1305：Appreciation to the Guru for Saving the Whole Family

Prostrations to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, Dharma Protector Achi, the Lineage gurus, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Greetings, fellow believers and Dharma brothers. I am Hou Su Liang of group 8, and my Dharma name is Hui Wu Drolma. My father is Hou Jih Hua from group 7, my mother is Huang Li Min, and my elder sister is Hou Su Chun, both from group 8. I am grateful to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche for granting me to praise hereby how the guru helped me and my family and to repent the evil karma I have committed in this lifetime. 
 
Our whole family was fortunate to take refuge in His Eminence Vajra Guru on July 10, 2005. The fate origination of our taking refuge was when I was in the second year of junior high school (November 2004), my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was malignant; thus, the next day, she immediately underwent surgery to remove her right breast and lymph nodes, and subsequently, a series of chemotherapy treatments were needed, which rendered our entire family on tenterhooks. Later, my aunt (having already been a disciple of Rinpoche at that time) learned of this and told my mother that Rinpoche was very compassionate and could help my mother. Thus, our whole family went together to seek an audience with His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche.
 
Rinpoche compassionately blessed my mother and expounded, ‘Learning Buddhism is not to make your cancer disappear; rather, it is to accept the karmic retribution and sincerely repent for all the evil you have committed.’ Rinpoche also asked my mother whether she had ever killed chickens. I am grateful to Rinpoche! After returning home, my mother told us that she had indeed once held the chicken’s wings to assist my grandmother in cutting its neck and draining its blood, all just to nourish the body of my grandfather, who underwent heart surgery at that time. Apart from that, my mother killed countless sentient beings for the sake of the children’s nutrition and to satisfy our appetite. I am grateful to Rinpoche for compassionately blessing my mother and for bestowing my whole family the opportunity to attend the pujas. From then on, we attended the pujas at the Buddha Center every Friday and Sunday and listened to teachings from the guru, Rinpoche.

Because of Rinpoche’s teachings about karma, my mother realized that she had committed a large amount of karma resulting from killing, and therefore no longer felt horror, facing all karmic retribution calmly. Thus, during a follow-up appointment, when the doctor asked my mother to undergo chemotherapy, she told the doctor that she had decided not to undergo any invasive treatments! Upon hearing this, the doctor was very angry and warned my mother that without chemotherapy, she would have only six months to live, yet my mother remained steadfast. Incredibly, my mother experienced no discomfort from then on until she passed away peacefully four years later. During this period, she regularly went to the Glorious Jewel Chinese Medicine Clinics to condition the body, and lived and worked normally, like an ordinary person. Others couldn’t tell at all that my mother was a terminal cancer patient, and she didn’t suffer from chemotherapy. All of this was owing to the guru’s compassionate blessings and protection. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings, which let my mother live four more years, giving her the opportunity to attend the pujas, thereby accumulating good fortune, and to repent for all the evil karma she had created. My mother passed away on October 8, 2008, and after imploring for liberation, her consciousness was transferred with the incomparably wondrous Phowa bestowed by His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. This is the benevolence that our whole family will never forget for the rest of our lives, and I am grateful to Rinpoche. (Please refer to Article No. 36 on the Traces of Liberating Beings for details.)
 
Besides, my grandmother had been bedridden for seven years due to a stroke, along with Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. She was fortunate to receive Rinpoche’s compassionate blessings so that she was able to pass away peacefully at home, and Rinpoche bestowed the incomparably wondrous Chod to transfer her consciousness. At that time, Rinpoche also showed concern for whether our family had the money or the funds for the funeral or not. I am truly and deeply grateful for Rinpoche’s help to our entire family. (Please refer to Article No. 416 on the Traces of Liberating Beings for details.)

In April 2017, due to severe diabetes, my father’s right big toe turned black and began to necrotize, requiring the amputation of two-thirds of the sole of his foot. While my father was hospitalized and preparing for surgery, we suddenly received a call from Dharma brother Dr. Hsieh, reminding us to carefully read the notes on the surgical consent form. As soon as we looked at it, we found it was indeed a mistake, because my father was supposed to have only the front part of the sole of his right foot (fore foot) amputated, but on the form, the phrase “entire right leg (full foot)” had been circled for removal! My father almost lost his entire right leg, but it didn’t happen thanks to the guru’s blessings! The following year, in 2018, my father was again hospitalized due to severe diabetes and underwent an amputation of half of the sole of his left foot. During his hospitalization, he hovered several times between life and death. In the middle of 2019, under Rinpoche’s blessings, he miraculously recovered and was discharged from the hospital. (Please refer to Article No. 1035 on the Traces of Liberating Beings for details.) In 2023, my father’s diabetes caused tiny blood vessels in his retina to rupture. After examination, the doctor could only prescribe eye drops as the initial treatment. However, at the follow-up two weeks later, the doctor was astonished to say that my father’s retina had already healed and there was no more bleeding! All of this was due to Rinpoche’s blessings! I am grateful to Rinpoche!

Next, I want to share with you the guru’s help and rescue to me, and to repent the evil karma I have committed:
 
When my mother and I sought an audience with Rinpoche for the first time, after Rinpoche blessed my mother, he looked up and spoke to me, who was kneeling in the back row, ‘Why did you kick a boy with your foot?’ At that time, I was extremely surprised because when I was in the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, I was very mischievous and would often fight with boys, something that my family was completely unaware of. Rinpoche then said, ‘Are you planning to learn Taekwondo?’ Upon hearing this, I was thinking, ‘Should I learn it?’ Rinpoche immediately said to me, ‘It is better for a girl to be a bit gentler.’ I was startled at that time and thought, ‘Rinpoche is omniscient!’ After returning home, my parents asked my sister and me if we wanted to become vegetarians and attend the pujas together. Thanks to Rinpoche’s blessings, I suddenly did not want to eat meat, and I recalled that I used to really love eating it, unknowingly harming countless sentient beings, which was indeed immensely terrifying!
 
I am grateful to Rinpoche for bestowing my father the opportunity to make cookies when I was a senior in college (2013), and for also instructing my father on how to adjust the proportions and recipe to improve the flavor and texture. My sister and I would occasionally help our father and pick up ingredients from the Glorious Jewel Japanese food stores, which also gave me the opportunity to work part-time at the Japanese food store of the Glorious Jewel Group. After I graduated, I am grateful to Rinpoche for allowing me to continue working within the Group.

At the beginning of 2024, one day, when Rinpoche came to the Glorious Jewel Fashion & Beauty Shop of the Group, where I worked, for inspection and saw my permed hair, he asked, ‘Who permed your hair?’ I replied that I had it done at a friend’s place. Rinpoche scolded, ‘Don’t you know anything about social skills? Who has raised you since childhood? You work with your colleagues from morning to night for eight hours, but you didn’t let them do your hair perm, so must you dislike them? I really don’t know what’s in your mind. You know nothing about social skills. I truly knew nothing about social skills. Moreover, it was Rinpoche who had both saved and cared for my entire family, and the Glorious Jewel Hair Salon was just next door!
 
However, just in that very evening on my way home, I was hit by a car making a left turn, because it was driving so fast, I fell straight to the ground between two cars and couldn’t move. At that moment, as I was hit, I thought, ‘Rinpoche, I was wrong.’ The driver who caused the accident stopped the car, checked on my condition in a panic, and wanted to help me get up, but he kept muttering something. At that moment, a man and a woman happened to pass by the alley. The man immediately came over and told me not to get up right away. Surprisingly, that person happened to be a doctor. He asked me whether my head was injured or not, and helped me call the police and an ambulance! I am grateful to Rinpoche!
 
In the emergency room, the driver who hit me was very nervous, so I shared with him Rinpoche’s blessings and how Rinpoche had helped our family. He told me that his wife also had breast cancer, but after surgery, she underwent chemotherapy and has been fighting the cancer. Now, she has to take sleeping pills every night so as to fall asleep. Compared to her, we have the guru’s blessings and protection, and it is truly a world of difference! After the check-up, I only had scrapes on my hands and feet and bleeding on my upper lip, and my teeth were neither broken nor blackened, which is incredible! All of this is due to Rinpoche’s blessings. If Rinpoche had not scolded and blessed me when he inspected the shop that day, the consequences could have been more than just this! I am grateful to Rinpoche! Later, when Rinpoche came to the shop, he blessed me, told me that my pelvis was misaligned and needed osteopathy, and also showed concern about whether the perpetrator had taken responsibility or not. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s lifesaving and blessings!

While we are working at the Glorious Jewel Group, Rinpoche has established complete systems and regulations for us to follow. He also required us to actively correct ourselves when we make mistakes, to unite and help each other with colleagues, and to endeavor together, rather than being selfish, doing our own thing, and staying disunited. However, during my time working at the Group, I made numerous mistakes. Not only was I careless, but my work attitude and daily habits were also incorrect! I am grateful that the guru has not abandoned me yet, ceaselessly bestowing me opportunities and blessings to let me have the chance to correct. I am deeply thankful to the guru and hereby repent each of the following things:

I repent for having done things beyond the scope of my own abilities out of selfishness and greedy thoughts. In 2015, when I had just graduated and began transitioning to a full-time position, I bought a zodiac necklace at the Glorious Jewel Jewellery Shop. Actually, I had no budget at all, so I increased my credit card limit, thinking that after paying in installments and tightening my belt for six months, I should be able to manage. And then, I canceled my self-contributions to the pension fund, naively thinking that this would give me over a thousand more each month to spend, and that would be fine too.

When seeing the supervisor’s report on the approval of my cancellation of self-contributions to the pension fund, the guru was concerned whether something had happened in my family and wondered why I would even return just over a thousand. Thus, the guru asked the supervisor to inquire with me, ‘Is everything at your home alright? Does your father have a job? Has anything happened?’ I answered that nothing had happened; it was because I bought a necklace at the Glorious Jewel Jewellery Shop that I wanted to cancel my self-contributions to the pension fund. Later, I was informed that I could not make offerings, the necklace was taken back, and that the money was returned to me. A Dharma brother conveyed Rinpoche’s teaching: ‘Nowadays, young people are accustomed to indebting their future; do not envy what others have and feel you must have it too.’ The Dharma brother informed me that she had already told my father about my purchase of the necklace and asked me to go home and explain to my father properly so as not to make him worry. Actually, my father did not know about my purchase of the necklace, and his income was meager at that time, only occasionally taking orders to make some food.

I am grateful to Rinpoche! Being forbidden from making offerings as a punishment made me realize my own selfishness, arrogance, and lack of filial piety! I am grateful to Rinpoche for letting me reflect once again on all of my own thoughts that arise, and on doing things beyond my abilities, which caused my family to have afflictions. I had failed to apply the Buddha Dharma Rinpoche taught to my daily life, and thus indulged myself, acting without regard for the consequences! I am grateful to Rinpoche for letting me change my bad habits and no longer worry my family, and for also making me understand the importance of making offerings and that making offerings lies in the ‘mind,’ not in the amount of money!

I repent for not believing the guru and not daring to take responsibility: Rinpoche once entrusted an important item to me for safekeeping for a few days, but I, being worried and fearful, hurried to hand it over, thinking that by doing so I would just accomplish the task Rinpoche had assigned. On Saturday, I sought an audience with the guru to repent, and Rinpoche compassionately bestowed the teachings, ‘I personally entrusted the item to you. Would I not protect you? If one is selfish and self-serving, one cannot learn compassion, nor can one learn it when fearing death. Seeing that you are pitiable, I gave you another chance, so I did not dismiss you. Even though you have been raised from childhood up to now, you are still like this. When thinking of yourself, you just pushed things onto others. I have never seen such a fearful young person. If you are so afraid of death, what’s the point of learning Buddhism?’ I am grateful to Rinpoche for pointing out my faults, teaching me to take responsibility for my actions, and believe the guru.

I repent for lacking a mind of gratitude and failing to acknowledge and repay benevolence！ I repent for being rebellious since childhood; when my elders, favoring boys over girls, criticized me, I just let things slide to show them; I was unfilial, harbored heavy hatred in my mind, disobeyed the teachers, fought with classmates, cheated on exams, stole money from home when I had no allowance, and even earned money by helping classmates do homework. I have eaten the meat of countless sentient beings—chicken, duck, fish, pork, beef, lamb, shrimp, crab, and crocodile—and poured water into ant nests; because I was afraid of a large spider that entered the room, I hit it to death. After taking refuge, I did not believe the karma, slacked off on learning Buddhism, gossiped, and spoke divisively. If I had not encountered Rinpoche, I truly would not dare to imagine my life, nor do I know what kind of suffering my family and I would have fallen into.
 
I, lacking in good fortune and fate, was truly and excessively thoughtless in the past, did not acknowledge and repay benevolence, and also did not properly and vigorously praise the guru’s merits to my relatives and friends. I repent. I am grateful to Rinpoche and thankful to the group leader, the contact person, and all the Dharma brothers who have helped our family. I will make up my mind to correct myself, never commit evil again, and follow and rely on the guru to be liberated from life and death.
 
Lastly, I pray for His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s good health; the Dharma wheel turns unceasingly; the Glorious Jewel Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is perfectly completed and auspicious, benefiting all sentient beings; Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Dharma lineage spreads eternally! I sincerely thank all Dharma brothers and fellow believers for listening patiently. 
 

Respectfully written by disciple Hou Su Liang, Group Eight, 
on October 12, 2025

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Updated on October 15, 2025