Richard W Wetherill (1906-1989) identified a natural law decades ago. He called it the law of absolute right. It states right action gets right result; wrong action gets wrong result. It is the self-enforcing law that delivers the results of everybody's right or wrong behavior. When right, rational, and honest behavior is taken, situations are resolved. When behavior fails to meet nature's criteria, situations are unresolved and remain troublesome.
He pointed out: early in life there is one thing that people learn about natural laws. Laws of nature do their own enforcing, and when not obeyed, they do their own punishing. The mere attempt to disobey a natural law, intended or not, exposes a person to whatever punishment that the law imposes.
Wetherill taught that it takes a changeless decision to stop pitting our behavior against whoever or whatever created Earth, its law, and its people. The behavioral law then serves its purpose to deliver right results, not wrong results. People's right behavior finally results in the "heaven on earth" intended by whoever or whatever the creator is!
It is a fact that there is yesterday, today, and tomorrow; there is past, present, and future; and thus life is turning and turning within the time span. This is what is called a person's Faith in his life. Could you master your own faith in your life, probably not all? Many things are not in your control. For example, when a person is born to this world, you are born confused and unpredicted. No one knows why he chooses his present parents and his siblings. No one knows why he chooses this world, this country, this era of history. Did you choose yourself? A normal person cannot answer this until he is enlightened. On top of that, many things that happened to you happened unexplained and in confusion; including how you meet your teachers, the elders, relatives, friends, the men and the women. These are a part of your faith in your life.
After learning Buddhism, it is understood that what is called explained or in confusion, or what is called faith, in reality is how the cause and effect is working. Due to cause and effect, one has to experience the past, the present and face the future. When cause and condition is ripe, the consequence or the effect will be there. The cause of the past gives rise to the consequence of the present. The purpose of learning Buddhism is for opening up one's wisdom. Living within one's faith, and experiencing one's causes and effects, one applies his wisdom to renew himself; and hoping that one does not continued to live in ignorance and confusion.
One should understand that the law of cause and effect is a natural law. The laws made by human society will need the police to enforce. A criminal will need the judge to pass a sentence. The Law of Cause and Effect does not need the police or the judges, the doer, good or evil, will naturally face their rewards or retributions consequently. Take for examples; if a person tells too many lies, nobody will believe in her. If a person does not cultivate diligently, she would probably not going to open her wisdom. When you cook curry, the better you know how to match the ingredients, the better taste will the curry be. If a person constantly cleans up her room, her room will naturally be neat. If a person does not clean her body, her body will slowly get sick. If you are just slightly sick, you probably will recover in a few days. If one is badly sick, how could you expect to be well in a few days? If you just visited a doctor and not even started taking medication, how would you expect to be well? This is just so natural. Similarly, if one is presently having a bad fortune, it is because of the cause done in the past. If you wish to live a better life, you will have to work for it from now.
In America, when you visit doctors, there is a long procedure, and you have to have patience. In normal situation, one visit to family practitioner will not lead you to specialist, or recommended the use of any sophisticated testing equipments. A normal visit to a family doctor including the prescription can easily cost you more than a hundred dollar. When administration of other tests is included, it may add up to a few hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The cost of visiting a specialist costs much more. A visit to emergency room can easily cost you more than a thousand dollar. The cost of administrating a CT scan will cost more. A CT scan is equivalent to 760 exposures of X-ray. This amount of radiation exposure is higher than that of the survivals of Hiroshima exposure to atomic explosion. It is known that all the survivals of Hiroshima atomic explosion later died from cancer due to exposure. If you are still healthy, doctors will not recommend a CT scan. You would not dare to exposure yourself either. Thus, if you are just getting a common sickness or your health problem is due to 40 or 50 years of aging, you have to have patience.
Buddha taught that nothing can be done about the process of birth, aging, sickness and death. It will naturally run its course. Only if one is not born, then there is no death. Thus Buddha taught living beings how to end birth and death, how to leave suffering and attain bliss. If one dwells in the mental state of craving to live and fear of death, when one dies, he/she will still be born in the cycle of six paths of rebirth. She will not leave suffering or attain bliss. It is wise to remember this. I wish everyone will share this as an inspiration for cultivation. Being sick is a common thing that one has to face. If facing a sickness, one gets nervous, feels suspicious, confuses and turns around the medically ignorant people/friends around him/her, this is really not proper.
On the other hand, there are people who are really sick and yet would not wish to visit a doctor. This is the other extreme. If one could recover from a sickness to fulfill the purpose of cultivation, either to protect the Buddha Dharma, or to live as example of the wisdom of Buddha, to practice the Bodhisattva practices, to benefit others and thus benefit the self, life is made useful. It is a fact that there are not many cultivators in this world. For the purpose of cultivation, for the purpose of benefiting living beings, one should accept proper medical care when sick.
還有師父說過，如果你都沒有（在任何方面）利益到這個國家，又沒付過一分錢的稅，就只想利益自己，那是不應該的。最近美國有一個很先進的健康基金會 Life Extension Foundation，2009年9月的一篇報導說，現在美國欠債十一兆美元（11 trillion），已經很可怕了。更可怕的是，預料再過幾年，美國的 Medicare 退休人員醫藥基金，將面對基金不足三十四兆美元更可怕的龐大數字。所以平時照顧好自己的健康，比看醫生更重要。
Another thing to note, Master said it before, if you have not benefit this country (in anyway), and have not pay a cent of income tax, and you only think of benefiting yourself, that is really not proper. In an article published by the Life Extension Foundation September 2009 issue, it is said that if the $11 trillion debt of federal government sound high, in several years to come, the Medicare unfunded liability of $34 trillion deficit will pale anyone. Thus it is more important to look after your health everyday than visiting doctor later.
