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In mid-April of 1993, my left eye became reddened, was afraid of the light, and occasionally hurt. At first I thought it was conjunctivitis and didn’t take it seriously. When it still hadn’t gotten better after a week, I began to feel worried. I looked through the medical books, and with my past case history of thrush’s mouth sore (ulcer of the mouth), ulcers of the male organ, and folliculitis, I diagnosed myself as having Bahcet’s disease [see Note 1]. In the middle of May, the director of the opthamology department at the Taipei County Hospital examined me and agreed with my diagnosis.
Corticosteroid eyedrops are the best medicine for this disease, but they have a side effect of increased eye pressure and then glaucoma. In mid-July, my eye and head were hurting even more, and I couldn’t survive without the eyedrops. The dosage I needed kept increasing. I was under unbearable pain and had no way to work normally. At the end of July, a relative introduced me to a Master Chen in Zhongli, Taiwan. In his house, he had an altar for Guanshiyin Bodhisattva and Lord Guan, and he could heal people. He agreed that the prognosis was not good in my case, and that I would eventually lose my sight. At first he wanted to give me a secret formula that Guanshiyin Bodhisattva had given his family, but he couldn’t find it, so he gave me a charm and told me to burn it, sprinkle the ashes in water, and use the water to wash my eye. He also instructed me to eat a meal of black beans, red beans, green beans, soybeans, seeds of Job’s tears, and brown rice mixed and cooked together, and to drink water in which green beans have been boiled every morning and evening.
When I returned home, I thought: If I don’t have Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’s prescription, I probably don’t have any hope. Then I knelt and prayed sincerely for Guanshiyin
Bodhisattva to heal my eye. I kept reciting “Namo Guanshiyin Bodhisattva.” The next day, Master Chen called and said Guanshiyin Bodhisattva had appeared in his dream and given a prescription: boil modang [see Note 2], tofu, and brown sugar in water, and administer for five days. When I did this, the swelling and pain of my eye gradually subsided. I continued reciting the Bodhisattva’s name and eating the bean-and-rice formula for another month. The pressure in my eye gradually decreased and my eye healed completely.
One time when I was reciting Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’s name with great concentration, I suddenly heard the sound of the name in my ear. It was inconceivable. I thank Guanshiyin Bodhisattva and Master Chen for their great compassion in allowing me to recover my sight.
When I read the Venerable Master’s explanations of the Sutras and instructional talks from the Dharma Realm Buddhist Books Distribution Association in Taiwan, I came to realize how frightening karmic obstacles and retribution can be and how important it is to cultivate.
The fearful ordeal of being sick will forever be impressed in my mind. After that serious illness, I never touched alcohol or meat again and also got rid of all bad habits. When I treat patients, I am better able to understand their suffering and to put myself in their shoes when I help them. When I encounter people with particularly severe karmic obstacles, I encourage them to study the Buddhadharma, worship the Buddhas and bow in repentance more often to eradicate their karmic obstacles. I tell them that in order to recover rapidly, they should liberate life more and not eat meat.
On Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’s birthday, I have written down this account of how I was cured of my eye ailment so that more scientists can know about it. As is the cause, so will be the effect. I hope that when people who have the same disease as I did see this article, they will follow my example and recite the holy name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva.
When I was reciting the Universal Door Chapter, I burst into tears when I recited to the part:
Living beings are best with hardships
And oppressed by limitless sufferings.
The power of Guanyin’s wondrous wisdom
Can rescue the world from suffering.
Complete with the power of spiritual penetrations,
Vastly cultivating wisdom and expedient means,
Going throughout countries in the ten directions,
He manifests everywhere in all places.
The various evil destinies,
Those of the hells, ghosts, and animals,
And the pain of birth, old age, sickness, and death
Are all gradually wiped away.
True Contemplator, Pure Contemplator,
Contemplator with Vast, Great Wisdom,
Compassionate Contemplator, Kind Contemplator,
Constant are your vows, constant is our respect!
Undefiled pure light,
The sun of wisdom that breaks through the darkness
Is able to quell calamities of wind and fire
As it shines on all worlds.
I thank the Venerable Master for opening my wisdom, and I vow to follow the Venerable Master in diligent cultivation, support the Triple Jewel to the end of my life, and support the Buddhadharma in all my future lives.
Om. Mani Padme Hum.
Note 1: Acute Uveitis (Bahcet’s Disease or Compatible with Bahcet’s Disease): This disease is of unclear origin and is characterized by recurrent infections that slowly spread throughout the entire body. Most people with this disease are young males.
Records of this disease can be found in Chinese medical texts as early as A.D. 200, under the name of
“fox delusion sickness.” The Turkish doctor Bahcet reported this disease for the first time in 1908, and so it was named after him. The disease attacks the iris. A series of recurrent infections leads to retinodialysis and atrophy of the eyeball.
Note 2: Because the original manuscript was written in cursive, the editors could not decipher these two characters and temporarily used the characters modang to represent them.
[Editor’s Note:The author is a pediatrician.]
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