Egg pancake fruit
One afternoon in 1993, someone rang my doorbell. When I opened the door, I saw a woman about fifty years old. Behind her were two girls in their twenties carrying a large bag. I asked her who she was looking for, and she said just look for me. But I didn’t know her, but she seemed to be very familiar with me. She turned around to greet the girl and entered the hospital. Without waiting for me to let him go, he opened the door and entered my reception room. She asked the girl to put down her pockets and worship the Buddha with her. After the ceremony, I still didn’t recognize her.
She smiled and said, “I came to your house a year ago. I sold pancakes and fruit (fried dough sticks).”
As soon as I heard this, I immediately remembered: “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think of it at the moment. Please sit down! Is your waist okay?”
“It’s all good! No, I brought my two daughters and carried a bag of rice today specifically to thank you. I know you never accept gifts, but you must accept this bag of rice today. Thank you You and that master made me what I am today.” He was about to kowtow to me, but I stopped him.
My thoughts were immediately taken to the past…
A year ago, a lay practitioner who knew me brought her to my home. Her husband suffered from lumbar disc herniation and was paralyzed in bed for six years. Despite her careful care, he was unable to stand up and passed away six months ago. Unexpectedly, she now has this disease herself. When she thought that her husband had suffered so much and spent so much money but could not save his life, she felt that it would be better to die early so as not to drag down her two daughters. So I neither go to the hospital for medical treatment nor take medicine. The daughter saw her mother’s thoughts and ran to Guanyin Temple to seek blessings from the Buddha. She happened to be seen by this enthusiastic layman. He had been neighbors with them before, and he was very sympathetic after asking about the situation. Because he knew that the old monk Miaofa happened to be here, he brought them here and asked the master to show a way out.
After listening to the sick woman explain the situation, the old monk Miaofa asked her: “Are you doing anything related to eggs?”
After hearing this, the woman was surprised and said: “In my business of selling pancakes and fruits, I use more than ten kilograms of eggs a day at most. What does this have to do with my illness?”
“Is there any money here that shouldn’t be earned?”
“I earn money by working.” The woman couldn’t understand it for a while.
As soon as I heard that she was selling pancakes and fruits, I understood: “Now I’m going to find out the cause of your illness. Please don’t blame me for speaking directly. Are you specifically buying small eggs weighing eleven or two per catty? Instead of weighing seven or eight large eggs per kilogram, each small egg is sold to the customer at the higher price of the large egg and the difference is earned?”
She said: “Everyone is like this, just to make more money. In fact, customers don’t know about it, but no one is embarrassed to care about it when buying.”
“According to Buddhism, this is greed for money and deception. You earn a little more money from each egg, and water drips through the stone, accumulating small evils into big evils. This is the reason for your illness.”
“Then my husband didn’t do this, so why did he suffer from lumbar disc prolapse?”
Master patiently explained: “Not all diseases are caused by the same cause. For example, fever, various inflammations can cause fever. You may also ask whether other people who sell eggs, pancakes and fruits also suffer from the disease. What about upper lumbar intervertebral disc prolapse? This is not necessarily the case. The causes and effects of each person’s life are complicated and different. We often see reports in the newspaper of car accidents running over people, but we have also heard of cars killing people. There are anecdotes about people running over or knocking them a few meters away, but the people are safe and sound. There are also many such incredible things about escaping from death. In fact, these are all related to the person’s virtue. People with good virtue will appear lucky when they are in trouble. Turn bad luck into good luck. It is natural to make money in business. The ancients said: “A gentleman loves money and gets it in a wise way.” It is immoral to make money by cheating and cheating, and it is like raising a tiger to create trouble. Now If you make a lot of money, you may be able to take a lot of medicine in the future. Can you accept these principles?”
“Master, I understand. I will never be greedy for money or deceive customers again.”
Because she was basically illiterate, the old monk Miaofa taught her to repent and recite the holy name of “Namo Guanyin Bodhisattva”, and asked her to worship the Buddha statue at home every day, chant the Buddha’s name, and release animals, so that her illness would be cured. possible. Before leaving, she felt that her waist was much lighter and she believed in Buddhism even more.
I didn’t expect that after more than a year, she recovered from her illness and she would make a special trip to express her gratitude.
Seeing that I refused to accept her rice, she said excitedly: “After I left your house, I thought about the bad things I did every day and regretted it so much. The next day, I invited a statue of Guanyin to be offered to me. I burned incense and kowtowed every day, sometimes up to 300 times a day. Not only did my waist not hurt, but it got better day by day. But one day, my waist suddenly hurt so much that I couldn’t stand up. My child persuaded me to go to the hospital. There’s no use in going to the hospital. Your dad is not dead yet. That master is right, so I believe him. I believe it when it’s better, and I believe it when it’s not. Who made me commit a crime? I can’t get off the ground. , I recited the name of Guanyin Bodhisattva and kowtowed on the bed. I persisted like this for a month.
“One night I had a dream. I dreamed that Guanshiyin Bodhisattva appeared in front of me. I quickly kowtowed. The Bodhisattva asked me: “You call my name every day. Do you need my help for anything?” I said: “I am because of this. I suffered from lumbar disc prolapse due to greed for money. Please help me treat my illness. I will pray to Buddha and chant Buddha’s name every day after I recover.” The Bodhisattva lowered his hand and touched my waist and said, “You are not sick to begin with. If you are sick, can you still kowtow?” ” After saying that, he disappeared.
I happily shouted the name of Guanyin Bodhisattva and sat up from the bed. My two daughters were awakened and hurried to the bed to comfort me. Suddenly he shouted in surprise: “Mom, you sat up!” ” Then I found myself sitting on the bed. Thinking of the scene in the dream, I suddenly felt a warm and comfortable feeling in my waist. Only then did I realize that my illness was cured, and my tears couldn’t stop flowing down. I told my daughters about the situation in the dream, but they didn’t believe me. I asked them to help me get off the ground, and they helped me try to walk a few steps. My waist no longer hurts at all, but my legs were a little weak. I knew it was because I had been lying down for more than a month. So the three of us, mother and daughter, were so excited that we didn’t close our eyes all night.
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“The disease was really cured, and my heart was filled with gratitude to Guanyin Bodhisattva. At the same time, I also thought of my wife whose ashes were buried in my hometown. If he could also encounter Buddhism, wouldn’t he be saved? So I decided to go home and visit his grave. , talk about my resurrection from the dead. After visiting the grave, my relatives asked me to stay a few more days, and I agreed. While walking in the field, I saw many scattered ears of rice in the field where the rice had just been harvested. I asked the villagers Why are there so many people picking up rice ears? They said that people are now rich and no one is picking up those few rice ears in the sun anymore. I asked them if I could pick some rice ears, and they said it was okay. After a few days, it was all set on fire. I thought it was a pity that the grain was burned, so I spent a week picking up four large bundles of rice ears and grinding out a total of ninety-eight kilograms of rice. Today I bring you five pieces of rice. Ten pounds, this is not a gift to you, but to let you know that my waist is really healed. How many times did I have to bend down to pick up so much rice! This is the second life given to me by Buddha and Bodhisattva. I keep calling my daughter Also help me recite “Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva’s Universal Door” to dedicate it to all sentient beings. I give you this bag of rice to make you happy with us.”
It took me a lot of effort before she agreed to send the rice to the temple. I joked with her that Dharma is the exclusive property of Buddha, and I don’t dare accept gifts from you. It is better to send the rice to the temple to support the monks. They are the representatives of the Buddha in the world. Besides, the old monk Miaofa is also a monk.
