PureInsight | December 23, 2002
Entering the world crying, we have no idea of what the future might bring. In this world we experience happiness and sadness. After our time in this world comes to an end, fate comes to take us away. Reincarnation tells the never-ending story of life and death. Bad deeds committed during previous lives will receive due retribution and kind acts will be rewarded with blessings. If someone said that illnesses in life are retribution for doing bad deeds and obtaining karma and, conversely, cultivating one's heart can cure illnesses, would you believe it?
In the book Many Mansions, this story of one of Edgar Cayce's [famous psychic of the 20th century] patients is told.
A man suffered from multiple sclerosis and was unable to work for three years. He had turned blind, and would fall if he tried to walk. He visited many hospitals and was repeatedly told that his disease was incurable. Out of sheer desperation, this man came to Cayce to find out more about his past lives. Cayce read his past lives and told him that karma accrued by committing bad deeds in his previous life resulted in his disease. Thus, the man asked Cayce to tell him how he could cure the illness. Cayce told him to eliminate all sentiments of hatred and grievance in his mind and gave him a detailed plan to follow.
One year later, the electrician contacted Cayce again. In his contact letter to Cayce, he said that his symptoms were relieved immediately when he followed Cayce's treatment plan. However, after that he began to focus on Western medicine and physiotherapy and neglected his spiritual cultivation and his illness worsened. Cayce told him that his health had improved drastically, but that he could do even better. Cayce emphasized that his disease was retribution from his karma. Physical therapy could only help relieve the man's disease a little bit. But if he remained selfish and did not examine his own behavior, if he could not bear the pain while holding compassion in his heart, if he could not truly improve himself, he would not be able to fully recover. Only if he improved his mind, speech and conduct, would his condition improve further.
From this case, we can see that ancient Chinese proverbs that tell people to pay attention to virtue and accumulating virtue are not groundless. When the man behaved better, paid attention to his spiritual cultivation, and exhibited a kind, peaceful and selfless heart, his health improved immediately. But when he just paid attention to physical treatments and ignored his spiritual cultivation, he saw little further improvement to his health. Paying attention to virtue and cultivating one's heart can eliminate karma and cure diseases immediately. Therefore, cultivating one's heart should play a crucial role in our lives.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/11/21/19282.html
