087: Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Liberation of Sentient Beings During the SARS Epidemic

During the SARS epidemic of 2003, the spread of SARS had caused public panic in Taiwan. Many people died of it and one SARS-infected hospital was shut down as well. At that time, as now, I worked at the Department of Health. My daily job was to talk to and motivate medical personnel who had contracted SARS in the hospital and were being quarantined.

When our first colleague, Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen, the head nurse of Taipei City Heping Hospital, passed away, all of us had a private worry: facing an uncontrollable epidemic, with our colleagues was getting sick one by one, what could we do?

I was also wondering how to help those suffering receive help from my vajra guru, the His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche? For I truly believed that, in this world, it was only my vajra guru that could help and save those beings.

At that time someone told me that Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen attended the same school as I, I also found out that my office supervisor had been her co-worker at Heping Hospital; therefore, I quickly told the supervisor about the power and aspiration of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s great mercy and compassion. I hoped that he could pass along this information to  Ms. Chen’s family. My former classmate was indeed a virtuous person: that Friday as we would hold a Chod puja, her husband (he was being quarantined at that time) called the Glorious Jewel Jewelry Company and said he needed Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s help. After requesting Rinpoche’s instructions through the dharma brothers at the Glorious Jewel Jewelry Company, Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche agreed to help Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen on the day of the puja before ever seeing her family members. My heart was extremely grateful to Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche; I was also very happy for my senior alumna, Ms. Jine-Qiu Chen, for she would finally be able to rest in peace.

On the night of the puja, the merciful and compassionate Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche liberated and blessed many sentient beings, with the late nursing chief, Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen, being one of them. Then next day I went to the Glorious Jewel Jewelry Company to thank Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche instructed me to tell her husband that when Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen was liberat she had no particular worries; her sole worry was that that her daughter was still very young and continuously suffered from minor ailments.

The first thing I did after returning to my office was to deliver Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s instruction. The husband of Ms. Jing-Qiu Chen kept thanking Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche on the phone and said his little daughter did indeed suffer from many minor problems; he said he would pay more attention to them in the future.

Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s great mercy and compassion not only liberates those that have passed on, but also helps calm their family members’ hearts. Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, without concern of his own safety, painstakingly travelled to all major hospitals to bless SARS patients and propagate Buddhism everywhere in Taipei City. Never did he stop offering pujas. This clearly demonstrates the mercy and vow power that a true and great practitioner has for all sentient beings.

Li De-lan

Updated on June 17, 2009