TELLING HALF-TRUTHS

On Friday night, I had a call from my cousin brother, Simon, who resides in Singapore.  He told me that he had just been discharged from hospital recently.  It seemed that he suffered from brain abscess (fungus in the brain) and was hospitalised for 3 weeks.  Now this is quite a dangerous condition and if left untreated could lead to meningitis which could be life threatening. Though he was out of hospital, he was not feeling completely well and suspects that  it might be due to disturbance from evil spirits.  He requested that I go and seek out my sifu to confirm his suspicions.  My cousin told me not to tell his mom as she might be worried sick.
Actually at that time, his mom, my Aunt Linda was sitting right next to me as we were having dinner at a coffee shop.  To tell Aunt Linda that her son was seriously ill and had not completely recovered would have made her blood pressure shoot right up the ceiling but to not tell her would also not be right.  So I chose to tell a half truth.  I told my cousin that I had to inform his mom that he wasn't feeling well but then I would only say that he had a headache and a viral infection.
I went and consulted my sifu the following day and he confirmed Simon's suspicions.  According to my sifu, Simon who was born in the year of the Rooster was experiencing a period where his life force was very weak and would be easily disturbed by evil spirits.  These evil spirits may very well suck the life force out of him and so his situation was indeed dangerous.  On the advice of the sifu, my Aunt Linda paid some money to the temple to light an oil lamp called "Wah Toh Lamp" for Simon. For your information, Wah Toh is the deity of medicine and lighting a lamp near His altar for a person would be a call for medical aid from Him.  We were also told to perform some rituals to request that the evil spirits to not bother Simon.  At the same time, I called Simon's wife to instruct her to carry out a space clearing ritual in their home.  The sifu also gave some paper charms for me to send to them to carry out the space clearing.
On Sunday afternoon, I brought my mum and Aunt Linda to the Buddhist temple.  My mum lit a lotus candle and prayed for good health for herself while Aunt Linda lit one on behalf of her son.
Well!  Sometimes it is advisable not to tell the whole truth as it might make my Aunt very worried and this might affect her health.  So, I hope God would forgive me for telling a half truth.  Actually, I didn't want to say white lies and so I chose to use the term half truth.  Ke! Ke! Ke!