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 Jun Hong Lu.
If my sharing is improper in any way, I would like to seek the forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Heavenly Dharma Protectors.
Good afternoon to all shi xiongs.
I’m Wu from the Great Karimun Island of Indonesia. I’m very grateful to be given this opportunity to share with you about my personal experience and true encounters after learning Buddhism.
The April 2015 Singapore Dharma Convention marked the beginning of my husband’s and my Buddhism cultivation journey. A major mishap that took place in February 2017 that I’m about to share with you shortly illustrates the blessings that Guan Yin Bodhisattva has showered on my family, allowing each and everyone of us to escape the tragedy unscathed.
On 28 February 2017, my husband and I flew to Singapore late in the night after attending the Macau Dharma Convention. We were enroute to take a boat ride to return to our home in Tanjung Balai Karimun, Indonesia the following day. Unbeknown to us, a torrential and incessant downpour back home had triggered severe mudslide, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. We were then living at the affected hillside zone.
On that fateful day, at around 10.30pm, my sister contacted my husband to break the bad news. The rainstorm had caused the soil to loosen, sending boulders tumbling all the way down the hill. And, this was happening right at our backyard! As a result, my mother, my three kids and domestic helper were evacuated to take shelter in my sister’s home.
I could hardly believe that this actually happened to me. Overwhelmed by anxiety, I could hardly think straight. All kinds of questions flashed through my mind. There was nothing much that we could do but await the day to break. After all, it was late in the night. My husband and I were eager to catch the first boat ride home.
We could only grasp the severity of the destruction caused by the mudslide when we arrived home the next day. The hill-facing wall of the house on the right side of my home had a big hole, measuring over one metre wide, as mud and boulders smashed right into the house. The damage was far worse for my left neighbour. The hill-facing wall of her house was decimated as mud and boulders forced their way into her living room.
The mishap was covered by the local media, which captured my left neighbour’s badly-damaged house. Fortunately, her husband was not home when the disaster struck. My neighbour and her children so happened to be in other parts of their house and hence, they were not harmed.
Judging from the destruction within the vicinity, I thought the same fate would have befallen my home. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw my house remain completely in-tact without any damage whatsoever, as per the first picture. The first picture shows the destruction inflicted on both neighbours’ homes with sediment containing mud and rocks building up to the height of their windows. Incredibly, the reinforcement wall at the back of my house was able to withstand the nature’s onslaught and the mudflow somehow ceased to progress beyond my backyard as depicted in the second picture.
Upon hearing vivid illustration of the tragedy that unfolded the night before, it only dawned on me how compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva was. Everyone was deep in sleep when the calamity struck. My children were shaken up from their sleep, petrified by the loud noise of wall collapsing, and started crying. My mother, who has some hearing problems, thought it was nothing more than lightning strikes, and put my children back to sleep again. It was my neighbours’ frantic banging of my house front door that eventually got them out of harm’s way.
One of the walls to the bedroom that my mother and children slept in happened to face my neighbour’s damaged living room. It is hard to imagine what would have happened to them had this wall given way. My domestic helper, who was then sleeping in the bedroom that faced the hill, would not have survived had her bedroom wall caved in the way that both my neighbours’ did.
Think about this: Homes of similar build and location were all destroyed, except mine. Not only that, there was no single trace of damage to my property. Who would have been so lucky had it not been for the blessings of Guan Yin Bodhisattva?
Had my husband and I not practised Buddhism, none of us would have been shielded from this natural catastrophe. Deepest gratitude to Guan Yin Bodhisattva for her great mercy and compassion to have kept my family safe and sound, and protected our home.
Notwithstanding, my worries lingered on as I was torn between staying put and moving out. Again, luck was on our side. I was able to get through Master Jun Hong Lu’s call-in radio program. That was in March 2017. Master Lu advised us to move home and our search should focus on properties located in the west or north.
Soon after, we found a suitable residence in the west and managed to secure a bank loan for it with minimal hindrances. We planned to shift in June 2017. Faced with some financial difficulties, we needed to sell our existing home. We were worried that we might end up servicing two bank loans while waiting for a buyer for our current home. As such, I implored to Guan Yin Bodhisattva to give us the best possible arrangement. For this, I kept my prayer request general in fear of further depleting my limited meritorious blessings. After all, I had been transferring my merits accrued from volunteering works in past Dharma Conventions to my son.
Master Lu has once said that participating in Dharma Conventions can help in crystallizing one’s wishes. This was exactly what happened to us. We managed to find a buyer for our old property a few days after the March 2018 Jakarta Dharma Convention. I am deeply grateful for this. Guan Yin Citta’s Three Golden Buddhist Practices – performing recitation, making great vows and releasing captive lives – have allowed us to witness miracles.
Now, I’d like to share the story of my son. All parents wish for a healthy, intelligent and well-behaved child. Unfortunately, this wish didn’t come true in our case. Unlike other kids, my son was only able to speak at around three years old. Even then, his ability to converse was limited to addressing me, my husband and his grandparents. He had difficulty expressing himself even when he needed to drink or eat. All that he knew was pointing at the items. It was close to impossible to have any decent interaction with him. I was clearly upset by his impaired communication capabilities.
We sought medical help many a time. The doctors were helpless as my son was neither an autistic nor a hyperactive child. We had also invited psychic to perform some spiritual rituals in our house. We sent our son to a special-need school. All these were efforts in futility, bearing little to no positive results.
After practising Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door for about five months and having watched various totem videos, only did we come to a better understanding of my son’s deep-seated problem.
In November 2015, my husband was fortunate to get through Master Jun Hong Lu’s totem line. Master Lu divulged that my son’s issue could be traced back to his past life when he defamed Buddha. We were advised to help my son recite 1,800 times of Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance (LIFO) and 2,000 Little Houses, and liberate 5,000 fish.
My husband and I decided to make a vow to become a full-time vegetarian. To date, we have completed the number of LIFO recitations and released 5,000 fish. I can still remember back in end-2016, we questioned ourselves as to why there was hardly any observable improvement in my son’s conditions despite having burnt some 800 Little Houses. It was then that we recalled what Master Lu once said that the offering of Little Houses needs to reach a critical threshold for the effects to manifest.
Things started to improve in April 2017 after having burnt some 1,200 Little Houses. My son’s writing and communication capabilities improved overnight by leaps and bounds. Even though his speech remained somewhat impaired, those words that he could then articulate were like music to our ears, bringing indescribable joy to me and my husband.
While we have completed offering 2,000 Little Houses, we are determined to continuously offer three Little Houses for him on a weekly basis. He is now in Primary 3 in a normal stream school and has made major strides in his communication capabilities.
Had we not learned Buddhism and understood the law of karma, my husband and I would have been entrapped in a vicious cycle of helplessness, and besieged with constant worry for our son. We would not have known ways to eliminate our inner sorrow and sufferings. Who would known the need to lend a helping hand to the needy?
Deepest gratitude to the revered Guan Yin Bodhisattva for bestowing mankind with the marvellous Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door through Master Jun Hong Lu. For this, so many of us are blessed to have encountered Buddhism and learn to apply the Three Golden Buddhist Practices to change the course of our destiny.
This is the end of my sharing. Thank you.
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