PureInsight | November 21, 2005
[PureInsight.org] The weekend seems to go faster than the weekdays. There are always endless chores and errands for me to complete on the weekends; therefore, I do not have the good fortune to listen to Aunt Ming Zhu's tales on the weekends. Today is Tuesday. After dinner, I picked up the phone and called Aunt Ming Zhu.
"Aunt Ming Zhu, I have published all the stories you have told me so far. Please tell me more."
"Sure. Let me tell you a story about kindness. Kindness manifests itself naturally; it is not something that can be pretended. Kindness comes from within. It is capable of improving one's life path and weaving a beautiful life for you. Bestowing kindness will also make you unforgettable to people around you." As I listened to Aunt Ming Zhu, I realized that she had even written the preface for this article of mine. Aren't her words the natural manifestation of her kindness?
Aunt Ming Zhu continued, "I have enormously benefited from the education I received from my parents about being kind to others. I would like to share two stories with you. One of them is about the story about my eldest daughter's appendicitis when she was little. The other is about my personal experience. Do you have paper and pen ready?"
"Please go ahead."
"It happened when my eldest daughter was about eight years old. One day after I returned home from work, I found her lying on the bed looking very pale. She complained about a stomachache. I put my bicycle away and immediately took her to the hospital, which was just across the street. When we were only half way there, she couldn't walk any more. The intensive pain caused her to crouch down. It was then I realized it was very serious. I carried her on my back and walked-ran towards the hospital. After the examination, the doctor diagnosed her with acute appendicitis and told me she needed surgery right away. Surgery was the last thing I needed because my husband was working in a mine far away and wouldn't return until three months later. I have three children. If my eldest daughter should have surgery, I would have to stay with her at the hospital. Who was going to look after the other children? I decided not to have a surgery and took her to the traditional Chinese medical doctor first."
"You had a lot of nerve. Weren't you worried what might happen to her if she didn't have surgery immediately?" I studied Western medicine, so I immediately thought of the worst consequences of not operating on a patient diagnosed with acute appendicitis.
"You are right. I was young and didn't know better. Besides, the pain was not consistent; it was periodic. We hurried to a Chinese traditional hospital before the doctors went off duty. The doctor on duty looked very kind. He was about 50 years old. I told him about the hospital's diagnosis and my difficulty at home. Finally I asked him, "Doctor, do you have confidence that you can cure my daughter?" After examining my daughter, he replied calmly, "Traditional Chinese medicine has a cure for acute appendicitis. The only concern I have is that it is getting late and there is a risk of not being able to get all the herbs needed for the prescription. Why don't you hurry to the traditional Chinese pharmacy immediately?" I took a quick glance at the prescription and noticed he had prescribed about a dozen different herbs.
Once at the traditional Chinese pharmacy, the pharmacist on duty was a tall young woman. She also looked very kind. She was very quick and in just two shakes she had the all the herbs on the prescription list ready for me." Then she told me, "Everything on the prescription list is here, except dandelion."
I hurried back to the doctor and asked him if the prescription would work without dandelion. He checked the herbs and looked very pleased. He said, "I am surprised that the pharmacy had the herbs ready for you so quickly. Dandelion will not cost you anything, but it is a main herb in the prescription. It will not work without it. It shouldn't be difficult to find. You can find it in the rice paddies. When you go looking for dandelion, you should ask people there where you might find 'yellow stem.' That is how it is commonly known around here." I thanked the doctor and brought my daughter home before I got on my bicycle to look for dandelion in the suburbs.
Once in the suburbs, I realized that the farmers had just hoed the paddies so all the wild flowers were gone. I asked the farmers who were getting ready to go home for the day where I could find "yellow stem," but everyone ignored me. It was probably because I spoke Mandarin and they didn't understand it because they spoke only local dialect. I was getting anxious, and a shepherd approached me and asked, "I heard you were looking for yellow stem. Why do you need it for?" I quickly explained that I needed it for the prescription to treat my little girl's acute appendicitis. He said, "Follow me. They have just hoed the paddies so you won't find any dandelion here. We must go to the cemetery."
Next he began to herd two lambs towards the cemetery. I followed him while pushing my bicycle. He told me that he was a mineworker but had left the mine because he became ill and had no choice but to become a shepherd. Because he had worked in the city, he spoke Mandarin and also wasn't too shy to talk to me. Soon we arrived at a cemetery. He told me to wait for him while he looked for dandelion in the cemetery. He found about eight dandelions. I was very thankful to him, but I didn't know what to say. He told me to rush home and boil the herbs for my daughter. I left without even asking his name. Afterwards, I regretted not even knowing his name.
After I returned home, I immediately boiled the herbs. Half an hour later, my daughter drank the first brew. The traditional Chinese medicine is really something. Soon my daughter fell asleep. When she had the second brew, she was completely well. She told me, "Mommy, I have fully recovered. I will go to school tomorrow."
It was not until my daughter had gotten well that I was able to calm down and reflect what had happened. In just a few hours, three kindhearted people gave their heartfelt help, including the old Chinese traditional medical doctor, the female pharmacist and the shepherd. If it had not been for their kindness and their help in time, my daughter would never have recovered so quickly. Afterwards I was scared when I thought about my decision. At the time the doctor at the Western hospital warned me that my daughter might suffer from septicemia if she did not have a surgery right away. It was amazing that the prescription from the traditional Chinese medicine that people might think would work slowly could have cured my daughter right away with a bowl of herb soup! This experience revolutionized my perception of traditional Chinese medicine.
"Did you get a chance to see any of them again?" I expected to have a wonderful reunion as a happy ending to the story.
"It is such a pity that I found only one of them. Time flies as fast as train. Some people only meet each other once in a lifetime."
"Which one of them did you reunite with?" I was getting anxious. Dear readers, I am sure you can understand how I felt.
"After about twenty years, I was transferred to a hospital to maintain and repair medical equipment. For a period of time I worked at the pharmacy in the hospital. The female pharmacist who had helped me had left a long time ago. The current pharmacist was also a woman. She reminded me of her, so one day I told her the story. The she told the story to her father. Her father laughed and told her, 'It was I, your father, who had cured her daughter's acute appendicitis. I was just about to leave when she came with her little girl. She had two other children at home and her husband was on a business trip, so she wanted to try alternative treatment other than surgery. She made a quite impression on me."
I have always dreamed of repaying those who have helped me in my life. After I started my cultivation practice in Falun Gong, I learned a heavenly law --- Heaven will ultimately reward good deeds and punish bad deeds. It is a Chinese idiom that every Chinese is familiar with. Prior to my cultivation practice, I have never accepted it from the scientific perspective. Perhaps some people do not believe it and think of it as a superstitious belief. But it is by no means superstition. It is even more precise, accurate and reliable than science. Think about it. When a person does a good or bad deed, he will be rewarded or punished ultimately even after many years or even when he is thousands of miles away from the place where the deed took place. Can human science achieve this? For example, a person might flee to a place afar after he commits a crime. He changes his name and keeps a low profile. He might even have a plastic surgery to change his looks. As a result, the police would have no way of finding him. He would think he had escaped the law of human society, but the heavenly law omits nothing and no one. Some day he will suffer from karmic retribution as a result of his crime. However, at the time of the karmic retribution, those who do not believe in the heavenly law will think of it as coincidence or bad luck, but everything is arranged by the high beings. If they care to look inward, they would know why they had such a run of "bad luck." Wouldn't you agree that the heavenly law is more precise and reliable than a computer? This is the reason why I believe that those who have helped me will be rewarded and blessed somehow and why I no longer regret not having had a chance to meet them again.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/10/5/34116.html
