Our last mission before the winter.
Our group completed the construction project for the town’s new medicine factory a week ahead of schedule. Not only the builder in our group but also the Iron builder, farmers and doctors’ contribution and their donation have counted for completing the facility. I am delighted that our community will be able to produce medicines more productively and handle them efficiently for the people.
But that was not the end of it. Ghazal, a fellow doctor came to my cave and woke me up with a bad news. He told me that the medicine factory is haunted. I quickly got ready and went down to village with Ghazal. There were already many other people from my group. The only ritualist in our group, Heather told us that she could feel some negative qi (energy) around the factory. The negative qi is most likely caused by the bad karma. It could also be possible that our group upset some spirit or local deity in the process of making the factory. The negative qi has brought some unexplainable event in the factory. For example, the wild herbs like burdock or chamomile once completely dried up in just a day.
Our group had to start manufacturing pills and medicines for the community. Another harsh winter was approaching fast and many villagers got the cold during the change of seasons. The construction delayed the producing medicine and I felt obligated to complete my project. All of my group members felt the same way. We all agreed to practice rituals to neutralize the negative qi and pray to the upset spirit. The ritualist prepared the incense to burn and the rest of us chanted mantras.
While other members in my group practice rituals for local deity and chant mantras, Jaclyn and I went to collect some wild herbs. We need a distribution of labour in order to get the production going and supply the community. We mainly collected the more of multi-purpose herbs like nettles, dandelion, calendula, burdock and chamomile. Even though we had to climb up in the high altitudes, we also collected some Hippophae, which will cure the influenza and improve the immune system. I also managed to ask some of the people who go on the expedition to collect Rhodiola when they travel around the rocky slopes. The Rhodiola, this reddish flower could be used in almost all medicine because it is rich in nutrition and it has no toxicity or side effects.
There are five doctors in our group including myself. Jaclyn is in charge of indoor farming with other farmers. Since we are mainly planting for medicinal use, we have set up our guidelines to follow during the processing of these herbs. She came with me to collect bitter herbs and possibly some red ginseng. Back in my home country, I used to hear this saying, “the bitter the herbs, the better it works”. In its defense, it is true most of the effective and crucial herbs and plants are very bitter. For that reason, Jaclyn and other farmers are trying to grow them in the factory instead of collecting from the wild field. Moreover, Miriam who is an expert in herbs and medicine is trying to grow red ginseng in the factory as well. Most of the herbs on our list are the first aid necessary medicinal plants. Once we settled our initial system in production, the factory can produce medicines in great quantity and in many other forms like pills or powder. I am hoping that once we reach that point, we could export the medicine or share with other villages.
During the search of wild herbs around the mountain, I was worrying too much about the haunted factory. I accidently picked up some poisonous herbs along with the bitter herbs. Most of the herbs pretty much look the same. There are only small differences to distinct between the poisonous and medicinal herbs. Still not aware of the poisonous herb, I gave that poisonous herb to Nicole Young, one of our villagers who were suffering from a severe cold. Nicole was a trader so she had to commute from a home to work in two villages even in cold weather. I felt bad about her situation and was too quick to offer her some herbs as I had just returned from collecting wild herbs. When Nicole felt something was wrong that night, she called one of our group doctors and later other doctors showed up. Fortunate for everyone, the doctors took her to a nunnery hospital on time and gave her some Rhodiola extract in order to neutralize the poison. Thankfully the poison was only mild and Nicole quickly got better. There are deadly poisonous herbs out in the mountain and it was fortunate that I didn’t accidently pick them this time. If I did, the result would have been irreparable.
After all, I was burnt out physically and mentally. All the members in our group were trying to cheer me up by saying that it was all for good intension to help others and it was an accident to pick up the poisonous herb. All of sudden, it got me thinking that if our action with good intension caused a negative result, does it bring us good or bad karma?
I sat down with my group members and discussed this issue. I thought that solving this issue would help us understand the current situation of hunted factory and poisonous herb accident. All of this events happened under our good intension of helping others. I believe that our group project upset the local nature deity by building a factory. Even though our intension was good to help people, we could have destroyed an eco system or disturbed some natural spirit from the construction, all to disrupt karma. We could have even killed some animals or insects while building the factory without even realizing. We were and are ignorant and this ignorance will always causes suffering. This project may have upset the local deity and haunt our factory with an evil spirit.
After much discussion, I went to see how Nicole was doing. She was almost fully recovered from not only the poison but also from the bad cold. She said she was feeling more energetic than ever after taking the red ginseng tea I made for her. Seeing her made me felt better too. I decided to believe that if I do something on a good intension and try to acknowledge my ignorance, my action would bring me good karma. I have always been seeing happy endings to struggles like the recent hailstorm and naga illness.
I suggested Nicole to take more rest even though she said she was feeling energetic for the tea. Then I went outside to see my group. They were standing around the factory. When I walked up to them, they carefully told me that the evil spirit might have left. I asked what happened to the factory. The ritualist in our group told me that she changed the scent in the factory after last discussion. She didn’t feel the negative qi that was surrounding the factory. She also checked the herbs in the factory and they didn’t dried up or got affected by the evil spirit. All the members in our group were still cautious however we are certain that our good intension have brought a good karmic effect to the factory in the end.
