(Minghui.org) Recently several local practitioners died months after they became “ill.” It created certain loss to the work we did to save people. To minimize the loss, as we have very limited time, I want to discuss the possibility of ending serious suffering from sickness before it even starts.
Let Go of Notions and Eliminate Fear
In our cultivation, we sometimes feel physically unwell. It is to pay back karmic debt, and at the same time improve our xinxing. However, if we still have doubts and become worried, the old forces will exploit our gap and use it as an excuse to “help practitioners eliminate the attachment to fear.” They were then able to further “test” the practitioner with sickness karma. If the practitioner got even more worried or scared, the manifestation of the sickness would seem more real and serious. At the point it would be even harder for the practitioner to eliminate the fear, and not walk on the path arranged by the old forces. In my opinion this is the main reason why many practitioners did not pass the old forces’ test – sickness karma.
Ordinary people consider physical discomfort a bad thing and it is the right thing to pursue comfort. As a result they were unable to pay their karmic debt and have to keep paying by reincarnating in the Triple World. As practitioners, we should have long transcended the Triple World and let go of our human notions. How do we let go of human notions? Based on my understanding of the Fa, when we became true practitioners, Master had already eliminated an enormous amount of karma we had. He left us with a little bit of karma so that we could transform it into virtue and increase our cultivation levels when we correctly faced or face conflicts or physical discomfort. In the process, we eliminate our notions and improve our xinxing. Then, we can better save people and eventually reach consummation.
Those local practitioners who suffered “sickness,” some visited hospitals repeatedly, and others chose to stay home and take medicine. When I talked to one of them, I asked, “It’s a great opportunity to improve your xinxing when you feel sick. Since it’s a good thing, why are you scared?” “I’m not,” she replied. I suggested, “If you were not scared, then you should face it candidly with a smile.” She then said, “I can’t possibly smile when I’m like this." Still her notion had not changed and there was still fear.
Last spring I took my 9-month-old grandson and his baby walker to the rooftop to play. I carried them downstairs later. My back started to hurt terribly and I was unable to sit or stand. Nonetheless I clearly knew that I wasn’t sick and that it was a good opportunity for me to improve my xinxing level. As Fa-rectification is approaching the end, such opportunities become rare and I have to cherish them. When I thought this way, I had already considered the back pain a good thing and who would be scared of a good thing? Since I had no fear, the old forces naturally lost the excuse to force sickness on me. A week later the back pain was gone.
Eliminate Attachments
I contacted a practitioner who was suffering sickness karma recently. Everyday this practitioner studied two to three chapters of Zhuan Falun and exercised for two-and-a-half hours. She would send righteous thoughts for an hour each time and did well with clarifying the truth. However, I said to her, “You are not really diligent in doing the three things. You didn’t cultivate your xinxing in the process of doing them. You treat them like routines. It’s like the cultivators in the mountains, who couldn’t grasp the essence of cultivation. Their gong grew very slowly despite their hard work. The old forces take individual cultivation very seriously and no matter what you do, as long as they found a gap in your xinxing, they would interfere.”
Although she realized it and gradually corrected her notions, it was still cultivating passively and negating persecution from within persecution. She still walked the path arranged by the old forces.
At one point I realized that for each attachment I found, there was a human notion linked to it. If we can’t remove the notion, the attachment stays. When we study the Fa, we are breaking the notion, and the attachment. As I memorized the Fa more and more, not only was I able to break through my notions based on the Fa principles in my mind, I became very sensitive to whether my heart was moved by things that happened around me. It became easier for me to catch very subtle thoughts, and hence maintain my xinxing.
One night I felt really cold and the next day I had a bad fever. I felt terrible physically, but I wasn’t scared. I was confident knowing that it was all for my cultivation. The confidence came from my understanding of the Fa and solid cultivation over the years when I constantly looked within and eliminated my notions. I knew the fever was just another cause for me to look within and an opportunity to improve myself. I cultivated my xinxing so the old forces could not find an excuse to persecute me. My active cultivation of xinxing ended the old forces’ persecution fundamentally. Without their interference, the fever I had was simply for me to pay my karmic debt and improve my level. I was able to stay calm and clearheaded, although I felt terrible physically. The fever went away two days later.
Leading Role on the Stage of History
We shouldn’t only cultivate our xinxing after we suffer the old forces’ persecution. We should do so constantly for the purpose of doing better in saving people and not just preventing persecution. When things we do have to do with saving people, we are the playing the lead roles on the stage of history.
Master has told us the origin of the old forces in “Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference” and unveiled the truth regarding sickness karma. In this historic period it is time for the old forces to step back. I hope every practitioner can seize the limited time and do what we came here for.
Category: Improving Oneself