We have just conducted a Medicine Buddha purification, healing, and bardo deliverance fire puja. Today is the feast day of the Medicine Buddha, and it is also the last feast day of a Bodhisattva or Buddha that we celebrate in 1998. The next feast day we will celebrate will be that of Amitabha and it will be on January 4,1999.

It is clear from the Medicine Buddha's name that He has vowed to help those who are sick and who pray to Him for help. Every time, as we celebrate the feast day of a particular Buddha or Bodhisattva, I always sincerely entreat the Deity to bless us with some teachings. Today, before I voiced this request, the Medicine Buddha preempted me with a question. He asked, "What is the back drop of success?"

Quite foolishly, I offered an answer from my own perspective, "Hardship!" Hardship enables one to learn many lessons. For someone who is insensitive to suffering, nothing can be done. Butto someone who feels the pain and is world weary, hardship can motivate him to look for eternal happiness. When one finds this eternal happiness, one is successful.

The Medicine Buddha did not say I was right or wrong, but He offered a different answer, so I knew I was wrong. He said, "The backdrop of success is carefulness." As soon as He said that, I immediately had this feeling of taking small steps thoughtfully and carefully. It made sense!

Nevertheless, I asked Him, "Why?"

He replied, "To avoid becoming excessive, indolent, reckless, indiscrete, arbitrary, negligent, arrogant, or indulging in devious thoughts, one must be mindful and careful in every undertaking. By noticing mistakes and making corrections, one will arrive at success."

Then I asked Him, "Isn't it true that spiritual practitioners should not make any distinction between success and failure? One should not even seek success! Grand Master has written in one of his books that, in the eyes of a spiritual cultivator, there is no success or failure, because nothing is gained or lost. So why is it that you are bringing up the subject of seeking success?"

He said, "Ordinary people seek material fulfillment. But if one is poor in spirit, after gaining material fulfillment one will fear losing it. One will live in a state of `dis-ease.' A spiritual practitioner's success is found in the internal domain. It is bountiful, eternally brilliant, and will never abandon one. To spiritual cultivators, success is Liberation, Self-mastery, and Freedom from control by anybody."

Then I requested the Medicine Buddha to give us a pithy formula for healing. I also asked Him to bless the registrants of this fire puja, so those who were ill would be healed.

His reply was very simple, "A healthy mind is the basis to a healthy body. Open your heart and be happy. Happiness can eradicate illnesses, as pathogens cannot thrive in an environment free of negative thoughts."

This teaching is quite scientific. When one is free of negative thoughts or emotional afflictions, the bad bacteria and pathogens in one's body will not thrive. There are both good and bad bacteria in one's body. When one is anxious, worried, and depressed all the time, there will be accelerated growth of the destructive cells. By being happy, worry-free, and tossing all negative emotions aside, one can bring a positive element into one's environment.

Like yawning, laughter is infectious. Happy laughter, coming genuinely from the heart, spreads through the air and brings happiness to other people. Conversely, shrill and terrifying laughter brings uneasiness to others. That is why He said, "Open your heart and be happy." When one's heart is open and free of worries, when one laughs heartily and unpretentiously from the inside, many problems will naturally be solved. When problems are solved, the heart will be free of worries.

When someone says or does something bad to you, do not let it bother you. Laugh it off and regard it as the payback or neutralizing of a previous karmic deed you have done. This way you will not be tormented by it.

Good and bad bacteria are equally present in our bodies, just as human beings are both half good and half evil. Beings who were predominantly good would have been born to the deva realm to enjoy their rewards, and those who were predominantly evil would have fallen to the three lower paths to experience suffering. Beings with both good and bad karma are born in the human realm where happiness and suffering, as well as good and bad bacteria, are both present. When one encourages and nourishes the positive to grow, it will flourish. When one allows the negative to run amok, it will become stronger and will close the heart. When one is unhappy, bodily aches and pains start appearing here and there.

When your body is healthy, when you feel vigorous and happy, every task you undertake will be smooth and will seem effortless. You also will be able to get along well with other people. However, when you have worries and anxieties, when your heart is closed, you will have many problems and will find everything pitted against you. People will find you unpleasant and you will find them unpleasant. Engaging in constant intrigue and defensive behavior will bring out many health problems. That is why the Medicine Buddha says that an open heart and happiness can eradicate illness and heal us.

Even if there is illness, when you stay happy, the illness will not be able to tie a knot around your heart. Think positively: my leg is hurting but at least I am not limping or confined to a wheel-chair; I should consider myself lucky. When you remain optimistic and positive, refusing to entertain a negative thought or consider the illness as something of importance, you will be able to focus on something else and continue to live smoothly. If your heart is shut tight, then a little harm done to your thumb will make you feel, "I am going to lose my hand; I am going to be crippled!" Entertaining and dwelling in such negative thoughts can even turn something that was originally nothing into something quite disastrous.

I have told this true story before. My mother has a cousin who was considered the most beautiful girl in their village. Being the only child of a wealthy family, she was quite arrogant. After falling in love with a poor and handsome doctor, she married him. Her family gave them a house and also money to set up a clinic. During the first year of their marriage, they did not quarrel at all. The husband loved the wife dearly, and the wife treated the husband with great respect.

One evening the two went for a stroll and passed by a fortune teller who had set up a booth outside a temple. The fortune teller called out to them, "Come and let me give you a reading. Don't you want to find out when you are going to be blessed with a son?" The wife was very interested and wanted to stop over at the booth. The husband was reluctant, "Everything is fine with us. Let's not do it." The wife said, "Don't worry, I just want to find out when our first child will arrive and how many children we will have." After all, they had been married for a year, and she was curious to find out when she would become a mother. So she dragged her husband over to the fortune teller.

After obtaining some personal information from them, the fortune teller started computing and commenting on the couple's good fortunes. When he came to the husband, he looked at him and said, "Sir, your chart shows that you will have two wives." That ended the session.

The wife could not get the fortune teller's words out of her mind. Suddenly things were no longer the same. The former merry laughter was now replaced by gloominess. If her husband's eyes strayed momentarily to any other woman, she would feel bad and become suspicious. This also caused great pain in her husband. After all, he was a doctor and some of his patients were females. In those days, doctors in Taiwan were already using stethoscopes to examine their patients. The wife stipulated that there be no unbuttoning of any clothing during examinations. Her jealousy drove her beyond reason. She stayed at the clinic every day because she did not trust the nurses working there. She would cry and quarrel constantly with her husband accusing him of having another woman. After quarrelling, she would move back to her parents' house, and he would have to go to his in- laws' house to beg her to come home.

One time, she became suspicious of him having an affair with a nurse. Even though he swore to her that it was not true, that he would be run over by a car if he lied, she would not believe him. She ran back to her parents and demanded a divorce. He cried and begged her to change her mind. But she threatened to kill herself if he would not consent to the divorce. Fearing that she might indeed commit suicide, her parents talked the husband into signing the divorce papers. He did not want a divorce, but signed the papers just so she would not kill herself.

With the divorce papers signed, the two were no longer related to each other. For the next three years, he begged her to see him many times, but she refused to see him. Although he remained single during the first three years, how could such a handsome doctor not be pursued by anyone else? Almost every available woman in the village wanted to marry him, and the matchmaker came everyday to knock at his door. After all, the household needed a mistress and the clinic needed someone to look after it. Eventually, for convenience sake, he remarried and became a father.

Another three years passed and the couple accidentally met again at a party. The truth was that they still cared passionate about each other. Although the man now had a wife and a child, the woman had remained single and still cared about him. One thing led to another, and the two decided to set up house together. So, by becoming his number two wife, the fortune teller's prediction finally became a reality.

The point is that our mind plays a role in creating our own realities. It also means that our mind can change the course of probable events. For example, a dharma sister asked me for some advice after learning of a predicted disaster which was several years away. I told her, "Do not let it bother you. You can change the course of events with your mind power." Some of you have rushed to tell me that you have had unsettling nightmares. The Grand Master has taught us that, as soon as we realize that we are in the middle of a bad dream, we should immediately transform it by invoking the Dharma Protectors. Invoke Ucchusma, Yamantaka, and Achala to immediately crush the dream to pieces. Maybe it is a dream in which you see someone in your family dying in a car accident. You should immediately pray to Ucchusma to crush his big foot down on the dream or ask Achala to burn up the dream with a big fire. Stamp it out, burn it up, or blow it away with a gust of wind. If you do this, the probable event will be destroyed in its formative stage and cannot happen. You have to be a person with self-mastery.

The Medicine Buddha said that the success of a spiritual cultivator lies in the inner domain. To ordinary people, success means buying big houses and expensive cars.

Sometime ago, I took the two girls [Master Samantha's daughters, Megia and Junia] out of school for a dental appointment, and Engih [Master Samantha's nine year old son] also came along. When we came home, we saw a car parked where we normally parked our car. Engih then sighed and said, "Why is it that some people can drive a car that is like a house on the road?" What he meant was that that car cost over one hundred thousand dollars and that one could have bought a house with that kind of money. Why was it that some people could drive such expensive cars while others could not even afford a house?

Because it was quite dark and I was preoccupied with parking my car, I did not answer him right away. My parking skills were not that great. In trying to back up and squeeze in, I made a slight bump against the front of the other car. When I got out of the car, I asked, "Whose car is this? Why is it parked so close to our spot?" Engih said, "It belongs to brother's girlfriend." So, it was a car of my oldest son's girlfriend that had gotten him wondering why some people were more fortunate than others.

I told Engih, "This is because she had done some good karmic deeds in her past lives, so in this lifetime others are paying her back. If you have done some meritorious deeds in your previous lives and, if in this life you are able to find the people who are indebted to you, they will also pay you back. It is this simple. She has sowed good karmic seeds in her previous lives, so this lifetime she was born into a family where her father would have the money to buy her all these things. However, do not be discouraged. If you have accumulated good merits from your previous lives, you also will one day be able to afford such expensive cars. If you have not saved up any merits, then hurry up and start saving and keep on doing more good deeds this life."

So, even at such a young age, one envies material wealth. This external and visible wealth is a symbol of success coveted by ordinary people. But, obtaining such material wealth can bring fear to one. If one is not also rich spiritually, one will become attached to the material wealth and live in fear of losing it.

Spiritual cultivators are different: their inner worlds are always filled with light. Unlike ordinary people who seek after material satisfaction and fulfillment of egotistical desires, success to a spiritual cultivator means liberation and fearlessness. Ordinary people are afraid to lose whatever they have. In the example I gave earlier, my aunt was afraid of losing her husband. Even though she had everything material she could want and a handsome husband who loved her, she was afraid of losing him. His daily proclamation of love to her only made her more fearful of losing him.

As spiritual cultivators, we are not afraid. When our significant other tells us that he is no longer in love with us, we look at it as a karmic bondage being brought to an end. When a karmic bondage ends, you should not worry over who is taking him away from you. If someone is meant for you, no one can take him away from you. Conversely, if someone no longer has a heart for you, then even if you tie him up with a chain, it will be futile.

Spiritual cultivators who are successful in the internal domain are fearless, free of emotional afflictions, are filled with light, and have self-mastery. That was why the Medicine Buddha said at the end that such spiritual cultivators are not controlled by anyone. How wonderful it is to be free of control by anyone! Freedom from bondage enables one to live freely and happily.

The Medicine Buddha said that to be healthy, one simply has to be healthy in the mind. If you want a healthy body, then you have to find ways to make the mind healthy. "Happiness can eradicate illnesses, as pathogens cannot thrive in an environment free of negative thoughts." Finally, He also said, "Wish everyone success."

So, it is up to one to choose if one wants an ordinary man's success or a spiritual cultivator's success. How about having both? I can tell you though, material success can bring one's downfall. If one is not already grounded in stability and yet wants to go after both kinds of success, there will be overwhelming temptations from the material side to drag one down. Only fearlessness, a strong renunciation of attachments, and the understanding that everything is ultimately and inherently empty will ground one in the inner light.

Yesterday we went to a funeral parlor to perform a bardo deliverance service for a Dharma brother. During the deliverance service, his spirit emerged. (His family also came to the temple earlier today to dedicate a ceremony for him.) When his spirit emerged, he started telling me how much pain he had suffered. Throughout the whole time while I was performing the ritual, he kept on complaining and trying to explain to me the kinds of pain he had endured during his cancer illness.

But I responded, "You are really very lucky."

This took him by surprise. He exclaimed, "Oh, why did you say that I am lucky? Shouldn't you be sympathetic to me and help me?"

I explained, "Are you aware that, by going through your illness, all of your karmic debt has been neutralized? Your illness was a manifestation of a karmic retribution from a previous life. The suffering you went through was a form of payback. How else would you be able to clear up the debt? How splendid it is now that you are debt free! While those of us staying behind still owe debts in one form or another --- money, love, or other things --- and we still have to continue to suffer, you are already free. You should be happy and elated. The only road available to you now is to be reborn to a place where there is eternal happiness. After so much suffering, one should look forward to enjoying the greatest happiness."

After listening to me, he said, "How come it never occurred to me to look at it this way before?"

I said, "View it from a different perspective, and you will be able to feel happy. Look up at all the happy Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who are above your head now. They are blessing you with lights and giving you guidance. Why do you still want to be gripped by all these thoughts of pain? Could it be that you still want to hang around in this world to continue with your suffering?"

"Oh no, of course not. The pain I have experienced was too terrible," he said.

I continued, "Since you no longer have any use for your body, all this crying about pain is just in your mind and consciousness. Just look at it a different way." After pointing out to him that he was being showered by the light, he was indeed able to change his mind around. Although he had not had any contact with this teaching nor done any cultivation when he was alive, in that one instant when he changed his mind, light immediately entered into his spirit body. Right away, everything was different for him, and he broke into a smile. When Amitabha tossed the lotus to him, he was able to sit upon it and rise up. He was so happy.

The entire purpose of cultivating the mind is to focus our thoughts on goodness, light, and happiness. That is why the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, such as the Medicine Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha, as well as our revered Guru, teach us to cultivate our mind. As soon as a negative or evil thought arises, we have to immediately change it to a good and kind thought.

Never become reactive to other's actions and feelings. When something happens to you, when someone says or does something that causes pain, unhappiness, or annoyance in you, the first person to be impacted by your being reactive is you yourself. It is your own reactions, not other's actions or words, that are assaulting you. If you become easily susceptible to other's influences and allow your good mood be changed to a negative one, the bad elements in your cells start rearing their heads. When one keeps dwelling in the negative and suppressing the positive, what follows is a withering of the spirit and a draining away of energy. Soon the immune system will be weakened and pathogenic bacteria or viruses will start thriving, and one will start feeling aches and pains all over.

We once had a student whose face had a darkish patina and who always complained of not feeling well. He often told me that he felt hurt and mistreated by a certain individual. I told him that it was an illness of the mind, and he needed some medicine for the mind. Where can one find medicine for the mind? He hated that person so much that he was suffering physically. For that kind of illness of the mind, no vitamins will help. He asked me, "How can I cure this illness of the mind?" I told him to get a knife and have the mind gouged out. It is just this simple: after the mind is gouged out, one cannot dwell on it anymore. Whether one uses a physical or spiritual knife makes all the difference. With a physical knife, one dies; with a spiritual knife, one can gouge out all emotional afflictions and toss them away. Use the wisdom sword of Manjushri and, in one motion, completely cut away all emotional afflictions, thus setting oneself free.

So, on this feast day celebration of the Medicine Buddha, He has given us a very practical teaching. He truly understands that illnesses originate from emotional afflictions which, in turn, arise from unsatisfied desires. By "opening our hearts and staying happy," we will achieve a healthy mind and thus stay healthy physically.

I once helped this man who was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told him he had two more months to live. He asked me if we had any magic pills to help him fight off the cancer. I gave him a few energized Fu's, and he asked me, "Will these paper charms kill my cancer cells?" "Not likely," I replied. "Then why are you giving them to me?" "To make you feel better," I explained. There is great therapeutic value in making one feeling better. But he said, "I don't want them then. Do you have any other way to help me?" I explained to him, "You have been given a prognosis of two months to live, and you want me to help cure you. It is really quite difficult, as you have not believed in karma or done any spiritual practices, neither have you done any virtuous deeds or accumulated great merits. How am I going to help you?"

"What am I going to do then?" he asked. So I said to him, "How about this, let me teach you a method. Give it a try, and see how much longer it can extend your life. Go and make yourself laugh happily every day. Start laughing every morning when you wake up. Ha ha ha, how wonderful it is that I have cancer! Ha ha ha, no one is luckier than I! All these things that you find negative, start thinking of them as positive. When you find something sad and painful, immediately change your thought to a happy one and laugh it off. Laugh heartily and genuinely. If you are able to laugh every day, the pathogenic bacteria and destructive cells in your body will decrease in number and die off."

What I taught him was one way of nurturing the good cells and strengthening the immune system. That was about eight months ago, and I heard that he is still very much alive and laughing. I asked him to watch comedies, movies or TV shows, that tickle his funny bone. They can be low-brow pieces, as long as they are humorous. Or create some funny situations for himself. So he is still laughing every day. I hope he can continue on laughing and keeping those bad cells at bay. He did not take the Fu's with him, but he took the advice of laughing with him. It feels good to hear that he is still around and laughing every day, and I shall meditate and dedicate more blessings for him so he can keep on laughing.

May there be blessing with all of you,

Om mani padme hum.

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