When I was young, my mother always told me, “Virtue is its own reward.” I remembered her saying this and wanted to do more good deeds. Not long after I became a doctor, I was on duty in the emergency room. A patient with encephalitis B was admitted into the hospital. He was unconscious with a fever of 42º Celsius. When I checked the patient he suddenly started convulsing and had cardio-respiratory arrest. I immediately gave him artificial respiration and closed cardiac massage. A few minutes later, the patient revived. Afterwards I felt a little regretful as encephalitis B is an acute infectious disease. I told my mother and she comforted me calling me a good boy and that I will certainly be rewarded. Later, the patient recovered completely. Although it happened forty years ago, I have always felt proud of this rescue.
What is a charitable deed? I understand it is to serve others with good deeds. Doctors treat patients and in doing so mostly do something that others do not want or dare to do, which could also be considered a charitable deed.
It is not necessary to expose one’s good deeds, if you yourself acquire comfort from that deed, which is enough. In 1990 I worked in a hospital in Shenzhen, where I performed a transarterial chemoembolisation for a seventy-year old lady. She had liver cancer and severe hepatitis B. The intubation went smoothly but when drugs were injected just for a few milliliters, she suddenly went into convulsion and cardio-respiratory arrest. At that moment I stood on the right side of the patient and immediately did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The patient survived. Other than saving the patient’s life we did not take this seriously. Two years later, my wife, the director of the Department of Infectious Diseases checked the medical records of gastroenterology department and found that there was a liver cancer patient's medical record which stated that the patient suddenly had cardio-respiratory arrest, and after mouth-tomouth resuscitation was rescued. She was surprised by this and thought of who had done the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation concluding that it must have been myself who carried out such a dangerous act. When she returned home that evening and asked me, I could only confess.
Actually, mouth-to-mouth breathing cannot be considered to be a good deed as it is the fastest rescue method. It is the first rescue approach to resuscitate patients with cardio respiratory arrest. There are a variety of intubations, endotracheal intubation which can assist breathing immediately but sometimes it is not as fast as mouth-to-mouth breathing.
When I performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation my mind was an abyss. I could only focus on the patient’s mouth and nose. One morning six years ago I was looking around the hospital as usual, I arrived in the endoscopy suite and saw a doctor about to insert a gastroscope into a patient. The tube had not yet been inserted when the patient suddenly burst into a convulsion and his eyes were motionless, which is a typical cardiac arrest. I told the patient’s adjacent nurse to pull out the endotracheal intubation and at the same I pounced to resuscitate. After about two minutes, the patient’s eyes moved and the rescue was successful. At this time I realized that my mouth was stained with the patient’s sputum and blood. Later I discovered this patient suffered from esophageal cancer with ‘open’ tuberculosis, and mycobacterium tuberculosis was found in his sputum. Although it was dangerous, internally I felt almost peaceful and tranquil. Academician Wang Zhenyi told me, “The more difficult the experience is, the easier the God will be moved. All our good and bad deeds are recorded by him and when the time comes he will either retaliate or reward you.”
From a philosophical standpoint, I believe Professor Wang is right. Late December 2010, in Beijing I replied to the open request to allow my hospital to enter The National Key Clinical Tumor Specialty Center. After that, I visited Professor Wang in Shanghai. On one hand, I extended my New Year’s greetings to my teacher; on the other hand, I wanted to share with him the good news that my hospital may be honored. He was very pleased and said, “You deserve it, I do hope you keep in good health because you have done so many good deeds.”He talked about how he had funded a leukemia patient a few decades ago and said, “Although it took my money and efforts, I am rewarded because the patient now still remains healthy.” He told me that the state will grant him with the highest 2010 National Science and Technology Progress Award for his outstanding contribution to invent Induced Differentiation Therapy for Leukemia forty years ago. “Is this not a reward from God?” said Professor Wang further adding, “Happiness is health, because when you do a good deed, each cell in your body will be in its most healthy and vital state, you will forget all unhealthy things. You have treated that lady from Zhanjiang City called Peng Ximei. She had a humongous abdomen, don’t you feel particularly gratified?”
Actually, I really do! Peng Ximei now works in my hospital as a volunteer. Whenever I see her face pink and always with a smile on it, I cannot describe my pleasure. On December 19th, 2009 at three o’clock we were at the out-patient square of the Zhanjiang People’s Hospital. Peng Ximei first came to me with the help of a few people. She was sallow, thin withered hands holding her huge abdomen. Her skirt half covered her badly swollen legs and she was wearing a pair of shoes without heels. Three days later, we arranged an ambulance to fetch her to my hospital. Ximei experienced sudden shortness of breath and was on the verge of death. Over the following days she underwent surgery and was rescued. A total of 55 kg of tumor and cyst fluid was removed from her body. After this she made a full recovery. During the Spring Festival of 2011, Peng Ximei became a beautiful ‘new person’ returning home to Maoming City. She had been unable to return home to see her parents for a few years. (Figure 20)
For two years, I always thought that the help we gave Peng Ximei did not equal how much she had helped us. “Good deeds will be rewarded.” In 2010, the second year Peng Ximei was treated in our hospital, good things happened one by one. My hospital was honored as a leading hospital by Guangdong Province and the State.
In Buddhism, “Good deeds will be rewarded” is its most basic teaching. The Bible tells us to love others and we will receive God's love. Islam teaches that good deeds will be rewarded, and we will have good luck. What we are ignorant of is immense, the saying, “Good deeds will be rewarded” may also have a scientific basis. Nobel laureate Lee Zhengdao advocated “applying astronomy to explain the physics.” It is said that the scientific community have spent billions of dollars in looking for unidentified materials of the universe that dominate humanity’s thinking and behaviors like an invisible hand.
Some people say that if a person reaches a state of ecstasy, he has reached the highest level of consciousness. The famed Chinese scientist Mr. Qian Xuesen had strongly recommended a philosophical work ‘Material, Consciousness and Field,’ by the philosopher Mr. Ren Huizhong, believing that the book was very innovative. The author of the book has been hailed as “one of two and a half philosophers” by the Chinese philosophical circle. In this book, the author divides material into real material, virtual material and zero material, classifying consciousness into consciousness, subconsciousness and unconsciousness. Material and consciousness can mutually transform. I believe that unconsciousness (ecstasy) can be transformed into real material (outcomes).
Below, one can read about the transformation of a dying young man and his mother who is still healthy today.