1331：Appreciation to the Guru for His Compassionate (maitrī and karuṇā) Rescue and Reminders to Listen to the Guru

Prostrations to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, the Lineage gurus, Dharma Protector Achi, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. 
 
Greetings, fellow believers and Dharma brothers. I am Xu Su Hua from Group Eight, and my Dharma name is Hui Xiu Drolma. My sister is Xu Su Hui from Group Four, and her Dharma name is Hui Xin Drolma. I am grateful to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) bestowing me the opportunity, allowing me to hereby praise the guru’s merits, share with you how the guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) rescued my sister as well as how I was saved by the guru after I had a stroke, and to repent the evil karma my sister and I have committed from accumulated past lifetimes.
 
My elder sister and I took refuge together on 20 July 2014. At that time, my sister originally thought that she would wait until retirement before learning Buddhism. However, after some discussion, she decided to summon her courage and seek an audience with Rinpoche. During the audience, Rinpoche asked her what matter she had. My sister replied that she wished to implore for taking refuge. At that time, Rinpoche expounded that there were already many disciples at the Buddhist Center and that the seating capacity was nearly full. My sister reverently replied, ‘I can wait.’ Rinpoche smiled and compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) allowed her to register. I am grateful to the guru for accepting my sister as a disciple.
 
After taking refuge, my sister was extremely diligent in attending the morning and evening prayers. She also actively participated in activities in her Group, the Buddhist Center, and the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, as well as the various virtuous activities bestowed by the guru, such as music concerts, the Koshihikari rice donation, and activities at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. She also frequently participated in volunteer errands, attended the pujas in Japan, and chanted mantras every day, even more than ten thousand times. However, I gradually noticed that although my sister appeared very diligent on the surface, her character and temper did not truly change. After the pujas ended, when I discussed the guru’s teachings with her, she often could not remember the content, and only wanted to hurry home to eat; she also frequently complained about other people’s faults. She once wanted to implore for the Dharma. The guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) instructed her to first have an interview with the monastics. After the interview, because her attitude toward imploring for the Dharma was not correct, the monastic Dharma brothers reminded my sister to first properly carry out the morning and evening prayers. Not understanding the reason behind this, my sister often asked me, ‘Why is it that I have been chanting mantras for so long, yet have made no progress?’

I often reminded her that learning Buddhism is not merely about the number of mantra chanting, but more importantly about following the guru’s expoundings to reflect, repent, and correct one’s evil thoughts and habits every day. However, in fact, I myself had not truly achieved this either, so later I no longer dared to keep reminding her.
 
Until last year, in 2025, my sister began to frequently feel fatigued and would go to rest very early. I had reminded her to see the doctor at the Glorious Jewel Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, but she had never truly faced her physical condition. After one puja, while she was driving into the underground car park, she even scraped against a wall. Only then did I realize something was not right and asked whether she needed an examination, but she continued to avoid it. Later, on one occasion, a Dharma brother made an appointment with my sister and me to have a meal together. The Dharma brother noticed a clear swelling on one side of my sister’s breast and reminded her to seek examination hurriedly. Only then did she admit that she had actually felt a hard lump in her breast more than a year earlier, but she had been afraid to face it, unwilling to accept karma, and concealed her illness from her family. It was not until June 2025, when my sister had already become extremely uncomfortable, that she finally went for an examination and was diagnosed with stage IV left breast cancer. The doctor recommended chemotherapy, saying it might possibly extend her life by two or three years. Her family all hoped that she would pursue active treatment. Because my sister had always taken good care of her family, they could not bear to see her suffer.
 
My sister sought an audience with the guru about her illness for the first time on 5 July 2025. The guru asked her what matter she had. She replied that she wanted to repent and make an offering to the guru. The guru then asked her what she would repent for. Only then did she say that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and also admitted that she had once assisted her employer in falsifying accounts. At that moment, I was extremely shocked. Rinpoche compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) expounded, ‘Your body has problems now, and only then do you come to repent. Don’t you?’ The guru further expounded that falsifying accounts violated the precepts of not stealing and not having false speech, and is an act of deceiving the government and evading taxes. After my sister repented, she wished to make an offering to the guru, but Rinpoche compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) expounded, ‘I do not accept money obtained through illegal means.’

The following week, my sister sought an audience again and reported to the Rinpoche that she had resigned from her job and truly repented. This time, the guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) accepted her repentance. My sister immediately broke down in tears and cried loudly, deeply feeling the guru’s compassion (maitrī and karuṇā). However, the guru still did not accept my sister’s offering.

Later, my sister’s illness condition became more and more severe, and she hadn’t shared the incomparable wondrousness of Buddha Dharma with her family when she was alive, nor did she frequently praise the guru’s merits. Her family insisted on letting her undergo treatment and chemotherapy, persuaded my sister to keep her money for medical treatment rather than make offerings, and even withheld her bankbook to prevent her from withdrawing money. After my sister was hospitalized, although she did not undergo electrotherapy and radiotherapy, and only received oral targeted therapy, her family still hoped that she would survive and continuously urged her to pursue aggressive treatment (chemotherapy)! Only I understood that all of this was the manifestation of karma and karmic retribution, and wasn’t something that medical treatment could truly resolve.
 
It was also because my sister actually had never truly accepted karma; she was afraid that others would see that she was ill, afraid of losing face, and always believed that she would recover. Even though Rinpoche had expounded many times during the pujas about the suffering from cancer treatments, she was still unable to listen to it. It was not until later, when the tumor grew larger, her pain became excruciating, and breathing became difficult, and she screamed loudly in excruciating pain every time her dressings were changed, that she truly began to understand that: when one’s karmic retribution manifests, no one can escape it. My sister asked me to sell the gold jewelry that our mother had given her when our mother was alive, and make an offering to Rinpoche on my sister’s behalf. With utmost sincerity, I am grateful to the guru for compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) taking pity on my sister and for accepting her modest offering, thereby allowing her to have the fate to have her consciousness transferred by the guru in the future. 
 
On 27 December 2025, my sister sought an audience with the Rinpoche once again, hoping to make an offering of the money that our father had given her. Rinpoche asked her, ‘When did you receive this money?’My sister replied that she had received it more than a year earlier. The guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) expounded, ‘Why is it only after falling ill that you think of making an offering?’ Although the guru still did not accept my sister’s offering, the guru compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) said to me, ‘Even though I am not accepting your sister’s offering, I will still bless your sister.’ After blessing my sister, Rinpoche specifically reminded me, ‘You must tell your sister what I said today.’ I am truly and deeply grateful to the guru.
 
From that day onward, I stayed with my sister both in the morning and in the evening every day. I reverently placed Rinpoche’s Dharma portrait beside her and reminded her to visualize the guru, chant mantras, repent, accept karmic retribution, and follow the guru to the Pure Land. I continuously reminded her to truly repent to the sentient beings she had harmed, for the acts of stealing and false speech she had committed, and for all the faults of not practicing by following the teachings. On the evening of 30 December, my sister had already become unconscious. I stayed by her side chanting mantras and reciting the Rinpoche’s Dharma name. At home, Dharma tapes of the guru’s mantra chanting were played, and purification incense was lit. At around 4 a.m. on 31 December, the caregiver informed me that my sister had passed away.
 
I immediately placed a nectar pill bestowed by Rinpoche into my sister’s mouth. Her mouth, which had been open, naturally closed within a few minutes, and the crown of her head was warm. Later, the group leader relayed that Rinpoche had compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) performed the Dharma to protect my sister’s consciousness. When I went to see my sister again, I found that her appearance was peaceful and serene. The bruises that had previously been on her hands and feet astonishingly all disappeared, and her skin became smooth and delicate.
 
After my family members witnessed this, they were all deeply astonished and developed extremely profound gratitude and reverence toward Rinpoche. I deeply realized that without His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, it was impossible for my sister to have such a peaceful and good death, nor would she have the opportunity to receive transferring consciousness. My sister’s experience also led me to deeply repent and realize that: after taking refuge, if one does not truly correct oneself, lacks a mind of repentance, does not believe in karma, and does not listen to the guru’s words, no matter how diligent one may appear in formality, such diligence brings no real benefit.
 
Next, I would also like to share the incomparably wondrous experience about the guru’s help to me, and to openly repent here. In 2018, I unexpectedly suffered a stroke at the Buddhist Center. While prostrating before the mandala, I suddenly found that I could not raise my right arm and that my speech had become slurred. I immediately prostrated to the guru’s Dharma portrait and was filled with fear. Yet, remarkably, I continuously felt that Rinpoche’s Dharma portrait was just above my head, protecting me. After I was taken to the hospital, Rinpoche compassionately (maitrī and karuṇā) expounded, ‘She has no repentant mind, and she will not die temporarily.’ Upon hearing this, I immediately burst into tears in shame and remorse. Only then did I realize that although I had taken refuge for many years, I had never truly corrected myself. Rinpoche admonished me for having excessively strong greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt; being selfish and self-righteous; not knowing how to take care of my health; and for not truly using Buddha Dharma to correct myself.
 
I am grateful for the guru’s compassionate (maitrī and karuṇā) admonishment, which finally awakened me. Afterward, I recuperated calmly at home, listened to Dharma tape and underwent treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. My health gradually recovered. Now, apart from some remaining aftereffects in my right hand, I have recovered in all other respects and am able to live, drive, and work normally. I deeply realize that Buddha Dharma is not about seeking protection, but about truly correcting oneself. I repent for my greed, selfishness, concern for saving face, tendency to be calculating, and lack of empathy; I repent for having eaten the meat of countless sentient beings and harmed innumerable lives; I repent for being unfilial to my parents, talking back to my family members, and being self-righteous; I repent for not deeply believing in karma and for not truly practicing by following the teachings. Here, I also would like to repent to all sentient beings on behalf of my father; even now, my father still eats meat. I will continue, without interruption, to repent and make offerings on behalf of my father and the parents I have had throughout accumulated past lifetimes.
 
I am grateful to His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche. Even though the disciples had heavy and deep evil karma, Rinpoche has never abandoned us. The guru ceaselessly creates various kinds of skills and expediencies, giving the disciples opportunities to make offerings, donate to the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche, attend the pujas, and participate in various virtuous activities, thereby accumulating good fortune, merits, and resources. The guru has even established the Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, Japanese food shops, restaurants, and the cake shop, caring for the disciples’ bodies and health in the best way. I truly have no way to repay such benevolence. Here, I would also like to thank all the Dharma brothers who offered assistance and care during the times when my sister or I was ill.
 
After experiencing my sister’s death and my own stroke, I even realize more deeply that: life is impermanent and karma is unfailingly true. Only by truly listening to the guru’s words, deeply believing in karma, repenting unceasingly, and practicing by following the teachings does one truly learn Buddhism. I implore the guru to bless me so that I can constantly keep the impermanence of death in mind, correct myself, cease all evil deeds and practice virtue; I should even develop a firm sense of renunciation, closely follow the guru and rely upon the guru in learning Buddhism until I attain rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land.

Lastly, I pray for His Eminence Vajra Guru Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s good health, longevity, and auspiciousness; the Dharma wheel turns unceasingly; his Buddha Dharma activities flourish; the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Monastery of Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche is auspiciously and perfectly constructed, benefiting all sentient beings from the ten directions of the Dharma Realm. I thank all fellow believers and Dharma brothers for listening patiently. 
 

             Reverently written by disciple Xu Su Hua, Group Eight, 

 on June 7, 2026

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Updated on June 10, 2026