Resolving to learn from the Buddha, I entered the Gate of the Teaching. Causes and conditions came ripe for me at the Holy City Where I met a Wise Advisor to reveal good roots.
He rescued both my Dharma Body and my Wisdom Life.
With one mind I return and rely on this Sagely, Worthy Sanghan.
His kindness in giving my life a second start can't be expressed in words. This illusory body, made of the Four Elements, although not real, Still hosts Five Skandhas, that make grow my evils and offenses. Past karma calls forth the Wind of Impermanence,
And legions of suffering and constant distress pursue me always. My fate had nearly reached its end- by luck, the Master saved me! A life at the brink got rescued, and I can begin anew.
Turning the world, his wondrous skill cures all diseases.
Appreciating the Master's compassionate vows, I received a fortunate response. He brought back the dead from the wheel of pain,
And exhorts me to cultivate, so I will focus and strive on. I must repent of past offenses til six faculties are pure,
And cultivate this Dharma door, til three karmas have no flaw.
Let radiant light pierce through the dark, and the inherent nature show. May we all accomplish the Way, and ride the Buddha's carriage.

As soon as I took the Precepts in September of 1991, I was told to accompany a fellow sister to Taiwan for medical treatment. Her doctor was very kind-hearted and offered to check me up without charge. Unexpectedly, he found out there were three small tumors in my stomach which had to be removed by an operation. Since the retribution always follows after karma, I thought I would pay my debts happily, so as to get rid of disasters in the future. My mother was asked to take care of me and I went on to the operating table feeling at ease. The operation took three hours. The next day the doctor in charge of the surgery came to me and said with a smile, "I'm sorry! The scanning report was read incorrectly. After we opened you up we found out that it was three water bubbles, not tumors in your stomach. However, your intestines are absolutely inconceivable! The whole piece of membrane has adhered to your other organs. The doctors from each section had a consultation and decided that it would be best not to touch them; otherwise, the result might be even worse. So from now on you can only count on the Bodhisattvas to protect and aid you and seek your own blessings!" The operation I had was unnecessary!

This adhesion of the intestines was the after effect from a serious bout of enteritis ten years ago. I had never paid attention to it because it only bothered me once in a while, shortly after meals and did not cause any big trouble in my life. However, from this doctor's appearance, it seemed to me I had just heard a death-sentence, and I did not have much time left!

After that operation, I soon regained my energy, and so left the hospital in one week with my fellow sister. I ate a rushed lunch in order to catch the plane leaving at three o'clock. Soon afterwards, I knew a major event was about to happen, and I suffered pains in my stomach so serious that it forced me to cancel my flight schedule. At six o'clock I went into the emergency room, and a doctor gave me a shot of painkiller to stop the pain. The effect came immediately which enabled me to rest. However, in a short while I felt a dull pain again, but because my fellow sister was just released from the hospital, I dared not to bother her, and simply endured the pain. At two thirty that night, the intervals of the pain decreased from every few minutes to tremendously painful cramps every second. I tried to squeeze myself through the cracks in the wall. In that air-conditioned room, sweat soaked my clothes and the quilt, my lips were bitten bloody, and finally I cried out, nearly scaring my fellow sister to death.

At midnight, we couldn't get an ambulance and finally had to ring up and disturb a lay person. She got a cab and hastily took me to emergency room. They gave me another analgesic shot, but this time it didn't work. In less than ten minutes I was in such pain that my body trembled and spasmed. An X-ray showed that my intestines were blocked, and perhaps another operation was necessary. Later, a few familiar lay people came and stayed with me, reciting the Shurangama Mantra all the time. There was hundreds of thousands of pains in my head and I could hardly recite the Buddha's name even a single time. In my mind I could only cry for the Ven. Master to rescue me! At that time the doctor on duty dared not to treat my case and said he had to wait for the doctor in charge who would come at eight a.m.

Early in the morning after five o'clock the doctor in charge suddenly appeared, saying he felt restless and couldn't sleep. He had a hunch there was a problem in the emergency room. After he heard the report from the doctor on-duty, he hurried to check me up and scolded that doctor, "You almost killed this patient! How could you inject her with an analgesic for a blockage of the intestines? That would allow them even less to move and would cause necrosis of the cells!" After that came the misery of taking an emetic and inserting a nasal feeding tube. I might have been fainting or asleep, but in my state of shallow breathing I saw the big, tall body of the Venerable Master, wearing a yellow sash and holding a cane, standing by my bed, kindly and sympathetically saying, "Okay, okay, it's all over. From now on you should bow the Great Compassion Repentance sincerely. I have never seen you bow that ceremony properly." "Master, please have compassion! This disciple was constantly going out to do business when I was in the Buddhist Academy, always running from north to south, so I never had time to bow! Nevertheless, this disciple will surely perform the ceremony properly!" My battle with life and death lasted for four days and the emergency was lifted only after a mess of greenish gall-bile rushed out of my nose. The doctor said, "There's no need to undergo an operation, you will recover. You have a long life span; and this is simply a miracle."

To be continued