Upasaka Lim Teow Chuan (Dharma name: Guo Chuan), is a retired official of the Malaysian government. This year (1998) he led eleven fellow cultivators to attend the Jeweled Repentance before Ten Thousand Buddhas. Having made the long journey, it was a test of their stamina to participate in the entire session, given the great variation in temperature between morning and evening at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. At the end of the Dharma session, Upasaka Lim was all smiles, and it was clear that he was filled with faith and Dharma bliss.

Special circumstances led Upasaka Lim to take refuge with the Venerable Master. In 1988, while leading his disciples on a Dharma tour in Asia, the Master was preparing to go from Taiwan to Malaysia, but had not yet obtained a visa. At that critical moment, a lawyer friend asked Upasaka Lim to help, since he had worked in the immigration agency before and was then the chief secretary of the vice-president of the Youth Culture and Physical Education Department. Although Upasaka Lim was not yet the Master’s disciple, he sent documents and met with immigration officials, with the result that the visa was granted within a week’s time.

“Really, I should have taken refuge with the Venerable Master then. It’s too bad I didn’t recognize what kind of man was in front of me, and only took refuge four years later (1992).” He had already met and talked with the Master, yet he missed his opportunity. Upasaka Lim recounted this incident with a sigh.

However, he believes that he did plant good roots then; the time just wasn’t ripe yet. “To be frank, I was not that interested in Buddhism then. I was just doing a favor for a friend, nothing more.”

It just so happened that when Dharma Master Heng Sure led a delegation to Malaysia in 1992, the group also had problems going through customs. By then Upasaka Lim was working in the Printing Bureau. The organizing committee for the delegation, a new group whose members did not know Upasaka Lim, suddenly showed up at his door and asked for his help again; and the delegation obtained visas without problem.

Upasaka Lim could not figure it out: Why was it that both times when the Master or his disciples came to Malaysia and had difficulty at the customs, he was called upon? He did not even know the organizers of the visit, and he himself had already changed jobs. He concluded that perhaps there were past affinities which he could not escape, so he had better return to the ranks, take refuge with the Triple Jewel, and become the Master’s disciple.

“If you want to be good, karmic obstacles will seek you out. If you want to become a Buddha, you must first endure the demons.” A few days after he took refuge, the demons showed up. One night when he went out to get gas, an old woman stepped into the road in front of him and asked for a ride. Upasaka Lim said he was only going a short distance to get gas. The woman refused to get out of the way, however, so finally he let her get into the car.

As soon as she entered the car, Upasaka Lim smelled a foul odor and could hardly breathe. She also started to make a lot of vulgar gestures and said suggestively, “Don‘t worry, I don’t have a husband.” Her words gave Upasaka Lim the goosebumps, and he was sure that she was a demon. He started to shiver in fear. He had only recently taken refuge, and had not even learned to recite any mantra to help him out.

Fortunately he had a flash of inspiration and started to recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha” without thinking. As soon as he recited, the foul smell disappeared and the woman stopped making vulgar gestures. But when he stopped reciting, she began moving her hands and feet again, and so he immediately resumed the recitation. After battling like this for five minutes, she finally got out of the car, saying to him, “You are a good person, and your life will be good.” She then got out and he never saw her again.

From that evening on, Upasaka Lim often mumbled in his sleep. His wife, who had taken refuge with the Venerable Master in 1988, begged the Master to save him. When the disciple was in trouble, how could the teacher stand by and watch? The Master asked Upasaka Lim to come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The demon came with him, and was outside his window for thirteen nights in a row; it seemed as if he was trying to break the door down with a hammer.Upasaka Lim was so fraught with anxiety that he only slept one hour each night--from 2:30 to 3:30 a.m., before getting up for morning recitation.

On the 14th day, the Venerable Master came to the Buddha Hall and tapped Upasaka Lim on the head three times, saying to him, “You’re fine now, you can go home.” From that time on, there were no more problems. Strange, isn’t it?

All these trials and tribulations inspired Upasaka Lim’s interest in the Buddhadharma and faith in the Venerable Master. He knew that he had found a great and wise teacher. He became increasingly vigorous in cultivation, studied and practiced in accord with the Master’s instructional talks and the Buddhist Sutras, and received the five precepts in 1997.

The Venerable Master has said that ghosts, demons, and monstrous beings are particularly numerous in Southeast Asia. As a government official, Upasaka Lim was often sent to the countryside. Sometimes at midnight he would be driving on roads where few people ever went, and some strange things would happen. He has been caught in sudden downpours that only hit the front of his car; no rain fell on either side, but he could not see through the front windshield. In such situations, he would switch on the tape of the Shurangama Mantra, and after a few minutes the rain would stop and he would be able to see the road clearly again.

One time when he was staying in a rural inn, he forgot to wear the miniature copy of the Shurangama Mantra. In the middle of the night, a ghost came to bully him, pressing itself on Upasaka Lim’s body and immobilizing him. It was as if his hands and feet were tied up, and he could not even open his mouth to shout for help. He felt extremely uncomfortable, as if his guts were about to burst. This is the kumbhanda ghost (winter melon ghost) described in the Shurangama Sutra. It has no hands or feet, and it’s body is shaped like a barrel or winter melon.

Upasaka Lim struggled for a long time before the ghost finally let him go. He immediately got out of bed, took the Shurangama Mantra booklet, and put it in his pajama pocket. Then he feigned sleep and waited eagerly to see what would happen when the ghost returned. Before he fell asleep, the ghost did return to attack him. It pressed the Upasaka’s body lightly, also pressing the mantra, and was at once thrown up into the air as if it had hit a land mine. Upasaka Lim was wide awake, for he had been waiting to watch the Dharma-contest.

From then on, Upasaka Lim always slept with the Shurangama Mantra whenever he went out. For six years, he has slept peacefully without any disturbance.

Upasaka Lim has also used the Great Compassion Mantra and water over which the Mantra has been recited to save his dying pet dog. Two years ago, he mistakenly used kerosene to bathe the little dog, hoping to get rid of its lice. After the dog had been soaked in kerosene for a little while, it could no longer stand up. The dog shut its eyes and was barely breathing.

The vet examined the dog and said that the kerosene had penetrated the skin through some wounds and had already entered the bloodstream, poisoning the blood. He said the dog would die within three hours and there was nothing he could do.

Upasaka Lim had no choice but to bring the dog home. His family prayed to Guanyin Bodhisattva to help the dog. By then foam was coming out of its mouth, and it could not move, eat, or drink. His family recited the Great Compassion Mantra 108 times over water, and then placed the water drop by drop into the dog’s closed mouth. They also made a vow on behalf of the dog, saying that if it lived, it would be vegetarian for the rest of its life.

On the third day, a miracle happened. A breeze blew over the unconscious dog, and it suddenly started vomiting. Then it got up on its feet. A week later it was fully recovered. The week after that, it completely shed all of its fur and turned into an ugly, bald little dog. A few weeks after that, it grew new fur. The dog began to eat vegetarian food and often sat at the door listening to the family recite Sutras and do the morning and evening recitations, as if it also wished to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

The great mantra of great compassion
　penetrates heaven and earth.
One hundred recitations for one thousand days
　causes ten kings to rejoice.
Its great compassion and kindness
　cure all disease;
And so an announcement is projected high
　upon the offense screen.

This verse composed by the Venerable Master describes the miraculous functioning of the Great Compassion Mantra. If one recites it 108 times every day, the ten King Yamas will utter joyful praise. Curing illness, prolonging life, and reviving the dead are some of its small functions. Liberating one from birth and death and bringing one to Buddhahood are the great functions of the Great Compassion Mantra.

All good and wise advisors: Please do not consider Upasaka Lim’s experiences to be simply bizarre ghost stories. We must have the Dharma-selecting vision to be able to distinguish true from false principle. “If it is the Way, then advance. It if is not the Way, then retreat.” I urge everyone to heed these words.