Teacher Chen (陳老師)

Teacher Chen (陳老師) has some supernatural abilities (神通), such as being able to see other’s past (宿命通) and future (天眼通), read other’s mind (他心通), see things that normal eyes can’t see and communicate with them (通靈), and many others. However, her mission is to help people who need help, and fortunetelling is just a way to support her studio (道場) in order to help people. One shouldn’t put an equal sign between her and one’s traditional opinion of fortunetellers, because her motivation is so different and she really has one’s best interest in mind.

Teacher Chen is kind and generous. Some students can’t afford the official monthly fee for Chi Kung practice; she’ll let them use the studio anyway until their financial situation has improved. (The poor economy in Taiwan does not help her much.) Some students are physically weak due to various reasons; she’ll help them to become healthy and strong. Some students have serious emotional issues; she’ll listen to their stories and provide solutions that are best for them. In fact, her studio is a harbor for a lot of students that I’ve talked to. Without her help over the years, some of the students might not be alive today, let along happily chatting with me.

I was skeptical about people who claimed that they had supernatural abilities, and I believe that I’m not alone. But that was before I met Teacher Chen. She answered tons of my questions and never got impatient with me. Through her, I started understanding a lot of things and practicing Buddhism. Sometimes I didn’t get her instructions, but I would follow anyway. Later when I looked back, I would understand why she showed me certain paths. And when that happened, I felt that my Buddhist practice had improved to another level and I became a better person.

Going back to work was an instruction from her. I couldn’t understand it, because back then my retirement life was so nice. Well, I wasn’t going to argue with her, so I followed her instruction. But after my first short-lived job, I got it. However, when it was time to look for another job, I forgot my mission and looked for jobs that didn’t help my Buddhist practice. Fortunately, Bodhisattvas were looking out for me: Time after time, I easily got jobs that required a lot of human interaction, but failed strangely on pure software developer jobs. So finally I got it. And as soon as I was clear on my mission, a disappeared job reappeared 6 weeks later and this time I got the job effortlessly. You can treat my job hunting as a fun story (of course it was no fun for me), but I know very well that there is no “accident”. There is a reason behind everything, and on surface a lot of things seem like pure “accidents”. Teacher Chen helps me to see the “reasons”. It’s hard to explain, but if you can simplify your mind and life, you can see much better and clear.