her to be discharged.  For unknown reason, the nurse at the emergency room called me by the hospital speaker system.  When I saw her, I was very sad.  I whispered into her ear:

 

          “In your short life, you had been suffered too much pains.  Your children are still young, but your husband will take care of them.  Even if you want to do these things, you still cannot.  Now, you must let go of everything.  You and I both recite Amitabha Buddha, and go with him to reborn in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss.”

 

          I was at her side reciting Buddha’s name and requested the Buddha compassionately received her.  At the time, I felt very clearly that each recitation originated from the bottom of my heart.  Strangely, her tears kept flowing.  Afterward, I invited the nurses in the ER room came to look and told them:

 

          “Medically speaking, we declared that she was dead.  Her breathing stopped.  There was neither heartbeat nor blood pressure,  none whatsoever.  However, Buddhists said because dead people still have attachments.  Their consciousness has not completely left the bodies.  On average, we have to wait for eight hours for the consciousness to leave the bodies.  Therefore, we have to take good care of the near death people or people who just die.”

 

          However, nowadays when people passed away in the hospital, we could not keep their bodies without moving for the most part.  This is very sorry.

 

As Buddhists, we have to pay close attention.  The time of passing away is extremely important.  Because when people are about to die, the four elements start to dissemble resulting in extreme pains.  Their consciousness is about to leave the bodies.  The pain is similar to that of the cold flesh-cutting wind or to that of pulling the shell off from the turtle.  Absolutely, at that time do not touch the body of the dead.  We must remind and help them to recite Buddha’s name, help them to have the proper thought of reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.  If they cannot reborn, they will reincarnate according to their karma.  Life after life, kalpa after kalpa they will get lost in the revolving six paths.  The painful sufferings of birth, age, sick, and death will repeat themselves forever.  Regardless of whether you are a king or a president, you cannot escape.  Intelligence cannot match the power of karma.  Wealthy ones also cannot escape reincarnation.

 

          Again, please remind everyone that, if you encounter such circumstances later on, then must pay attention:  the time of passing away and 8 hours after breathing stops, we must single-mindedly recite Buddha’s name.  If your faith and vow are solid and sincere, the kind and compassionate Amitabha Buddha will definitely receive you.  During this time (within 8 hours), do not move nor touch the body of the dead.  Do not do anything that will touch or move the body (including moving the bed the person is laying).

 

          If you ever fell sick seriously, you would know that the body is extremely weak and painful.  A little movement to turn the body or to get dressed is enough to make the sick people feel very painful.  The body and the mind are hardly peaceful.  Majority of people think that reciting Buddha’s name is to send the dead away.  In reality, Amitabha Buddha has measureless lights and endless longevity.  Reciting Buddha’s name for the seriously ill people is to connect their painful and confusing mind with the measureless lights of the Buddha (also refreshing the measureless lights and longevity in every one’s self nature).  If your lifespan is not over yet, then we can recite the Buddha’s name and rely on the Buddha’s power to eradicate disasters and to increase lifespan.  Many patients let go of everything, and single-mindedly recite Buddha’s name.  They recover despite severe illness.  If your lifespan is over, then by reciting Buddha’s name, the Buddha will receive you back to the Land of Ultimate Bliss for ‘studying abroad’.  You will have comfort and peace.  In the hospital, I had seen many patients admitted to ER room but they did not recover.  Doctors declared they are dead.  A few hours later, their family members came from far away.  Naturally, the dead oozed blood from the nose or shed tears.  These stories make me to believe more in the teaching of the wise ancients that ‘do not touch nor move the body of the dead within 8 hours after breathing ceased.  Wholeheartedly, reciting Buddha’s name for the dead to help them.’  Hence, everyone please do not overlook this matter and make uncorrectable errors. 

 

          One patient was a pig butcher.  Everyday, he treated everyone very well.  Butchering pig was an occupation passing on from his parents.  He said, “We could not change the occupation and also did not know that we should change to a different one.”  When he was young, someone taught him to recite Amitabha Buddha.  Therefore every time he saw the Buddha statue, he would put hands together and recite three times ‘Amitabha Buddha’.  Most valuable of all, he said he did not pray for him but only hope that the Buddha would protect and support all living beings.  He said, “How could the Buddha only protect and support me?”  This was a very proper attitude.  Although he had been in the business for a long time, his mind was very nice and gentle.  He did not know that killing the pigs is to hurt living beings and must receive not good retributions.  He had cancer of the lower jaw.  After a while, it metastasized to the entire esophagus.  Even with therapy, the cancer kept remitting.  Each night, he lied on bed and moaned.  He breathed with great difficulties similar to the sounds of the saw in action.  The mouth had mucus but he could neither spit out nor swallow.  The throat felt as if being strangled so that he experienced severe pain with each deep breath.  He said during this time, he realized the painful sufferings of the butchering pigs.  He repented wholeheartedly.  He could not eat and had to use a tube (into the mouth to feed liquid food). 

 

In principles, he understood clearly and brought forth the mind to recite Buddha’s name to reborn to the Pure Land.  His face was different from other patients.  He often did not feel sorrowful.  He said, “Doctor please checks my body to see if any organs are still usable?  Can I donate my eyes to others?  Is my heart still good?  Can I donate it to others?  If I can donate, I would do so because sacrificing just me is not that important.  If I can make others happy, this is really valuable.” 

 

I replied, “Your heart is really similar to the hearts of the Bodhisattvas.  The life of each person can serve as the mirror for others.  Your eyes can use for only one person.  The one who has this pair of  eyes will see everything.  However, after seeing we do not know if this person will be “happy” or “angry”.  If using this pair of eyes to look at things that make the person angry.  This is very sorry.  The person who has received the pair of flesh eyes may not necessarily happy.  If this person does not know how to use, then even a heart transplant will not make him happy if he does not understand the true principles.” 

 

My idea is not to oppose people to have organ transplant.  However, people who can endure the pains during surgeries and have no angry nor regretful thoughts, they must have a very great “way power”³⁰.  Moreover, although the cancer patient has the good heart to donate the organ while he is still alive, but would the recipients be mindful that they may develop cancer?  He had such a good heart that is very valua