28.04.2015 Views

Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

discuss it.<br />

c. Diseases Caused by Past Karma. National Teacher<br />

Wu Da, who was extremely learned <strong>and</strong> sometimes<br />

practiced meditation, was, because of his great<br />

accomplishments, offered a golden throne by the<br />

emperor. Seated upon this, he became a little proud.<br />

Consequently, a spirit took advantage of his weakness<br />

<strong>and</strong> entered his body, causing a face-shaped carbuncle<br />

on his right knee. The spirit told him, "For seven lives<br />

you have practiced Chan very nicely <strong>and</strong> all that time I<br />

have waited for my chance." In excruciating pain, the<br />

teacher consulted many doctors, but to no avail. Then he<br />

prayed earnestly to Guan Yin, who appeared to him <strong>and</strong><br />

told him to treat the disorder with a special river water.<br />

She explained to the teacher that in a past life he had<br />

killed what was now a spirit, who had waited to take<br />

revenge. From this treatment the teacher was cured, <strong>and</strong><br />

after that he compiled a work in two large volumes<br />

known as the "Confession with Water," in which he<br />

gathered from the full extent of <strong>Buddhist</strong> literature all<br />

the misdeeds <strong>and</strong> their cures, with detailed instructions<br />

on how to make confession in these different cases.<br />

The karma causing diseases which are not caused by a<br />

derangement of the four elements should be confessed,<br />

<strong>and</strong> some spiritual remedy sought in addition to medical<br />

treatments. Such diseases are difficult to cure by a<br />

doctor's advice <strong>and</strong> very frequently they present rare<br />

symptoms. One of my friends had a small hole at the<br />

573

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!