The Stories Of Cause And Effect - NA Fulong Dharma · PDF fileThe Stories Of Cause And Effect The cause and effect stories in this book are taken from a particular book ... and wisdom

The Stories Of Cause And Effect

The cause and effect stories in this book are taken from a particular book written by a highly regarded Chinese Buddhist lay practitioner, named Mr. Gouqing. Through a proper understanding of cause and effect, he and his daughter and many of his students were able to reach a high level of realization and wisdom. This has enabled him to unfold the true contributing facts of one's illnesses, diseases, life encounters/phenomena’s and so-forth, much of which is far beyond our normal conceptualization.

Having developed high wisdom and realization of the truth of human life, Mr. Guoqing decided to write a book, telling stories through a fictional character, "Master Mio Fa". Through these stories, he has attempted to relate what he has learned through his cultivation of wisdom and in depth study of cause and effect. These stories are recorded from true events, only the real names of people have been replaced with fictional ones.

The original book begins with a short introduction:

When we stew meat, or fry fish, it’s because we’re hungry. However we do not understand that these animals do not want to become our food. Nevertheless, a lot of times our kitchens become slaughterhouses. The animal’s chests are cut open and are displayed upon a mountain of blades. We deep fry, stir fry, steam and use other forms of punishment against these animals. But we don’t realize that their consciousness usually will stay in our bodies, because they want us to return what we have taken from them.

Come the end of the day, all virtuous and non-virtuous acts will have their own retribution. Most diseases come from the mouth. One should not take this for

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granted. When the right time comes the evil acts will be punished and at that time you will be diseased and must then enter the hospital. When you are lying under the light of the operating table, and your chest is cut wide open, this is just a reflection of what you have done in the kitchen.

If early on we knew that these things would happen to us, would we be so hungry for meat in the first place?

Everyone will experience certain forms of illnesses and diseases that will cause much suffering to both themselves and their families. Whether one is rich or poor, in a position of power or powerless, nobody can escape these diseases. When your life becomes torturous, one bite at a time, money and power are not helpful.

So why do human beings become diseased? Other than the normal process of aging, deterioration of organs and such, most people believe that diseases come from the mouth, in terms of eating dirty food, spoiled food, and so forth. If this is in fact correct, then why do all the homeless people we see living on the street not suffer from these same diseases? Surely the food they eat from the dumpster and garbage cans are not as clean as the food we eat in our kitchens. They don’t wash their hands, and do not bathe as often as we do. Through the different seasons, sometimes they don’t even have the appropriate clothing to cover their bodies. Have you ever heard of these homeless people having diarrhea and such? How many of them do you see with a high fever or catching colds as easily as we do?

We look at ourselves and the way we are so careful about what we eat, so conscious of eating clean and healthy food, yet we are the ones who cannot live without medicines, doctors and hospitals. So then what is meant by ‘diseases are coming from our mouths’?

Remember back to the 1950’s. Pneumonia was a fatal disease, so antibiotics

were created in order to fight it. Tuberculosis then took over as the fatal disease, and another medicine was created. Then came cancer, AIDS and so forth, and now we see many diseases that have not even been named, for which even the best doctors and medical experts cannot find a remedy. In today’s newspapers, you read about all kinds of weird diseases on a regular basis. As the medical knowledge and equipment have become more and more advanced, our medicine has become more and more expensive. Still, these diseases have never been eliminated.

It seems that God is against us. It is as if the path is one yard high and the devil can jump three yards high. You can just never win. I started to understand the true reason why people get diseases once I began studying Buddhist sutra. Through my own practice and experience, I was able to demonstrate my understanding. In simple words, greed, hatred and ignorance are the source of all diseases. To be exact, the ten non-virtuous acts and karmas are the true reason behind these diseases. So when we say that all diseases come from the mouth, it actually means that we’ve eaten things we shouldn’t have, said things we shouldn’t have and done things we shouldn’t have.

This book presents a few stories that relate to killing animals, eating meat and other causes of some of the different diseases. These stories are taught by Master Mio Fa. People who came to him asking to be taught about cause and effect were given their lessons through his special clairvoyance, using Buddha Dharma teaching them not to do evil, to perform virtuous acts and to purify their minds. This is what Buddha’s teaching is all about.

Special thank you to Jemma Fong, Dustin Baldwin, Carol Beckmen and all

people who have helped out with the translation and edition of this book.

Giant Rooster with Golden Feathers ...................................................................... 001

Everything That They Have in the Factory, I Have at Home .................................... 004

Nyctophobia ........................................................................................................... 008

Wasting Lord's Gifts is a Great Offence .................................................................. 010

Let Thing's Be Used To Their Fullest ....................................................................... 011

Although The Toothpick Is Small, Don't Take It ...................................................... 012

The Retribution Of A Slavemaster .......................................................................... 014

Dead Father Ask's For His Son's Help To Cross Him Over ....................................... 017

Weird disease ......................................................................................................... 019

A teacher ................................................................................................................ 021

The Fetus Loves To Listen To The Earthstore Bodhisattva Sutra ............................. 023

Eye Disease And The Flooding Of Golden Mountain Temple ................................. 026

Who's Fault Is It? .................................................................................................... 031

Unfilial Son's Who Left Their Mother Starving To Death ........................................ 035

Cause And Effect Is The Law Of Nature .................................................................. 039

Hysteria .................................................................................................................. 042

ontents

The Evil Young Man ................................................................................................ 045

Breaking Bones To Suck The Marrow ..................................................................... 049

Only Holding Discipline And Reciting The Buddha's Name Will Benefit You .......... 051

Cause and Effect Like This ....................................................................................... 054

Taking Out The Tumor By Drilling A Hole ................................................................ 057

Pig Feet Stew .......................................................................................................... 059

Egg Pancake ............................................................................................................ 060

Take small advantage and loose big deals .............................................................. 065

Infected Sore's ........................................................................................................ 068

Reading More Sutra's To Increase Your Wisdom .................................................... 072

Ant Nest and Our House ......................................................................................... 074

The Faithful Action Of The Rubber Tree ................................................................. 076

How Can A Dharma Protector Be Greedy In Receiving Offerings? ......................... 079

Teaching By Your Own Example, And Always Saying Good Things To Others ......... 082

Qi-Gong Treatment, Psychics And So-Called Alternative Healers ........................... 085

Soup Of Confusion .................................................................................................. 093

About Clairvoyance and Spiritual Penetration ....................................................... 094

Beauty and the Bandit ............................................................................................ 097

Young Man in Green Shirt ...................................................................................... 101

The Retribution Of A Slavemaster .......................................................................... 105

True Stories of Cause and Effect

Giant Rooster with Golden Feathers

A peasant named Mr. Cheung had lung cancer. He went to two different hospitals, and doctors at both hospitals said he was at the end of his life. They asked him and his family to make preparations for his funeral.

One of his relatives heard about me, brought Mr. Cheung’s wife to my house and asked if I had any solutions for him. Master Mio Fa happened to be visiting me, and agreed to speak to Mrs. Cheung, who without hesitation asked him for help.

Master Mio Fa said to her, “The patient that you speak of has taken many lives. He especially likes to kill chickens, is that right?” The wife answered, “Yeah, yeah! My husband really likes to cook chickens. In our village, whether there are ceremonies, functions, weddings or funerals, everybody likes to ask him to help with cooking food. He always feels that the other people are not as skilled as he when it comes to killing chickens, because they don’t know how to use the knife properly. Normally he would do that on his own. In each ceremony he would need to kill at least a dozen chickens. Sometimes the ditches fi ll with blood.”

Master Mio Fa asked, “Do you remember that one time you killed somebody else’s rooster? This particular rooster had golden feathers around his neck, and the feathers on his body were dark brown, with dark green feathers on his tail. This rooster was very tall, very strong and very handsome!”

Mrs. Cheung was shocked. Her face changed colour and she got down on her knees right away and said, “Old Bodhisattva, we did not know that killing chickens was some sort of an offense. In the days when we didn’t have any food, we were so hungry, and our neighbour’s rooster fl ew into our yard. Thinking nobody would notice, we just killed him. I can’t believe that you can see all these things! Wow! This is really a bad retribution to bad actions. I would never dare to do this again! Also, in those days when we had a lack of food, we stole food from around the village and the fi elds. Now I realize that all of this was wrong.

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To tell you the truth, I was the one that had encouraged him to do that. Please help me! I would prefer to see my life shortened instead, in order to help him.”

She was crying and begging Master Mio Fa, which made me tear up as well. I couldn’t believe that she suddenly realized and understood that these actions were truly offensive. I was touched by her dignity and honesty, and her willingness to help her husband.

Master Mio Fa himself appeared to be moved as well and replied, “What you have just said is true repentance. You will have to ask your husband to also go back home and repent. From now on he has to stop killing. Get the book of the Earthstore Bodhisattva’s Sutra and recite this together 49 times, and offer it to all the chickens that your husband has killed over the years. Then dedicate all the merits to them. As far as the big rooster, he is actually the king among all chickens. Do you remember that after your husband killed this rooster it became a normal occurrence for him to easily get a headache?”

The wife thought about this for a second and replied, “Yes, yes! It’s so true! From that point on he began to get headaches, usually every two days or so and nothing can really help him.” “Do you know why?” Master Mio Fa asked, and then went on to explain. “Because that rooster always stands on top of your husband’s head with his two claws digging in, nonstop! He is also using his beak, picking at your husband’s head! How can he not feel pain? Go to the temple and recite a prayer for this rooster, and following that, recite Earthstore Bodhisattva’s Sutra seven times for him. Also If you are able, ask the monks to help you to ferry this rooster over, because he will then become a phoenix.”

“Oh Master! We do not know how to read. We never went to school, so I don’t know how to recite the sutra”, answered Mrs. Cheung. “Reciting this sutra will help to save your husband’s life. And it will be very good for you as well”, Master Mio Fa reminded her. “If you don’t understand a word you can ask for people to help you, or buy a dictionary and try it slowly. Especially during this

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period when you are reciting this sutra, you should stop eating all meat as well as all the pungent plants. Stop drinking and smoking. If you use your stinky mouth to recite sutras, then no heavenly beings will come and listen, and no one will benefi t from it. You must realize that if this rooster is not ferried over, your husband’s headaches will never be cured. However, if you can follow the precepts, the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva’s will help you.”

So the wife said, “My husband is very, very sick and I think he is at the end of his life. Is it too late to recite the sutra?” Master Mio Fa replied, “If your husband had not killed so many chickens his life would not end at this time. Killing will reduce people’s life spans, however, because you have repented very deeply just now, things have already changed. A truthful repentance can reduce offenses. If your husband can also repent with sincerity and dignity, recite sutras and the Buddha’s name, things will change for sure. Hurry though, and do not delay."

When the wife went back to the hospital, to her surprise her husband was already sitting up beside the bed. When she asked him, he said that he had just spat out two buckets full of phlegm, and all of a sudden his chest felt much more relaxed. For the fi rst time since his disease had become so serious, he had been able to spit on his own. His wife felt very, very happy. She told her husband of her encounter with Master Mio Fa. Her husband felt very happy, as well as surprised.

The next day they decided to leave the hospital, telling the doctors that they did not have the means to cure him.

After awhile, this person who was almost on death’s doorstep with lung cancer, magically stood in front of his own house helping people fi x their bicycles. Some of the villagers came to ask him about his story, and while they were talking the rain started to fall. He was able to climb up on top of the house and fi x the roof, to everybody’s surprise.

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"Everything That They Have in the Factory, I Have at Home"

One afternoon a middle aged man in his 50’s who looked like a factory worker, was led by a lay person to meet Master Mio Fa. He was a very outgoing individual. When he entered he put his hands together, bowed to Master Mio Fa three times and then proceeded to seat himself without anybody asking him to. You could tell that he had a delightful personality.

Master Mio Fa spoke. "I know why you have come here. Is it because of your back pain?" he asked the man, who was totally shocked. "Wow Shifu, you are amazing! I haven't told you yet, but you already know that!" the man replied. He then stood up and opened his clothes revealing his back to master Mio Fa. "Please look at my back," the man asked. There was a 15-inch-wide protective brace circling around his back. He then sat down again and exclaimed, "I've been wearing this thing for nearly 10 years. The doctors have said that the muscles in my back have become damaged and this sort of condition is unable to be cured by taking needles or any kind of medicine. So now I need to use this belt to protect myself, otherwise I would not be able to straighten my back. Things seem a little bit better during the winter and spring months, but during the summer I suffer so much. All of this is because when I was younger, I did not take very good care of myself and worked too hard. I heard my friend talking about you, and he said that you were a living Bodhisattva. Could you please help me?" the man asked. "If you can cure my back, then I will burn incense for you every day, and prostrate to you a hundred times!" After saying this he put his hands together and bowed to master Mio Fa once again.

Master Mio Fa laughed at him and replied, "First of all, I am not a Bodhisattva. Second of all, I am not a doctor and do not know how to treat people. If I was in fact a Bodhisattva, then how could I possibly be sitting here talking to you? If I could in fact treat people, then I should go and work at a hospital. Whether or not this condition can be cured depends on you, because to unknot the belt you

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will need to fi nd the person who made the knot.

"Now, If I were to ask you to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop stealing and stop eating meat, then could you do that? Master Mio Fa asked. "Of course!" replied the man. "If my back can be cured, I will do everything, but I have never stolen, and I have never robbed anyone." Master Mio Fa responded, "OK, however, you have a painful sensation in your back. Do you also feel much heaviness on your back?" "Oh yes," answered the man. "I feel as though there are tons of things pressing on my back." "Have you ever stolen any hinges, screws or nails from your factory?" Master Mio Fa asked. "They are all brand new and still in the package."

The man was stunned and said, "Yes, that's true. I'm a mechanic in the company that I work for. As they say, the one who gets the moon is the one who is closest to the balcony. Now who doesn't do that? Everybody takes advantage of the company. This is not called stealing. Even the managers are taking things home."

"You take the company's goods home with you! How can you say that is not stealing? Did you bring them home in broad daylight? No, you put them in your lunchbox!" Master Mio Fa scowled. The man was so shocked that he opened his big eyes and just stared back at Master Mio Fa, and couldn't say a word.

"Not only that, you stole knives and iron cables, and you also used pieces of iron to make your chimney at home!" Master Mio Fa said. "You used the iron rods to make the accessories for your fi replace." The man stopped Master Mio Fa and cried out, "Oh stop right here please! Don't say that anymore! Yes, you're right. Everything that they have in the factory, I have in my home. How did you know?" Master Mio Fa replied, "That's what is pressing on top of your back."

The man quickly lost his outgoing nature. He looked very defl ated. The whole

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thing now looked like a scene from a police investigation. The man said, "Yes I have taken away a lot of things, but they were not just for me. I gave plenty to friends and family too! My income is not that high, and those things are all from the company so who cares? I'm a mechanic, I have some skills and I can do things. If I make friends with the warehouse managers, then we can all take care of each other. This is nothing new in the factory, but hearing you say these things today makes me feel like I was hit by lightning. Lord really has eyes!"

The man then asked, "How do you know everything that I stole from the factory and why are they all clinging to my back? This is really a bad retribution! I was wondering why it seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. Is this because I was taking more and more stuff? Now I fi nally understand. It is better if I stop doing this, it's so true! From now on, I will stop smoking, drinking and eating meat. I will never again take advantage of my company this way, honestly! I promise you that I will do what I said I would, and tomorrow I will buy a Buddha statue and set up a shrine in my house. Tell me Shifu, what is the best Buddhist book for me to read? I really wish that I had studied Buddhism earlier. I have made so many mistakes over the years."

I had not realized that this man had such amazing insight. Listening to his repentance, I rejoiced with him in my heart. I could see that Master Mio Fa was very happy also. So I told him, "I can give you some books fi rst and then you could go to a temple and get more books later." The man said thank you to me and then asked, "I've been taking so many things from the factory! What can I do? Should I take some money back?" Master Mio Fa responded, "If you take money back then that will bring big trouble to you. As long as you know to repent in your heart, these offences will be reduced or will disappear. You can return the debt in some other way. You could do volunteer work for them and then use your own story to teach your friends and relatives not to ever take advantage of the goods from the company. You will correct your mistake once you know it."

Before leaving, the man held the pile of Buddhist books that I gave him and said to

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Master Mio Fa, with a solemn expression, "Please wait and see. In the future I will not disappoint you."

After half a month, he came back to my house again. He came inside and bowed down in front of my shrine right away. When he stood up, he opened up his clothes and showed me his back. The belt was gone. Before I began to speak, he said to me, "Once I left your home I immediately felt much, much better, and I did everything that I promised to Master Mio Fa. I turned my old liquor cabinet into a Buddhist shrine and placed many Buddhist books inside. Also, I got a statue of the Compassion Buddha and I now read Sutra's every day. The Sutra's are really, really good. I'm now a changed person. My mind and my heart have become so open and my Chi is running so smoothly, and all my diseases are cured! These days my family feels happy like every day is Chinese New Year! It is all thanks to Master Mio Fa. I have much gratitude towards him."

Master Mio Fa helped by using his insight to cure the man’s problem. I was so happy for him. As it has been said, once you put down your killing knife, you could become a Buddha.

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Nyctophobia

One day a female lay person who was accompanied by her husband came to see Master Mio Fa. She explained to him that from a very young age, she has always been frightened whenever the sun went down, and nightfall came. She never dares to go into any rooms that are not lit. In the evening before dark, she turns on all the lights in her house, because she would not even be able to build up the courage to walk into a room and turn on a light herself.

Because of this, whenever she hears something rolling around under her bed or under furniture, she is too scared to use her hand to pick those things up. Whenever she looks toward the shadows, it makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

From a very young age she has visited many doctors in many hospitals, and spent a lot of money, but still there was no answer for the cause of her fear, and no way to heal her. This made her feel greatly troubled.

Master Mio Fa said to her that in her previous life she was a male. Their family was very poor, so poor in fact that they did not even have enough money to buy the oil needed to light the lamps. At the gate of their village lived a very kind family. On dark nights when the moon was not bright, this family would hang a lamp outside of their house in the courtyard. This would help any passerby to see the road in front of them, when they needed to travel through the town at night. They would also be able to see the signs to know which direction they would need to travel.

With no light for his family, he began stealing. In the dark of night, he would go to the kind people's house and steal the lamp. When the lamp disappeared and people had to walk in the dark, they became more fearful, because they couldn't see where they were going or know which way to take. So this is the cause and

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effect. This is the reason that in this life, she has a fear of the dark.

This female lay person believed it deeply. Because she has planted this cause, she was worried that in this lifetime she might not be able to be healed at all.

Master Mio Fa told her, "The cause and effect, after you understand it, will be able to have an end, because in this lifetime you have been very dedicated, have recited the Bodhisattva Sutra and the Buddha's name. It is similar to when you have a pimple. When the pimple begins to ripen, that is the time to break it." Master Mio Fa then asked her to prostrate seven times to The Emperor Liang's Repentance in order to repent her past offences. With that, this lay person then left my home very delighted.

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Wasting Lord's Gifts is a Great Offence

A female journalist from one of the newspapers had many opportunities to listen to Master Mio Fa's teachings, explaining to people why they have the various conditions and ailments that they do. One day she explained to Shifu that she has had stomach diseases for many years, and after seeking out various treatments she had found no cure. Was this because she had done some wrongdoing in a previous life as well, she wondered.

Master Mio Fa asked, "Is is true that when you eat bread, you don't like to eat the crust, and every time you remove it and just throw it away?" The female journalist was very shocked by this and replied, "Oh yes, Shifu! That's true, I have not liked eating the crust from the time I was very little. What kind of offence is that?" Shifu answered, "You don't know that you have actually thrown all of the crusts of bread into your own stomach! After awhile they have become rotten inside your stomach. How could you not feel pain? You have to understand that one who is wasteful of the food from heaven creates a great offence. Food and vegetables come to this world and their mission is to fi ll up our tummies. Because you don't like it, you waste it. You have to realize that today in this world there are many people who still experience hunger and starvation every day. Many will starve to death. You should be ashamed of yourself! Besides, in many countries there are also people that pick food out of garbage cans, even in the very developed and rich countries. You know why? This is because all of those people in previous lives have wasted food and this is the retribution of their actions. Whatever they throw away in previous lives, they have to pick out of the garbage in this lifetime. Remember this."

The woman felt very ashamed and asked, "What can I do now, Shifu?" "Arise the heart of repentance, and stop wasting food! Do this and your disease will heal in the future," Master Mio Fa instructed. "Should I bow and prostrate to the Emperor Liang’s Repentance book?” she asked. "Yes, indeed," Shifu answered with a big smile on his face.

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Let Thing's Be Used To Their Fullest

"Amitoufo Shifu! I have travelled from the West, have come back to China for a visit and am a Buddhist. The lady beside me doesn't speak Chinese, but she asked me to ask you about a stomach problem that she has. She has been unable to fi nd a cure for this. She never wastes food! Shifu, do you have an answer for this?" the woman asked.

Master Mio Fa kindly looked at the other woman who came all the way from another country and he said, "No, you don't waste food and that's great! But you waste paper. Whenever you write and you don't feel your sentence structure is correct, or when you have misspelled a word, you throw the whole piece of paper into the waste paper basket. Also, when you are eating, you waste a lot of napkins. Normally we only need to use one napkin while we eat, but you always use one napkin for each wipe of your mouth! This is really a waste. All these things must be used to their fullest. You just can't waste things like that. If you understand your mistakes and change your habits, your stomach will be cured right away.” The Lady nodded her head.

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Although The Toothpick Is Small, Don't Take It

"Shifu! I have been taking refuge for more than 30 years, I have never wasted anything and I am very careful of not doing anything against the law of cause and effect. However in the last two years, I have felt like there are needles in my stomach! When I went to the hospital they said that my stomach is as good as a younger person's. I don't know what kind of karma I have created to have caused this. Please, Shifu could you take a look and tell me what is causing this?"

Master Mio Fa laughed and said, "Ha! You would think that I was a stomach specialist, and my business is very good today!" Everybody started laughing. Master Mio Fa continued, "In the last couple of years, whenever you finished eating you always use a toothpick to clean your teeth?" The man replied, "Yeah, there are gaps between my teeth, so after eating I use a toothpick to clean out the food." "And you often go out to the restaurant?" Master Mio Fa asked. "Yes." "After eating and before you leave is it true that you often pick up several additional toothpicks from the container?" Master Mio Fa enquired. This old lay person looked very surprised. "Well, my wife and I often will spend at least 10 or 20 dollars when we eat out at the restaurant. I only pick up several toothpicks. That would be offensive?" he asked. "Yes!" Master Mio Fa answered. "The toothpicks are freely offered to people at the table where they are eating. Even if you spend one or two hundred dollars each meal, you still cannot pick up additional toothpicks and go home, unless you have told the waiters and waitresses. If you take them without telling them although it is not stealing, it is greediness. Although this is small in terms of greediness and everyone wouldn't think of it as a big deal, however, you are a Bodhisattva! You have cultivated Bodhicitta! If they don't give them to you then you shouldn't take them, even a piece of a branch or a blade of grass, you can't be greedy about it. This is a theory that other people just don't understand. You are a Bodhisattva and you should understand."

At this point, the old lay person felt very joyful and very happily said to Shifu, "I

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understand now, Shifu!" Then Master Mio Fa said, "If someone is practicing the Bodhisattva's way of life, every thought that stirs in your mind is very important. Just because you have picked up several toothpicks, your stomach feels uncomfortable. This is actually the blessings of the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's because they want you to stop doing further harm, and to help you to be able to obtain correct fruition in this lifetime. It is as we said with the empty space turning even the most minor of doubts, and the smallest bit of dust turning the greatest Dharma wheel. Once you understand this theory, the disease will disappear."

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The Retribution Of A Slavemaster

A couple of years ago, I went to a foreign country to visit one of my friends. My friend and his family had invited me to go to a very famous park for the day. Just as we were entering the gates we saw a very luxurious and classy horse and carriage stop in front of us. I was amazed by the pure white, tall and very good looking giant horse. It had a silk-like shiny coat and its mane looked like a snow mountain top. Under the beautiful sun of California it looked so magnifi cent. The horse would carry all the visitors and guests along the road, giving them a very royal and luxurious ride, while they enjoy the beautiful sights. We didn't want to take the carriage and instead stood and watched the horse walking into the distance.

Without our noticing, the day had become dark. We’d had a wonderful time. Before we left the gate I saw the big horse again and he was still working hard, carrying all the visitors. By this time, though, he had lost the energy that he had in the morning. His head was drooped and he took much smaller steps. He looked to be extremely exhausted. As I looked at my watch, I noticed from the morning until that point at least 12 hours had passed. Seeing the horse so tired made me feel sorry for him.

I couldn't stop thinking what was this horse's past life? What happened and what kind of causes did he plant? He looked so magnifi cent but was doing some exhausting work. In this entire day, how many guests and visitors had he carried? What about in a year? Why does he owe so many people debts from a previous life?

After I came back from California I went to visit Master Mio Fa, and to my surprise Shifu gave me a wonderful teaching about this. This horse in his past life was a Caucasian slave master. On his plantation there were a hundred black slaves that worked for him. The slaves were badly taken advantage of by this slave master. After he passed away he went directly into hell and suffered greatly.

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After he fi nished his retribution in hell, in this lifetime he rose into the animal realm and became a horse.

Although he was good looking and had a strong body, it only became a tool for others to make money. He was enslaved by others. Although in his previous life there were only a hundred people who had suffered because of him, by abusing black people, not only had he created very bad offences toward them, but to all humans as well. So in this life he has to be pushed and sat on day after day without any rest. This was his retribution. Because his offences are so deep, who knows just how many times he would need to be reborn as cows and horses. Even if in the future he was to be a human again, he would be very poor, of lower class and will suffer a great deal.

After hearing this, my heart felt very, very heavy. Such a beautiful, lovely and great horse has such a dark past. Deeply I thought I will recite more of the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra and dedicate it to the big horse, to help him clean up these offences and to help him to be able to be liberated from the ocean of bitterness faster. Also I want to recite the sutra and to help those slaves to cross over, to calm their anger.

At this time, a man from Malaysia who had been listening to us said, "Shifu, we had a dog whose name was Winnie back in Hong Kong. He was with me since he was very little, and was very smart. Ever since our whole family became vegetarians, the dog stopped eating meat as well. This made our family very happy. Two years after we moved to Malaysia, Winnie died of old age. We felt very sad. My mother actually set up a memorial and did a special prayer for him. I'm not sure if Winnie was reborn in the higher realms. Could I ask you Shifu, please, could you help me?"

After a moment of silence Shifu said, "Because the dog lived with you in your home, listened to Sutra's and ate a vegetarian diet, after he died, you actually helped him cross over by reciting the Sutra's. Because of this, he has already

•015•


been reborn in the human realm. He lives in Malaysia as well! He is now a beautiful 17 year old girl."

After Master Mio Fa said this, this lay person went into deep thought and all of a sudden said, "Yes, Winnie died seventeen years ago! Shifu, you are amazing! Could you please tell me where this girl is now? What is her name? I want to see her right away!" Shifu and everyone else in my room began laughing. I asked this lay person, "OK, if you fi nd this girl, what are you going to tell her? You were the dog that was living with me in my house in the past? She would think you were crazy!" The lay person though about it and then started laughing himself.

Master Mio Fa said, "If we have affi nity, even if we are a thousand miles apart, we will meet each other. Maybe someday you will meet each other and when you do at fi rst sight you will feel that she is your friend, and she will return your favour two or three fold. There is an old saying that it takes a hundred years of prayer to be able to take the same boat. That's why today all of our colleagues, friends, family, neighbors and even our animals all have affi nity with us from the past. Therefore we need to create great and kind affi nities and try to resolve those evil or unkind affi nities, and then we will be able to keep harmony and auspiciousness in and around our lives".

Shifu is so kind and so good at teaching. This visit has made me feel that I had learned a lot.

•016•


Dead Father Ask's For His Son's Help To Cross Him Over

Dr. Wong, who worked in the hospital, suddenly had a very strange disease. When the day becomes dark, his eyes become fi xed. He stops talking and can't sleep. A lot of the time, he will hit the wall with his fi st and kick it with his feet. When morning arrives, everything becomes normal once again.

They've said that six different medical experts had come to look at him, but nobody could help. His wife also asked one of the most famous Qi Gong Masters to help him, but Dr. Wong doesn't believe in this and he refused to go.

Afterwards, Dr. Wong's wife met a very warm person, teacher Li. Teacher Li knows Master Mio Fa, and so he suggested that Dr. Wong's wife should ask Master Mio Fa to take a look at her husband. His wife said, "Well, my husband does not even believe in Qi Gong, there is no chance that he would believe a monk. He thinks that is superstition."

When she came home and talked to her husband about this, to her surprise he stared at her with his eyes wide open and asked in a hurry, "What monk are you talking about?" When his wife told him that it was Master Mio Fa, he couldn't wait. He pushed her to get hold of Teacher Li, and said that he would become a disciple of the old monk.

A couple of days later, Teacher Li and I took Dr.Wong and his wife to WuTai mountain to go and see Master Mio Fa. I had called Master Mio Fa ahead of time so he was prepared. The Master asked Dr.Wong, "Isn't it true that your father has passed away?" His wife answered for her husband, "Yes, almost two years ago now." Master Mio Fa asked again, "Does Dr. Wong have two brothers, and his father had favoured just him?"

As nighttime came, Dr.Wong's eyes became fi xed again, and he couldn't speak.

•017•


His wife answered, "Yes, Shifu, you're right! His family lived in the countryside, but after he was discharged from the army he stayed in the city. Ever since he was very little, his father had always liked him better than the others."

"His father likes to kill. After he died, he stayed in the evil path and has suffered. He knows that his son has affinity with Buddha and is the only one who can save him. That is the reason his father has tried to reach him in his dreams, but Dr.Wong does not believe in this. His father was very eager, so he used this method and took over his body to try to push him to ask me to help. If you look at his eyes you will see that they have already become normal again," Master Mio Fa answered in a slow pace.

When the people looked at Dr.Wong, his face started to turn red and his big eyes were no longer fi xated. Master Mio Fa continued, "I think you should take him to the big hall and prostrate to the Buddha, and tomorrow go to the Earthstore Boddhisattva's hall and set up a memorial for his father. With the power of the monastic's Sutra recitation, his father will be able to leave the evil path."

Suddenly we all saw Dr. Wong kneeling in front of Master Mio Fa. He was very shy but spoke fi rmly, "I want to become your disciple, please accept me!" His wife looked a little worried and was unsure how to react. Master Mio Fa laughed at them and said, "Good! You can become a lay person then." When Dr.Wong's wife understood what a lay person is, she felt much more relaxed and took a deep breath. She thought that she had almost lost her husband to the temple.

After saying goodbye to Master Mio Fa, we put all the offerings that we had brought with us on top of the table in the big hall, and prostrated together. The same night we stayed in the small inn just outside the temple. After a half year of struggling, Dr. Wong fi nally was able to have a very nice sleep. Now, Dr.Wong has become a very skillful dharma practitioner When other people praise him, he always answers with his face red, very shy, and he will tell people, "My fortune comes from a disaster."

•018•


Weird disease

A female lay person in her 60’s came and spoke to Master Mio Fa. She said that for decades she felt that she had a lot of pressure on her chest. She went to many hospitals and couldn't fi nd a reason for this. She has taken tons of western and Chinese medicine, but there were no results, so she stopped taking them.

Once she had heard Master Mio Fa teaching Buddha Dharma and she believed it right away. So she came to Shifu hoping he could help her, and to see what sort of karma she had accumulated that caused her to have this problem.

Master Mio Fa asked, "You lived in the countryside before right?" "Oh yes! I was a country person before and after I got married, I moved to the city with my husband," she answered. "When you lived in the country, on the ceiling right above the stove, was there a swallow nest that was removed by you?" Master Mio Fa inquired. "Yeah, that's true. The swallow nest happened to be right above the stove. It was so dirty. So I used a wooden stick to get it down," she answered. "What else happened?" he asked. She responded, "Well the swallows came home and realized that they had lost their nest. They were so upset that they fl ew back and forth in my kitchen and then they stayed screaming in front of my house for a long time and then disappeared."

Master Mio Fa said, "You could have used other ways to move the nest to other places, but were so hasty that suddenly you caused them to lose their home and they had no place to go. In Buddhist teachings, we believe that sentient beings are equal and in our world humans and animals should live in harmony. Harming beings is one of the reasons why you feel that your chest is heavy."

Just as if being awakened from a dream, this lay person nodded her head. Master Mio Fa continued. "You know not to waste things and how to treasure things. Each day when you are walking on the road and you see the cans that people

•019•


have left behind or other waste, you pick them up and take them home. You sell this stuff and make lots of money. Is that true?"

The female lay person said, "I don't steal, and I don't rob. I pick these things up and sell them for money. What kind of offence is that?" "I didn't say that you have offences," Master Mio Fa explained. "But from the situation with your family, your life is good. You should leave those things for those who have a diffi cult situation. Your life is not so hard but you don't leave these things for others to pick up and sell. That's greediness. As a Buddhist we can't forget for one moment that we need to be compassionate, kind and generous to others. Do you agree with me?”

The female lay person felt very embarrassed and said, "Yes, you're right Shifu. I thought those things were just left behind by other people and they were worth money so I didn't think so much of it, but in the future I will stop doing this." Master Mio Fa had a big smile on his face and said, "The mistake you had is not that great, but it is an obstacle to your clean cultivation. That's why your energy channel is not totally open. How do you feel now?" The female lay person had a joyful look on her face and said, "Eyah! I really feel much better now, and my body feels much more light and relaxed. My breath feels more normal now."

•020•


A teacher

In the city, there was a young couple who had a son who at the age of two still couldn't walk or speak very clearly. They went to the hospital where the doctors diagnosed the child as having a mild case of cerebral palsy, or mild brain paralysis. The couple became very anxious and they asked me to ask Master Mio Fa whether he had a good remedy for this.

When I spoke to Master Mio Fa he said, "This child in one of his previous lives was a famous school teacher. His brain was fi lled with poems and books. Many people in that location were very interested in learning Buddha Dharma. Because this teacher was very knowledgeable, many people came and asked him questions regarding his views on life and death, and his point of view of samsara. The teacher would usually tell people that all the things taught in Buddhism were false and not real. He would ask people, ‘Have you ever seen samsara? Have you ever seen the six paths?’ Moreover he would always use Master Confucius's words to support his statement. He would say, ‘If you don't know life, how would you know death?’ Because of his point of view, many people lost their chance to step onto the path and study Buddhism, and lost their chance to benefi t from learning Buddha Dharma. This teacher had ruthlessly blocked other people's chances to develop wisdom because of his lack of knowledge. After his death, for many lifetimes he dropped into animal realms and became pigs.

“The parents of this child really enjoyed eating pork, especially the meat on the pig’s head. When a pig was killed, they brought the pig's head back, cooked and ate it. Because the evil karma had ripened, their current child is a rebirth of that pig. This is not only the teacher's karmic retribution, but it is also the retribution of the parents’ enjoyment of eating pig head meat.

“To transform this karmic retribution, the parents need to repent eating meat. They should switch to a full vegetarian diet. They should repent on behalf of the

•021•


teacher, recite the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra, and dedicate it to the teacher and all the people who lost the chance to study Buddhism because of him. They need to recite the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra to cross over these pigs. If they do what I ask them to, as well as working closely with medical care and exercise, this child will get better. I believe that one day his body will become normal and he will be able to live an independent life."

I reported what Master Mio Fa told me truthfully. Master Mio Fa was right. The child's father told me that his grandparents were working for a meat company under which there are butcher houses, so it was very easy for them to buy very fresh pork. He also told me that his and his wife’s favourite food was pig head meat. This was a very bad retribution on their own son, and is truly the cause of what they had to go through now. How regretful they are.

The child's mother burst into tears and expressed that they would put earnest effort into what Master Mio Fa asked them to do so that their son's disease can be cured. I hope that they can keep doing this and then all of their distress can become wisdom.

•022•


"The Fetus Loves To Listen To The Earthstore Bodhisattva Sutra"

One neighbor told me that her daughter has been pregnant for eight months. During her pregnancy, her reactions have always been very violent. In the last couple of months, the baby often kicks and rolls around in her tummy, which makes her feel very much pain. Some people told her that if she could recite the Buddha's name, that might help reduce her pain. Her daughter believed that, although she had believed in many different types of religions in the past. She didn't feel comfortable reciting Sutra's from the other religions. I told her that Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Confucianism are all good religions. They all address love and compassion, and convince people to be kind and virtuous.

Although they are called religions, they are in fact schools which help people to explore, regulate and open up the spiritual world. The depth and range of their teachings are different. It is similar to our society, in which we have elementary school, high school, college and university. The knowledge in Buddhism is knowledge that unfolds the truth of the universe and human life. It is recognized by and contains all other religions. It is like a university for general studies, and Shakyamuni Buddha is like the principal of this university. Confucius taught people the fundamental aspects of being a good person, including being kind, honorable, polite, wise and trustworthy. This is just like an elementary school. He is the principal of our elementary school. Lao Tzu taught us how to exercise our body and expand our lifespan, and how to unfold the potential of our human body. He taught us the rules of the universe and the earth, and how to achieve a union of the two, therefore making our lives more harmonious and beautiful. We call him the principal of a middle school. Mohammed and Jesus Christ are the spiritual leaders of many races, countries and people in the world. So they are like the principals of a college and high school. But even those principals and professors are all doctors. Or should we say, they are all the transformation bodies of the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's. For the sake of taking across sentient

•023•


beings, they demonstrate methods based on the actual situation or conditions. They use different bodies to take across different types of people. This is the reason that they create religions in accordance with peoples' capacities. It is just like in our society, we teach people based on who they are, therefore when your daughter is encountering diffi culties, she needs to ask for help from a university principal and professor. I am sure they will be very happy to help, because every great teacher with great merit hopes that his or her students will improve.

I think my explanation has eradicated her doubt, so I continued.

From the Buddhist theory, the baby in your daughter's tummy comes from an unpleasant condition. This baby comes to her to ask that a debt be repaid. Most likely the cause of the baby kicking and causing your daughter pain is killing and eating meat. So today you should ask your daughter to stop eating meat and recite the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra one time, and see if anything happens. If your daughter recites with earnest sincerity, it must have some impact. If she can recite this seven times, and dedicate this merit to the baby, this will help to completely uproot the hatred and debt concerning her baby. If there is no result after doing this, then go ahead and continue eating meat. If I am making false speech here and this makes both of them unhappy, not only will your daughter reciting this sutra have no result, but I will be punished.

After saying that, I gave her a copy of the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra. The next evening, we met again in our neighborhood courtyard. She was very happy and thanked me. She said that she told her daughter what I had said, and her daughter believed it in an instant. She washed her hands and immediately started to recite the Sutra. To everyone's surprise, since the day she began to recite the Sutra until now, the baby completely stopped kicking and rolling around. Her daughter could finally sleep peacefully at night, which had not happened in the past month. Her daughter just fi nished reciting the Sutra once more, and since that day she had not eaten any meat. She said that the Buddha Dharma is so magical. "If I had asked you about this much earlier, then I would

•024•


not have gone through this torture the last couple of months."

Soon after, her daughter gave birth to a very cute son. During her labour, she did not feel any suffering. The month after, she kept reciting the Sutra and could almost memorize it. Afterward she told me that in the past her daughter really enjoyed eating meat. The weird thing is that now whenever she smells meat, she feels as if she wants to vomit. She asks if I had done something to make her stop eating meat. I told the mother, "Because the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's are the principal and teachers, they are responsible to pass the great knowledge on to us. The decision to learn, or use what we have learned, is the responsibility of the student. There is an old saying: the teacher brings you through the door, but to practice is up to you. The Buddha would never care if you ate meat or not. As far as the reason she feels nauseous once she smells meat, it is that reciting the Sutra has purifi ed her body and her mind, and let out the Buddha nature that is originally in her. That is why her body began to reject the contaminated meat from sentient beings. As long as in the future she is able to eat more vegetables and Soya products, her body will be much healthier. Don't believe my story, just walk around the hospital and see just how many patients are not eating meat."

•025•


Eye Disease And The Flooding Of Golden Mountain Temple

In order for one to better understand this particular story, it may be helpful to fi rst give a brief explanation of the very famous Chinese story of "The White Snake".

The story is one of a white snake spirit. This particular white snake has been a practitioner in her past lives and sometimes she has the capabilities to appear in human form. She has a servant who constantly follows her around, and this is actually the human form of a green snake. This white snake had fallen in love with a young man who had studied in an abandoned temple, and they had started a love affair. This sort of relationship between humans and animals is prohibited by universal law.

An Abbott from the Golden Mountain Temple, Master Fa Hai, knew that this was forbidden love, and he had tried his best to separate these two for their own good. Because this white snake was a practitioner and possessed certain powers, she used these powers to enlist the help of other spirits to combat this monk. They were no match for the Abbott though, as he was a very highly achieved monk. The monk put this white snake underneath a stupa in order to separate them, and allow her to meditate and to repent these deeds... And now the story.

In July of 1997, a lady whose last name was Jiu workes in a university. She and her husband came to WuTai Mountain to pay their respects to the Buddha. It just so happens that they overheard someone saying how great a practitioner Master Mio Fa was, and how great his spiritual penetration was. So they made an appointment to go and see him.

Mrs. Jiu was about 32 or 33 years old, with a medium build and was very pretty. Her skin was very fair, and she wore a pair of gold-coloured glasses. She had

•026•


the look of a female scholar. She was very quiet, but very eloquent. Mrs. Jiu said that her eyes were not well ever since she was a child. She always seemed to have a painful burning sensation in them. For the well-being of her and her eyes, her parents had spent a lot of time and money searching for treatments, but they found none. She had even gone to the United States to seek out the best doctors, but still there was no healing. She told Master Mio Fa about the situation with her eyes. Master Mio Fa closed his eyes for a moment and then told us a story, one that I would not have believed in a hundred years!

Shifu said, "Do you remember the story of the white snake and the fl ood of the golden temple?" We all answered, "Yes, we know that one, as children we all watched the play and the movie too!" Shifu continued, "Everyone in the world thinks that this is a fairy tale, but as a matter of fact this is actually a true story. A lot of animals, after practicing for a long period of time, will develop spiritual penetration. This is nothing new. The white snake transformed into a young lady in a white dress, because during her practice, she could not cut off her desire for lust. As she entered the bardo, she became attached to the worldly love between men and women. But the law of universal nature would not allow these kinds of relations between humans and animals. Even today, when human civilization has reached a high level and though our notions have changed greatly, this is still not accepted by social ethics. In the book, Master Fa Hai's actions of stopping the white snake were based on a big heart of compassion. If she did not stop this behaviour and repent her offences, this would destroy all of the practice that she had accumulated over time, and she would fall into hell. This is the reason that he had covered her underneath the big stupa, called LaiFeng Tower. He did this for her to have a chance to take a retreat, practice and contemplate and to help her get rid of these sexual desires. However in this book, the author had slandered the Sangha and this Master to the foremost possibility. In his story, he made this great monk out to be an evil devil, and he made the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's so cold and bleak. In his story, instead of helping her, Master Fa Hai was viewed as breaking up a loving relationship, and the evil spirits who fought against him were portrayed as good. The author had forgotten that humans and animals were completely different. He misled people, slighted Buddhism and is going to carry a huge cause and effect. A person with bright wisdom would understand this just by looking at it.

•027•


"Why did I tell you this story? Mrs. Jiu's eye disease has something to do with this. It is only because she practices Buddhism and protects the Buddha's teaching that her karma is ending. The story of the fl ooding of Golden Temple tells us that the white snake and the green snake did not listen to the old monk, Master Fa Hai. On the contrary, they fought against him using evil mantras, and invited the water spirit to create a big wave to fl ood the Golden Temple. At that time, because the water spirit did not truly know the facts, this devil created a great offence. The spirit caused water to flood the temple, which greatly angered the god, who was also a Dharma protector. God used lightning to hit the water spirit. The moment that the fi reball was about to touch the face of the water spirit, the spirit moved away quickly and sank into the water, and so avoided death. However, both eyes were burnt by the lightning, and as a result, she suffered unbearable pain. Her followers, using white silk, covered her eyes and then sent her to a small temple on a different mountain, to ask another monk who had understood medical treatments to help. The moment that the water spirit removed the white silk which covered her eyes, the monk was stunned by her beauty. This monk had practiced for many years, but at that moment love arose towards the water spirit. Just by this one thread of thought, he had lost all of his power. He could no longer treat the diseases that the water spirit had.

"In this story, the water spirit is currently Mrs. Jiu. So Mrs. Jiu, your eye disease is the result of the cause and effect from your previous life. And today, your husband is the monk who had entered the ordinary mind once he had seen the eyes of the water spirit. Hasn't your husband always loved you, and taken good care of you?” Master Mio Fa's speech made everyone excited. All together we turned and gazed towards this couple. Mrs. Jiu became very excited. She looked at her husband as if seeing him for the fi rst time. Then she started to laugh and spoke with emotion, "Yes, he has always treated me like a kid." Her husband looked a bit uneasy and embarrassed. He had a little smile on his face and did not say a word as he lowered his head.

Shifu continued talking to Mrs. Jiu. "After this, both you and your husband should go to the great hall to repent your past karma. Although the fl ood at

•028•


the Golden Temple did not come from the mind of the water spirit, because of her ignorance, she became an assistant offender. Her offence is not small. From now on you need to prostrate toward the "Repentance of Emperor Liang" book. Always recite the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra, and your eyes will get much better."

Then Shifu acknowleged Mrs. Jiu's husband and said, "Originally you were a great practitioner with a great foundation, but each time you came back to the world, you could not let go of your sexual desires, and lost all of your practice each time. This lifetime, you are continuing your previous condition again by marrying. You need to make vows together that in this lifetime you will diligently practice the precepts, calm abiding, and wisdom and prove the ultimate bodhi. You probably don't completely believe what I say, but as long as you go home and repent truthfully, you will see the result."

A week later, Mrs. Jiu came back to see Master Mio Fa. When I looked at her face, I noticed that her eyes had become very, very bright, and they were no longer bloodshot. She looked shiny and bright. Although they did not totally believe Shifu's story, they decided to repent as if it were true. They couldn't believe that once they had bowed in front of the Buddha, a sense of coolness came into her eyes. From childhood until now, her eyes had never felt so comfortable. They had indeed received the blessings of the Buddha, and they now truly believed the story that Shifu had told them. The husband was stunned by all of this as well. The same night they went back to the hotel and began to recite The Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra and repented their offences. In the morning, the burning sensations completely disappeared from her eyes. This made them both amazed and surprised. Since then they have been reciting Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra everyday and they repent their offences sincerely. Now her eyes were completely healed and it was time for them to leave.

She said that she still had a question to ask Shifu. "If in the future, when I go back to my home and people ask me how my eyes got better, how should I answer? I can't tell them what hospital I went to, and can't really tell people that I was the water spirit from the book ‘The Story of the White Snake Who

•029•


Flooded Golden Temple’. If I said that, then people would think I was crazy!" Her words made everyone laugh. Shifu said, "That's simple. Just say that you have bowed to the Buddha and recited Sutras at Wu-Tai Mountain, and that healed your eyes."

When Shifu was telling us the story, I too had some doubt in my mind. Although I always believe in him 100 percent, since I was little I had heard all the adults talk about the story of the white snake, and I had thought it to be a legend. How could it all of a sudden be true? A water spirit being reborn again, and standing right in front of my eyes! But after several days, the results of Mrs. Jiu's eye disease really helped me to reduce my doubts. People who know about this story were only about six or seven at the time. I hope that one day when Mrs. Jiu sees this book she won't be upset. Although I changed her name in order to tell the story, I had never asked her if she would mind if I tell this story to the world. But I hope that this story will help other people to have a greater understanding of Buddhism, and cause and effect. The merit that comes from this story will belong to them. I hope that they will prove their sageful fruition soon. And here, I really hope that someday, somebody with great writing skills, some lay people or great Master's will re-write the story of the "White Snake" and add the story of the "Water Spirit" to that book as well. Whoever wants to understand what had eventually happened to the white snake, the green snake and the student, should ask Master Mio Fa again so that we can turn this story into a soap opera!

•030•


Whose Fault Is It?Not too long ago, one of my friends, Mrs. Tian, had emigrated to another country. Mrs. Tian and her husband both came back to China to visit their family. When we were together, she told me about the disease affecting her younger brother who was living in America, and she was very worried. She wanted to use this opportunity while visiting China to go and see Master Mio Fa and ask him about the cause of the disease that her younger brother had.

When she met with Shifu, Mrs. Tian told him in detail about the disease that was affecting her brother. After going to the United States and obtaining his green card, he married a Chinese American girl. Their married life was very happy and sweet at fi rst. But then later on, for no apparent reason, he began to suspect that a colleague with whom he had a very good relationship was using a wireless device to harm him from a distance, causing him migraine headaches and a lot of body pain. Because of this suspicion, he was afraid to go back to work and into his offi ce, so chose to stay at home. Even at home, he still felt as though his former colleague was using some sort of electronic device to attack him. He always said that if not for the fact that he had practiced Qi Gong before, he would be dead by now. When people asked him why his colleague wanted to kill him, he would often say it was because he was jealous of his talents. But in fact, his knowledge of computers had been taught to him by his former colleague. Because he was often scared and felt as if he was in trouble, he couldn't eat or sleep well. He had also put tin foil up on the walls in his room, so that the devices would not penetrate into his house. He made a big iron box with a few air holes, and would slip into this box at night. He would ask others to cover the lid of this box for him. After several days he said that he thought that electrical waves were still penetrating the box, so he began putting a metal bucket on his head, and would hide in the corner of his bedroom or under his bed. Every minute he experienced extreme horror. Psychologically he was in great distress.

The doctor said that he had schizophrenic disorder and prescribed medicine, which he fi rmly rejected. He said he had no disease. Mrs. Tian was very worried

•031•


about this, thinking that if it continues, it could become very unbearable, because she knows that her uncle and other relatives also have several children that had the same psychological disease. Her uncle's child had already committed suicide. There are others that have stayed in the hospital for a long time. Although they were alive, they were living a life just as if they were dead. Now this same disease has come to her own brother and she knows that this is something that cannot be resolved by taking needles and medicine. She wanted to ask Master Mio Fa whose fault this was, why for generations many people in her family had the same diseases and if this would pass on to the future generations.

Master Mio Fa told Mrs. Tian, "One ancestor from your grandpa's generation enjoyed writing novels about horrible ghosts and other horror stories. The stories he wrote made a lot of people feel frightened, very afraid at night and made them feel that ghosts and goblins were following them. They couldn't sleep at night. After reading his novels, especially some young people’s minds became shadowed. Some people became afraid of darkness and would not go out at night, and some would believe that they were in a special environment where they could see certain things or hear certain sounds. Many people became diseased and some even committed suicide. This is the cause and this is the effect. Because his novels had been spread widely among the society, they harmed one generation after another of those who read his books. Eventually they began to harm his own descendants. The more the novels were widely enjoyed by people, the longer it passed on.

"Good books can bring knowledge and happiness and can encourage people to be positive and pious, respect teachers and their parents, and follow the rules of society. The books written by Master Confucius are examples of this. He lived a poor life but dedicated all of his energy to the teaching of kindness, respect, wisdom and trust. Although in his time, he wasn't accepted by the mainstream or the government, in time his teachings became more and more important to people in China. Therefore in every dynasty since then, all people respect Confucius as a saint. The good family name of Confucius has been passed down for 70 generations. This is seen as kindness bringing good karmic retribution. On the other hand, the people who wrote horror stories, sexual related stories

•032•


and stories about robbery and lust, whether for books, TV or movies, harm not only this current society, but will also bring harm to future generations. If we look back at the many authors, directors and actors that have suffered the deaths of suicide and murder, or have died in accidents, we can look at what kind of work they have done, what kind of misbehaviour they were engaged in. If you look into this, you understand that the concept of cause and effect is very accurate. So when people start writing things, they have to understand the law of cause and effect. Do not grasp at the moment of happiness or try to make more money, thereby creating more harm to one’s own future generations. You have to understand that though you may enjoy the moment of happiness and fame, when death comes, there is nothing that you can bring with you. In future generations, your children and grandchildren will be harmed by you. So please, Mrs. Tian, please tell me if you know anyone among your ancestors whose career it was writing horror novels," said Shifu.

Mrs Tian said, "My family background is very complex. When I was young, I didn't really know too much about my grandpa because we lived very far apart. When I grew up I learned a little from my Mother. I know that my Father grew up in a very learned family and my grandpa and great-grandpa were all very well-known scholars from the Qing dynasty. The fi rst person who translated Shakespeare's work into Chinese was one of my aunts. I have no idea who had a career writing horror novels, but in a family like that there were so many scholars and writers, it is possible. I truly believe what you said just now. Otherwise why are there three or four people in our family who have psychological problems? Now I am very scared listening to what you have explained. Who knows when those horror stories will disappear from the world? So if they don't disappear eventually, this horrible disease will continue to be passed on from generation to generation in my family. Please, Shifu, please tell me a way that I can stop this."

Master Mio Fa smiled at her and said, "Don't worry. Because we have the ability to bring out the truth behind this situation, if I don't tell you a way to resolve it, I will be adding more worries to you. The thing I just taught is the bigger background of the situation. But the people who have a disease such as this must also have their own cause that creates such karma for themselves.

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These causes are the reasons they have been born into your family, in order to merge into the bigger cause and effect within your family. Because you believe in Buddhism, and have done many things to protect Buddhism, these are great virtuous merits to your family. Because of your virtuous retribution, I think that your brother's recovery is something that can happen. Are you a vegetarian?" She answered, "Oh yes, Shifu I am." He then continued, "So in the future, can you make the resolve that you will be a vegetarian for the rest of your life?" "No problem, Shifu," she replied. "Good," he said. "You can start a prayer service in the temple, to pray and take over all the people who have been threatened and harmed by these horror novels, and to repent for your ancestor who wrote those novels. Then at home, you can recite the Shuragama Sutra 10 times and dedicate this to all sentient beings. Use this merit to help your ancestors to clean up their karmic retribution. In the future, there won't be anyone in your family who will have these same diseases again. Also, every day you can offer a cup of clean water in front of the Buddha and ask your brother to recite "The Guan-Yin Sutra of Taking over Beings" once daily, recite the Great Compassion Mantra three times a day and then drink the water. The disease of your brother will get better very soon. As far as the small amount of horror novels still being spread in society, because of the blessing of the Buddha it will slowly disappear."

Mrs. Tian recorded Master Mio Fa's teaching respectfully while she listened. Now Mrs. Tian has already gone back to her country. I'm not sure if her brother's disease has gotten better. Because this story was such a unique one, I have put it into this book. I hope the telling of this story will be able to help other people to understand the nature of cause and effect. Thank you. I wish for Mrs. Tian's brother to recover soon.

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Unfi lial Sons and Daughters who Left Their Mother Starving to Death

My neighbor told me a story that happened in her hometown, and she asked me if this is an example of the retribution of cause and effect, as taught by the Buddha.

In a small village in Jiling Province, one family with eight people had a tragedy unfold in their family in a very short time. People from all around know about this. Although they may not understand what Buddhism is, they all know that this is called "retribution".

In the past decades, the parents of this family worked very, very hard to raise their three sons and three daughters. The parents helped each one of them to get married and build a house. For the daughters, they prepared the dowry for the wedding. It is very obvious for one to see how hard this was. After they sent out the last daughter to get married, the Father's back was hurt from all the hard work over the years, and he became crippled. Because he worked so hard in the past, his health deteriorated, leaving him to lie in bed permanently. In the village, everybody said that he had suffered so much. What a hard life. However, they didn't know that his wife's life was even harder than his.

Within the month after the Father passed away, the Mother was diagnosed with brain damage. She also lay in bed with half of her body paralyzed. Sometimes she could use her left hand to put food in her mouth, sometimes she could also hold herself up against the wall to go to the bathroom. Nevertheless, in her daily life she still needed someone to help her.

How did her six kids plus their spouses and her grandchildren treat their Mother who had spent her lifetime contributing to those people? At first, they took turns taking care of their Mother. It sounded OK, but after awhile, the third son and his wife had become tired of his sick Mother. At fi rst, they began to smash

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all the bowls and utensils, and then slowly began to say really harsh words and argue with people. Later on, they would even stop other people from coming to the house to help their Mother. At fi rst, they actually provided some food to their Mother, but later on they found that after she had eaten, she had to go to the bathroom. So the wife of the third son thought it was too much of a hassle for her, and she stopped providing food for her Mother, sometimes even cutting off her water. Because the other sons and daughters did not get along with this daughter-in-law, they would hardly come to the house to see their Mother.

One time when the third daughter came to see her Mother, she realized that she had become really, really weak. She listened carefully to what she said. Her Mother said, "I am so hungry." So the third daughter went into her brother's room to look for some food. The daughter-in-law then became very angry. She burst into her Mother-in-law's room and said "I just gave you two bowls of jook! Why do you need more food? What will happen if you eat too much, and die? Then your daughter will say I am not filial toward you!" The third daughter insisted on feeding her Mother a few spoonfuls of rice. While feeding her, the third daughter put her hands inside her Mother's blanket and found that her Mother's stomach was really, really empty. It proves that her daughter-in-law had lied.

The next day the third daughter sent six eggs to her mother, who in one minute, ate all six of them. After that she gained a little strength and told her third daughter, "If you don't come, I will die soon. They don't give me any water or rice and they want me to die!" A couple of days later, the second daughter was cooking shrimp in her own house, and brought two over to her Mother. While she was trying to feed her mother the shrimp, the third son came in and knocked the bowl on the ground, and used his foot to step on the shrimp, turning them to paste. He told his second sister that she shouldn't do that because with her Mother having brain problems, too much nutrition would make it even worse. He said, "If you want to take care of your Mother, I will send her to you, so you can take care of her!"

The situation in this house was discussed in the village. Everyone felt upset about

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it, so they urged the oldest son by saying, "You should take your Mother home," but he had no answer to this. Not too long after, in the third son's courtyard, people heard the crying and screaming of the kids for their mother who had worked so hard her entire life and had been taken away by hunger, abuse and disease.

That winter, the wind blew as if sad music came from the sky. The world was shaking. Those unfi lial sons, daughters and grandchildren all went to the burial ground of their Mother. Although they tried to throw handfuls of paper money into the sky, to donate to her, the angry cold wind grabbed them away. Death seemed to fi nd its own path, and it started to visit this family.

After a month, the oldest son was found to have brain cancer and went into the village. Although he did not die from this disease, half his body was paralyzed. A month after he came out of the hospital, the second son, and the fi rst son-in-law, one by one went into the hospital, both with brain cancer. Twenty days later the second daughter went into the hospital with the same disease. Two days after she left the hospital, the third daughter-in-law went in too. She did not have brain cancer, though. She had stomach problems. While the third daughter-in-law was still having to take needles in the hospital, the third son-in-law was hit by a tractor while riding his bicycle. All his bones were broken. For several months he couldn't touch the ground.

Within a year of the Mother passing away, all her daughters and sons and their spouses took turns spending time in the village hospital. Each one of them spent thousands of dollars in hospital fees. With irony, someone joked that they had taken over the whole hospital. Many nurses there had never taken any bonus for their payment, now they all got a hundred dollar bonus each month.

This story spread from one to ten, ten to a hundred, and from a hundred to the entire village. It became a topic for people to discuss after their dinner while drinking tea. Although not many of them believed in Buddhism, they all said that they deserved it. It was the retribution.

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The story did not end here. The oldest son who had just recovered from paralysis, was exercising on the street one day. He was hit by a big truck and became a vegetable. It is said until this day, he is lying in bed in his home. Later on the third son had liver disease and died after a year. The oldest daughter-in-law had brain cancer. She has already died. What is going to happen next? Nobody knows.

My neighbour said that all the grandchildren were raised by the Mother almost singlehandedly. But during her sickness, not one of them went to see her. It is such a sad story. I wish that at that time someone could have taught them Buddhism, so that their future life could be changed. Otherwise there is the rule within the universe—their result, their future will be unbearably sad as well.

The unfilial children purposely forced their own Mother to starve to death. Although they were not charged under the laws of the country, they would not escape the law of the universe. Those unfi lial kids, one after another, all received evil retribution. This is as we said: all the things in the world are Dharma. The good people speak the Dharma of the good, while the evil people manifest the Dharma of evil. Humans speak of the Dharma of humans, and animals speak of the Dharma of animals. It’s important to understand that whether you are wearing clothes, eating, walking or anything, you can fulfi ll the Buddha Dharma. So the future is really in your own hands. I decided to put this retribution story in my book, to warn those unfi lial children in the future to quickly change their evil path and evil actions, otherwise when the retribution comes, it will be too late for regret.

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"Cause And Effect Is The Law Of Nature"

Mr. Ji Wendong, a man in his 40’s, was crying, tears running down his face. He knelt at the burial ground of his neighbour, Auntie Zhang. He did not want to leave. This big, tall and good looking man had an extremely sad childhood. If it were not for the care and help from Mrs. Zhang, perhaps he would not have lived in this world for such a long time. Although they were not blood relatives, they did care for each other as if they were family. Today the elderly lady has passed away. What he was left with was the memory of a very diffi cult past.

Mr. Ji Wendong's parents passed away when he was fi ve years old. Before his father passed away, with tears in his eyes he asked his brother and sister-in-law to take care of his son. He also gave them an apartment with three rooms and a cow. His three hundred dollars in savings and his gold jewelry were also passed on, to be given to his son when he grew up. His brother and wife made a great promise in front of him. His brother pointed up towards the sky and vowed to him, "Your child is my child. Not to say that you have left so much money, but even if you had left nothing, we would nurture him while he grows up." Mr. Wendong's father heard those words, and with a trace of a smile on his face forever closed his eyes.

Several days after his funeral, the neighbours started to hear sounds of beatings as well as yelling coming from Wendong's house. Since then, every two or three days, people would hear the voices of his auntie and uncle accusing the boy. Their neighbour, Mrs. Zhang, would often knock on their door and try to calm them down. These things happened over and over again. Sometimes she noticed that the child wore very thin clothing. Occasionally she would see him come near the door, but she never seemed to see any happiness or joy on this child's face. When Mrs. Zhang went closer and asked him a few questions, he always looked very scared and would not talk to her. Mrs. Zhang noticed that he looked so skinny, and that he had wounds on his face and his body. Looking at this, Mrs. Zhang burst into tears.

Slowly all the people in the village heard about this. When the leaders of the village came and knocked on their door to ask about this, the Uncle and Auntie said, "This is because the child is naughty. We try to take control of him and educate him at

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the advice of his late Father. You people concern yourself with too much. This is not your business!"

Year after year, the boy slowly grew. The neighbour, Mrs. Zhang, many times would see that the boy's uncle and auntie were not home, and would send some food for the child. Sometimes it might be only a bun or half a piece of a yam potato. The boy was so hungry that he would swallow the food whole. When she saw that, she felt much more comfort in her heart for giving him food. Slowly the boy started to grow taller, but he still wore very old clothes that he had outgrown two or three years ago. In spring, summer and fall this was suffi cient, but in the winter, his legs were exposed to the freezing cold. Looking at this situation, Mrs. Zhang often cried, so she would immediately go home, looking for clothing that her own kids used to wear, which she gave to him. On these occasions, she had to knock on the door and talk to the boy's uncle and auntie, telling them, "These clothes are too old, and my kids don't want them anymore. Give them to your nephew.” She would then put the clothes on his body herself, so that the Uncle and Auntie would not take them away.

As he grew into an adult, Mrs. Zhang helped the boy by making three sets of clothing for the different seasons. Sometimes she even gave money to him. Under these kinds of circumstances, Mr. Ji Wendong fi nally grew up, and became a very talented young man. He learned how to drive a car, and also how to fi x tractors. He was very good at fixing things. He had many, many girls chasing after him. Slowly he reached the age when he would get married. He talked to his uncle and auntie, telling them that he would like to have his own home. They did not like this idea, but he had already become a grown man, and they were scared by the many accusations coming from the neighbours. They were forced to return the apartment to Wendong, which had by now become very old and in poor shape.

In the past 20 years, the husband and wife had given birth to six children. They helped two of them to build new houses and get married. Wendong did not say anything about this, on the contrary, he would speak for his uncle and auntie when others would complain about them. He would say, "My uncle and aunt raised me.

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Without them, how could I have my life today? Money is earned by people. If I don't study hard and learn certain skills, even if they were to give me a lot of money, it would be useless. I want to learn a lot about technology so that I may be able to help others, including those here in the village, so that I won't disappoint any of them." People always gave him the thumbs-up.

Now, Mr. Ji Wendong had become the leader of the factory in the village. His son went to university and his entire family was living a very happy and beautiful life. Let's look at the ugly and dishonest uncle's family and what has happened to them: he has four daughters and two sons. The oldest daughter died of kidney stones at age 29. The oldest son also had kidney stones at the age of 29 and not long after, he passed away too. When the younger daughter grew to the age of 29, she had exactly the same disease and died at the same age. This made the old couple very scared. They could not sleep day or night. Of their six children, three of them died. What was going to happen to the rest? Not long after that, the younger son went to jail, because of fi ghting and robbery. He has been in jail three times. The day he was sentenced, his mother, Wendong's auntie, had brain bleeding and since then has been paralyzed in bed. She experienced great suffering by the torturing and yelling of her own kids. Because she couldn't control her bladder, she always lay in her own urine. Sometimes for days, nobody would come to care for her. Three years later, just before she died, Wendong's uncle had developed Alzheimer's disease. One day when he was walking on the street, he just dropped to the ground and never got up again.

When their neighbour told me about this story, he asked me if this was the retribution of cause and effect. Even before I answered him, he said, "I think that this is punishment from the divine". So I said to him, "It is like planting crops. Whatever seed you plant, this is the kind of fruit you will receive. This is the rule of nature. Even before the Buddha taught people Dharma, the rule of cause and effect existed in the universe. As ordinary people, we do not understand this, and that is why we continue to stay in the ocean of suffering, and cannot escape from it. The Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's, with great compassion and great vows, come back to our world to teach us about the truth of the universe, and teach us the method to leave this world of suffering. We need to grasp tightly this great opportunity we have as a human being: to practice the Dharma, and so quickly to attain Bodhi. This is the true path in the human world.”

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"Hysteria"

One day, a group of 14 15-year-old students from one of Beijing's sports schools had organized a trip to the neighbouring county. They went to a mountain, and at the top of the mountain there is a place where there is a gap between two rocks. This gap is about one metre in width. If you look down through the gap, you will see that it is a distance of 10 metres to the ground.

The braver ones would just jump across from one rock to the other. The teacher found that this was too dangerous, so he asked his students to stop jumping back and forth. Once the teacher left, those naughty students climbed up to the top again and tried to compete to see who was more daring. Before Student A started his turn to jump, suddenly he turned his head back to his best friend Student B and said, "If I die now, please let my family know". Then he turned his head back and made the jump. No one knew the reason; maybe because he spoke before he jumped, but when his front leg landed on the rock across the gap, for some reason he felt his legs become very soft and he drop right through the gap to the bottom. All his classmates were so stunned, and they began yelling and then ran down to the ground to look at him. By that time, his head had smacked against a rock and was he was lying in a puddle of blood, dead.

Several days later, when Student A's funeral had just fi nished, and his family was walking straight to their car with very, very sorrowful emotion, all of a sudden Student B walked straight through the crowd towards the father of Student A. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Dad, would you please give me a cigarette?" His voice sounded just like Student A's. The father was completely surprised. When Student B repeatedly asked for a cigarette, all the people were so shocked and did not know what to do because Student B had never smoked. However, when he was alive, Student A would always go outside of his family's house to smoke. When everybody turned their attention to Student B, although he had a big smile on his face, his two eyes were fi xated. It looked very scary. So that day all his classmates had forced him back home and did not let him outside. He insisted that Student A's home was actually his.

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Since then, his father brought him to the hospitals, and looked for doctors to treat him. The doctors said it was because he had been stimulated by that incident. They called this "hysteria". Since then Student B still goes to school and he insists that he has no disease. The odd thing is, even his hand writing had become exactly the same as Student A's when he was alive.

It was the cause and condition.

At that time Master Mio Fa happened to pass by and stayed in my home. So when the teacher and Student B's parents found out about this, they came to my home. When Student B came in, his eyes were still fi xed, looking straight forward as if he had lost his soul. Once his parents explained what had happened, Master Mio Fa did not answer right away. He gently looked down with compassion in his eyes, and silently rotated his mala beads in his hand. After three minutes, he raised his eyes, began to observe Student B and asked him, "What is your name?" "I'm Student B." "How old are you?" "Fourteen." His parents were surprised and stunned and began to get very excited because they had fi nally heard their son's voice. When they looked into Student B's eyes, they noticed that the life had come back into them. They grabbed their son's hand and asked him to bow and prostrate towards Master Mio Fa. Master Mio Fa said that he should pay gratitude towards the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's and let him prostrate in front of the Buddha statue.

When everyone asked him what had happened, Master Mio Fa said, "The reason that Student B had hysteria is that Student A's consciousness did not want to leave. He said that he was too young, only 14 years old, and felt he did not enjoy enough happiness from human life. He said that it was not worth it to leave this early. Because Student B was his best friend, he stayed on in that body, so that he could eat more, drink more, enjoy some more cigarettes and enjoy a little bit more of life. That was the reason.”

Just then, I spoke to Student A and said, "This accident which killed you was

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caused by your heavy killing karmic retribution in the past. What you are doing right now is creating new karma. It will cause you to drop into the evil path. Let me teach you to recite ‘Namo Amitofou’. This way you will be able to be reborn into a much better place. Why do you still want to stay here and take over other people's bodies? You harm others as well as yourself." Student A fi nally awakened and repented. He followed my recitation of the Buddha's name and went across.

Perhaps he will come back to human life, and have an opportunity to get close to Buddha Dharma. His parents were very happy to hear about this and said that in the future they will start to eat a vegetarian diet and study Buddhism.

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"The Evil Young Man"

One day in 1995, in a guest room of WuTai Mountain, there were about 20 people who were waiting to ask questions to Master Mio Fa. When the session had started, everyone was taking turns asking their questions with their heavy accents from all over China. The answers given by Master Mio Fa were fi lled with wisdom. His answers sounded really light, but the meaning was very heavy and to the point. Everyone felt awakened by his wisdom, and their hearts fi lled with joy.

"Shifu, I have come from Taiwan, and have come to the mainland to treat my disease. Three years ago, I had one disease. It started out as a headache and then extended to my whole body. I can't tell which part of my body, but it bothers me because I couldn't eat or sleep well, and have no strength in my limbs. It's extremely painful. I went to so many hospitals in Taiwan, but none of them could tell me the cause. They just say that it's a nerve disorder. I went through taking needles, and taking many different kinds of medicine, but nothing helped. Taking so many types of medicine has added many different side effects. It has made things worse. This time I also went to Beijing, but they could not tell me the cause either. I feel so disappointed. Before I leave, I wanted to come here to pay respect to the Buddha. I heard somebody talking about you in the car, so I have come to visit you, and I hope that you can help me. I will pay however much you want."

The person who was talking looked to be in his 30’s, and had a very skinny build. Although he was a handsome man, the colour of his face looked very dark and grey. There was a very inexplicable evil energy surrounding him. That's why one would take notice of him among all the people in this big room.

Shifu began to speak. Although his voice was not very loud, it was very stern. "You're not my disciple! Do not call me Shifu! I am not a doctor. I don't know how to treat patients. Also, I really don't want your money. Please go away and look for someone else." Master Mio Fa commanded him to leave. This made everybody so surprised, because he had never done such things to anybody.

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The Taiwanese man must have felt really embarrassed. His grey and yellow face became red right away. He became very angry and said, "You're Buddhist! I thought that you promote compassion! Why are you taking care of other people's diseases but not mine? You even want to chase me away from here. I never made you angry, and I never upset you. Why do you do this to me?" All of a sudden, Master Mio Fa spoke to him with a very stern voice and he said, "You dare to beat, scold, and accuse your parents, who have nurtured you! How dare you upset me!" These words made this person feel very defl ated. He was stunned, and he sat on the chair in great fear. His face had become white now, and he became mute. Everybody in that room fi xed their eyes upon his face. The entire room became deadly silent.

After one minute, the man asked with a shaky voice, "How do you know my life? Nobody knows me here." "You don't need other people to tell me, because on your chest there are four big words: unfi lial against your parents!" said Shifu. The man was very shocked and unconsciously started to lower his head, looking down at his chest. Everybody's eyes at the same time moved to look at his chest, and people started to look back and forth, trying to see something, but they found nothing.

Suddenly he stood up. He rushed forward several steps towards Master Mio Fa and began to prostrate towards him, his head constantly hitting the ground. He used an extremely shaky voice and asked Master Mio Fa to help him. He said that ever since he was young, he had been an evil man. He stole other people's chickens, and would attack people's dogs. He fought with, accused and cursed at people. He has done all kinds of things. No matter how his parents tried to regulate him, he never listened. In the end he was suspended by his school and began to wander around on the street. After that he became connected to the mafi a and started to take advantage of other people, forcing them to pay money to him. He also did a lot of robbery against people from other provinces. He took advantage of young girls. He did many, many evil acts. Once he grew up, he was no longer scared of his parents. When his Father was very angry and wanted to beat him, he fought back and with only three punches and two kicks, he put his Father on the ground. His Mother begged him to stop doing all those

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evil things that caused him to lose his merit. He cursed at her and then pushed her to the ground. He threatened her and said, "If you continue doing this to me, I will burn your house into ashes!"

The Father became really angry and sick, lying in bed every day. Every day, the Mother needed to take care of the Father, but at the same time worry about her son. Soon those two old people passed away, one after the other. Now nobody could dare to regulate or take care of him anymore.

He knelt on the ground, talking to master Mio Fa about his story, in front of everyone. When mentioning the passing of his parents, he started to cry out loud. Such a stubborn rock had now been melted and subdued by Master Mio Fa. By looking at this, I felt very emotional. It seems that a good person or an evil person has written this on his/her own body. Shifu really had sharp eyes.

"Okay, Get up!" Master Mio Fa told him. "Now you call me Shifu, so you need to listen to what I have said to you. Can you do so?" He answered with joy, "Yes, yes, yes! I can do everything. I want to change. I want to repent and to repay all the evil things that I have done! I want to become a new person." "Good! Then I will accept you as my disciple," Master Mio Fa replied. The young man became very excited and started to repeatedly do prostrations, knocking his head against the ground. People in the room got up all at the same time and put their palms together. They were so joyful and so happy that they were able to encounter such amazing events that day. Master Mio Fa spoke to a young monk and said, "You bring him to the great hall, and teach him how to do proper prostrations. Ask him to do a thousand prostrations and come back here once he has fi nished."

After an hour and a half, the meeting had concluded. When the Taiwanese man came back and bowed to Shifu again, his energy looked so much better. He had already become a changed person. He said that he made a vow in front of the Buddha statue, that from now on he would take refuge to the Buddhist door. He will repent and change the past, leaning toward virtue. After he made his

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vow, he felt a huge relaxation that he had not experienced since a very young age. Everybody made praise to what had happened in front of their very eyes.

The Buddha said, "All sentient beings have Buddha nature and could become a Buddha. It is all because of their delusions that they cannot prove the Buddha nature”. He said, "The ocean of suffering is endless, but turning back your head, you will fi nd the shore," and, "Put down your killing knife, and you will become a Buddha in an instant." In front of our very eyes we saw this evil young man, who in the past had been against his parents, had been unfi lial, had suffered karmic retribution and all sorts of diseases. Now he was so fortunate that he was able to meet this great teacher, who was able to point out his past mistakes. He is very fortunate that he was able to make a vow that he will change. It is such great proof of what has been said in the Buddhist Sutra's. The Buddha is the great medical king, and the Buddha Dharma can cure 84,000 different kinds of diseases. Experience is the only standard to measure the truth. Once again, I have experienced the power of Buddha Dharma, which is in the human world. To be awakened, you don't need to leave the world. As long as we can with dedication fulfill and experience the Buddha Dharma in everyday life, we will be able to one day truly understand and believe the teachings of Buddhism, and understand that it is a mistake to speak falsely of Buddhism.

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Breaking Bones to Suck the Marrow

In the summer of 1996, a Taiwanese lady from a rich family had had a sinus infection for decades. This time she came to WuTai Mountain, in hopes that Master Mio Fa will fi nd the reason.

Shifu asked her, "Before you got married, your husband's family was quite poor. Is that right?" "Yes," she responded. "Then after you got married and had more children in your family, the situation got worse and your life became very hard. Sometimes you would buy fi sh, but then after you cooked them, you did not want them yourself. You gave the best part of the fish to your Mother-in-law, and gave the fish head and the fi sh tail to the children. As for the leftover bones, you did not want to waste them, so you put them in your mouth and ate all of them. Afterward, when your life had gotten better and you made more money, you still kept the old habit. Even now, when you are eating fi sh, you still chew the bones and suck the marrow. Is that right?" "Yes, Shifu. I got this habit because I thought that the fi sh bones were very tasty. But this is pure meat, and I thought that we could eat pure meat," she answered.

Master Mio Fa explained, "Eating pure meat is just a skillful method suitable for people who have just entered the Buddhagate. If you want everyone who is eating meat to stop, the majority of people would not be able to do so. If you want to prevent people from taking lives, then eating pure meat is just a skillful means. But along with practicing more and more, reciting more and more Sutra's and the Buddha's name, naturally you would not want to continue eating meat. From the Buddhism point of view, eating meat is killing sentient beings. You should stop doing so."

The lady asked, "But Shifu! What is wrong with eating fi sh bones?" Shifu said, "Meat and bones are all part of the animal’s body. We often use the saying "break the bones and suck the marrow" to express when someone has tremendous hatred, right? At the moment when killed, all animals’ hearts were fi lled with fear of death. They have so much hatred toward those who are killing them, and the one waiting to eat them. All sentient beings, in their deep consciousness, are very attached to their physical body, and do not want to leave it. Considering that, you are the one who is about to eat them.

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No matter if you use a knife to cut, deep fry, stir fry, or chew on an animal’s body, their consciousness will often feel so much suffering. When one breaks bones and sucks the marrow, or is actually killing the animals, one cannot kill them with one cut. This increases the suffering of all the animals, and makes them hate you much, much more. Because of this, very bad conditions are created in your own sick body. Therefore, if you believe in Buddhism, you should prefer to eat pure meat, but do not eat the animal’s organs, such as the heart, liver, belly, lung, brain, eyes, tongue and marrow. It may sound nutritious to you, but the more you eat these foods, the more the hatred relationship increases between you and the animal. After a long time, certain parts of your body will become diseased."

"Oh Shifu, this is so horrible. So, what can I do for my sinus infection?" she asked. He responded, "You need to repent sincerely, stop eating meat and do more virtuous actions such as liberating animals. Also, if you can recite the Earthstore Sutra, and dedicate the merit to all sentient beings in the Dharma realm, then you will receive the corresponding effect. When you release animals, you need to release the fi sh in a way that it is easy for them to live. Do not put them back in the fi sh pond, but lead them into the rivers, lakes and oceans, so that they can actually escape. You can release sparrows and pigeons, and all sorts of birds as well. If you have enough money in your family, you can choose to release turtles, and all wildlife, and then you will be able to receive great merit. The ones which have more intelligence will in this lifetime be able to return your favor. This is something that happens quite often.

"Do you have the confi dence to stop eating meat?" he asked her. "Yes, yes Shifu. I'll follow your advice," the lady responded.

Breaking bones and sucking marrow can cause diseases. This is the fi rst time in my life that I had heard of this, but I was deeply impressed, and that is the reason I wrote this down and put it in this book. Hopefully all practitioners will be able to pay attention in the future, and benefi t from this Dharma.

Later on, this rich lady from Taiwan found that her nose disease had been completely cured. She even took a trip back to WuTai Mountain to say thank you to Master Mio Fa.

•050•


Only Holding Discipline and Reciting the Buddha's Name Will Benefi t You

My neighbor Ms. Dong, who lives below me, had just moved into our apartment building a year ago. Ms. Dong is in her 40’s, and is a very extroverted and honest person. She suffered from diarrhea for about a decade. When she went to the hospital, they diagnosed that it was not dysentery. But each time that her stomach would ache, she had to go to the bathroom. This would happen four or fi ve times a day. Sometimes it even happened 10 or 20 times. No medicine could help her whatsoever, and the doctors said that it was the result of a chronic colon infection.

One day she came to my house for a visit, and asked me if I had any method to help her. I joked with her by telling her that I had a prescription. "If you are willing to follow my prescription, then I can guarantee that this will eradicate your problem. Once more, this doctor that I will recommend will never charge you." Ms. Dong treated this very seriously. She said, "Oh please! Please give me this prescription, I believe you! I would pay however much you ask, and even if this medicine is very bitter, I will take it."

I told her that this prescription did not cost a cent. I said to her, "First of all, I think that you should stop eating chicken, duck, fi sh and meat, because it is very obvious that your digestive system does not get along with meat and pungent flavors. That is why you have diarrhea every day. From now on, except for eggs, you should stop eating meat and all of the pungent plants, including onion, garlic, and leeks. Start from tonight. Before you go to bed, relax your body, sit up straight, close your eyes, and calm your mind down. In your heart, recite Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa for half an hour. If you do so with an earnest heart, then perhaps you will soon see a result. If after a month there is no benefi t to you, then you can regard what I said as nonsense, and you may go back to eating meat. It doesn't cost you a thing, and in fact will save you money by the end of the day. Do you want to try this?"

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"Well" , she answered. "I had a colleague before who on the fi rst and fi fteenth day of the Chinese calender, would always go to the temple to recite Sutra's. Every day he would burn incense at home. I think that his heart is very earnest, but his health is still not good. None of his diseases has been cured, even with the help of needles and medicine. So why is that?"

"Is he a vegetarian?" I asked her back. She said, "Somebody told him that as long as you believe in Buddhism, and as long as you don't kill, then you can eat the three-pure-meats. That's why he eats everything." So I asked her again, "If a person had lung disease caused by smoking too many cigarettes, and also has liver disease caused by drinking too much alcohol, is it so that if that person did not stop smoking and drinking, then his diseases would be cured just by taking needles and medicine?" She answered me saying, "Oh no. That wouldn't happen." "That's the same theory here", I reasoned. "If your diseases are caused by eating sentient beings’ meat, then you have to stop eating it. Then reciting Sutra's and the Buddha's name will have an effect. If the diseases are caused by not being filial to your parents or by other deviant actions, then you have to uproot those deviant actions, and then you ask for help from the Buddha, and blessing from the Buddha. His blessing will be effective to you. If a patient does not follows the doctor’s prescriptions, and completely uproot the source of the diseases, then no matter how good the doctor is and no matter how good his prescriptions are, it will not be helpful to you. Do you agree with me?" She answered, "Yes. I understand what you have said. From now on, I will follow what you tell me. This month, I will stop eating meat, and start to recite the Buddha's name every day. If this can cure my diseases, then from now on I will completely stop eating meat. I will follow in your footsteps by eating vegetarian food every day, and reciting the Buddha's name."

The next night, Ms. Dong knocked on my door with an excited look on her face. "Since I came home yesterday, my stomach pain has stopped!" she exclaimed. "During my dinner, I did not eat any meat. Before I went to sleep, I closed my eyes and started reciting the Buddha's name. At fi rst, my mind was very peaceful.

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After a while, I felt the heat coming up through my entire body. I was wondering if this was a reaction, so I became a little excited. I noticed a tingling sensation in my legs. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that an hour had passed! I touched my neck and my back, and I had sweat all over my body. It felt as though I had just fi nished a hot bath. I felt so relaxed. I can't believe that meditation, and reciting the Buddha's name felt so good. Until this minute, I have not yet had any diarrhea. I haven't experienced a feeling like this for the past decade. However, I haven't gone to the bathroom today. I don't think that this is good!"

I told her, "Your digestive system was not normal before. It couldn't hold onto anything. Now it has become normal, and it will take a little bit of time to fully recover. Maybe tomorrow you will get some sensation back."

The second day everything was back to normal, of course. Today, not only was Ms. Dong's diarrhea disease completely cured, but also her back pain caused by doing heavy work was completely cured as well. Now not only does she keep doing meditation and reciting the Buddha's name every day, she started to learn to recite the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra. Sometimes she would even bug me to teach her to recite the Great Compassion Mantra.

•053•


"Cause and Effect Like This"

My neighbor, Grandpa Chang, really likes to practice qi-gong, and he loves to use it to cure other peoples' diseases. However, he could never help himself with his dizziness which had occurred for about three or four years now. No medicine or treatment was able to help. To use his own words, he said that his dizziness always makes him feel as though he has drunk two or three alcoholic beverages.

By chance, he met Master Mio Fa, and he sincerely asked the old monk to help him by using some sort of power. Master Mio Fa laughed and said, "I don't know qi-gong at all, and I don't know how to cure diseases. All diseases happen for a reason, and I can tell you the reason for your dizziness. However, whether it can be cured or not is up to you. It is the theory of Buddhism to say that your fate is actually created by yourse\lf. For instance, if you don't understand cause and effect, and have made a mistake resulting in great distress to yourself and others, then you may meet a knowledgeable adviser who in an instant tells you the reason why the distress was caused. By understanding this, you are able to correct your mistake, and your distress and suffering will spontaneously disappear. Therefore, Buddhism is not to teach people to be superstitious towards the Buddha’s, Bodhisattva's, or any great masters. It is to help everybody gain wisdom, and to use their own power to change their own fate."

Grandpa Chang smacked his head as if he had a thought in his mind. Master Mio Fa continued to speak. "As far as your dizziness is concerned, it is caused by the fact that three or four years ago, you harmed a family of rats. Is that true?" Grandpa Chang quickly said, "Oh yes! That's true. Shifu, you are amazing! Three years ago in my storage room, I saw a family of newborn little rats. There were about six or seven of them. I was so scared and timid, and didn't know how to kill them. So I put them in a shoe box and shook it with all my strength. After awhile I thought that they had all died, so I threw the whole box into the garbage can. Does this have anything to do with my dizziness?" "Yes," Master Mio Fa responded. "That family of rats was not killed by you. They became extremely

•054•


dizzy from you shaking the box! This is the cause and this is the effect, and is also the reason why you have your dizziness." Grandpa Chang said, as if he was talking to himself, "You're so right. My dizziness started right after that. My goodness! It is good that those rats did not die. If they all died, how do I know they would not have come back to look for repayment for their lives?" Master Mio Fa said, "Yes. Killing will reduce your lifespan. Or it will cause you in this lifetime to encounter disasters and calamities. Another reason animals are killed in this lifetime is that they have planted those causes. That's why they received such retribution. But in this lifetime, we kill them and then we owe them another debt of life. If this cause and effect keeps circling, then the hatred will constantly continue, and there would never be an end. That's the reason we mundane people continue to stay in these six realms, it never ends. Only after we understand Buddha Dharma are we able to deeply believe in cause and effect, and thus are able to stop evil and turn it into virtuous acts, eventually leaving the bitter ocean of life and death. How's that? Do you still want to kill in the future?"

Grandpa Chang listened so attentively. When Master Mio Fa asked him he replied quickly and said, "I would not do so in the future." Than all of a sudden he became very joyful and said to Master Mio Fa, "Shifu. It's amazing! I now feel my head is totally clear, and my dizziness is gone!" All the people in the room began to laugh. However, Grandpa Chang continued. "Rats are evil animals! They harm people's property, and sometimes they even pass on diseases. If we don't kill them, then in the future they will go crazy and become a disaster." Shifu said, "Yes, but nature itself is a complete unity. Bigger to the universe, small to the dust. Every life form has its own rule of operation. Each has its own time of existence. People have birth, aging, disease and death. Materials have forming, abiding, decaying and emptiness. It doesn't matter if it is mountains, streams, oceans, flowers, dew or other forms, all have their time of decaying. But life, death, decaying or creation all have their own rules. If you disregard the rules of nature and randomly break them apart, it creates unimaginably evil retribution. For instance, nowadays, for a very short-sighted benefit, we blindly explode mountains to take the stone. This will cause landslides, and cause the forests to

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be destroyed. And when we take great amounts of water from underground, then this will cause the ground to sink. Haven't you seen that because humans have destroyed forests and killed animals, many of the animals are becoming extinct? On one side, human beings work so hard to preserve those endangered animals, but they cannot fi x the broken chain. On the other hand, the rats and all other harmful animals grow in increasing numbers. Not only do they have a stronger ability to procreate, but they also have antibodies against all the poisons. Rats do have their own enemies, for instance snakes, night owls, and skunks. But then those enemies are killed by us humans, and we make them into leathers, feathers and all kinds of material used for clothing. Therefore this entire kind of disaster is actually caused by humans." Master Mio Fa stopped for a moment, and then continued.

"I can teach you a method to get rid of rats. You can give this a try. First of all, you should understand that rats are also sentient beings who give birth and nurture their young. Just like cows, horses, cats and dogs. They do understand human language. Once you have understood this, then you cannot kill. You can stand in those places where the rats usually come and go, and prepare some leftover food for them. Say in a very quiet tone: ‘In the past I did not understand Buddhism. I killed a lot of rats, and I understand that killing is an evil act. I have decided that I will not kill in the future, and I will recite Sutra's for all of the rats that I have killed. Please, rats! Do not destroy all the things in my family again!’ If with sincerity you do so, for sure in a short time period, you will see results. And maybe one day, their whole family will move away."

We really learned something new from Shifu's speech. After that, this method proved very powerful and effective. Even when some people had a great amount of ants in their home, they would use this method, and it actually worked. You don't believe this? Okay, so go ahead and give it a try!

•056•


Taking Out the Tumor by Drilling a Hole

A tall man in his 40’s came and asked some questions to Master Mio Fa. Three years ago, because of constant headaches, he went to the hospital where a doctor found that he had a huge tumor in his brain, which was putting pressure on the nerves. The doctors made a hole in his skull and removed the tumor. A year from then, they found that another tumor grew in his skull. They had no choice but to perform another surgery on him. And today, when he went to the hospital for a review, they found that the tumor had come back again. The doctor said to him that his head can no longer withstand more drilling to remove the tumor, that it would be very dangerous to his life. He did not want to die, and he felt that this disease was too bizarre. Even if he was going to die, he wanted to know why. That is the reason he came, to ask Master Mio Fa for an answer.

Master Mio Fa asked him what his job was. "I work for a company in the security department." Shifu asked, "Have you ever worked in Shanghai and killed many fi sh? Many times you nailed the fi sh on top of a piece of board. You put those live fi sh there so that you could scrape off their scales and cut out their guts." "Yes Shifu," the man answered. "I used to be a sailor in the navy for three years. Very often we had missions at sea, and we had to eat fi sh as our main meal. We would catch fi sh the same day and eat it fresh. Sometimes the fi sh were very big, longer than one meter. They would jump around, and there was no way that we could stabilize them. So I would often use an extremely long nail, and nail the fi sh’s head to the deck, to make my work a lot easier. Shifu you are amazing, you can see my past!"

Shifu said, “Because you have done this so many times, putting nails into the living fi shes’ heads, that is the reason that when you are sick today, you need to open holes in your head as well. Those living fi sh were nailed to the boat by you, and they would not die for awhile. While they were still alive, you began scraping off their scales and cutting open their bellies. It is very, very cruel. This retribution

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has to be returned. I am afraid that it is not enough having made a few holes in your skull, to return the retribution. Death is not so scary. The scariest thing is living a life that is worse than death, and maybe in the future, not having a good death.”

Although Master Mio Fa spoke very slowly and very softly, what he said was as powerful as the lightning that awakens everyone who is still dreaming.

"Shifu, you are so powerful. Please help me!" the man pleaded. "Amitoufo!" Shifu said, with a kind look on his face. "The Bodhisattva's are very scared of the cause, but the mundane people are very scared of the effect. You have to know that every single one of us eats our food only to feed ourselves. Your own life depends only on you. You have made such a great mistake in the past. You are the only one that can help yourself. If you can repent with an earnest heart and from this point on, stop killing, become a vegetarian and recite the Buddha's name, then there is a chance that you might recover."

Two years later, I met the lay person who brought the tall person to see Master Mio Fa, and he said that this tall man went back the same day, began the practice of prostrating to the Buddha, and started reciting the Earthstore Sutra, at the request of Master Mio Fa. Also, he went to the temple, and set up a memorial tablet for all the fi sh he had killed in the past. Until the end of his life, he did not stop reciting the Buddha's name. The sad thing is that when he passed away, he was not even 50 years old. I felt really sad as well. Although reciting the Buddha's name and practicing Buddhism had stopped the tall man from suffering from his disease, he had killed so many animals in the past that it had shortened his lifespan. As strong as the Buddha's power is, it is not greater than sentient beings’ karma. It seems that only when we sincerely repent, cut off our killing karmic effect as soon as possible by no longer eating meat and pungent plants, that only then can we seek happiness and a long lifespan.

•058•


"Pig Feet Stew"

If you don't want to become sick, you need to have your mind purified. All sentient beings have emotions. If you want to protect your own life, protect them fi rst.

One female lay person came and spoke to Master Mio Fa. "My Mother in Taiwan is very healthy. The only problem she has is that whenever she walks around outside, in less than a hundred meters her feet and her ankles are very tired and sore. She has to sit down and take a break. She has gone to many, many famous hospitals both in Taiwan and the United States, but none of them could give her an answer. I want to ask you, Shifu. What is the cause for this?"

“Hmm. Is it true that your Mother likes to eat pig feet stew?” “Yes, Shifu! the lady replied. “She likes to eat pig feet stew every day. Otherwise, she could not get to sleep at night.” As she said this, she became teary eyed and very emotional. Shifu said, "Ask your Mother to stop eating pig feet. If she can repent, and start eating vegetarian and practicing Buddhism, then things will get much better in the future."

The lady then asked, "Why can't she eat pig feet?" Master Mio Fa told her, "Cause leads to effect. People who often eat fi sh eyes will have eye diseases. People who like to eat chicken necks will often have a problem around the spine area of their neck. When people enjoy eating pork bellies, they will often have a stomach ache. The Chinese believe that whatever organ has diseases, you should eat that organ to help cure it. It is such a mistake, and is totally wrong. It is harmful for the self and others. It is just for a moment's pleasure; when you harm others, you eventually harm yourself, and the retribution will be multiplied."

•059•


"Egg Pancake"

One afternoon in 1993, I heard my doorbell ring. When I opened the door, I saw a lady in her 50's standing there. Behind her there were two girls in their 20's, and they were carrying a big bag together. I asked them who they were looking for, and they said, "We are looking for you." I said, "I don't know you." However, they made it sound as if they knew me very well. The older lady asked the girls to come straight into my courtyard. Without my invitation, she opened the door and entered my living room. She asked the girls to put down the bags, and they began to prostrate in front of the Buddha statue in my living room. After they fi nished their prostrations, I still didn't know who they were.

She started to laugh, and then said, "A year ago I came to your house. Do you remember? I am the one who had the business selling egg pancakes." I said, "Oh, right. I'm sorry. I didn't realize who you are. Take a seat. How is your back now?" "It's all cured, and that’s why today I brought two of my daughters, and have brought a bag of rice. We've come here just to say thank you. I know that you would never take a gift from anyone else, but you have to take this bag of rice. If it were not for you and your Master, I would not be here today," She said. Then she bowed down and tried to prostrate to me, and I stopped her. My memory brought me back one year ago...

A year ago, a lay person brought her to my house. Her husband had a problem with his back. He had a herniated disk, and had been in bed for six years. Although she took good care of him, he could still not get up and walk on his own. A half year ago, he passed away. She couldn't believe that now, she herself had the same disease. Whenever she would think of how much suffering her husband went through, and how much money they had spent on his care, she thought that maybe it was better to die rather than have this drag on, and put a burden on her two daughters. Therefore, she refused to go to a hospital, or take any kind of medication. Her daughters understood what she was thinking. They came to the temple and bowed in front of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and asked for help. This happened to be seen by a lay person who had a warm heart, and used to be their neighbour. When he saw this, he asked what the situation was,

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and became very sympathetic toward them. He knew that Master Mio Fa was staying at my house, so he brought the daughters and their mother to my house, and they asked Master Mio Fa for a solution.

After hearing the story, Master Mio Fa asked the woman, "Is your business related to using eggs?" The woman was very surprised and said, "That's right! My business is making egg pancakes. Sometimes I will use more than 10 kilograms of eggs in a day. But what does this have to do with my disease?" He then asked, "Is there any money that you shouldn't have made?" "Well, I work hard to make money," this lady replied, though she did not understand what Master Mio Fa meant. Once I heard that her business was making egg pancakes, I understood right away, and said to her, "This is the time when we have to fi nd the reason why you got sick. Please excuse my straightforward honesty. Is it true that you purposely buy the small eggs, in which each kilogram would contain about 10 or 11 eggs, instead of 7 or 8 larger eggs? But you sell those small eggs, using the same price as you would for the bigger eggs, and then you keep the difference."

"Everyone does that!" she exclaimed. "That's the only way that we could make any money. Sometimes the customers know about this, but nobody really cares." Master Mio Fa responded, "But, based on Buddhist theory, this is greediness and it is cheating. From each egg you make a little bit more money from people. It is like water slowly dripping through a large stone. The small evil will add up into a big evil, and this is the cause of your disease." "But my husband had never done anything like this. What caused his back problem?" She asked. Master Mio Fa answered patiently. "The same kind of disease doesn't mean that they were all caused by the same reason. For instance, if one were to have a fever, then any of the infections in the body could cause the fever. You probably can ask if it is true that all people who sell egg pancakes will have the same spinal disease. This is not the case as well. Because everyone in endless lifetimes has very very complicated cause and effect, and everyone’s body is different. Sometimes when we read newspapers, we see that people have died in an accident. However, sometimes we hear that even though a car has hit someone, those people would not even have a scratch on their body. There are many cases like that

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where people escape deadly accidents or other situations, which can be hard to understand. As a matter of fact, those are all related to the person's individual merit. A person who has good individual merit will be able to escape from disasters. Making money in business is natural, but our ancestors said that when a good man makes money, he will fi nd it in a proper way. You rip people off, and cheat them in order to make money. This is non virtuous. It's just like having a tiger as a pet. It is so dangerous in the future. Now you may be making a great deal of money but in the future, you will need to take a great deal of medicine. Do you accept this concept?"

The woman responded, "Shifu, I now understand what you mean. In the future I will not take advantage of other people, and in the future I will not be greedy about money anymore."

Because she had no education, Master Mio Fa taught her to repent and to recite "Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa (bow to the Buddha of compassion)", and asked her to fi nd a Buddha statue so she could stay at home and worship and recite the Buddha's name. He also asked her to release animals and told her it would be possible for her to recover from this disease. Before she had even left my home, her back already felt so much more relaxed. This gave her a lot of confi dence towards Buddhism. I can't believe that a year has passed, and that her disease has been completely cured. That is why she had come to my house, to pay gratitude.

Seeing that I refused to accept her rice, she became very emotional and said, "Ever since I left your home, every day I contemplated all the bad things that I had done in my life and felt much regret. The second day I got a Guan Yin statue and I have worshiped it since then. Every day I would burn incense and prostrate. Sometimes I would do 300 prostrations. Not only did my back stop hurting, but it became stronger and stronger every day. However, one day for some reason, my back pain returned to the way it was previously. I could barely stand up. My kids convinced me to go to the hospital, but I told them it was useless, and I reminded them that their dad died even after going to the hospital. I should listen to the Master, because I believe him. If I can be cured, I believe

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him, and if I cannot be cured, then I believe him too, because it is all caused by my own offences. If I could not stand up and walk on my own, I would lie in my bed and do my prostrations. I did this for a month. One night I had a dream. I dreamed that Guan Yin Bodhisattva appeared in front of me. So right away I began to prostrate in front of him, and the Bodhisattva spoke to me and said, ‘You say my name every day. Is there anything you want me to help you with?’ I said that because of my greediness with money, I had a herniated disk. ‘Can I ask you please, can you help me to cure it?’ I asked the Bodhisattva. ‘If I can be cured, I vow that I will worship the Buddha and recite the Buddha's name every single day.’ The Bodhisattva put down his hand, touched my back and said, ‘You don't have any disease. If you did, then how could you bow in front of me?’ Then he disappeared. I was so excited, and I yelled the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. My daughters woke and came into my room, and calmed me down. All of a sudden, they started to yell with joy. ‘Mom how can you be sitting up now?’ they exclaimed. Then I realized that I was actually sitting in my bed. Thinking about the dream that I just had, I noticed that my back felt really warm and very comfortable, and I realized that my disease was really cured. I couldn't stop crying, as tears burst from my eyes. I told my daughters about the encounter I had in my dream, and they couldn't believe it. I asked them to help me stand up. I took a couple of steps, and had no pain in my entire back. The only thing was that my legs felt a little bit soft which I knew was because I had been lying in bed for more than a month. The three of us were so excited that night, and none of us could sleep. My disease was truly cured, and my heart fi lled up with gratitude toward Guan Yin Bodhisattva.

“At the same time, I began thinking about my late husband whose ashes were buried in our hometown. If he could have been as lucky as I was and encountered Buddha Dharma, then I'm sure he would have been helped as well. So I decided to go home and visit his burial ground and let him know my story of recovering from this disease. After going to his burial ground, my relatives asked me to stay for a few days. One day, when I was walking around the rice paddy fi elds, I saw that a lot of rice grains had scattered around the paddy fi eld. I asked the people from the village why nobody had picked them up. They told me that because peoples' lives were easier now, nobody wanted to pick up those loose pieces under the hot sun. Then I asked them if I could pick them up. They

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said, ‘Of course, otherwise we would have to burn them.’

"I felt it was a waste to burn all this food, so I spent a week picking up four large piles of rice. From this I made 98 kilograms of rice, which is why I brought 50 here to you. This is not a gift for you. It is to demonstrate to you that my back is cured. Imagine how many times I had to bend over to pick up all of this rice. It is the Buddha and Bodhisattva who had given me this second chance at life. I asked my daughters to recite the Gatha in Guan Yin's Universal Gate, and dedicate this to sentient beings. Giving you this bag of rice is to allow you to join in this happiness with us."

It took me awhile to make this lady agree to send this rice to the temple. I said to her, “Buddha Dharma is the property of the Buddha. I can't receive any gift from you, so please send this rice to the temple and make an offering to the monastics, because they are the representative of the Buddha in the world. Plus even Master Mio Fa is a monastic as well."

•064•


Take Small Advantage and Lose Big DealsA girl in her late 20’s came to Master Mio Fa to ask for his help with her deaf ear. She said that her ear problem sometimes gets worse, while other times it gets better. After the hospital examined her, they could not fi nd anything wrong. But she was still having problems with her ear, and could not hear properly.

Shifu asked, "What is your job? Why is your ear stuffed with coins?" The girl looked very confused and couldn't answer, and I explained to her, "Maybe that money does not belong to you, but you were greedy, and took small advantages, and took the money for yourself. The reason why you have hearing problems is that you are greedy and take advantage of your situation just for a bit of money. It is not that you really have money stuffed in your ear. Think carefully. Is this something true?"

She answered right away and said that she worked in an oil company as a cashier. Every day when she closed her till, there would always be two or three pennies here and there left over. She thought that it was only two or three pennies, and that they were only the small coins that people didn't want. She needed the coins for the bus coming to and from work. She thought that this was not greediness or corruption. I told her that this was not corruption, but this is greediness. She was embarrassed and knocked her head. Shifu asked her, "In the future, how will you deal with money?" She answered quickly, "This is truly taking small advantage and it is a big deal. In the future, I will not be so greedy." "Great!"

Right after Shifu stopped speaking, all of a sudden the girl looked very surprised. "My ears are getting much better now!" However, Shifu answered. "Yeah, there is no money in your ear, but there are still sausages in your ear! What's going on?" The girl was so shocked, that she couldn't close her mouth. "Mama Mia! How could you tell? Sometimes when I would give less than the full amount of money back to the customers, or I made mistakes and would charge too much. If the money was more than a dollar or two, sometime I would use this money to by some sausages for my lunches. It is just like adding one more dish to my

•065•


lunch! That is another offense?"

"You are a cashier. You shouldn't make mistakes. Plus, when you do make a mistake and have money left over, you should give it back to the company and you shouldn't keep it for yourself!" She knocked her head, "OK, you're right. Everybody says God has eyes. It's true. God really does have eyes. In the future, I will certainly stop doing these things." Shifu said, "You have to make sure that you will fulfi ll your promise."

"Hey Shifu! My ear is completely cured now!" She started screaming with joy. I answered, "That's because you just repented and made a vow. Your aspiration is more powerful than anything from the external world." She was so happy. But then she asked, "Those couple of years, my eyes would always feel so sketchy, and I didn't notice any calcium deposits. But the insides were always red. Is that also caused by some mistake that I made?"

"Now you can start to look into yourself. That's great, because now I can see that there is lots of laundry detergent in your eyes!" Shifu answered without thinking. She said, "Eya! Now I know! We are an oil company. Sometimes the soaps were not good enough to clean up the oil on our hands, therefore every day at work we would have to use laundry detergent to wash our hands. You know, our department is not so busy. We only have a few females in our offi ce, so sometimes we would use the detergent to wash our clothes. Sometimes we would even bring our laundry from home into the office to clean it, and sometimes we would even bring our linens, curtains and blankets into the offi ce so this way we would save time from doing these chores at home and at the same time save our laundry detergent and water." Shifu said, "By doing so, not only did you take advantage of the properties of the company, but you also took advantage of the time that you were supposed to work. This means that you took the money you should not have. Is this true?"

"Yes." She answered. "Why did I never think that this was an offense? I can't believe how bad I am." When she said that, tears burst from her eyes. I couldn't

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stop saying to her, "Before I understood Buddha Dharma, I was just like you. In the Earthstore Sutra, it says that all the stirring and movement in the mind of a human are offenses. We are living in the desireful realm. All sentient beings more or less have the habit of greediness, hatred and ignorance. Your diseases are caused by greediness, which is caused by ignorance. See? Once you have repented, your diseases have started to cure in an instant." Master Mio Fa spoke further to her, "In the future, you will recite more Sutra's to grow your wisdom. At work, you will contribute and fi nd a way to make up for all the things that you took from your company."

Before the girl left, her eyes felt much better, and her heart was filled with respect and aspiration toward Buddha Dharma. From this story of cause and effect, I learned a lot. It seems as if I am helping others, but in fact what has happened to them has deeply educated me as well. I compare myself now to how I was in the past, and this helps me to give rise to the deep heart of repentance. I am older than she. The time that I have been creating karma is much longer, and my greediness is greater as well. I made more mistakes. This girl is so opened minded, and she is very extroverted as well as very innocent. However, compared to her, I have a bigger temperance and I am very ignorant. If I don't practice very hard and quickly, I can see my future. It is very scary. Those stories around me really encourage me to study and practice hard. Time will not wait for me.

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"Infected Sore's"

In early 1994, a lay person, Mrs. Jiang, made a phone call to me. She said that she had a colleague from the past and this colleague’s husband had a disease which caused him to have many infected sores all over his body. The pimples all over his body had broken, and the puss came out. This made him really, really itchy and irritated. He went through both Chinese and Western medical treatments, none of which seemed to help. He was a good looking man in the past, but now he had no choice but to stay at home and wait to die.

Mrs. Jiang really empathized with their situation, so she asked if she could bring this couple to see Master Mio Fa, and see if he would be able to help. However, when she mentioned this to her colleague, the colleague said that her husband’s whole body was infected. It was very gross and stinky. There was no way that she would allow him to go to other people's homes. They don't want to bother other people.

The second day, the lady called again and said that all of the sores on her husband’s body were mysteriously cured through the night, and had formed scabs. This had never happened before. Maybe this was the help of the heavenly king, and maybe it was his time to be cured. So Mrs. Jiang asked me if Master Mio Fa was still in my house, and if it was okay to bring the couple to see him.

The third night, they fi nally came. From the outside, the colleague's husband was a very good looking man. He was really tall, about six foot three. He actually did not look sick. When they came into the house, they bowed to Master Mio Fa, and begged him to have compassion and pity toward them. When they sat down, the wife quickly asked what the reason was for her husband to be cured in one night. His body is not itchy any more, and he feels like a healthy person. What’s going on?

Master Mio Fa asked the wife, "Is it true that you went to a temple and begged for your husband's recovery from Guan Yin Bodhisattva?" "Yes, Shifu. That

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was half a year ago. I saw his disease get worse and worse every day, and that's why I went to a temple and begged for Guan Yin Bodhisattva's help. I made a vow at that time, that if Guan Yin Bodhisattva could help cure this disease, then our whole family would become Buddhists. We would bow and worship the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's every day."

Shifu said, "Your husband's disease wasn't caused by Guan Yin Bodhisattva. He caused it himself, through the mistakes that he made before. It only helps when he himself understands, repents and vows that he would not do those things again. The reason that he came here was indeed because of the merit you generated by worshiping Guan Yin Bodhisattva. It means that you both do have a deep root with Buddha Dharma. It's not that the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's are seeking your worship. Their only hope is that in the future you will correct the deviance and return to normal once his disease is cured."

Out of the blue, Shifu stopped his speech, turned towards the husband and said, "Do you agree with me?" "Oh yes, Shifu. You are right." Shifu continued, "Before understanding Buddha Dharma, everyone will make mistakes. Or even evil actions. If you are able to repent what you have done in the past, then perhaps your disease can be cured." The man replied, "Oh Shifu. I am a man who believes in dignity. I have never done anything to harm other people. Well, sometimes I did argue with people or occasionally get into fi ghts." Shifu said that he wanted to have an individual conversation with him, and he asked Mrs. Jiang to bring the wife into the other room and watch TV.

At that time, Shifu asked the husband again, and he insisted that he had not done anything bad in the past, and even said, "Shifu, let me know what you know, but I don't." Master Mio Fa made a big sigh and said, "You really hold on to your deviance and don't want to wake up. Only because your wife had begged for help from the Buddha, let me ask you one thing. When you were in your 20’s, you met a girl who was shorter than you, who had an oval shaped face, very fair skin colour, with two long braids. She used to wear a shirt with a small blue fl ower print which you bought for her. Is that true?" Master Mio Fa's voice was very slow, but very solemn. Now this diseased husband’s face became really,

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really pale. He became horrifi ed, and he stared at Master Mio Fa and said, "How do you know her? She was one of my classmates in the past." "So what was the relationship between you and her?" Master Mio Fa asked. "Well we were dating for a while," the man answered.

"No! That's not true! You cheated on her, and you raped her and then abandoned her. Is that true?" Master Mio Fa's voice became really stern. The diseased man was suddenly stunned. He bowed down in front of Master Mio Fa right away. He began to speak quietly, and you could hear the tension in his voice. "Please Shifu, don't tell this to my wife. I was in love with the other girl but later.." Master Mio Fa cut him off and said, "Later? Later there were many girls who were raped and cheated on by you. Until you had gotten sick, you still tried to hook up with other people's wives! Is this true?"

Now the diseased husband completely lay on the ground on his stomach, and his entire body started to shake. He kept mumbling, "Yes, I'm evil. I will never do this again." I was deeply stunned again. This goes to show that you can never get away from the offenses that you have done. Although his great evil action had never been punished by the law, when you look at him now, it looks as if he has received the death penalty and lost his soul. At this time, Master Mio Fa looked exactly like a judge, and he ordered him to "Stand up! and sit down! You not only harmed other people's wives and daughters, but you even cheated on your parents and on your wife. You are not honest and you are not pious. I can even say that you are doing killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and false speech, all of them. If you don't change your behavior, very soon your body will become very rotten and you will die. Afterward there is no doubt that you will drop into hell. The sick man again bowed in front of Master Mio Fa, and started to prostrate. He had tears in his eyes and promised again that in the future he would never do such things. He wished that Master Mio Fa would allow him to become one of his disciples, and give him an opportunity to become a Buddhist and to change his past. He begged Master Mio Fa.

Master Mio Fa cocked his head slightly, and asked the man to stand up. Then he asked me to let Mrs. Jiang and the wife come back into the room, and gave a

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teaching on the fi ve precepts and ten virtuous actions, and on repentance. Both the husband and the wife listened attentively. They did not leave until the sun had set.

Later on, I heard that the husband’s disease became much better after meeting Master Mio Fa, and very soon he was cured. He started to use his good skill as a tailor and became a director for a big clothing manufacturer. Until this day, both the husband and the wife recite Sutra's every day for no less than two hours, and they became a beautiful Buddhist family.

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Reading More Sutra’s to Increase Your WisdomOne female lay person asked a question to Master Mio Fa. She said that she has had heart disease for about three or four years. Although she underwent treatment at the hospital, it still returns. She is so young and has suffered so much because of this disease, that she feels very depressed toward life. The woman believes that one will be able to recover from all diseases if one can stop eating meat, stop killing and recite the Buddha's name every day, so she has already taken refuge in the Buddhagate. However, she wonders when her disease would be completely cured.

Master Mio Fa put a big smile on his face and asked her, "You're not a vegetarian, are you?" Oh yes, Shifu! I am a vegetarian," she answered. "Hmm. For some reason, I'm feeling that you are still eating fi sh, shrimp and crabs. You especially enjoy eating big shrimps. Not only do you enjoy it yourself, but you even introduce others to the restaurants, and propagate to others that they make the best shrimp in this restaurant. Is this true?" Master Mio Fa asked.

Tears began flowing down the face of this lay person. "Oh Shifu. I did not think that fi sh, shrimp and crabs were meat! I had always thought that I was a vegetarian." "If fi sh, shrimp and crabs are not meat, then what are they?" the monk asked her. "Are they vegetables? Buddhists should stop eating all meat, as well as all pungent plants, which include onion, garlic, leeks, red onions, and Chinese leek, as well as all vegetables like this which have a strong smell.

"The word meat has meat on the side. All animals have life, with chi, and blood. So how can you say that fi sh, shrimp and crabs are not meat? If you can quit those foods, you can fully recover from your disease," Master Mio Fa concluded. The woman responded, "Good Shifu. From now on I will stop eating all animal meat."

Shifu said, "As a Buddhist, not only should you stop killing, stop eating meat, stop smoking and drinking, but you should not introduce people to places to do these

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same things. Furthermore, you should never do business selling these things, as this is also an offense. It is just the same as if you don't smoke marijuana, but you sell marijuana to others to smoke. Those are the same offenses. From this point on, you should repent your past."

"Shifu, now I understand completely. Not only will I stop eating meat, I would never recommend for others to eat it again," she said.

Seeing this situation, I couldn't help but ask her, "How do you feel about your heart now?" Once she understood why I asked her, she answered with joy, "Wow! Amazing! I feel so good now. I haven't felt this good for a long, long time."

Believing Buddhism and eating a vegetarian diet not only will help you to recover from your diseases, but more importantly, help you understand and experience the truth of the universe and of human life. Books such as the Heart Sutra, the Earthstore Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra and the Emperor Liang's Repentance are ones you must read. Also the Surangama Sutra is one that can open up your wisdom. You need to read this book, and then you can fi nd out what the distance is between you and the true wisdom of the Dharma. Master Mio Fa's teaching made everyone feel as though they had learned a lot, and their hearts were fi lled with great joy.

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"Ant Nest and Our House"A couple with their two teenage sons came to see Master Mio Fa, and asked him a diffi cult question. Three years ago, they moved from Taiwan to a new country. At fi rst they rented an apartment as a temporary place to stay, and they planned to buy a new house once they had found a proper one. But for some reason, the four of them could never agree on a house. Either the husband liked the house and his wife didn't, or it was the other way around. Sometimes the kids were against a certain house. After several failures, they finally came to an agreement, and then the seller changed his/her mind. Since then it has been three years, and they still haven't found a house to buy. This was impossible to understand.

Because both of them believed in Buddhism, they were wondering if it was caused by their lack of merit, so they chose to take this opportunity on their summer vacation to come to WuTai Mountain to ask Master Mio Fa about this.

Master Mio Fa smiled at those two teenage boys and said, "You naughty boys! Don't you like to take apart the ants’ nests?" When Shifu asked this, all four of them started to laugh. The mother said, "Oh yes. Since they were very young, they both liked to destroy the ants' nests, using the excuse that they were researching the structure of the nests, and that the inside contained so much knowledge. Some parts have the palace for the queen, some have a very structured army camp and some have a huge food storage compartment. Once they began playing around with the ants’ nests, they would even forget to eat.”

"The two of you would often break apart the ants’ nest. You destroyed the house that they had been working hard to build. Not only that, but you destroyed all the food that they worked so hard to move to their house. You made all the ants become homeless. This is the reason that you can't settle into your own house now, and this is the early retribution. If you don't repent now, in the future even though you may have your own house, it will be destroyed by an unexpected event. Although you have lots of money, in the future it will be diffi cult for you to avoid running around for survival. You two as parents have

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taken refuge in the Buddhagate for so many years, when you saw them doing these things, how could you not stop them? ‘If a son is uneducated, his dad is to blame’. The retribution of all causes and effects are like the shadows which constantly follow you. You need to repent quickly, and recite Sutra's, dedicating them to the thousands and thousands of ants that were harmed by you. By doing this, perhaps in the future you will be able to avoid disasters. Do you understand me?" said the Master.

After the parents received the criticism from Master Mio Fa, they answered with a shameful look. "Shifu, we know we are wrong. Although we have taken refuge for so many years, we thought that as long as we recite the Buddha's name and are vegetarian, then things would be okay. We never paid too much attention to what our kids were playing with. From now on we will go back home and repent in front of the Buddha. We will prostrate to the Emperor Liang's Repentance and to the Great Compassion Mantra. Can we do that?"

The Master said, "Good indeed. Good indeed. Remember that the Buddha said that at every moment, all beings have the Buddha nature. They are all able to become a Buddha, so remember this lesson."

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"The Faithful Action Of The Rubber Tree"It was 1994, when I still lived in a detached house. Until the mid-moon festival, the fl owers and the grass in my backyard still fl ourished beautifully. When you fi rst enter the door, on the left side is my offi ce and the living room. Outside the window there was a big rubber tree. On the desk in my offi ce was a pot with a really, really beautiful bamboo plant.

That afternoon, my son who was in high school, did not have class. After lunch, he went right into the office to do his homework. I stayed in my bedroom, reading Sutra's and books, and at the same time, waiting for Master Mio Fa to pay a visit. Around 4 o'clock, the door bell rang. I went out and let Master Mio Fa, accompanied by his assistant, into my offi ce. My 16-year-old son bowed to Master Mio Fa, and then continued with his homework. After settling in, Master Mio Fa asked my son, "Is it true that your feet are stinky?" My son looked very embarrassed and his face went flush. "Yes, since I was about 12 or 13 years old, my feet started to become really stinky. Even scrubbing them really well never helps. Actually a half hour ago, my Father asked me to open the door, to let some fresh air in. How can you still smell the odor? I'm so sorry! Maybe I should move into a different room." Master Mio Fa laughed, and stopped him. He said, "I did not smell anything, really. Just now, when you came and bowed to me, all of the plants in your home also came to bow to me. The pot of bamboo in your offi ce began accusing you in front of me. It said to me that this whole afternoon, you have only sat here daydreaming or playing around and you did not do homework. It also said that it really can't stand your smelly feet."

Listening to Master Mio Fa, my son was completely stunned. His face now looked dark red, and he was very embarrassed. He looked at me, perhaps afraid that I would scold him. I smiled at Shifu and said "This kid, he's been like this ever since elementary school. When I went to his school for meetings, his teachers said that during class, he would sit there, upright. It looked as though he was listening very attentively, but even when they would call out his name three times, he couldn't hear! I just can't change him, no matter what I do. The

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only good thing is that he gets good grades. But his feet! They are so stinky that you can smell them eight miles away! What can I do?"

While I was talking, Shifu kept his eyes closed. Afterwards he said, "The rubber tree in your backyard just calmed the bamboo down and said that he could help. He asked me to tell you that you can use two yellow leaves from his tree and just go through such and such process, and this way your son’s foot odor can be cured."

Although I know from the Earthstore Sutra that flowers, plants, trees and all vegetation have consciousness, hearing that the plants can actually have a conversation made me very curious, and I asked, "When you see the rubber tree and the bamboo talking, how does it look?" Shifu said, "The rubber tree looks like an adult in long green robes, and the bamboo is also dressed in green and looks like a handsome young man. But a lot of fl owers in your backyard have the image of young girls, who are dressed very colorfully. This could just be an illusion, or it could be an information communication. This is a secret of nature. The Buddha said all things with form are delusion, and in the Heart Sutra it says that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. So are our feelings, thoughts, actions, volitions and consciousness. Therefore, this is a lesson about not attaching to form."

But I was still attached to that, and I continued to ask, "Well, if plants have consciousness, if I cut off two of their leaves, then would they feel pain?" Shifu answered, "Yes. Just now the rubber tree asked me to tell you that after you cut off the two pieces of leaves, use a little bit of mud from the ground and put it on the end of the wound. It will help to reduce the pain. Plus, he had been practicing Buddhism and reciting mantras with you. So when you try to clean the backside of the leaves, do not use alcohol, because this tree needs to hold the precepts as well. The reason he wants to sacrifi ce two leaves in order to help the bamboo is that he wants to be generous, and he wants to repay the favor you give him by taking good care of him. Even if he is feels pain, he thinks that it is worth it."

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My heart was touched, and I truly believe that this information is correct. In fact, since one of my friends told me that the rubber tree likes to drink alcohol, every week when cleaning the rubber tree, I have used alcohol to make it drunk. Told by Shifu, all of a sudden I recalled that in one of the newspapers there was an article which said that fl owers have virtue and evil and which fl owers should live with which other kinds of flowers, and which two kinds could not stay together. I remembered another article which said scientists have discovered that whenever there was a forest fi re, using their equipment, they could hear the struggle, desperate cries and screaming from all the trees, and they are able to pass on this message to other trees. Without fi re, this equipment does not receive messages. In fact, all trees just like humans and all other animals have emotions. From this day on, I started to truly understand and believe what is taught in the Surangama Sutra. When sheep die, they could become human, and when humans die they could become sheep. When grass dies, it could become human, and when humans die they could also become grass. This allowed me to understand more thoroughly when the Buddha told us that if you are a monastic with pure action, or if you are a Bodhisattva, and you are walking on a small path, do not step on the grass, or use your hand to pull it out, let alone take blood and meat from sentient beings to fi ll up your stomach.

The very night when I followed the method that the rubber tree taught me, the stinky smell from my son’s feet was completely gone. This is just an amazing story. It also makes me think about the great Chinese medicine doctors of the past. They could understand all of the different properties of thousands of types of herbs and use this to help people. They must be Bodhisattva's, because this takes tremendous wisdom to be able to communicate with these plants in order to benefi t human beings. Since then, no one in our house would ever purposely hurt any plants or step on the grass. Now we have already stepped into the 21st century. The idea of keeping balance and building a green home has become a matter which has gone deeper in people's hearts. But I still feel that the earliest environmentalist should be Shakyamuni Buddha himself. All his teachings will be carried on in the Sutra's and will always stay with us until another new age begins.

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"How Can a Dharma Protector be Greedy in Receiving Offerings?"

I would like to mention something that happened in 1993. Mr. Li came to my house with his nephew to listen to Master Mio Fa give a Dharma teaching, and he believed in Buddhism in an instant. Half a month later, when he came to see me again, he showed me his refuge certifi cate. He told me that he had already taken refuge in the three jewels, and that on Sunday’s he would go to the temple and help with putting things in place. I was very delighted and praised him, and I even said that I felt ashamed that I had never gone to the temple to pick up my certifi cate.

Half a month later, I was discussing Dharma with seven or eight people in my house. Mr. Li came in with a lady. They said hello to me and then sat aside. After I fi nished my discussion with the others, this lady began to speak. "The reason I came here is for you to give us justice, but after listening to what you just said to these people, what you were talking about was helping others become good people. But this person pointed her fi nger at Mr.Li. Now I realized that they were a couple. "When he came home, he told me that he wanted to be a lay person, and since then, every day he would hold onto a book and recite blah, blah, blah, blah. A few days later he really became a lay person. I didn't know what a lay person was. I thought that it might be good, and he could learn something. Since then, every day when he comes home from work he just sits on the bed, crosses his legs and begin to meditate. Every Saturday and Sunday, he would go to the temple and he said that he wanted to become a Dharma protector. He even told me that in the future, we would no longer need to buy fruit and oil, because there is a lot in the temple. So I asked him where they got all the fruit and oil in the temple. He said, ‘There are so many people that believe in Buddhism that they all come and make offerings. On top of fruit and oil, they also offer fabric, cake and so forth. The monastics cannot use all of these things, so the lay people will eventually take them home.’

"Once I heard this, I thought, isn't that exactly the same as going to work and making money? Then I stopped being against him. I realized that he was getting

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worse and worse. When he comes home, he sits right in the middle of the bed, and he even asks for food and water. He asks me to take care of him, and asks me for this and that. I told him that I was cooking, and couldn't he do those things himself. He made excuses that he is crossing his legs, practicing meditation and he can't let it loose. It's so upsetting. After all, is he a lay person or is he a king? Maybe tomorrow I will become a lay person, and practice meditation too! Then let's see who is going to have to take care of whom! To tell you the truth, I am very angry and I want you to give us justice. I thought that maybe you’re the one who made him behave so badly, but by listening to your teaching just now, I realize that is not correct. I'm so sorry that I misunderstood you. I will take care of this with him when we go home."

After listening to her words, I was really stunned. I have often heard of things that were done improperly in the Temple, but I never believed it. Now I know that it is true. I even heard that people would actually start arguments and fi ghts to see who would get to take some of the things home. From Buddhist Sutra's, I know that even a piece of wood and even the grass at the temple is not to be taken away. The offerings are made to the Buddha and the Sangha. How can a lay person use it and remove it? What’s more, they actually fi ght for it and they didn't even know that it was a crime. But there is a saying..."One piece of donated rice is heavier than Mount Semeru." If you don't practice after eating it, then next lifetime you have to return this favor as an animal.

A monastic receives offerings from all over. If they do not follow the Dharma and practice, they will enter the evil path. How much is this true for a lay person? Let's not talk about if they will go to hell in their next lifetime. Whatever merit that they have in this lifetime would probably be exhausted as well. Let's use an analogy: a bhikshu who practices hard, and follows the precepts. His merit is like a fertile land, and all the good people coming here to make offerings are planting seeds. The land will create very rich offerings and returns to those who have planted diligently. Those who have planted will also love and take care of the land as if it were their very life. However, those monastics who do not follow the precepts and do not practice diligently, just like a poor land, will not give any harvest for those who have planted seeds, plus

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the limited nutrition of their land will be taken away by the crazy weeds, and eventually this land will become barren. For a lay person, time is too short for them to plant the fi elds of merit. How dare they bring the habit of greediness, anger, hatred and ignorance into the pureland of the Buddhagate? Master Mio Fa used to say that if the food that was offered to the monastics cannot be used, and cannot be saved, then it is OK for lay people to take them home. But you have to get permission from the monks. The lay people can measure how much that they take home, and then can put the corresponding amount of money into the donation box, or they could take this food to the market, sell it and give this money to the temple. This way you are following the Dharma.

Protecting and helping the monastics is the responsibility of a lay person. How can you use this opportunity to collect your own wealth, let alone fi ght against each other because of your greediness? This has created bad cause and impact on the name of Buddhism. Now at this moment, I hope that all the practitioners will take time to study and read the Earthstore Sutra and Emperor Liang's Repentance. When we recite those two Sutra's with sincerity and the heart of repentance, then we will be able to eradicate our offenses and gain endless merit. We study Buddha Dharma to gain wisdom, to stay away from the contamination and to awaken. As a person with wisdom, you should understand that our habits from the past are the seeds that lead us to drop into the hells. If we make one mistake after the other, that will never lead us to be liberated. It is said that when we deeply enter Sutra's and Dharma treasures, our wisdom will be as profound as the ocean. Only when our wisdom is opened up will we truly believe that the retribution of cause and effect is so accurate, and we will understand that we must treat the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's as the parents of all sentient beings.

Buddha will not exempt you just because you have a refuge certifi cate. Nor will he punish you because you don't have a certifi cate. Buddha teaches us sincerely the truth of the universe and our lives. He hopes that all his children will understand, come back home and leave the pain and suffering. But we must be the ones who walk our human journey. If we truly understand this, we will not take any chance and will practice Buddhism with earnest sincerity.

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Teaching by Your Own Example, and Always Saying Good Things to Others

One afternoon last autumn, a dozen lay people had come from SheJiaZhong city to WuTai Mountain. There was a lady who was in her 50’s. She was in the guest room telling Master Mio Fa her experience of suffering.

"I have taken refuge to the Buddha for four years, and I always eat vegetarian food on the 1st and 15th day of the month. However, my health is still not good. A half year ago, I met a well practiced lay person from whom I realized that if I wanted to have a healthy ting all meat. I couldn't believe that, but when I started doing so my health really started to improve day after day. Now I realize now that eating the three pure meats is just a skillful means. Since then I started to convince my children to eat vegetarian as well, so that in the future when they grow up they will not have diseases. To my surprise, not only did they not listen to me, but they even accused me of becoming more and more silly after I began studying Buddhism. They not only forced me to eat meat, they even bought live turtles and cooked them for me by using the excuse that this would help to make me strong. This really makes me upset, and because of this I often argue and fi ght with them, but none of us are able to convince each other. This has made our family's relationship become extremely tense. One time, I was so angry that I moved into another lay person’s house, and later my children came and apologized to me and then took me home. But each time when our family sits together for meals, none of us feel s happy. At that point I thought it was time for me to join the monastic, but I was so scared that they won't accept me. Then I thought that maybe I should move into the senior's home, but then I worried that I may not be able to eat vegetarian food there. This makes me suffer so much. Please Shifu, teach me. What should I do?”

From the beginning to the end, Master Mio Fa kept his legs crossed while he quietly listened to this female lay person, then slowly he began to speak. "As a Buddhist you should understand that you should complement sentient beings. We need to respect other peoples' habits, choices and beliefs. Even if it is our

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children, we should not force them to follow us. We hope that they will believe in Buddha and eat a vegetarian diet. It is indeed for the sake of their goodness. But you have to fi nd a skillful method. Don't rush and try to accomplish this urgently, otherwise you might just get the opposite result and make them start to become defensive and against Buddhism. In terms of eating meals, you can use the method of two systems on one table. Don't condemn others just because they eat meat. You should ask yourself how long it has been since you have stopped eating meat. If we practice so well, why are we still in the six realms, circling around? Think about it. Buddha's and Bodhisattva's never give up on you, isn't that true? Therefore, to take across people, we need to fi nd the correct time and the correct method. On top of making teachings, the most important thing is to teach by our own example. When they see your health become better and better after you study Buddhism, and the colour of your face looks much more healthy and your personality becomes much more mellow and kind, they will naturally come to believe in Buddhism. They will slowly move toward you, by being under your infl uence. The most important thing for teaching others is that we should fi rst accomplish being correct while not being deviant, being awakened while not being deluded. If you want to correct other people, then correct yourself fi rst. On top of that, as an elderly person, we will try to achieve always saying good things to others. First, always say good things about your children. Even if they are not good, you still have to say good things. Second, always say life is good. Even if it is not good, you have to say that it is good. Third, you have to always say good things about your relatives. Even if they are not good, you still have to say good things. As the elderly person in your family, you should always keep the above three points in your mind and in your mouth. People will be happy when they feel satisfi ed. It doesn't matter whether it is your children or your neighbour. Even if you didn't have a good relationship in the past, always try to avoid the confl ict and to express kindness, or use merit to deal with confl ict with a good heart. Later they will become embarrassed and may want to change. Plus, if you say the good things you will gain respect and love from others. Your life will therefore become better and better. On the contrary, if you are always afraid that other people will not respect you, and you display the manner of an unhappy elderly person and pick out other people's faults, then things will start to go against you. You will create gaps between family and friends. This will cause so much contradiction in your life and everyone will become angry. For the same reason, this theory is one which everyone can use.

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If you are not able to achieve it, then no matter whether it is your children, your husband or your wife, or whether you become a monastic, or stay at home as a lay person, you will always be fi lled up with distress."

After listening to Master Mio Fa's teaching, the female lay person knocked her head non-stop, her sad face already changed. Now instead, she looked really happy. Buddha Dharma is so wonderful and Master Mio Fa is so wonderful as well. He is capable of explaining Buddha Dharma in such an easy way to understand and accept. In this way it is perfect and without hindrance.

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Qi-Gong Treatment, Psychics and So-Called Alternative Healers

Someone said to me that in Buddhism, we can use the theory of cause and effect to help people turn to a virtuous life, and from this reach the goal of saving peoples' lives. This is amazing. However, in today’s society, there are many witch doctors and so-called alternative healers, as well as many famous and well known Qi-Gong masters. They are also able to heal peoples' diseases. In Qi-Gong practice, as with psychic and alternative healers, they do not believe in cause and effect, so how are they able to heal people as well?

I told him that using the theory of cause and effect to treat peoples' diseases was not the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. This is just a method, a skillful means through which we can help people to understand the existence of cause and effect and thus begin to examine themselves, their behaviour and speech, to cut off all evil, and nurture and maintain all virtuous acts. Not only in this lifetime will their lives become happier and far away from disaster and calamities, but at the end of their lives, they will have a good death and be able to be reborn into the pureland and leave the ocean of suffering forever.

When one person turns his/her direction towards a virtuous life, it can benefi t many, many people. People turning towards virtuous living can help reduce crime and purify the society. This is the ultimate goal of Buddhism: saving people and helping the society.

As far as why the witch doctors and alternative healers are able to heal peoples' diseases, the Buddha has talked about this in the Surangama Sutra. Many alternative healers and Qi-Gong masters come from the six realms of samsaric existence. However, there are some real Qi-Gong masters who perhaps came from the heavenly realm, or in their past lives, they were a Taoist or Buddhist practitioner and had good capacity. Therefore, in this lifetime, as long as they practice and meditate, their potential will be opened up in an instant. The

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characteristics of these people are that they are decent and very kind toward others. When they help people treat diseases, they only charge the appropriate fees and would never cheat or lie. They use the virtuous energy from their practice to help push away the disease energy from the patient. On the other hand, there are many people who have borrowed the name of Qi-Gong and have become so-called ‘masters’, but they are only aiming toward collecting money, lust and fame. These people sometimes create ‘miracles’ to eradicate peoples' disease, and make many people confused so that they make offerings and begin to worship them. These people always make a big fuss about themselves, and give themselves the name of Buddha or Bodhisattva. Most of these people are what is called in the Surangama Sutra the evil kings, evil people, evil women, great strength devil or the fl ying yakshas. When they are reborn in our world, most of them use the name of Buddha to confuse people. It is like the counterfeit products in society. These people always try to counterfeit those products which have good reputations and famous brand names.

As for the witch doctors and many of the alternative healers, they are actually ghosts and goblins, evil people, or foxes, skunks, snakes or rats when these beings are reborn into the human realm, or they will attach to a human body. When they were animals, they came out only at night and spent the daytime hours in caves. Because they spend a great amount of time in caves in a meditative state, they start to create some spiritual ability. But most of these people are very attached to offerings and money, and very much enjoy making their abilities seem larger than they are. These so-called healers are able to tell those who come for healing a few things about their past or their future, or they might be able to talk about what kind of diseases these people have. They can use their "Gong", or power, to heal people. Sometimes right away people will see very obvious signs of healing, which confuses them. So why are they able to do so?

First, let me talk about why people get diseases. Many people get diseases because of killing and eating meat. The consciousness of the pigs, cows, lambs, fish, ducks and chickens starts to attach to the body of the people who have eaten them, as revenge. When a person eats more and more animals, more and

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more consciousness will attach to her/his body. When the energy that comes with this consciousness becomes more and more powerful, the person will begin to feel unease in certain parts of his/her body. Sometimes it will cause pain and sometimes it will cause symptoms and disease. Then they will need to take medicine, or use needles or surgery. Sometimes if their disease can be cured, it is because in the past this person has generated merit greater than the karma that they have created in this lifetime. When they have suffered enough, the karma will be canceled out. However, because most of these diseased people do not understand Buddha Dharma, once they get sick, they even use fresh fi sh and live chickens to try to build their strength. As a result, they build a new hatred. Therefore, taking medicine, using needles or having surgery can only temporarily get rid of their pain and suffering, but their new disastrous disease is forming below the surface. In addition, some diseased people believe that the doctors in the hospitals are all helpless, and that is why they turn to the psychics and witch doctors.

Regarding the so-called alternative healers, these so-called ‘divines’; the Sutra's point out that most of these people are the rebirth of foxes, rats, snakes, skunks and porcupine, whose consciousness attaches to people. In the Emperor Liang's Repentance, it mentions that when these people are reborn from the animal realm, they usually have the same smell in their body from what they were in the previous life, because the consciousness is connected. If the consciousness from chickens, ducks or pigeons caused the sick people their disease, when this consciousness meets the power of the foxes and skunks, it will smell the energy and run away. When the consciousness causing disease is from frogs, rats and rabbits, and this consciousness realizes that the consciousness of the alternative healers is that of snakes, what happens? They too run away very quickly. However, the bigger animals' consciousness such as cows, lambs, and dogs, will not be scared away by these so-called ‘great divines’. When these sick people fi nd the so-called divine healing masters who have the consciousness of the evil dragons, unicorns or lions and tigers, then these bigger animals' consciousness will start to run away. That is why people will conclude that one Qi-Gong master has greater power than another. This is the theory of how Qi-Gong masters, witch doctors and alternative healers are able to cure people. As you see, the bottom

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line is that it is still the work of the consciousness. But it doesn't matter if you are a Master or a so-called divine. All they really do is just scare off these diseases temporarily. Eventually, consciousness with hatred will again come back, seeking revenge. It may switch from one part of the body to another. It may leave you alone for 3 days, 5 days, 10 days, 15 days or even longer, and then come back to look for you again. In this way it will have you constantly spending all your money searching for the great masters. Many sick people need many sessions from a Qi-Gong master to heal their diseases. They pay them, send them gifts and also spread their name. Sometimes they will say, "such and such Qi-Gong master is so powerful! Whenever his hand comes close to me I start feeling really hot and very comfortable." This person did not lie, but he did not understand that this is his karmic power playing against him and around him. Therefore, everything that you may fi nd from external means is not the ultimate and complete Dharma. It will not cut off your karma, let alone stop the cycle of living and death.

I'll give you an example. Let's say that when I was younger, I took advantage of some small children. Because they were so young they couldn't fight back, but they had hatred buried within their mind. Twenty years later I am older and they grow up, becoming young men. Now it is time for them to seek revenge, and my evil karma will begin to ripen. At this time, I would have to ask for help from some powerful people. These powerful people, looking at the young men fi ghting against an older man, will be able to help me fi ght back. But what happens later on? These powerful friends will not be able to follow me all of the time. At some point my enemies will still be able to fi nd me, hit me or maybe even kill me. But if I met not just a powerful person, but also a good adviser, he would ask those young people why they would want to hurt an older man. When the young people explain the reason to him and he gets my confirmation, then the good adviser will start to criticize my actions when I was young and what I had done to these young kids. He will tell me the reason that I was hit today was that it is my retribution. Therefore, he will teach me how to be a decent person. When I understand this concept, he will convince me to apologize to these young people, repent and to do things in order to make up the damage I have done to them. In this way, my enemies will surely forgive me and no longer be enemies. The real enemies I am talking about are those sentient beings who have been killed

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and eaten by us. The good adviser is Buddha Dharma. Our payback is truthful repentance, our recitations, studying of Sutra's and ceremonies of taking across the sentient beings that we've harmed.

I'm willing to guarantee to you that if you are willing to change the false actions done by you in the past, then you will see the benefi ts right away.

There is another thing that I would like to explain. If just for the sake of healing your body, you feel you have to recite the mantra and the Sutra and you are not truthfully repenting, then it is useless because those consciousnesses have the clairvoyance of knowing other peoples' minds. They will know whether you are truthful or not. What I talked about above, where people get diseases by killing, is just one of the 10 evil actions. The other nine evil actions will also cause different diseases, and I do not wish to go into detail here. Please read the Earthstore Sutra and the Emperor Liang's Repentance carefully, and then you will understand. I can fi rmly tell all of you practitioners that once you understand the theory in those Sutra's, you should stop looking for the great masters or any great healer with clairvoyance for healing or treatment. The Buddha is the greatest king of medicine. In the Sutra, it discusses that all 84,000 types of disease and distresses come from our family, career and living, and how to treat them. As long as we are willing to practice, then it will work for us. In fact, there is no secret in Buddha Dharma. The truth of the universe is contained within the Sutras, but many people do not pay attention or read Buddha Sutra. On the other hand, they believe in the alternative healers, psychics and those with clairvoyance. They think that is the great supernatural power and end up paying a huge amount of money but do not get any benefi t from it.

Let me use another example to explain how the Buddha Sutra is the best prescription.

My father-in-law is a very kind man, and he is very diligent in not wasting things in his life. In his whole life he did not have any major diseases. When he was older,

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he followed my conviction and stopped eating meat, stopped smoking and began to recite the Buddha's name. When he stayed with us, every day I would teach him Buddha Sutra's for several hours. From books such as the Earthstore Sutra and Emperor Liang's Repentance, he learned everything.

When he was 86 years old, all of a sudden he lost his voice and had a hard time swallowing. When he went to the hospital, they found that he had a tumor in his throat. From the examination, they found that it was a very fatal kind of tumor. Because of his age, they would not be able to risk performing surgery. His disease developed really fast. Before long he could barely even swallow water and a lot of the time he would vomit blood. He lived on IV’s.

My father-in-law has three daughters and three sons. None of them believed in Buddhism, but they were very pious kids. My brother-in-law told me, "For my father’s disease, it seems that the hospital has no method to help him. Watching him not being able to eat or drink and starving is so hard and painful. Do you have some method to help him? We will not oppose you." I was very happy to hear this. It means that they are starting to ask for help from the Buddha Dharma. Then I started to recall the great vows from the Medicine Buddha, and how he would help any diseased people.

With the permission of my father-in-law, I opened up the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, and showed him his picture. I put it on top of the offering table. I brought a cup of water and put it in front of the picture of the Medicine Buddha. I then put my hands together and made an incense offering to the Buddha. I made several prostrations, and knelt in front of the picture and begged, "Please, Buddha with great compassion and great mercy, please empower my father-in-law. If he is not supposed to die, please help him to recover. If it is his time to die, please allow him to drink water and eat rice so that he will have a good death. This will calm the hearts of his pious children."

After saying so, I did three more prostrations, held my mala in my hand, knelt in

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front of the Buddha and began to recite the Medicine Buddha's mantra. After reciting 108 times, I used both hands to hold the water cup and walked into my father-in-law’s room. This is the fi rst time that I had used this method, and although I truly believed it, I was a little scared that it might not work. Then I would lose an opportunity to have my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law believe in Buddhism. If my father-in-law started to cough up blood, I would not know how to respond to this. Therefore in my heart I kept on reciting the Medicine Buddha's name and begged for an empowerment from him.

Once I was in front of his bed, I asked my father-in-law if he was still reciting the Medicine Buddha's name in his heart. He nodded his head. Then I asked him to try and drink the water. I explained that if he could not drink it, then that meant that my heart was not sincere and my merit was not suffi cient yet, in which case I would do it again. If he could drink it, then it is the power and empowerment from the Buddha. I then asked him to drink the water. At that time, everybody in the room was nervously watching the situation. Then we saw that my father-in-law took a sip of water and slowly swallowed it. Then, he drank another little sip and swallowed it. At this moment, my heart was fi lled with the Buddha's name. My nervousness was still not relaxed one bit. I'm sure that everyone in that room felt the same as I did. Then right after, my father-in-law drank a big gulp of water and everyone began to relax. They all started to clap their hands. Tears began fl owing from my eyes. Very soon the cup of water was completely fi nished. The most exciting thing was that all of a sudden, my father-in-law could speak very clearly. At this point I thought that my sisters- and brothers-in-law’s must think that this was a miracle. Again it made me realize that the Buddha is the one who speaks the truth, practices the truth and never makes false speech.

The second day, I fed my father-in-law soy milk. Each time he drank water or soy milk, I would recite the mantra of the Medicine Buddha 108 times. The third day I made a bowl of noodles, which was my father-in-law’s favorite food. He had not eaten anything with salt for over a week. I wanted him to just try a little bit of soup. When I asked him if he would like some, to my surprise he asked for some noodles. Wow! I knew he could drink water, but could he eat noodles

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too? I didn't want to stop him though, as no one had ever told him what his true disease was. My father-in-law thought he was actually in the healing process. So I put about a dozen pieces of noodles in his bowl, and with 10 times the sincerity, I asked for the empowerment from the Buddha. After I recited the Medicine Buddha's mantra numerous times, I was nervous again. Surprisingly, my father-in-law fi nished all of the noodles. Just like this, he was able to eat and drink for the next 15 days with no suffering, and then he left this world.

I told this story to other Dharma practitioners. One reason was to prove that the Buddha thus come is the one who speaks the truth, speaks honestly, speaks just as it is and never makes false speech. His teachings are great medicine and a wonderful prescription for all 84,000 diseases and distress experienced by all sentient beings. As long as you believe in it deeply and follow it, you will defi nitely get what you want, and you will receive the results in an instant. Secondly, I wanted to break much of the superstition and reliance people have toward clairvoyance. Although many of the stories previously told by me have mentioned clairvoyance, the reason is to let you know that if you do not want other people to know these things, then you shouldn't do them. Only when I understood this theory did I start to change the inappropriate behaviour and return to the correct behavior. In fact, only when we strictly follow the precepts and go deeper into the Sutra's will we be able to develop our wisdom. Buddha Dharma is a wonderful Dharma. As long as we are able to use it as a reference in modifying our behavior, everyone will be able to attain the prajana wisdom, and then a mundane human being will become a wonderful human being.

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Soup Of Confusion

One young man in his 20’s asked Master Mio Fa about some doubts that he had. He said, "I heard the story about reincarnation from my Grandma when I was young. She said that when the ghost king Yama sentences a person to the direction of their rebirth, he gives this person a bowl of "confusion soup". Once you drink this "confusion soup", you will forget what has happened in your previous life. Please tell me Shifu, is that true that there is such thing as confusion soup?"

Master Mio Fa answered, "If I say yes, or if I say no, I cannot give you any proof. But think about it, people in today's world, people who are supposed to be enemies because of money, may forget the past anger and hatred and become friends. On the other hand, there are those people who are supposed to be friends or families, and again because of money, they could become enemies to the extent of even killing each other. This is all because they have drunk the soup of confusion and have forgotten their past. In the past some people, in order to get revenge on their enemies, could hold onto the hatred. Do you think that they have really forgotten the past? No. They hold onto it, and it is just a false appearance. In their heart, the seed of hatred is still there and they are just waiting for the opportunity. It's not that they won’t get revenge, it is only that the time is not right yet. After rebirth, a person only changes his/her clothes. Inside this falsely existing physical body, behind the soup of confusion, the consciousness is very clear as to what has happened in the past. I know exactly who to look for to return the favour, or who to look for to ask repayment of a debt. It is said that positive actions will have virtuous retribution and that evil actions will receive evil retributions. Because of the drive from karma, everything that is supposed to happen will happen, and everything that is supposed to leave will leave. It is not determined by whether you like it or not. Therefore, the so-called soup of confusion comes because our habit of greediness, hatred and ignorance has covered our own Buddha nature, causing us to become confused, drifting in the tide of life and death."

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About Clairvoyance and Spiritual Penetration

This past spring, a couple of young people were interested in Buddhism, or more likely in spiritual penetration (supernatural power developed from various spiritual practice), so they asked a couple of questions about this. These kinds of questions are very common coming from today's people. So from my own understanding, I would like to talk a little bit about this.

Question: Buddhism requests the practitioners to eradicate their lust and desires, so that they will be able to achieve their practice. However, Vajrayana is also a part of Buddhist practice, but it neither promotes stopping one from eating meat, nor requests people to stop love and lust. Many people have achieved a high level of enlightenment in this tradition. Why then, does Buddha Dharma seem to contradict itself? Is it true that the reason we have to practice is to gain clairvoyance or spiritual penetration?

Answer: The goal of practice is NOT to gain clairvoyance, or to stand out from the rest of the crowd. The goal of Buddhist practice is to eradicate our greediness, anger, hatred, ignorance and all the evil habits like this that have led us to turn round and round in the six realms. It is to help us discover our clear, primordial self nature. As was stated in the Lotus Sutra, each one of us is like a precious pearl that radiates beautiful light, but we accidentally dropped into a dirty, muddy puddle and were covered by dirt. Therefore we lost our light and our brightness. Buddha is this precious pearl that is clean, with the beautiful light radiating from it. Sentient beings are the precious pearl which is covered by the dirt. After listening to Sutra's and understanding the Buddha Dharma, we should be able to change our past false behaviour. Once we understand, we should change right away and clean off the dirt, thus being able to transform our distress into Bodhi. Knowing this, we see that ignorance is no different from awakening, that sentient beings are Buddha to begin with. Because different pearls have been covered by different kinds of dirt, some are very stubborn; some are very light; some are very thick; some are very thin. Therefore the method to remove the dirt will not be the same. Some you would need to use a knife to cut, others you may need to use an axe to chisel and some you just need to use your hand to pat it or to wash it. And a few only need to slightly dust off or blow it off with your mouth, and you will see

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the true face of the pearl. That is the reason there are so many Dharma gates in our practices. We should remember that our Dharma's are equal, with no one being higher or lower than the others. The goal of all practice is the same, which is to eradicate the false and to see the truth. Once we see the true nature, we are the Buddha.

As far as the issue of why some people are able to keep eating meat and are not eradicating lust and desire, but are still able to gain great wisdom, I think that this is a skillful means by the Buddha. If we insist that one who is eating meat and keeping their lust and desires will never be able to become a Buddha, then one who lives in the highlands with very harsh climate conditions will forever lose the opportunity to learn Buddha Dharma or be close to the three jewels. Some people like to meditate. Among those people, some people are able to cross over in the standing position, some people are able to keep their physical body from decomposing shortly after death, others will be able to understand the date and time of their death. People who like to recite the Buddha's name will be able to achieve the continuous recitation and the non distracted mind, and then the lotus will come to take them across, or the Buddha’s or Bodhisattva's will show up in an auspicious form inviting them into the pureland. If people who do not have the conditions to stop eating meat or to stop their lust and desire are not able to practice and reach fruition, then those sorts of people who live in those areas or under those conditions will be locked outside of the Dharma door. Remember that Earthstore Bodhisattva made a vow: "I will not become a Buddha until the day that the hells become empty." Those who live in the barren lands and are living in the harsh conditions, are just the ones the Buddha should be taking care of. If Shakyamuni Buddha was able to manifest in the body of the deer to take across the family of deer, by nature he will be able to use different skillful means to take across and to transform those who experience deeper suffering. This is the reason why the Buddha’s and Bodhisattva's will teach Vajrayana, so that under the conditions when one is not cutting off their desire and lust, they will still be able to reach enlightenment. This will encourage other people to practice vigorously, to increase their wisdom root and their meritorious retribution so that they may be able to leave the realm of suffering and gain blessings.

In the Shurangama Sutra, the Buddha had stated this very clearly. If those people who

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are killing each other, and eating each other and they haven't eaten enough of each other, then how can those people leave the three realms? If you don't eradicate sexual desire, there is no way that you can leave the world of dust. If you do not eradicate the heart of killing, you will not be able to leave the world of dust. If we want to obtain the complete, perfected wisdom we have to follow the Dharma and have it refl ect in our actions. After the Buddha went into nirvana, many great Bodhisattva's and Arhats had manifested into our Dharma-degenerating world. They live among various groups of people, to take across and to transform sentient beings. Those great masters with high clairvoyance are the leaders on our journey towards Buddhism. They use their spiritual penetration to help us become enlightened, to awaken, and to practice hard in order to leave the world of suffering. This is the goal. It is not like in the world of martial arts, where it is some sort of super Kung-Fu, used to kill people or beat others up. If you are able to reach the state of arising aspirations without abiding to them, then you will be able to achieve everything without doing it. Therefore, clairvoyance comes from practice but not from pursuing and chasing it. Everybody comes to this world with a different mission. Some use their clairvoyance to alarm sentient beings to stop doing evil. There are people who come here in order to teach people Sutra's and Buddha Dharma. Most others come here to learn and to practice. Although some practice for decades, they will gain no clairvoyance. This does not mean that they will not be able to achieve fruition or to be reborn into pureland. Some people have great clairvoyance. If they can hold on, they can discipline their clear mind, and will be able to contribute in a great way to spreading Dharma and benefi ting sentient beings. If they can't follow the precepts to discipline their minds, and they use their clairvoyance as a tool to gain money and fame from others, before long they will lose their clairvoyance or drop into the realm of the evil ghosts, or they will be punished by the law. This is called "once you leave the path, you will lose the help." In the future you will drop into the hells without doubt.

Therefore as a Buddhist practitioner, do not give up the body and chase after the tail. And do not chase after clairvoyance. We should eradicate all false thought and attachment, put our two feet on the ground and follow the dharma and practice. This way we will not go astray.

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Beauty and the Bandit

One day, a lady who had returned from abroad came to see Master Mio Fa. "Shifu, I am a lawyer and I had a really weird, bizarre case. A lady, who looked very pretty but very exhausted, had come to my offi ce and asked me to help her with her divorce. Her reason for it was that her husband always raped her. The second day, when I decided to handle this case, I made an appointment with her husband. When he came, I noticed that he looked rather weak and gentle, not like anyone who was rough and tough. After discussing the situation with him, he begged me to help him to get back together with his wife. He said that the situation would not be helpful if they actually were to get divorced. He said that his wife had very severe psychological problems, and that if they did get divorced, she would probably lose her home, or even her life. Afterward he discussed his wife’s history with me in greater detail. All my colleagues were very stunned after listening to this sad story and we all wanted to help them. But this poor lady insisted that she needed to get divorced from her husband. We didn't know what to do, so I used my vacation time to come here, wanting to ask you for help. I want to know why this beautiful lady has such a turbulent life and if there is a chance for her recovery.

"This lady and her husband originally came from Hong Kong. They were classmates ever since elementary school, and had a very good relationship. After graduating from high school, one day they were taking a walk in the park. The boy asked the girl if she would marry him after they graduated from University. To his surprise, the girl started to cry. She said that she loved him very much, but she wasn't good enough for him. The young man insisted and she went on to explain her sad story to him.

"When she was eight years old, she lost her father. The second year her mother got remarried. When she was 14 years old, her step-father raped her, and has kept raping her to this very day. Although her mom always knew about this, she just kept it to herself. The girl has had nightmares ever since. The boy was very angry after listening to this, and he made up his mind that he would help her to

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get out of this bad situation. The boy’s father owned a big shoe factory in Hong Kong, and they were very wealthy. He did not tell his parents the full story of what had happened to her, but he told them that he really loved this girl, and that they wanted to go to Canada and go to University there. Their dream came true. After graduating from University, they got married and started their own shoe selling business. Later they had a beautiful baby boy, living a worry free and happy life together. However, things changed. When their son was eight years old he was kidnapped. They decided not to call the police, but instead paid thousands of dollars to the kidnapper, only to learn that their son had been killed and his body left in the wild. The death of their son has left tremendous tragedy in the couples’ heart, especially the wife. For a long, long time she could not recover. But nobody would expect that this was not the end of their troubles.

"After a year, one of their trailers filled with various shoes was robbed on its return from the port. Because this delayed the contracts with other companies, their business incurred a great loss. The disaster did not stop here. Three days prior to having to close their shoe store, all of a sudden a big truck stopped right in front of their gate, three robbers jumped down from the truck, ran into the store, tied both of them up and sealed their mouths with duct tape. They removed every single item in the store onto their truck, and they took all of their money and jewelry. The most stunning thing is that they actually raped her in front of her husband. After this, she completely crashed psychologically. She became extremely disoriented and isolated. She insists that it was her husband who raped her, which is why she wants a divorce. Please Shifu, please tell us what has happened in her past life, why she has such great suffering and sadness in this lifetime? We really want to help her."

Everyone was saddened by this shocking story. They could not believe that such a small, shy and gentle lady could receive such harm both physically and mentally. Some had even begun to complain that it was unfairness shown by God.

Master Mio Fa sighed slightly then said, "In her past life, this lady was a young boy. He grew up in a very poor family, and his parents passed away when he was still very young. He lived a life of exile, wandering around and begging for food.

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He spent a little bit of time helping the landlords to farm the land and raise the sheep. But then after a while he could not withstand the abuse of the landlords, so he left. Afterward, he lived life as a thief and eventually became a bandit living in the mountains. At this point he began to kill people, rob, take advantage of others and steal women away from their husbands. He did all sorts of evil acts. One day when he came to the village to commit robbery, he saw a young lady who was very pretty. He tied her husband up and raped this lady in front of him. Over the coming years, he came back to this house and did the same thing many, many times. This bandit was reborn as this lady with this sad life. In this lifetime, her step-father was the lady whom he had taken advantage of for many years. This time he had come back for revenge. The reason why in this lifetime that her son was killed, her property was robbed, and she was raped by those thieves was all because of her behavior in her past life. This is the law of cause and effect: whatever retribution comes, you have brought it upon yourself.

"Of course, no one should avoid punishment by the law because of a past life, hatred or relationships. Whatever you have done in this life, you will be punished by the law of the country. At the same time this plants tremendous seeds of suffering for the future. If you want to know the cause from your past life, then just look at your present life. If you want to know what your life will be like in the future, just look at what you are doing now. We should ask the people who are doing evil acts to turn their heads back, stop doing evil, repent their previous offenses and go turn themselves in to the authorities. They should do this to gain forgiveness, otherwise when the evil retribution comes to them it will be too late to regret."

Everyone believed Master Mio Fa's speech, and were amazed that the retribution of cause and effect was so clear. One person in the room asked Master Mio Fa, "Since this lady was a bandit in her past life, and he did so much evil, then why in this lifetime did she meet her husband, who cared so much and never gave up on her?" The question made everybody put their focus on Master Mio Fa again.

Shifu answered, "One night, when this bandit fi nished a day of robbery, he went back to his home in the mountain. He met a little a boy who was dressed in torn

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clothing and had wounds all over his body. He was sitting beside the road crying. This reminded him of his own sad childhood and caused him to empathize with the boy. When he understood that the little boy had lost the landlord’s cow and was then beaten for it, and also that the landlord had threatened him that if he did not fi nd the cow, then they would put him in prison, this bandit was very upset. He took all of the money that was in his pocket and put it in this little boy's hand. He asked him to pay for the lost cow and to use the leftover money to start a little business with his father and to stop working for the landlord. The little boy held his hands together and started to prostrate to the bandit. He was extremely grateful and said, ‘Next lifetime, even if I become a cow or a horse, I will come back and return this favor.’ This little boy in this lifetime is the lady's husband, and no matter what kind of disaster and ordeals she is going thorough, he would never leave her and would always take care of her."

Master Mio Fa's speech removed the doubt from everyone's minds. Even though ordinary people do not understand Buddha Dharma, the retribution of cause and effect follows us just like a shadow. In our entire lifetime, because of the impurity of our six senses, our ignorance and our scattered mind, we might do good, but we always do bad things at the same time. If this poor lady can understand and at the same time accept Buddha Dharma, sincerely repent the bad evil acts she has done in the past, even though she has created great retribution and offenses, it will be eradicated. It is just like when hard ice meets the warm sunshine, it will melt. Or it is as you are taking the wood away from underneath the pot, so the fi re won't burn. So this way you will be able to cut off the source of disaster and misfortune. If from now on she can follow the precepts and follow the ten virtuous actions, and recite sincerely once a day the Earthstore Bodhisattva Sutra and dedicate it to all the sentient beings that she has harmed in her past life, all of her karma will be eradicated and her life will be able to turn around.

The female lawyer carefully wrote down every word spoken by Master Mio Fa into her note pad. Everyone felt so relieved and they believed that this poor lady's life would be changed from that point on.

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Young Man in Green Shirt

In Luo Yang City of Hernan Province, there is a family of three: a shy and honest husband, a bright and capable wife, and their beautiful 17-year old daughter. From the outside it looks like a very happy and peaceful young family, but as we know every family has their own hard nuts to crack. The lady happened to tell me about the family ordeals she has been trying to overcome for years.

She and her husband both grew up in a remote area, and they did not marry each other for love, but rather by traditional arrangement. When he was brought to her initially, she noticed that this man is very shy and always nervous in front of people. She thought that a man such as he must be very reliable, and that is why she agreed with this marriage. After they married she started to fi nd out that her husband had many unbearable bad habits such as making loud noises when he eats, especially when he is eating noodles. The neighbors both upstairs and downstairs could hear his loud slurping. Sometimes during the meals his nose mucous would drop across his mouth, and he wouldn’t even stop to wipe it, would just keep eating. Regardless of whether there is a guest in the house or not, when he wants to pass gas, he never tries to avoid anyone and often shamelessly make loud rude noises. Everyone was embarrassed, but he himself would never notice. No matter how hard she tried to persuade him, he is stubborn like a block of wood and never makes any changes. These things sound very small, but have become the trigger of constant fights and quarreling in the house. She felt that the husband is willing to become a joke to entertain other people, and this really made her and her daughter feel extremely humiliated. Because of this, many times she insists she wants to divorce him, but has always been stopped by family and friends. But for her, whenever thinking about or seeing her husband, it’s as if there’s a piece of heavy stone sinking into her stomach. As for her daughter, since she was a baby her father never brought her out to the park, held her or spent any time with her, and this has made her very distant from him, almost as if they are strangers. Sometimes if the father comes in to the house while the mother and daughter are laughing and chatting, they instantly become silent.

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Since taking refuge in the Dharma, the daughter and mother became vegetarian together. The mother kept doing the morning and evening homework, and reciting mantras on a daily base. The daughter kept reciting Great Compassion Mantra on her way back and forth to school. This has helped with opening their minds and learning to let go. However, they both are still having trouble dealing with the husband and father. Although they were hoping to reduce the suffering from this marriage by practicing diligently, since they started eating vegetarian the wife is now having a hard time tolerating the odour coming from the husband’s body. They fi nally decided to live in separate rooms and stop talking to each other. They have been living like this for three years, and decided to get a divorce next year once the daughter leaves the house to go to university. Because every day the wife soaked herself with tension and stress she now has developed many different kinds of diseases, including headaches.

Looking at the lady talking to me in tears, I see a woman tortured by this marriage, old-looking and worn, although she is only in her 40’s. This is a case of cause and effect. It is not something an ordinary man such as I can help to resolve, therefore, I dialed the number of Master Mio Fa. After a minute of silence, Shifu told me the story of this female lay person and her husband.

In one of the past lives, this female lay person used to be a poor man who made a living looking for medicinal herbs in the deep forest and mountains. One day he went to a medicine store in a small town underneath the mountain. The young man who works in the store told him, “It is said that in the deep heart of the mountain there is a thousand-year-old elm tree and its bark can be used as medicine. But because the mountain is so tall and the road is so dangerous, no one is willing to go there. If you are able to bring some of the bark back to my store, I will guarantee you a good price.” The medicine collector felt very happy, thinking this time he will be able to make a lot of money and maybe enough for him to fi nd a wife.

After climbing the rocks and passing the streams, he fi nally was able to reach

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the giant old tree whose trunk is so wide that three peoples’ arms cannot wrap around it. The man got extremely excited, got out his sharp ax and started to chop off the tree bark. After awhile he became exhausted, leaned his ax against the tree, climbed to one of the big branches and fell asleep. In his dream he saw a young man in a green shirt kneeling in front of him, crying. He said he is this old tree who has been living in this location for thousands of years. In only three more years he will be able to achieve divine-ship. If his tree bark is to be taken off from the entire tree then he will lose all his practice. He begged the tree collector to come back three years later, and after he has achieved his divine-ship he will be glad to repay his favour. After saying this, the young man started to prostrate to him one after the other. In his dream the medicine collector yelled at the young man using a very loud voice, “No, I can’t do this, I want a wife and I can’t wait three more years”. Waking up from his dream he couldn’t see the young man in the green shirt, so he did not stop, and carried all the tree bark he collected back to the medicine store. The young man in the store was very delighted, scaled all the medicine. The medicine collector never had any education, so he said to the young store man, “I worked very hard, please don’t short change my weight”, and the young man answered with a joke, “Don’t worry, if I owe you any amount, next lifetime I will become your son.”

Today, this female lay person was the medicine collector and her husband was the old elm tree who sadly had his entire tree bark removed. Because “humans need skin and trees need bark”, that is the reason the female lay person said her husband was like a block of wood and has no shame, and she is right. Our habit and temperament are very much related to our past life experience and encounters.

In fact the young man in the medical store did cut short the weight of the bark, but he did not know that in this lifetime, instead of becoming the son, he became the daughter. This young man’s suggestion caused the thousand-year-old tree to lose his practice and cultivation. He is the real top criminal, therefore, so was reborn as the daughter in this suffering family. The female body suffers more

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than the male body, and in addition he becomes a daughter who can’t have the love of a father, which is the icing on the cake. That is the whole reason why the father and daughter relationship is so much colder than any other ordinary family.

Finally being able to understand the past life cause and effect, the female lay person and her daughter should sincerely repent their offenses and separately repent the hatred they have had in this lifetime toward the husband/father. After this they need to recite the Earthstore Sutra 49 times. When this is fi nished their family relationship will be improved and everyone will be happy again, according to Master Mio Fa.

Perhaps because this lady and her daughter have been reciting mantra and sutra for three years and have been eating vegetarian and this has developed a connection with the Buddha, their opportunity is now ripened. After I told them about Master Mio Fa’s explanation, they felt that they are awakened from a long nightmare and they believed it deeply with joy. Especially the daughter was happy and stunned and said to the mother, “Mum, you and Dad have fought for decades and you always complain he is shameless as if he has no skin, and in fact, it is you who ripped off my Dad’s skin.” She made everyone laugh upon hearing this.

A half month later the lay person called me to tell me some good news. She said that her headache is completely cured and the other diseases have tremendously improved. Now she reads one Earthstore Sutra every two hours. Her husband has changed dramatically. She promises to continue reciting Earthstore Sutra and dedicate it to all sentient beings in the Dharma Realm. She wishes that all sentient beings are able to hear this recitation and benefi t from understanding the truth. I was very happy for her and wished their family will soon become a harmonized Buddhist family.

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The Retribution Of A Slavemaster

A couple of years ago, I went to a foreign country to visit one of my friends. My friend and his family had invited me to go to a very famous park for the day. Just as we were entering the gates we saw a very luxurious and classy horse and carriage stop in front of us. I was amazed by the pure white, tall and very good looking giant horse. It had a silk-like shiny coat and its mane looked like a mountain top. Under the beautiful sun of California it looked so magnifi cent. The horse would carry all the visitors and guests along the road, giving them a very royal and luxurious ride, while they enjoy the beautiful sights. We didn't want to take the carriage and instead stood and watched the horse walking into the distance.

Without our noticing, the day had become dark. We’d had a wonderful time. Before we left the gate I saw the big horse again and he was still working hard, carrying all the visitors. By this time, though, he had lost the energy that he had in the morning. His head was drooped and he took much smaller steps. He looked to be extremely exhausted. As I looked at my watch, I noticed from the morning until that point at least 12 hours had passed. Seeing the horse so tired made me feel sorry for him.

I couldn't stop thinking what was this horse's past life? What happened and what kind of causes did he plant? He looked so magnifi cent but was doing some exhausting work. In this entire day, how many guests and visitors had he carried? What about in a year? Why does he owe so many people debts from a previous life?

After I came back from California I went to visit Master Mio Fa, and to my surprise Shifu gave me a wonderful teaching about this. This horse in his past life was a Caucasian slave master. On his plantation there were a hundred black slaves that worked for him. The slaves were badly taken advantage of by this slave master. After he passed away he went directly into hell and suffered greatly. After he fi nished his retribution in hell, in this lifetime he rose into the animal

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realm and became a horse.

Although he was good looking and had a strong body, it only became a tool for others to make money. He was enslaved by others. Although in his previous life there were only a hundred people who had suffered because of him, by abusing black people, not only had he created very bad offences toward them, but to all humans as well. So in this life he has to be pushed and sat on day after day without any rest. This was his retribution. Because his offences are so deep, who knows just how many times he would need to be reborn as cows and horses. Even if in the future he was to be a human again, he would be very poor, of lower class and will suffer a great deal.

After hearing this, my heart felt very, very heavy. Such a beautiful, lovely and great horse has such a dark past. Deeply I thought I will recite more of the Earthstore Bodhisattva's Sutra and dedicate it to the big horse, to help him clean up these offences and to help him to be able to be liberated from the ocean of bitterness faster. Also I want to recite the sutra and to help those slaves to cross over, to calm their anger.

At this time, a man from Malaysia who had been listening to us said, "Shifu, we had a dog whose name was Winnie back in Hong Kong. He was with me since he was very little, and was very smart. Ever since our whole family became vegetarians, the dog stopped eating meat as well. This made our family very happy. Two years after we moved to Malaysia, Winnie died of old age. We felt very sad. My mother actually set up a memorial and did a special prayer for him. I'm not sure if Winnie was reborn in the higher realms. Could I ask you Shifu, please, could you help me?"

After a moment of silence Shifu said, "Because the dog lived with you in your home, listened to Sutra's and ate a vegetarian diet, after he died, you actually helped him cross over by reciting the Sutra's. Because of this, he has already been reborn in the human realm. He lives in Malaysia as well! He is a beautiful 17 year old girl."

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After Master Mio Fa said this, this lay person went into deep thought and all of a sudden said, "Yes, Winnie died seventeen years ago! Shifu, you are amazing! Could you please tell me where this girl is now? What is her name? I want to see her right away!" Shifu and everyone else in my room began laughing. I asked this lay person, "OK, if you fi nd this girl, what are you going to tell her? You were the dog that was living with me in my house in the past? She would think you were crazy!" The lay person though about it and then started laughing himself.

Master Mio Fa said, "If we have affi nity, even if we are a thousand miles apart, we will meet each other. Maybe someday you will meet each other and when you do at fi rst sight you will feel that she is your friend, and she will return your favour two or three fold. There is an old saying that it takes a hundred years of prayer to be able to take the same boat. That's why today all of our colleagues, friends, family, neighbors and even our animals all have affi nity with us from the past. Therefore we need to create great and kind affi nities and try to resolve those evil or unkind affi nities, and then we will be able to keep harmony and auspiciousness in and around our lives".

Shifu is so kind and so good at teaching. This visit has made me feel that I had learned a lot.

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Documents

The Stories Of Cause And Effect - NA Fulong Dharma · PDF fileThe Stories Of Cause And Effect The cause and effect stories in this book are taken from a particular book ... and wisdom