Deepest gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
Deepest gratitude to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors.
Deepest gratitude to Master Lu.
My name is Zeng Yi. I am a Buddhist practitioner from Singapore who now lives in Melbourne. Although I am relatively new in my Buddhism practice, which is just slightly more than a year now, I could not contain the joy in me and I wish to share with all of you how I feel while walking this spiritual path.
Singapore has a very famous Guan Yin Temple at Waterloo Street, which all Buddhists here should be familiar with. It is a temple that I frequently go to offer prayer to Bodhisattva. With my limited knowledge of Buddhism at that time, I thought faith in Buddhism was only about bowing and drawing divination sticks at the temple. All these changed one day when I saw several people at the temple giving out Buddhism books.
Out of curiosity I went forward to take a copy. I got to know that these people are frequently there to give out books. It got me thinking, why have I not met them before since I was there every week to offer incense at the temple? I guess this is the mystical work of affinity. Things can only happen at the right time and when it does, it is unstoppable.
I found the book rather interesting. However, every time I see the Great Compassion Mantra, some kind of fear would arise in me. I was going back and forth for some time before I set my mind to performing recitation of Buddhist scriptures. It was actually because of that strong urge in me to establish faith in Buddhism that got me started.
Though I am in my 50’s and I am someone who often offer incense at the temple, I felt that my notion of faith was a far cry from what true faith is all about. I realized this urge to establish faith had since become stronger with age. Finally, I made the decision to embrace Buddhism and started chanting.
I had been suffering from insomnia and asthma for many years and I wasn’t expecting my chanting could bring about any change in this aspect. However, the transformation in my health had entirely changed how I was trained to think as a medical worker.
I had been suffering from Insomnia for many years. At its early stage, due to work requirement I suffered from occasional sleepless nights and I thought it was quite normal. However, as time goes by, especially after the age of 50, my condition worsened to the extent that I could not sleep a wink the entire night.
Even counting 2000 sheep did not seemed to work. Back then I would always feel exhausted and absent-minded in the day. I didn’t take the early signs of insomnia seriously, until it became too serious to manage.
Bodhisattva really cares about me. I wasn’t expecting that chanting could help improve the quality of my sleep, hence, I didn’t make any prayer request with regards to this. What I least expect was I could actually fall asleep after performing recitation for a week! As for now I am so proud to say that my sleep quality has been superb!
I have been suffering from asthma from the age of two. My mother who is a pharmacist, use to prescribe me various medications and brought me to seek medical help everywhere. I had undergone various treatments, all of which can only offer temporary relief, and render the attacks less frequent.
My mother believed that my asthma is a long-term sequela of measles, it is lifelong and cannot be cured. Since young I had been living with this mental stereotype. In fact, I got used to the attacks when it happened.
After I settled down in Singapore, I have to regularly make arrangements for some of the medicine to be couriered to me from China and I also go for regular follow up at the doctors’ clinics. Though I have consulted many different doctors, I did not believe my genetically determined asthma will find its cure.
I was prescribed with the strongest medication. After some time, the clinic personnel got to know me so well that these medicine did not require the doctor’s prescription and I could easily obtain them through the nurses. Things got worse later to the extent I could not touch anything cold for example cold water, which could cause me to cough severely. I was also allergic to orange juice and all types of beans.
Air conditioner was also a no-no. Singapore is a tropical country where it is a norm to keep our body cool. Ironically, I have to wear socks at home, and put on a coat when I go out in the car. This was how cautious I was at all times. Sometimes I would suffer an attack out of a sudden when I lie down at night, and I had to get out of bed to get the inhaler because of the cough.
My condition was at its worst when I started practising Guan Yin Citta. I was reliant not only on very strong cough medicine, but also hormone medication to put my condition under control. The side effects of hormone medication need no introduction especially for me as a medical worker, but I was left with no choice.
Like insomnia, I never thought that chanting could help cure my asthma condition even after I started practising Buddhism. Once in the Singapore Practice Centre, while chatting, a Buddhist friend said that she no longer suffered from asthma attacks after she started chanting.
While others were singing her praises I accidentally blurted, “That’s impossible, asthma can never be cured.” My bitter comments had sent all present to put the conversation to a halt to prevent me from committing more negative karma of speech.
Gradually, with a deeper understanding of Buddhism, I started to understand the concept of karma, and on how to recite the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance and Little House to eliminate karmic obstacles. Once, on the Birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva in April this year, I recited 27 times of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance, specifically to address my asthma condition. I also offered some Little House to this effect.
Though so, I wasn’t expecting to see any immediate results.
But miracle did happen!
My husband was the first to notice that I have stopped coughing!
I suddenly come to realize that indeed I have not been coughing for a few days. I asked myself, could it be that Bodhisattva has helped me to eliminate my karmic obstacles? In order to verify, I put myself to some tests, drinking cold water, orange juice, eating beans and yoghurt and I passed all the tests! None of them make me cough!
I was so excited that I went to my best friend’s house to report the good news. She didn’t believe me. Hence, she tried turning on the air-conditioner to blow at me to see how would I react. And, true enough, I had no problem at all with the cold wind! From then on, living a life of restrictions was history.
The third change that took place after I started performing recitation was the health of my back. For many years, I had been suffering from backache, which felt like a piece of thick quilt pressing on me. I needed to go for frequent massages. After I started chanting, the aches and pain are all gone! My body has never felt so light in my life!
Before I started practicing Guan Yin Citta, I have gone through many medical checks. In one of the checks they discovered many white spots on my lung and was advised to consult a specialist. However, I didn’t take the advice seriously as I was pretty sure it was due to my asthma condition.
As I had gradually recovered from asthma I decided to go through a check. I was pleasantly surprised that the medical report which was dated 17 October 2018 showed that my lung was all cleared.
My body had gone through such big transformation that was impossible from the medical perspective. I really believed that I would have to live with these diseases for the rest of my life. Least I know, through recitation of Buddhist scriptures for just over a year it could help me bid farewell to them.
Guan Yin Bodhisattva is indeed compassionate! Guan yin Citta is indeed marvelous! All these positive changes happened even without me asking for Bodhisattva’s help. Hence, now I strongly believe what Master Lu said, that is “miracle will happen!”.
I have always been serious with what I do and I always put in my best effort in all my endeavors. The same goes with learning Buddhism. When I first started on this path, I heard Buddhist friends around me mentioning about “to be enlightened”. I was very curious what it means exactly. How do we get enlightened?
Until one day, as I was chanting quietly, it was as if my mind got slammed! It felt like nothing was important at that moment, I could only feel joy in my heart, as it open up. I know then, that the essence of learning Buddhism is not about praying for something external, or a change in the environment we are in, but rather it is a kind of inner peace and it is difficult to attain.
We may seem to be enlightened in one moment but not the next as we are swayed by the state of mind at a given point of time. However, I do believe that as long as we persist, to have the right faith and thoughts and to be righteous in our spiritual cultivation, we can be sure that we will achieve what we aspire to one day.
Deepest gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
Deepest gratitude to Master Lu.
Deepest gratitude to Guan Yin Citta for allowing me to practise such a marvelous spiritual method.
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