My name is Huang Guolin and I live in Alor Star, Malaysia. My family is Taoist, and I was originally a Christian. One day a friend told me about a person named the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in America and showed his photograph to me. When I saw it, I was very touched and kept wanting to cry. Two or three weeks later, I had a dream at night in which I seemed to meet the Venerable Master in a previous life. I was a man in my thirties wearing a Chinese-style blue robe. I was talking with a young monk in a train. This monk was the Venerable Master. Not long after this dream, I wrote to America asking to take refuge with the Venerable Master, and I began studying the Buddhadharma.

In 1986, my three-month-old son had stayed in the hospital for five months until he was eight months old. Every day he suffered serious diarrhea and severe dehydration. During critical times he needed emergency oxygen. The best medicines and treatments had no effect on him. The doctor said, "We cannot cure your child. You should send him to the best hospital in Singapore, the Elizabeth Hospital."

The Venerable Master happened to come to Malaysia to propagate the Dharma. His schedule had included a stop in Alor Star, but later it was cancelled as he went straight to Penang. When I found out, I immediately took my child and rushed there to seek the Master's aid. When I reached the Penang Buddhist Association, they announced that the Master was going to the airport to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur, and anyone who wanted to see him off could go to the airport. When I reached the airport, I was one step too late--the Master had already checked in. I begged the immigration official to let me in, but he replied, "How can I let you go in? If you go in, all those other people will want to go in, too." Hugging my child, I tearfully pleaded, "My child is in trouble, and I'm hoping that monk can help me." The airport official sympathized with me and allowed me to go in for five minutes. There were many left-home people inside, and I didn't know which one was the Venerable Master. I felt as desperate as an ant on a hot frying pan. Suddenly, the Venerable Master looked up and smiled at me. I quickly knelt down. What I should have asked was, "Venerable Master, my son is sick. What should I do?" Instead, in my nervousness I asked the wrong question: "Venerable Master, what should my son need to do to leave the home-life?" The Master said something, but I was so nervous I didn't understand a single word. The Master hit my son's head three times very forcefully. When I walked out of the airport, everyone said I was so lucky to get to go inside, but I could only cry. I couldn't get a single word out.

After returning to the hospital, my child began getting better every day. He didn't lose so much water through diarrhea every day, and after two weeks he was discharged from the hospital. At that time my eight-month-old son weighed only nine pounds. Now (1994) he is already nine years old and very plump. (See enclosed photos of mother and son.) In my heart I know the Master saved him and I feel constant gratitude. I bow to the Venerable Master every day in my home, and I hope one day to return to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to take care of the Master.

At that time I still hadn't awakened and was quite lax in studying Buddhism. I didn't seriously cultivate or repent, and I didn't know my own karmic hindrances were heavy and deep. I was proud and my habits were deeply rooted. When I became pregnant with my fourth child a few years later, the doctor told me it would be a difficult delivery. My whole body swelled up and I couldn't move around, because the baby's head was at my waist and couldn't turn around. Because I was afraid to die, I began bowing to the Vajra Sutra, reciting the Universal Door Chapter, and writing out the Earth Store Sutra. One night, I saw the Master in my dream. He was sitting in full lotus posture by the front door of our home, and his legs didn't touch the ground. He said to me, "I'm giving you some Great Compassion Water." Inconceivably, the baby had a very easy and uneventful birth. Even the doctor was puzzled and couldn't understand why. It has been four years since her birth, but it is impossible to bring her home to raise. As soon as I even mention going home, she gets sick, so I can only leave her at the temple for the nuns to raise. This matter has made me realize that the Buddhadharma is inconceivable, karma is inconceivable, and the Venerable Master is inconceivable.

Because I didn't understand the Buddhadharma in the past, I committed countless offenses, rebelled against my parents, and created heavy killing karma. I have killed countless wild animals. Now I've started to read the Venerable Master's Instructional Talks, and only now do I realize that I've committed limitless offenses. After several years of studying the Buddhadharma, reciting the Universal Door Chapter, and bowing to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, perhaps my karma has been reduced slightly. I am entirely grateful to the Venerable Master for his compassion in giving me a chance to reform and renew myself time after time. From now onwards, I will follow the Six Principles of the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. I feel that if one can follow the Venerable Master's Six Principles, the responses will be inconceivable and impossible to express in words.