1302：The Guru’s Rescue and Teachings

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 to fellow believers and Dharma brothers, I am grateful to Rinpoche for granting me the chance to share with you the incomparably wondrous story of how Rinpoche once again saved my father as well as his incomparably wondrous teachings. I am Hsiao You Ting of Group Five, my Dharma name is Hui Lang Drolma, and I took refuge on November 2, 2008.
 
Twenty years ago (2005), my father had stage III colorectal cancer, which had spread to the lymph nodes. After Rinpoche’s rescue, this cancer never reappeared. Four years ago (2021), while my mother was walking on the street, her heart suddenly stopped and she collapsed by the roadside. It was also Rinpoche who saved her life. Now, when doctors see my mother, they all regard her survival as a miracle. Please refer to Article No. 300, ‘Compassion and Wisdom,’ and Article No. 1138, ‘Appreciation to the Guru for Helping My Whole Family’ on the Traces of Liberating Beings of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center official website. Under Rinpoche’s blessing, both my father and mother are safe and sound, and able to take care of themselves to this day. I am very grateful to Rinpoche!

Three years ago (2022), on the night before the Mid-Autumn Festival, my mother called to say that my father was vomiting blood. I asked her to take my father urgently to Tri-Service General Hospital in Neihu District, and I rushed over from Xizhi District. Since it was unclear whether my father was vomiting blood or coughing up blood, the hospital collected specimens for tests in both areas and administered an antiemetic injection for my father. After observing that my father’s condition had eased, they let us go home a few hours later. Three days later, during the day, my father coughed up blood again. Since all his medical records were at National Taiwan University Hospital, we took my father to the emergency room of that hospital, but after a simple treatment, the doctor again let us go home. Shortly after, doctors in the National Taiwan University Hospital called to inform us that the test results from Tri-Service General Hospital had come out and showed that my father had pulmonary tuberculosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis is not as easily transmitted as the COVID-19 virus. Infection with pulmonary tuberculosis requires living with the patient, with daily contact of more than eight hours, or a cumulative exposure of over forty hours within three months, before transmission becomes possible. I am grateful to Rinpoche that after X-ray and blood tests, my mother, my younger brother, and I were not infected. Because pulmonary tuberculosis is a notifiable infectious disease, patients must be treated according to law, but the side effects of the medication are severe. Hospitals have dedicated disease case managers, and the Departments of Health also have specialized nurses to provide care. Besides, deeply fearing that patients might not take the medication for treatment, care workers personally bring the medicine each day and watch the patients take it.

Two weeks after my father began the medication, he developed abnormal behavior: repeating the same action, having a vacant look in his eyes, failing to recognize people, not understanding what we said, and even being unable to speak a complete sentence. We took him to the emergency room. The doctor suspected that low sodium levels had caused delirium and administered a sodium supplement infusion to my father. After my father got a little better, the doctor asked us to leave the hospital. A few days later, his behavior became abnormal again. In this way, we went in and out of the emergency room several times. Later, the emergency room doctor felt that this was not a solution. After administering the sodium supplement infusion, he directly scheduled us for urology and neurology outpatient clinics, asking us to see the outpatient doctors first before going home. I clearly remembered that it was a Friday at noon. I pushed my father from the emergency room to the outpatient clinic. At that time, the outpatient doctor asked my father to perform basic movements such as raising his right hand and raising his left hand, as well as simple recognition of people. My father could not understand them at all and appeared to be in a demented state. While waiting at the hospital to collect the medication and looking at my father’s figure, I felt deeply saddened, and used my phone to open Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Dharma portrait on the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center official website and asked him, ‘Do you know who this is?’ My father astonishedly nodded. I asked out of curiosity, ‘Who is it?’ He slowly and forcefully said, ‘The Glorious Jewel.’ I had never expected that even in his demented state, my father could actually and really recognize Rinpoche and even speak ‘The Glorious Jewel.’ At that moment, I felt immensely grateful to Rinpoche. Moved in my mind, I asked my father and mother if they wanted to thank Rinpoche together the next day. My father unexpectedly understood it and slowly nodded to indicate his agreement. At that time, the pandemic was severe. I went to the Buddhist Center on Saturday, the next day, on behalf of my father to thank Rinpoche. Before going to the Buddhist Center, I first went home to check on my father. Thanks to Rinpoche’s blessings, my father’s gaze was focused, his behavior was normal, and his consciousness was fully restored， just like a normal person! He even greeted me when he saw me. Compared to the day before, he was a completely different person. My father knew that I was going to the Buddhist Center to thank Rinpoche that day, and he voluntarily gave me 2,000 NTD, saying he wanted to donate it to the Glorious Jewel Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche! Originally, we were worried that my father had problems related to the urology or neurology departments, but after the examinations, all were normal! Moreover, since then, my father has never experienced delirium again, nor has he gone to the emergency room!
 
Rinpoche’s way of liberating beings is beyond what we can imagine. Since my father fell ill 20 years ago, I have invited him every year to attend the Great Puja, but he always refused, and only my mother attended each time. However, through the Glorious Jewel business units, such as the two coffee shops separately in Dongfeng and Dazhi districts, and the Glorious Jewel Chinese food restaurant, my father had the fate to meet Rinpoche and respectfully joined his hands in reverence to Rinpoche. Even at the ceramics exhibition held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, because my father had been firing kilns since childhood, he agreed to visit the exhibition when he heard about it. At the site, he met Rinpoche and respectfully joined his hands in reverence to Rinpoche. I am grateful to Rinpoche for creating various fates for sentient beings, which let my father, even during delirium, remember Rinpoche’s Dharma portrait and the Glorious Jewel. Therefore, everything that the guru does benefits sentient beings, and disciples should do their utmost to support all of them.

I took refuge in November 2008. After taking refuge, I kept learning Buddhism with my desires, and the more I studied, the more afflictions I had. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s compassionate teachings. For a long period of ten years, I was unable to attend pujas, and eventually I could not even make offerings (Please refer to Article No. 814, ‘The Guru’s Compassionate Teachings,’ on the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center official website.) Four years ago (2021), a 3-cm liver cancer was discovered in my body. Because its location was very unfavorable, situated exactly between two major blood vessels, and since I had never truly learnt any Buddhism at all, I was not only afraid of dying but also did not believe in the guru or in karma, I decided to undergo a surgical removal. The doctor assessed before the surgery that this cut operation would be difficult. On that day, the surgery lasted seven hours, longer than expected, and two-thirds of my liver, as well as the gall bladder, was removed. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings, I came through the surgery alive.
 

After leaving the hospital, I signed up to seek an audience with Rinpoche. Rinpoche, like a loving father, said, ‘What have you been doing for the past over ten years?’ and instructed me to listen to The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas one hundred times. And the next day, Rinpoche expounded on the Dharma throne that I simply had not done enough and correctly, and that I had only done things slightly and superficially.

After the surgery, my body became very weak. Although the operation was on my liver, my lungs, stomach, and intestines were all damaged. When I ate, I did not feel full; my stool could not take shape; and the bad condition of my lungs was even more obvious, where I could not take a full breath, only about one-third of a breath. Before the surgery, chanting the mantra 10,000 times a day was never a problem. After the surgery, even 3,000 chants were exhausting, and I could barely complete them; my weight plummeted to 38 kilograms. With my body weakened, all my thoughts became negative. I became afraid of metastasis and the suffering before death from the cancer. I could not sleep at night and often needed to listen to Dharma tapes to fall asleep for an hour; after waking, I had difficulty falling asleep again. It was only at this time that I realized I truly did not believe the guru and had not really been learning Buddhism at all. When my body was healthy, I thought I was practicing, was unafraid of death, and had wanted to be reborn in the Pure Land; when my body became weak, my true state was revealed. Before, it was all my own assumptions and self-satisfaction. I began to blame my husband for not treating me as a patient. I knew I should not resent him, yet whenever things happened, I kept resenting. Yes, with my poor root-capacity, even at the brink of death, I still could not change my bad habits. Thus, the cancer recurred in less than half a year. Afterwards, I underwent electrocautery treatment, but while the tumor was burned in area A, it grew again in area B. Just like this, not believing the guru, not believing karma, and having deep and heavy evil karma, I underwent a total of seven hospitalizations for electrocautery or embolization treatments over two and a half years after the surgery (from October 2022 to June 2024).

In April last year, I discovered that I had three liver cancers， two on the right and one on the left, with the largest on the right measuring 4 centimeters. The normal cancer marker level is below 9, but at that time, my level was 3,200. After the electrocautery treatment in mid-May, the left side of my body was in so much pain that I could not turn over, and even bending over to prostrate, which caused my tears to flow uncontrollably due to the pain. It gradually improved after a week. Two weeks later, a blood test showed that my cancer marker had not decreased but instead risen to 3,500, and the tumor that was originally 4 centimeters had grown to 4.6 centimeters. I was terrified! I had Rinpoche’s blessings and good doctors introduced by Dharma brothers, but I could not fend off my own karma, let alone transform it. The tumor was as large as 4 centimeters, yet it was not addressed. I was struck down by my own karma, and I became completely panicked and lost my composure. I had originally insisted on not undergoing radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or taking targeted drugs, but I started to consider taking targeted drugs. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings that my husband and younger brother insisted on opposing me taking targeted drugs at this time. I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings that they did not make trouble at this time; instead, they firmly supported me in seeing the same doctor again. A month and a half later, I was hospitalized again for electrocautery. The doctor said he had already done his best because, after two-thirds of my liver had been removed before, the empty space had been filled by the colon below the liver, causing adhesions between the liver and the colon. The 4.6-centimeter cancer cells were located in this area, where ablation was very difficult and could easily perforate the colon, leading to death.

Under Rinpoche’s blessings, my cancer marker dropped to 170 and has since remained around that level. At every follow-up appointment, the doctor kept urging me to undergo further examinations and treatment, but I steadfastly refused, thinking that, ‘Since this is my karma, I just accept it.’For the remaining days, I had already not wanted to spend too much time on medical treatments. During this period, I constantly and repeatedly listened to the Dharma tape about Rinpoche’s expounding on the Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s Fundamental Vows. Through Rinpoche’s teachings, I deeply realized that everything happening now is the result of my past evil deeds. While I am still able to attend pujas, make offerings to the guru, chant mantras, and make prostrations to the Buddha, my mind has been filled with profound gratitude. I understand more deeply that every moment I have is given by Rinpoche, for me to diligently learn the Buddha Dharma and to be reborn in the Pure Land. I am grateful to sentient beings for letting me have this illness, which has enabled me to see clearly that I had not learned Buddhism at all, to accept karma, to face death, and to firmly resolve to be liberated from reincarnation in this lifetime. It has further made me feel grateful and cherish the opportunity to follow Rinpoche to learn Buddhism. Especially after each puja, I feel that I am saved! As long as one follows the Dharma taught by the guru to practice, one can surely reach liberation from reincarnation in this lifetime. Without the guru’s blessings, I would not have had this realization and moved feeling.

I am grateful for Rinpoche’s blessings, which let me have the opportunity to attend the Consecration Ceremony of the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche last November and pujas in the Monastery. Since then, my cancer index has significantly decreased, and my weight has gradually increased. Also, because I have not taken any medication for cancer treatment, and have only been using traditional Chinese medicine for regulation. After consulting my doctor, I began taking the Glorious Jewel Premium Saffron. The keloid that formed after my surgery noticeably reduced in size, and the visceral spasms caused by adhesions did not occur. At first, I once paused taking saffron for a month, and my cancer index increased from 50 to 130. Although my cancer index still remains marked in red, it has stabilized at a little over 9, not far from the normal level below 9. Several times, the doctors thought I had secretly taken targeted therapy drugs. I am deeply grateful to Rinpoche for bringing forth such a precious treasure. 
I repent for not believing my guru, for not believing karma, for fearing death, for still being filled with resentment after falling ill, for still having full of greed on worldly things, for my evil deeds still outweighing my good deeds, for not yet maintaining wholesome good thoughts moment by moment at present, for having thoughts of leaving when I was unable to attend pujas, and for having an incorrect attitude of making offerings when imploring the Dharma.

I know that I have deep and heavy evil karma, lack sufficient roots of virtue, and have little time left. I will courageously and vigorously change myself and diligently learn the Buddha Dharma. I earnestly implore the guru to bless me so that my mind will remain undistracted before death and I may be reborn in Amitabha’s Pure Land.
 
I pray for His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s good health and longevity; the Dharma wheel turns unceasingly; his Dharma lineage spreads eternally; the Glorious Jewel Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is perfect and auspicious; I sincerely thank all of you for listening patiently.
 

Respectfully written by disciple Hsiao You Ting, Group Five, on September 21, 2025

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Updated on October 1, 2025