We've Moved!

We've moved - please bookmark our new site and continue to visit us at http://prayerwithoutceasing.org/blog

Paul's Story by Jane

A friend's nephew became paralyzed from the neck down the night of his graduation from high school in a swimming accident. He had been captain of his high school swim team. Every opportunity available, I had Paul's name included in the KPC prayer vigil. This went on for well over a year.

At some point, his family became aware of a special breakthrough surgical treatment using one's own stem cells that restores the nerve connection in the spine. This operation was only being done by one doctor in Portugal, and as you can imagine, the line of candidates was endless. The young man was optimistic, but it was a long shot.

I continued to enter his name in the vigil. The very next morning, after what is known as a 10 Million Day (a Buddhist holy day when the merit of prayers is multiplied 10 million times), his family received a call that he had been accepted for the operation. He has now had the operation, which was extremely successful, and he is regaining mobility. His prognosis is for a full recovery, I believe because of the power of the prayers he received and continues to receive.

Mike's Story via Ani Palmo

In spring of '99, I discovered a infection in my middle finger on my left hand. I went to the VA Doctor and he identified it as a nail fungus. As time progressed, it got worse, my nail split and it got a big scab. The Doctor still treated it as a nail fungus for about a year, and I finally insisted that he send me to a dermatologist. When she saw it, she immediately identified it as a metastatic melanoma. I was then sent to the Baltimore VA hospital for a biopsy, and it confirmed the diagnosis. A week later I was summoned back to the hospital to have the finger amputated above the knuckle. Then, you were kind enough to take me back to the facilities in Maryland and pamper me for a couple days while I recovered.

I was fine for about a year, then one day I discovered a lump in my arm pit. I consulted my local GP and he sent me to a surgeon for a biopsy. It came back positive and the surgeon concluded that the first melanoma was not diagnosed in time, and the cancer travelled up my arm to my lymph gland.

Mike provided a report from the oncologist. It states: "Without additional surgical procedures, I think we can make a definitive statement reagarding the significance of these abnormalities. If there is metastatic melanoma in the areas described on CT scan, I think the patient would be incurable regardless of theraputic intervention." He followed with, "As I discussed with the patient, axillary lymph node metastasis unfortunately results in a situation with relatively high probability of additional relapse and death from melanoma."

Mike continues: I underwent chemotherapy twice a week for a year, lost 100 pounds, and was in pretty bad shape. I finally got rid of the cancer. I know you prayed for me during that period..... thanks for your interest.....Mike

The Result of Lineage Prayers

Variegated Jewels had an event last Saturday in Phoenix that did not seem to have any new participants when it was beginning. As Buddhist practitioners, we decided we should do our prayers anyway, and create the intention that even if nobody else came - we would use the time for our own meditation. Well, go figure... the minute we finished reciting our opening prayers, one person showed up at the event. I had to laugh, because even these small moments remind me of the potency of prayer and meditation! Had we packed up our stuff and left without praying... we would have missed the one person that came to the Phoenix event that day.

Along those same lines, my partner and I lived out at the Dakini Valley retreat center for 18 months in 1999/2000. One day we went for a "quick hike" with two other guys that were living there at the time. Since we intended only to hike to the creek and back, we took no provisions (no water, food, compass, etc.)

What you need to know is that Dakini Valley is a 150 acre parcel that butts up against millions of acres of the Tonto National Forest. So when after several hours of hiking on the creek, we realized we were not where we thought ourselves to be... you can imagine the fear that came up for all of us. As we noticed the sun beginning to set and heard distant thunder indicating a potential storm, we decided it best to hike up the ridge of the canyon we were in. At the highest vista we were able to reach, the site of acre upon acre of endless forest scared the living daylights out of us. We were LOST... seriously off course with NO familiar landmarks to judge where we were. We plopped down in a circle and nobody spoke. The night was pressing in and we figured our only option was to sleep here and then backtrack in the morning, hopefully able to find the spot we entered the creek.

As we settled into the idea of a long night's sleep, anxiety and nerves became obvious. We were already quite hungry and had no clean water. As four practitioners, we agreed it was time to make our most fervent prayer... repetitions of the "Seven Line Prayer" to Guru Rinpoche. We began chanting in unison, and after a short period one of the members of our party jumped to his feet and said "we have to get back tonight... I'm hungry and we can't stay here!" At that moment we joined him in standing and all of us walked around a clump of trees to get to another part of the ridge.

That precise moment, at a HUGE distance from us, we saw the headlights of a vehicle on top of one of the plateaus - probably 10 miles away. There are NO roads where we are hiking, so we KNEW that it was the manager of the retreat center, surely looking for the four of us (now missing for hours.) The headlights appeared only for a moment and then they descended the hill, which we knew meant they had given up and were driving down the jeep trail to our property in the valley.

We set our sights on the direction of that truck and navigated a straight line based on the constellations above us. We had to scramble up and down hills and valleys and make our way through thick and thorny Manzanita bush... but about an hour later we could hear the distant yells of our friends calling into the wilderness to find us. We plowed down the next valley and up the subsequent side, yelling back at them from the top of each new ridge. When we finally were close enough to follow the sound of their voices back to our property, we all practically collapsed in the living room of the retreat center... just happy to be safe and home.

To this day, I KNOW it was the moment we took to pray together that catalyzed our brief moment of discovering that truck on the hillside. Any later and we would not have known which way to hike... and who knows if we could have navigated home by the creek.

Ani Sangye

One of our nuns is currently dealing with a serious health obstacle, one that will require 6 months of steriods and a year of chemo. She has been in our prayers a lot recently, and this past weekend we did a retreat with several people on each prayer shift, day and night, dedicating the merit to her. She asked me to share a part of her story and the miracle she has experienced through prayer.

Two weeks ago, a CT scan showed "something disasterous" in her lungs. A bronchoscopy was scheduled for the next morning. This procedure is not something to be taken lightly on a good day. The doctor takes out fluid and chunks of lung, and there is a danger of lung collapse and hemmorhage. In Ani Sangye's case, the risks were even higher. The decision was made to wait a few days for a followup CT scan. She called the prayer room and her name was put in the prayer book. The followup scan showed a huge improvement in her lungs, so the bronchoscopy was scrapped.

She was sent home with oxygen and told to rest. They were still waiting for the bloodwork. Several days later, she was having trouble breathing at the doctor's. He took her straight to the ER where they scheduled a bronchoscopy for that night - or the next morning, without fail. She was given a blood transfusion and massive steroids to stop the bleeding in the lungs, then admitted to the ICU.

Back in Sedona, we received word of this development and gathered together at 7PM for a Shower of Blessings tsog. Shortly thereafter, Ani Sangye's doctor informed her that she would not be having a bronchoscopy that night or the next morning.

A few days later, the possibility of a bronchoscopy rose once again. They really needed to look at what was happening in a lab setting. The only other possibility was to biopsy some recurring lesions that Ani Sangye had been having the past few months that were related to this illness. However, the lesions had not appeared for several days, and she began to gear up for the possibility of this dangerous but necessary procedure. This was Thursday night, and the bronchoscopy was scheduled for Saturday morning.

Friday evening was the beginning of the retreat. That morning, she awoke to find one lesion on her foot. The fact that only one appeared, after several days of no lesions, was quite amazing. The biopsy was performed that afternoon, and combined with the results of the most recent CT scan which were much improved, the bronchoscopy was once again cancelled.

Ani Sangye feels without a doubt that it has been the power of prayer that has allowed her condition to be diagnosed and treated without having this serious procedure.

Sometimes

There are many different ways to pray. Yesterday, I noticed this on Ani Aileen's refrigerator and thought I'd share it with you:

Sometimes,
when it is all, finally,
too much,
I climb into my car,
roll the windows up,
and somewhere between
backing out the driveway
and rounding the first corner,
I let out a yell
that would topple Manhattan.
How do you pray?

-Margaret L. Mitchell

Good News for Isaac's Brother!

We just learned some fabulous news! In a few days you can go to www.stupas.org and watch a video clip on the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona, AZ. In that clip, watch for one of the people working on the stupa who talks about his brother being in a coma -- he says that is why he is working on the stupa for his service, and making prayers. And THEN!!! His brother woke up, asked for a Bible, and said he needs to start teaching the world! We continue to pray for his full recovery.

Healing Prayers and Stupas

One powerful form of prayer practiced in Tibet, India, China, Japan and other parts of Asia is to make offerings and circumambulations around Stupas, or Pagodas, that contain sacred substances and carry blessings. Below is an excerpt from an article written by Sylvia Somerville for Four Corners Magazine:



STORIES OF HEALING
Other visitors, aware of the stupa’s intention, visit the Migyur Dorje Stupa to offer heartfelt prayers for health and well-being, often not only for themselves but also for others stricken with their same affliction. Sometimes this has led to astonishing reversals or changes of fortune. There was Gene, a young physician diagnosed with AIDS. His T cells were in the single digits. For six years, Gene had been fighting for his life. “When the Migyur Dorje Stupa was consecrated on December 2, 1995, I sat in the front row with tears in my eyes as the entire congregation gathered for this miraculous occasion and celebrated the existence of a place where all with no hope could find meaning and new hope for an end to their suffering and to the suffering of all beings,” Gene recalled. A few months after devotedly praying around the stupa, his T-cells were over 100. Gene continued to gain strength and today is alive in California living his vow to be of benefit to others.

Virginia also experienced a miracle. She made a long trip from Australia to visit Jetsunma and the Poolesville temple. She came with no thought of healing herself although she had begun to lose her battle with cancer. A third recurrence of undifferentiated cells left her leg hot and throbbing with pain. The medical prognosis was amputation. To create the causes for a teaching for the entire congregation, she joined a small group of people and prayed throughout the night around the Migyur Dorje Stupa. When she went home, her cancer was contained and defined and the doctors decided not to amputate. Three years later, her cancer continues to be under control.

Then there was Charlie, a golden retriever with only six months to live. His devoted owner took him around the stupa to prepare him for a peaceful death. Charlie got healthier and lived another three years.

These are not isolated instances. Stories abound about the healing properties of stupas.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion offers some insight. Disease is not something inflicted upon us from the outside, says Rinpoche. The causes for disease are internal, coming from mental afflictions, such as self-cherishing, ignorance, anger and attachment. These negative attitudes and actions leave imprints on the mind that express themselves as problems and diseases. Outer agents, such as bacteria and viruses, are simply the conditions for the disease. Thus true healing comes from purifying the mind, and a stupa is a sublime object of purification. “A stupa [rich in symbolism, filled with relics and consecrated according to sacred texts] is such a powerful holy object that even an unintentional circumambulation purifies negativities and accumulates merit or virtue,” explains Lama Zopa, recalling how animals and insects that inadvertently circumambulated a stupa created powerful causes for auspicious rebirths and eventual enlightenment.

Remembering to be Grateful

A sister nun just transcribed a teaching our teacher gave in August 1987. It brought me to tears reading it, because it brought that summer rushing back with a flood of gratitude, for my teacher, for my sangha (fellow practitioners on the Buddhist Path), and for my present life. In the winter of 1986-87 I was not yet formally ordained as a nun, but had gotten 'shaky' on the Path, and was told by my teacher that I had one foot in samsara (ordinary, self-seeking gratification that gives rise to suffering) and one foot in the Dharma (my spiritual path seeking to benefit others) and that neither one was working out particularly well. I needed to decide. I went on a retreat and afterwards, made promises to my teacher that came from the truest part of my heart I'd ever known. Three months later I broke those promises; three months after that I was diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of an orange. Surgically removed, it was an uncertain future: would I lose brain function? Would I have to be on dilantin forever which made me a zombie and unable to spiritually practice? Would I even care about my spiritual path anymore? This extraordinary teacher, and sangha, came together, as we have for Asia, and accumulated 5 Million Seven Line Prayers. I lost no brain function; I became ordained as a nun; although I have my ups and downs with my Path as all practitioners do, I'm still here, trying to surrender completely to only be of benefit. One of my daily prayers is from poet Rabindanath Tagore: "let only that little be left of me by which I may surrender my all". Thank you, precious teacher. Thank you, unbelievably generous sangha for your powerful prayers. Ani Alana

Prayer Works: Asia Claus is Cancer Free!

We often speak of the rarity of a precious human rebirth, but four-year old Asia Claus’ is rarer than most – her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are all American-born Buddhists, the latter two practicing as nuns. Under their Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo’s guidance, (their Lama) Asia’s parents secured her a place at one of the finest facilities in the country, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee (Jetsunma told them, “A miracle is waiting for you there.”), and the greater Sangha vowed to accumulate five million Seven Line Prayers dedicated to her recovery. Asia’s condition was quite serious. A Wilm’s tumor, that earlier had necessitated the removal of a kidney, recurred as a nodule on each of Asia’s lungs. This bitter development radically decreased her odds for survival.
Let’s let Asia’s mom, Laura, tell the rest:
“[Asia] had the tumor on her right lung removed in Phoenix in November, then we
transferred her care to St. Jude with Jetsunma's blessing…She started chemo and radiation right away and when her next CT was done, we had seen that the nodule in her left lung had shrunk by two thirds. We continued on for another few weeks with chemo. Then it was time for another CT, which showed that the nodule had stopped shrinking. So the doctors wanted to take it out.

“This is the interesting part. The surgery was needle-guided, meaning they put Asia out, and gave her a CT. During the CT they could see the nodule and inserted a needle into her that showed them exactly where the nodule was. Then they took her up to surgery, took out that part of the lung and a bit of surrounding area. At this point the surgeon says he felt around that part of the lung and didn't feel anything abnormal. When the biopsy of the lung came back, all that was found was normal healthy lung.

“We had to wait five more weeks to do a checkup CT, and our doctor had told us there was a small chance that the surgeon had missed the nodule, but that it was unlikely because it was a needle/CT guided surgery. Then when the checkup CT was finally done, it was all clear!”

Two Decades and Counting

Twenty-one years of ceaseless prayer! KPC celebrates an unbroken chain of hours of prayer to end suffering for all beings. We invite all who have participated by praying or requesting prayers for others to share their experience here.

Send us your Story

KPC Prayer Works wants to hear your story! If you have prayed for someone, or asked for prayers to be done, and have experienced something amazing, please let us know. Simply post a comment to any of the posts so that others can be inspired, or contact us directly from link below. Our moderator will also select from the comments a story to feature each week. Thank you for contributing to the power of prayer in the world.

Click here to send your story!