Mrs. Dong, who lives downstairs from me, is a new neighbor who has just moved here a year ago. Mrs. Dong is in her early forties, cheerful and down-to-earth. She has had diarrhea for more than ten years, but the hospital confirmed that it was not dysentery. But as long as my stomach hurts, I have to go to the toilet, ranging from four to five times to more than ten times a day, no matter what medicine I take, it doesn’t matter. The doctor said it was chronic enteritis.
Once she came to my house and asked me if there was anything I could do to help her. I half-jokingly said to her: “I will give you a prescription, as long as you are willing to “take the medicine according to the prescription” and keep the medicine until the disease is cured. I, the ‘doctor’, will not take any money.”
Mrs. Dong said very seriously: “You can prescribe the medicine! I believe you. I will buy the medicine no matter how expensive it is, and I will take it no matter how painful it is.”
I said the prescriptions I prescribed cost nothing. I think you should have stopped eating chicken, duck and fish a long time ago. Your intestines and stomach can’t tolerate meat and fish, so you have diarrhea every day. Starting today, you should avoid eating all meat, except eggs, and don’t eat any meat, onions, garlic, or leeks. Starting tonight, before you go to bed, sit down with your body relaxed, close your eyes, calm your mind, and silently recite the name of “Namo Guanyin Bodhisattva” for half an hour. As long as you are sincere, you may get results quickly. If there is no effect after reading it for a month, call me nonsense and just keep eating meat. You won’t have to spend a penny anyway, but you will save money. Do you want to give it a try?
“I used to have a colleague who went to the temple to chant sutras every first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year. She usually held a stick of incense at home every day, which was sincere! But her illnesses were not cured, and injections and medicine could not cure them. How many days, what happened?”
“Is she a vegetarian?” I asked.
“She was told that people who believe in Buddhism at home can eat the three pure meats as long as they do not kill animals, so she eats all kinds of meat.” I asked again, “Suppose a person suffers from lung disease because of smoking too much. If you drink too much and get liver disease, can you cure it by taking injections and taking medicine without quitting smoking or drinking?”
“That’s impossible.”
“In the same way, for diseases caused by eating the flesh of living beings, you must first stop eating the flesh of living beings before reciting sutras and chanting Buddha’s name to be effective. Diseases caused by not being filial to parents or other evil deeds must also eliminate bad karma first , have a heart of repentance, and then seek blessings from Buddha will be effective. Buddha and Bodhisattvas are the best doctors in the world, and Buddhism is the best medicine in the universe. But if the patient cannot follow the Buddha’s instructions and cut off the source of the disease, no matter how good the doctor or medicine is, I can’t help you, I can’t save you. Does what I say make sense?”
“I understand what you said. From today on, I will do what you said and stop eating meat and chant Buddha’s name within a month. If I really get cured, I will never eat meat again from now on and learn from you, every day Eat a vegetarian diet and recite Buddha’s name.”
The next night, Mrs. Dong came to my house with excitement on her face.
“After I went home yesterday, my stomach never hurt again. I didn’t eat any meat for dinner. When I closed my eyes and chanted the Buddha’s name before going to bed, my mind was very quiet at first. After chanting for a while, my whole body felt hot. I thought at that time if this was Feeling? The more I thought about it, the happier I became. When I felt a little numb in my legs, I opened my eyes, oh, it’s been more than an hour. I touched my body again, and I was sweating slightly. I felt as if I had just taken a hot bath, and I felt very relaxed. I didn’t expect that meditating and chanting Buddha’s name would be so good. Today, I haven’t had diarrhea until now, which has not happened in decades. However, isn’t it bad that I haven’t relieved myself for a whole day?”
I said to her: “Your intestines and stomach used to be abnormal and you couldn’t store things. Now it’s normal. You need some recovery time. You’ll probably feel better tomorrow.”
The next day it was really back to normal. So far, not only has Mrs. Dong’s diarrhea been cured, but the back pain she has suffered from working for many years has also been cured. Now she not only meditates and recites Buddha’s name every day, but also starts to learn to recite the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s Original Vow Sutra. She also wants me to teach her to recite the Great Compassion Mantra!
