Mr. Altig’s Overview of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra

A Blues-Folk Testimonial for Anyone Who Ever Got Told They Were Already Lost

This isn’t a hymn for saints — it’s a rallying cry for the bruised. Change Poison into Medicine walks the razor’s edge between despair and awakening, hammering the old karma-chains with a raw acoustic spark and a harmonica that won’t stop crying until it can finally soar.

The narrator questions the old fear-based religion that promised endless punishment — then flips the script. The Lotus Sūtra drops like a thunderbolt — revealing a “Mystic Law” already raging in his bones. No waiting for heaven. No cosmic warden counting sins.

Just the courage to take the worst you’ve lived…
and alchemize it into strength.

Firelight vocals. Scratched-up guitar. Stomping kick and tambourine driving the chorus like a second chance pounding at the door.

A blues of rebirth.
A sermon for the skeptics.
A reminder that the medicine and the poison are often the same—
depending on who you decide to be now.

Lyrics:
(Verse 1 – The Heavy Chain)
Woke up this mornin’, sun wouldn’t shine on me
Felt the chains of my past, far as my eye could see
The old preachers told me the debt was way too deep
Said I’d pay for a million years, even in my sleep.
They said, “Son, gettin’ clean is a long, hard road.”
Felt my soul gettin’ heavy, carryin’ that load.
I was shackled by a story that I couldn’t change
Just a ghost in my own life, lost on a lonely range.

(Chorus – The Good Medicine)
But the Lotus Sūtra came like a hammer on the stone
Gave me one true sound to call my own
Said the power of the Law was right here in my soul
It’s the great physician’s cure, Lord, to make a man whole.
Yes, it’s true, my friend, I finally understood
Gotta change the poison into medicine, and turn the bad to good.

(Verse 2 – The Vanishing Dew)
My debts were piled as high as a mountain in the sky
Thought I’d be carryin’ that burden ’til the day I die
But the Sūtra said my faith was a deeper root
And this one true practice set my soul loose.
That old, bad karma didn’t need to be pulled out piece by piece
It vanished like the frost or dew when the sun brings release.
Yeah, it wiped the whole slate clean in the twinkling of an eye
Gave me the nerve to face the things I was too scared to try.

(Chorus – The Good Medicine)
But the Lotus Sūtra came like a hammer on the stone
Gave me one true sound to call my own
Said the power of the Law was right here in my soul
It’s the great physician’s cure, Lord, to make a man whole.
Yes, it’s true, my friend, I finally understood
Gotta change the poison into medicine, and turn the bad to good.

(Bridge – The Vow)
I ain’t no prisoner just payin’ for my sin
This very hardship is where my real work begins
I chose to be here, to take on this pain
Like the soul who made a promise, walkin’ through the rain.
My suffering ain’t a sentence, it’s a promise that I made
Right here in this muddy world, my foundation is laid.

(Outro – Right Here, Right Now)
I’m gettin’ my reward right here, in this present life
No longer bound by that old, endless strife
Oh, the Mystic Law, it’s a burnin’ light
Turnin’ all my darkness into something bright.

Oh, that medicine… (Poison into medicine)
That sweet, sweet medicine… (Poison into medicine)
I’m changin’ it now…
Right here…
Right now.