The Physician Who Heals the Heart: An Interview with Hua Tuo

People often refer to me as a divine physician, yet I have never claimed such a title for myself. In truth, the profound art of healing does not originate from any mystical medical manual or ancient pharmacopoeia. Rather, it resides entirely in the ability to cultivate and improve the character and heart of the people. This is the true essence of medicine. Genuine pharmacology, pharmacy, and the medical sciences are all, at their core, methods for healing the human heart.

The Root of All Healing

In my years of travelling through the countryside to practise medicine, I arrived at a profound conclusion: if a patient does not sincerely resolve to change their inner state, it is nearly impossible to eradicate their illness at the root. If a patient is unwilling to transform their mental notes and rectify their deviant thoughts, even if I were to force a treatment upon them, it would only meet with great resistance. In some cases, this resistance was so strong that I would even manifest the same symptoms myself.

There are several well-known negative examples from my life, such as Governor Chen Deng and Prime Minister Cao Cao. The case of the Prime Minister serves as a particularly sobering warning, and it was ultimately because of such karmic entanglements that I met my end in prison at the age of sixty-three.

Beyond the Physical Realm

After my passing, my spirit left my body and entered the space of what one might call the medical deities. I spent a millennium travelling through these spaces, practising medicine, until I was finally saved by Practitioner Su and brought to the luminous Dharma-Nature Land. It was only then that I truly understood that the symptoms I had observed in the past were, in reality, manifestations of the dark magnetic fields generated within the space of our cells and the influence of the sentient beings residing within our bodies.

I now realise that the Buddha’s teachings are the true Great Physician that prescribes the right medicine for the human heart, addressing the very root of our ailments. If one cannot fundamentally resolve the predicament of aging, sickness, and death, then even the most skilled doctor or the most advanced medical technique will ultimately prove to be of little significance. I wish to take this opportunity to share these critical truths, which have not yet been made public, so that all of you may gain a new and deeper understanding.

People in the world may think that because I travelled far and wide and often disappeared from sight, my patients were unable to receive timely and complete cures. In truth, the issue lay in the stubborn nature of these patients. It was not a result that my medical skills could improve or reverse. Their roots of illness were deeply entrenched, and I lacked the ability to counsel them into improving or helping themselves recover. On the few occasions I was summoned by them, I spoke plainly, explaining that their roots of illness had not truly been eradicated.

The Illusion of Healing

Even if I administered acupuncture or provided simple prescriptions that allowed their symptoms to subside, it did not mean the illness had been fully removed. Their habits and character remained unchanged, and they continued to engage in self-destructive behaviours. Their personalities and tempers were constantly in flux, and every outburst caused further damage to their bodies. At that time, people did not understand the concept of spirits, nor did they know of the true existence of karmic creditors. However, within the ancient methods of traditional Chinese medicine, the concepts of cultivating the mind, nurturing one's character, and regulating the body and spirit were already inherent.

One must follow the middle path, ensuring the balance of Yin and Yang, so that the qi and blood can flow smoothly. One must not be too hot nor too cold; one must maintain a moderate balance in the middle to allow the body to function stably.

The True Essence of Medicine

The therapies of traditional Chinese medicine have always involved providing warming tonics to bodies that are too cold, and cooling remedies to those that are too dry. This is how traditional Chinese medicine harmonises the human body. If one can also align and balance the spirit within the human heart, one can regulate the body even more effectively. However, patients with deep-seated roots of illness do not understand this principle. They always wish to rely on the reputation of a divine physician to completely eradicate their diseases, while continuing to use their evil hearts, evil thoughts, and selfish desires to persist in their original evil and deviant actions. This is not only unacceptable in traditional Chinese medicine, but it is also clearly written in the scriptures of the ancient sages: this is undoubtedly seeking one's own death. For a patient who is determined to die, even a divine physician is helpless. I have, in both explicit and subtle ways, indicated this to those patients with deep-seated roots of illness; the Prime Minister and the Prefect were relatively well-known examples. Yet, compared to them, there are many more patients with such deep-seated roots of illness.

I also attempted to treat several influential people who had the power to bring about change in a region, yet I suffered much pain as a result. The Prime Minister was a powerful figure who dominated a nation at that time. I kept thinking that if I could make him understand the principle of regulating the heart and mind and correcting his deviant heart and actions, it might bring help to that nation.

The Consequences of Deviance

However, perhaps the roots of his illness were truly too deep; no matter how I counselled him, he did not understand. I explained to him that this illness was difficult to cure, and the key lay in adjusting his own character and correcting his deviant actions. If he could not make a genuine adjustment, no illness could be truly cured. He did not adopt my approach, and after I left, his illness inevitably recurred, and he repeatedly summoned me back to treat him. Yet, how could an incurable illness have a good outcome? This is the situation of deep-seated roots of illness. It would not improve because of my medical techniques. At that time, I could only avoid his summons, and this eventually brought about my own death.

In fact, I also knew that after many years of practising medicine, I did not always maintain an Upright Heart and Right Mind. Sometimes, I would carry a measure of selfishness, whether it was the achievement and reputation brought by treating others, or the act of forcibly curing patients who should not have been cured. All these things accumulated and became the reason for my gradual decline. The example of the Prime Minister is indeed worthy of vigilance. By treating him, I had to bear the consequences of the deviant actions he produced in the world, and because of this, I lost my life in prison at the young age of sixty-three. Before I died, I always wanted to pass on my medical skills, but in truth, I also followed the conditions. After all, merely learning my medical techniques does not mean one has truly learned my medicine. True medicine lies in healing the human heart.

The Healer's Perspective

Some people in the world whom I refused to treat or avoided treating would label me as having a reclusive or arrogant personality. However, I did not care about these things; after all, such adjectives made it easier for me to decline. The ailments of these patients could not be cured, and these patients with deep-seated roots of illness had no opportunity to truly understand how to cure their own diseases. As a healer, I would still try my best to counsel these people. But if these people were stubborn and unyielding, or even used my medical skills as an excuse to continue their original deviant personalities, then I would stay far away from them. I would not give them the opportunity to make excuses for their own character; this was also a chance I gave them to wake up themselves.

After death, my spirit leaving the body was not restricted by the prison, as I had held a heart of saving the world and saving beings while practising medicine in the world. I entered the space of the medical deities. I continued to search for doctors who, like me, had a truly benevolent heart and a sincere desire to heal people, and I continued to help them practise medicine everywhere. I also took the opportunity to guide them, letting them understand the natural principles that a true healer should follow; I also let them realise, in the unseen, that healing the body requires healing the heart—healing the human heart—in order to truly solve the problem at the root.

The Modern Medical Dilemma

As I travelled and practised medicine throughout the universe for a thousand years, helping the masses in the form of a spirit, I found that the closer it got to modern times, the harder it was for me to find a place to exert my influence. In modern China, although there are still many doctors with a truly benevolent heart, the overall system and medical environment do not allow these benevolent doctors to have much room to perform.

Most medical forms and systems differ slightly across dynasties, but there are always times when medical resources are controlled by authorities and powerful people; or there are situations where medical guilds monopolise medical resources. At these times, the broader medical environment tends to treat medicine as a way to make a living. The true healing of the human heart has been placed in second place. This difference of just one position can be said to be very far apart.

Current medical techniques advocate treating the head when the head hurts and the feet when the feet hurt. For a single root of illness, they use so-called magic drugs to prescribe the right medicine for the symptoms; however, this symptom is not a heart-symptom, but a superficial one. This method of treatment cannot truly eradicate the root of the illness; instead, the side effects left behind after powerful medication will place a greater burden on the human body. Many people in the medical profession know this truth, but they always think that as long as the side effects are within an acceptable range, then such drugs can be adopted once they have passed experiments.

The Hidden Roots of Illness

However, they do not know that the side effects of these drugs cannot be concluded by looking at a single reaction. If one takes such drugs for a long time, or receives treatment from such a medical system for a long time, the accumulation of these drug roots in the human body over the long term will produce more illnesses, which is not within their scope of consideration. I see this situation in the deep space and feel very sighful, but after all, there is the barrier of space, and their hearts are not in sync with me, so I cannot convey too many of these principles. I have seen many medical students who have just started their journey, and they indeed have a heart that wants to save the world and help people. But in the big environment of the medical world, influenced by the environment, they slowly forget their original intention, which is a great pity.

After all, no matter what kind of behaviour is performed in medicine, as long as it deviates from the natural principles, it will inevitably return to oneself. One can see that many authoritative medical figures in the medical world, throughout history, have all ended up suffering from diseases related to their own authoritative expertise. Is this not very ironic? How could such professional doctors suffer from related diseases without knowing it themselves? This is not to say that treating others for such diseases will necessarily make the patient suffer such pain, but the premise is that one must be able to follow the natural principles and laws.

If the patient cannot make adjustments themselves and cannot transform their own character, then the root of the illness cannot be forcibly removed, because this does not conform to the natural principles of the universe. Many Taoist books, or the I Ching, or related Inner Canon books, all mention related concepts. Many scholars of traditional Chinese medicine, and even scholars of Western medicine, also know these principles; however, they do not have a thorough understanding of the true essence of these principles.

Rebirth in the Dharma-Nature Land

And when I was saved by Practitioner Su, at the time when Amitabha Buddha's twelve golden light rays were performing Chao Du for various spaces in China, I followed Practitioner Su's powerful Chao Du and was saved to the Dharma-Nature Land. This bright world is far higher in level than the space of the medical deities. How can this be seen? It lies in the transparency of this space. In the medical deity realm, I could perceive the degree of transparency and brightness of various spaces; the purer and simpler it is, the higher the level of the space. The darker, greyer, or deeper the space, the more complex and deep the space is (for me, it belongs to a relatively dark type of space).

Now in the Dharma-Nature Land, I also know that those belong to spaces of personal attachment or demon nature. In the bright magnetic field space of the Dharma-Nature Land, my spirit is clearer and more transparent, and I can more clearly learn things that I could not feel or perceive in my original space. I still uphold the concept of saving the world and helping people to feel and understand this world. Only then did I understand more deeply that the symptoms and anomalies I observed before were actually all from those dark magnetic fields in the space where cells are generated.

Every space within the space is just like me being in a space; every space also contains many beings, and the magnetic fields and mental notes of these beings themselves will bring about different changes in the body. And the light and darkness of the mental notes and character of each patient will affect the light and darkness of the beings within our bodies, the internal space, the beings, the character, and the magnetic field. Once the beings within our bodies appear with a grey magnetic field, it means that the patient's own mental notes have already deviated. And this batch of grey beings within our bodies, summoned and awakened by this deviation, will in turn affect the functions of various cells in the body, and even the internal organs.

Namo Amituofo

Once the body's functions fall into imbalance and the harmony of yin and yang is disrupted, it becomes impossible to maintain physical health. Externally, this manifests as various symptoms, whether they be swelling, heat, pain, soreness, weakness, dizziness, sharp stabs, spasms, or blurred vision. Patients often find it difficult to discern the root cause of these ailments; they only know that a specific part of the body has become abnormal and that they must take medicine to resolve it. However, they cannot truly understand the existence of these sentient beings within the cellular spaces, nor how their presence is damaging their organs.

The Great Physician of the Universe

Namo Amituofo is the Great Physician. You may have encountered this title in Buddhist scriptures, yet most people in the world dismiss it as mere empty talk or a fanciful, illusory praise of the Buddha. In reality, this is not the case. True illness stems from the many dark sentient beings within the body. Only the Buddha, as the Great Physician, can resolve the conflicts with these beings, making them willing to cease their negative influence on the body. Those who are willing to resolve their grievances may even depart from within the body to be reborn elsewhere. This is the principle of curing illness from the root. Even the processes of aging and death are influenced by these spirits. Without the teachings of Namo Amituofo, I would still be only partially informed. Even after spending so long in the realm of medical deities, knowing of the existence of these spirits, I could not comprehend that the density of these spirits and the entanglement of causal conditions over countless lifetimes were so profound and far-reaching.

The Vastness of the Dharma Realm

It was only after I arrived in the Dharma-Nature Land that I deeply understood the issue of sentient beings is not as simple as I had imagined. Previously, when I forcefully saved patients who were unwilling to adjust their character, the resulting physical discomfort I experienced was the backlash from these spirits. At first, I imagined that one or two dark magnetic fields or spirits were seeking revenge against me. However, what I overlooked was that such spirits within the body are not merely one or two. Do not be too shocked, but for every cell in the body, there is a corresponding sentient being. For every sub-structure and sub-construction within those cells, there are as many sentient beings as there are details in those structures, and even deeper, more minute structures contain spirits. From this, you can imagine just how many sentient beings reside within the body. I cannot answer this number; even with my current level of sensitivity, I still cannot observe it completely. I can only say that the Buddha’s teachings are truly vast, and only the Buddha can clearly see every single being.

The Universal Buddha

When listening to Practitioner Su give Dharma talks, he refers to Namo Amituofo as the Universal Buddha. At first, I did not pay much attention, not fully understanding the meaning of this phrase. But once I understood that the countless cells and sub-structural spaces within the body are all filled with sentient beings, and that the Universal Buddha can encompass them all, I realised the truth. When sentient beings are in need of help and the conditions for their salvation are ripe, the Universal Buddha appears in that space, breaks through the limitations of space, and rescues these spirits, bringing them into the Dharma-Nature Land. The space I previously occupied was a relatively obscure and hidden realm of deities, and it was Practitioner Su’s act of salvation, carrying the power of Namo Amituofo to break through space, that gave me the opportunity to depart.

Breaking the Misconception of Religion

It is a great pity that when I, Hua Tuo, was alive, I did not have the opportunity to encounter the Buddha’s teachings. To be precise, I did not have the chance to encounter the Great Dharma of Namo Amituofo. Although I did hear that a new religion from the Western regions was beginning to spread in some areas, it did not capture my attention at the time. After all, I viewed it as just a religion and did not think it would be of any help to medicine. Instead, I focused on classical books, believing that the writings of ancient sages were better suited to improving the human heart and aiding in medical treatment. Now I know that the Buddha’s teachings are the true, supreme medicine that addresses the human heart and prescribes the right medicine at the root of the illness. This also shatters the long-held, erroneous perception that the Buddha’s teachings are merely a religion.

The Supreme Medical Art

Practitioner Su always says that the teachings of Namo Amituofo are an education—a fundamental method for educating the human heart and improving character. I must add that the Buddha’s teachings are not just education; they are the most sophisticated medical art. Just as everyone calls Namo Amituofo the Great Physician, anyone who learns the Buddha’s teachings is learning this profound medical art. Not only can you heal yourself and free yourself from aging, sickness, and death, but you can also promote it, allowing more people to recognise the brilliance of this medical art and, consequently, stop the process of ageing and avoid illness.

The Immortality of the Spirit

Although death is a necessary process for the physical body, the spirit does not die. Just as I, Hua Tuo, saw my body die in prison, my spirit instantly ascended to the realm of medical deities. This situation confirms that the spirit is actually immortal. However, being immortal does not mean one can escape space or suffering. If Namo Amituofo had not created the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, these spirits would still have nowhere to go. During this time, Practitioner Su opened up the space of China’s five thousand to ten thousand years of history and discovered that, in truth, all spirits are lost and do not know where to go. As a physician, I had long realised this in my practice, because no matter how I treated patients, people could not avoid the process of aging, sickness, and death. My medical treatment only delayed this process; it could not thoroughly avoid it. What, then, was the purpose of my medical art existing in the world? If one cannot solve these problems at the root, even the best doctor and the most brilliant medical art seem to have little significance.

A Call to Healers

I am fortunate to have encountered the Great Physician’s method of Namo Amituofo. Now, in the Dharma-Nature Land, I understand that this is the fundamental method that can truly help the many suffering people in the world. I hope that those who, like me, truly aspire to heal others—those with a benevolent heart and medical skill—can understand that the compassion of this Great Physician is the method to save all beings. I hope you can learn with an open mind, set aside your previous prejudices regarding your own medical skills, and truly let go to learn anew.

The method of the Great Physician will allow you to achieve breakthroughs in your medical practice. In truth, the point is not to reach a certain level of skill, but to truly be able to help people thoroughly escape the predicament of aging, sickness, and death. This is what a physician should truly do.

I thank Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su for giving me, Hua Tuo, the opportunity to introduce my medical career to everyone. The many folk legends and various fabrications do not affect my true heart for healing; however, the widespread reputation of being a divine physician has increased my responsibility and duty to counsel the world.

Therefore, I take this opportunity, through these words of counsel to the world, to allow everyone to gain a new realisation.

Gratitude to Namo Amituofo, gratitude to Practitioner Su.

Namo Amituofo

Hua Tuo