died and I have watched as the disease take over her mind, reducing her from a vivacious, stunning, talkative woman who had an opinion on everyone and everything… into a drooling, incoherent almost vegetative state. It took me some years to understand how life could be so cruel – and I wondered if it was better to lose one’s physical health instead of staying reasonably healthy but completely mindless – with no memory and no recognition of anyone – with no memory even of pain or discomfort. It is like watching someone dissolving into nothingness before one’s eyes. T e suff ering is very real. I know as I have been living with it for so many years. Today, an estimated 20 million
I
people suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease, but how reliable these statistics are I do not know. In America where they keep track, over fi ve million Americans are said to be suff ering from the disease. And there are currently 15 million caregivers providing over 17 billion hours of unpaid care to Alzheimer’s patients. T e good news is that I have just read that the Obama administration recently announced a two year commitment of US$156 million to fi ghting Alzheimer’s Disease. T at is incredible good news indeed, for only with signifi cant funding can there be good research done to fi nd a cure for this unspeakably cruel disease. If America can make inroads to fi nding a cure for Alzheimer’s, the rest of the world is sure to benefi t.
44 FENGSHUIWORLD | MARCH / APRIL 2012
t has been more than twenty years now since I watched my mother grow old with Alzheimers. She started her “suffering” when my father
While waiting for a cure however, we have turned to other means and here I want to share something we did which seems be making my mother smile again! Yes, it is really a breakthrough. For so long, I have lived with her vacant expression that even the tiniest suggestion of a smile, of some kind of feeling, means so much to me. I had been quite devastated watching the way the disease had reduced my mother to literally a vegetable. T en one day, a student of mine told me how letting his mother wear our Medicine Buddha moving mantra watch had improved her condition hugely. I recall suddenly feeling very,
very stupid. I should have turned to Medicine Buddha for my mother. I had built a gigantic prayer wheel outside her room and it had kept her healthy, but I should have done more. Immediately, I created a Medicine Buddha altar for her, and that is when I started playing the MEDICINE BUDDHA PUJA over and over again, all through the day. I had bought the CD of the puja chanted by the monks of Kopan monastery, and now I had it copied and made into an mp3 to play continuously. T e result has been nothing short of miraculous. No, my mother has not recovered, but she looks very happy now. I know she is no longer suff ering. I took a video of her and it shows her putting her frail palms together in a gesture of prayer. Her face is serene and peaceful, and seeing
Medicine Buddha
her like this has brought me so much happiness.
T e best thing for me and my family is that we have successfully climbed out from under the feeling of powerlessness and sorrow that used to weigh us down. We had felt helpless to help her. T e only consolation was that at least we were in a financial position to ensure that my mother was well cared for. I cannot imagine the agony we would have felt if money had been an obstacle to her care, as it is for so many families. But after I started playing the Medicine Buddha puja, her condition has improved so much that I now realize how lucky we all are that my Mother is still alive, giving us all the opportunity to look after her, to create strong and powerful karmic merit. I write this to share something
that has brought a great measure of comfort to me and my family. For those of you readers who may have a parent or someone suff ering from Alzheimer’s or dementia or anything at all, you might want to consider asking Medicine Buddha for help. Buddha sets no conditions. You do not even need to be a Buddhist to invoke the blessings of the Medicine Buddha. Just be strongly motivated to ease your parent’s suff ering and the mantra and the puja will come to you.