(Clearwisdom.net) Before the main character of this story became blind, he was a famous doctor who was well known for his acupuncture skills. Many people traveled long distances to see him, seeking treatment. Because of this, he was well paid, and lived a very comfortable life with his wife, son and daughter, a life that would be the envy of others.
But changes in fortune are often unpredictable. The doctor contracted an illness in his eyes, and day after day the illness became more severe. Finally the doctor became blind. His wife did not want to shoulder the burden of caring for her blind husband, who might need to be looked after for the rest of his life, so she left him and married another man. The blind doctor was left alone to care for his son and daughter, and he felt that his life was in ruins. He eventually even lost the will to live.
People often say that when it seems there is no way out of a hopeless situation, there is always a way. The blind doctor had a friend who was a Falun Gong practitioner. After the practitioner learned of the doctor's miserable plight, he went to visit the doctor and gave him a complete set of Master's lectures on audio tape. Sitting in his hopeless state, with nothing else to do, the doctor started listening to Master's lectures. After he had finished listening to the recordings from beginning to end, he felt that he completely understood the meaning of his life. As the blind doctor began his cultivation in Dafa, the lantern of his life that he felt had been blown out was lit once again.
People in the community soon began hearing that the blind doctor had started practicing acupuncture once again. Everyone wondered whether he would still be able to do acupuncture now that he was blind. It was heard that he now treated patients for free, and some said he even looked very happy and was introducing Falun Dafa to others.
With the good fortune of practicing Falun Dafa, the blind doctor's life began to improve. The benevolence he learned from Dafa's principles brought him more patients who were looking for treatment. As their finances kept improving, he and his children began enjoying the life they used to have. The lantern of Buddha nature glowed brighter and brighter inside the blind doctor's heart.
One day a patient in a wheelchair came to the blind doctor. The patient couldn't walk, and was brought in by a woman. The woman was the blind doctor's ex-wife. In order to cure the man's leg, they had spent almost all of their money and couldn't afford any more treatments. As all of their hope had almost gone, in desperation they came to the blind doctor-- the wife's ex-husband. Only the gods knew what kind of feelings the wife was experiencing at that time. She had abandoned the blind doctor at his most difficult time. Would the doctor provide treatment to her new husband for free?
The story ends with the blind doctor, who had become a Dafa practitioner, even giving food to his ex-wife and her husband. He invited them to stay in his home, and he provided acupuncture treatment for her husband for free. The blind doctor's neighbors all said that when the doctor's ex-wife left with her cured husband, she was weeping.
There is a very famous story from Buddhist scripture. A monk was falsely accused of having an affair with a woman and fathering her child. When the monk was beaten and interrogated by the woman's family, he just lightly said one word, "Really?" then he patiently raised the child of the woman and her real adulterer without any resentment. Finally the truth was revealed. When the woman's family felt guilty and apologized to the monk, the monk again lightly said the word, "Really?" Because of the virtue the monk accumulated from this, he achieved the level of Arhat in his later cultivation.
It's difficult for a person who is not a practitioner to understand the compassionate actions of a practitioner such as the blind doctor, or the monk mentioned in the story from Buddhist scriptures. With the Falun Dafa principles as his guide, a practitioner expands his Buddha nature when he cultivates himself, and will see through all everyday people's attachments to emotions, such as love, hatred and passion, and eliminate them. The practitioner will then be able to let go of the notion of self when dealing with sentient beings, and manifest true compassion.
June 30, 2008
Category: Improving Oneself
