The Bachelorette

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CASE STUDY

The Bachelorette

Dear Luang Phaw whom I respect the most,

I come to Dhammakaya Temple due to an easy reason caused by love and care I have to my adoptive mother. As soon as she asked me to come to Dhammakaya Temple with her in year 1999 (B.E.2542), I, with no problem, accepted her invitation. My first visit at the temple was very impressive. Seeing clean bathrooms, tidy shoe lines, people wearing white clothes, I was stunned. From then on, I have always come to the temple with her.

My adoptive mother was my grandfather’s younger sister. She was a very generous and compassionate person who liked to make merit at Dhammakaya Temple; not only did she make merit by herself, but she also invited others to make merit with her always. She was single and had no children. When I was 12 years old, my real mother and I moved to her house; and she later adopted me. My adoptive mother had problems about blood vessels and bones, which caused her to get 5 surgeries as follows.

At the 1st time, she had surgery at three spots of varicose veins, i.e. at the top of her right thigh, at a spot close to her foldable joint and at a spot close to her ankle.

The 2nd time, she had surgery under her right index finger. After the surgery, that finger could no longer bend by itself, so it could only bend by force.

At the 3rd time, she got a surgery at her left wrist because she could not pick anything up.

At the 4th time, she got a surgery around her right knee and calf. The doctor bucked her bone apart in order to straighten it and splinted it with additional metal.

At the 5th time, one year after the 4th surgery, the doctor gave her another surgery to remove the metal splint.

When my adoptive mother got older, she suffered from lung cancer and usually had pains at her chest, coughed and complained that her shoulder blades were always hurt. Therefore, I frequently took her to meet doctors at the hospital until her symptoms turned serious, and she had to stay in the hospital. One morning, while I was on my way to visit her at the hospital, the hospital informed me that she already passed away when she was 67 years old.

My aunt was my adoptive mother’s elder sister. She liked to make temple-maintaining merit, build temples’ bell towers, walls, artesian wells, etc. Besides, she also donated money for schools and hospitals. Nevertheless, she was a kind of person who made both merit and demerit because she was wholeheartedly fond of gambling. Even when she attended Kathina or yellow robe-offering ceremonies at temples, she still gambled at the temples’ pavilions. No matter what kind of gambling games were, cards, Hilo, spun dices, etc, she had no problem playing them. Normally, many generous people visited the temple close to her house at the countryside to make yellow robe-offering merit which meant my aunt had many chances to gamble as well.

My aunt had a pawnbroker job accepting jewelry, necklaces, watches, etc. One day, the temple close to her house had a temple fair. The whole area around the temple was surrounded by the fair’s noise. A thief took this chance to rob her house at that night, and that area was kind of secluded. At that night, the thief smashed her jewelry glass cabinet with his guns’ breech and took some gold ornaments away. My aunt passed away with diabetes in year 1988 (B.E. 2531) when she was 67 years old.

When I was first born, my parents separated, and I did not even remember my father’s face. Therefore, I lived with my mother in a ghetto house whose width was only 4 x 5 meters. Its walls were very old and eaten by termites. Fortunately, the house was two-stories, so it took a while before the house would be totally eaten by them. It was, yes, the happiness of ghetto life.

Our house had only an old TV and some necessary appliances. No beautiful furniture belonged to the house other than hard wooden floor on which we sat, lied and ate. In this house lived 3 people, i.e. my mother, my grandmother and I.

Formerly, my mother worked so hard as a company’s client. She had to leave the house since 5 AM and came back home later than 10 PM. It caused me to spend most of my time with my grandmother and could barely see my mother. Even on the mother’s day when my school had activities, she still did not have time for me to prostrate myself at her feet. Afterwards, when I was in grade 5, one day, my father unexpectedly visited me at school. It was my first time to see him.

On that day, my father gave me 100 Baht. I was very delighted to see my father the first time. But it was the only time. From then on, he disappeared and never came back to see me again. My grandmother (my mother’s mother) passed away after that. Many years before her death, she suffered from a diabetes-like symptom. Six month before she died, she lied sick in a hospital’s bed and suffered from fetters at her bottom. After that, she died through a disease that the doctor did not even knew what it was. Living for a long time in a ghetto house invaded by termites, I myself was also evicted from that area. Thus, our poor community had to swarm away.

My mother and I, therefore, had to live with my grandfather’s younger sister.

Presently, I am 25 years old and single. I am the only child, and my job is selling groceries, which does not make me see any rich future. Amazingly, I have a chance to own a house with some land and a car. The story is, in year 1999, my grandfather’s younger sister who later became my adoptive mother invited me to come to the temple on every first Sunday of each month and on the days the temple had big ceremonies; and every time I attended the ceremony of offering sustenance to the Lord Buddha and of other big merit of the temple, I made wishes “May I own a house with land and a car.”

Later, in year 2002 (B.E.2545), my grandfather bought me a car when I did not even ask him for it. And in the same year, at my 21 years of age, his sister told me that she was already old and she would like to adopt a child. She thought about adopting my friend living next door, but her relatives disagreed with her. Finally, she made a decision to adopt me instead and legally certified me as her adopted child at a regional center. Four years after that, she passed away which caused me to take possession of her inheritance, i.e. the house and land. Hence, all my wishes were accomplished. This incident seriously strengthens my faith in merit.

I have a strange disease which is not a big deal in my idea, but it annoys me for a little bit, i.e. I have some pains at my nape and both of my shoulders; whenever I turn or bend my neck, there is some rattling sound as if my neck is going to drop and like my bone is about to break every time I turn my neck. The noise is so loud that people standing close to me can hear. I have these pains everyday in my bones, and they are on and off all the time. Especially, when I lift heavy things, my neck bones will suffer from great pains, so I myself have had to apply liniment on my neck and shoulders and give them massages for 4 years up to now.

My mother is aggressive and hot-tempered, but she likes to make merit. As a fat person, she suffers from knee aches. When these aches increase in strength, her blood pressure will increase simultaneously. When it happens, she can barely walk. She did not dare to meet doctors because she was scared of them. But now, it is gone. The thing that is gone is not her knee aches, yet it is her waist.

When her aches were more painful, she agreed to meet a doctor. Presently, even though she has her own small grocery store which improves her living, she does not like going somewhere with the reason that she is worried about the store and does not want to lose her customers to other competitors who run other stores close to hers. Astonishingly, she has always had business competitors.

My other aunt suffered from cancer at her tongue’s root. The doctors gave her some surgeries, radiation treatments and neck punctures. She could neither talk nor eat. Before dying, she made merit of building Khun Yay’s Vihara, casting Buddha images and building the court of Dhamma for monastic abbots, building Khun Yay’s dining hall, donating money in Kathina merit. She died when she was 37 years old.

My grandmother’s cousin suffered from stomach cancer and passed away in year 1999 (B.E. 2542) when he was about 47 years old.

I would like to ask for Luang Phaw’s mercy to answer these following questions of mine.

1. What retribution caused my adoptive mother to get 5 surgeries? What retribution made her suffer from lung cancer until she died? What was her omen before she died? After death, what realm is she in, and how is her life condition now? Does she have any word for me?

2. What retribution caused my aunt to lose her gold ornaments to the thief?

3. My aunt performed meritorious actions and gambling actions like playing cards, Hilo, spun dices, etc. What was her omen before she died? How is her afterlife now?

4. Where did my grandmother go after she died? Did she receive merits transferred to her?

5. What retribution caused my younger aunt to suffer from cancer at her tongue’s root? Where did she go after she died?

6. What realm did my grandmother’s cousin go after he died from stomach cancer?

7. What retribution causes my mother to suffer from knee aches and high blood pressure? How come does she always have business competitors? What retribution causes it? Is there any solution for that?

8. Why was my childhood so difficult? I had to live in a ghetto house that was lacking of furniture? What retribution caused me to see my father only once?

9. What merit did my adoptive mother and I do together in our past? Were we mother and child or relatives before? What previous deed caused me to possess her inheritance?

10. How could my wishes to own a house, land and a car be amazingly accomplished? What deed did I perform that brought this incident to me?

11. I have aches at my nape and both of my shoulders. Every time I turn my neck, it gives out a rattling sound and flashing pains in my bones. What retribution caused them?

12. How did my adoptive mother, my mother and I perform meritorious actions with our merit-making group? Have we ever attained Dhammakaya?

Thanks a lot to Luang Phaw whom I respect the most.

Dream in Dream

I closed my eyes to dream coherently and woke up with a yawn to tell you a tale.

1. Your adoptive mother got 5 surgeries because of her own retribution from the life she was born in an agricultural society. In that life, she liked to punish her active descendants who damaged things by tightening them for a long time until they receive torment from being tightened. Besides, the retribution that she killed animals for food also took action.

She suffered from lung cancer until she died because she, in that life, also liked to burn rice fields after harvest. That smoke bothered other people living downwind until they were annoyed because they could not breathe very well. Moreover, it killed small animals living in the rice fields. This retribution took action.

After death, she became a beautiful female angel owning a gold heavenly mansion in the provisions division of the special merit zone of Tusita (the 4th level of heaven) due to merits she made with our merit making group seriously and regularly.
She received merits transferred to her which increased the amount of her heavenly property.
She passed you a word saying that she would like you to make every merit with our merit-making group unceasingly, so that you will be in the special merit zone with her.

2. Your aunt lost her gold decorations to the thief because she was a gambler in her past life who usually liked to cheat in gambling games. This retribution took action and attached calamity with her gains. Whenever she gained some wealth, something would happen to deplete it; as well as the retribution that she was pleased that the neighbor she did not like suffered from robbery. These retributions took action together.

3. Your aunt performed both meritorious and gambling actions. She liked playing cards, Hilo, spun dices, etc. Before she died, her omen was half-clear and half-clouded, i.e. she saw the pictures of her wholesome and unwholesome actions.

After death, she was taken to the purgatory of the 6th major hell by its authorities and was sentenced to be a female ogre due to those merits and demerits. With this status, she has to work in the purgatory for 6 months a year and relax in Catummaharajika (the 1st level of heaven) for 6 months a year.
Currently, she is performing this ogre job punishing hell creatures in the purgatory. You need to transfer merit to her frequently.

4. After you grandmother died, she became a common earth-sprite. Receiving merits transferred to her, her life condition is improved, e.g. she is younger, has celestial food, celestial clothes and owns a small heavenly mansion in an earth-sprite village. You need to transfer more merit to her.

5. Your younger aunt suffered from cancer at the root of her tongue because the retribution that she killed animals for selling and for food in many lives took action together; including with retribution that she scolded others which gave them problems.

After death, she became a beautiful female angel owning a gold heavenly mansion in phase 3 of Tavatimsa (the 2nd level of heaven) due to the merits she made before she died which clang her mind to merit.
You need to transfer more merit to her.

6. Your grandmother’s cousin suffered from stomach cancer because her retribution from killing animals for food in many lives took action together.

After death, he became a common earth-sprite. Receiving merits transferred to him, he gained better life condition like your grandmother.

7. Your mother suffers from knee aches and high blood pressure because of the retribution that she killed animals for food in her past and present lives, as well as, poor eating habits. Thence, she needs to eat less meat and eat more vegetables, so that she will lose some weight and become as beautiful as you wish.

She always has business competitors because of her past and present retributions that she is usually jealous of others;
therefore, she needs to spread loving-kindness persistently and be happy with other’s success, as well as accumulate every merit regularly and count that it is normal in business to have competitors.
However, do not make them adversaries.

8. In your childhood, you had a difficult life and lived in a ghetto house without any furniture because you, in your past life, were very stingy and barely made merit.

Since you were born, you met your father only once because of your own retribution from your past life when you were a man who made a lady pregnant and was not responsible for that baby.
This is actually your picture in the past.

9. You and your adoptive mother had a relationship before, and she was your Kalyanamitta in that life. Back then, you were her servant; she taught you how to perform donation, and you helped her prepare food for monks. You did your best in giving assistance to her which caused you to have merit to inherit her assets in this life.

10. Your wishes to own a house with land and a car were accomplished because of the present merit you made with our merit-making group and the past merit that you helped your adoptive mother prepare food for monks and assisted her to perform donation with our merit-making group. These merits took action together.

11. You have aches at your nape and both of your shoulders, and every time you turn your neck, it gives out a rattling sound and tortures you with flashing pains in your bones because you, in your past life, used a paddle to hit the neck of a dog walking around your house due to anger until its neck suffered from a torturous sprain.

You need to accrue every merit and transfer these merit to that creature, and make a wish to meet a good doctor and good medication that can heal you.
This symptom is not difficult to be healed. Don’t worry.

12. You, your mother and your adoptive mother pursued perfection in the provisions division of our group before. Your adoptive mother was your and your mother’s Kalyanamitta. However, your mother did not perform meritorious actions in a row which caused her to have a difficult life.

Since we have met again in this life, you need to pursue perfection with all your might and make a wish to follow our group to Tusita, the land of Bodhisatta, and never stray away from our group.