(Minghui.org) Many practitioners have gotten out of the evil den, one after another, in the last couple of years. However, many of them were in a poor cultivation state, which then manifested into huge family tribulations or sickness karma. Some of them died of sickness karma after surviving the evil den. I have personally met quite a few practitioners in this kind of situation and understand their pain. To help fellow practitioners break out of their tribulations, I'd like to share what I observed and understand, and I hope to serve as a reference to fellow practitioners. Please kindly point out anything improper.
I was detained for several years. After getting out, I asked about a fellow practitioner who had broken out of the evil den. My spouse told me he died of sickness karma. My spouse went to bid farewell to his body at the funeral and was shocked to see tears in his eyes, tears of blood.
An elderly practitioner was in a similar situation, in that he was also pulled away by the old forces using sickness karma. When he could not stand the pain and let his son take him to the hospital, his son found a black mark in the shape and size of a hand on his back.
Some practitioners entered a “family prison” as soon as they got out of the evil den. That is, they were watched closely by their family members and weren't allowed to practice, talk to practitioners, study the Fa, or read Dafa materials. As soon as they were discovered reading, the books or materials would be torn apart. These practitioners were persecuted by their family members worse than by the evil guards. I had a hard time understanding how one could walk out of an evil den, but could make it through the social environment, which should be much easier to overcome.
A few days ago, I heard of a fellow practitioner who had gotten out of the evil den over a year ago and had developed some serious sickness karma. Many practitioners visited him and sent forth righteous thoughts for him, and so did I. I wanted to talk with him and find out what his problem was and help him break out of the tribulation as soon as possible. I knew his cultivation state had been poor for six months. When he got out of the evil den, he looked like a noble Dafa disciple with rosy cheeks. But now he is all skin and bones, in addition to problems in the back and legs, which kept him from standing for very long. When sending forth righteous thoughts, his hand couldn't stop shaking, and his face was covered with sweat. Seeing his bad state, practitioners told him to study the Fa more and send forth righteous thoughts more. He followed the advise, but the situation did not improve. Practitioners told him to look inside, he admitted he did not do the three things well in that he did not go out to clarify the facts and save people. However, the more that sending forth righteous thoughts was done for him to disintegrate the old forces' persecution, the more physically uncomfortable he appeared.
After talking with him for a while, I shared my own experiences and told him not to be attached to family, and not to feel guilty towards his family for the tribulations he had suffered as a practitioner. At this time, his wife suddenly jumped up and yelled at him.
I was not too surprised by his wife's attitude, because I heard she had given him dozens of rules to live by, otherwise she would kick him and his mother out of the house. What shocked me was the practitioner's eyes, which were full of fear and helplessness. My heart ached. I knew he would never have shown fear in his eyes like this when facing the evil in the evil den; otherwise he would never have made it through the tribulation of 10 years of imprisonment. Is his wife more frightening than the evil? Soon after, his wife drove us out of his home.
I have come to understand the reason for his tribulation. I knew that Master used this occasion to give me a hint about what his attachment was - he couldn't let go of sentimentality. He had been persecuted by the evil party for 10 years, his family had suffered 10 years, and he felt guilty towards his wife and family. Therefore, even though he knew his wife was wrong, he could not get out of it because he was trapped in sentimentality.
The practitioners who were subjected to family tribulations were almost all in this mentality of guilt. They helplessly tolerated their families who were controlled by demons to swear at Dafa disciples, Master and Dafa, and to tear up Dafa books as well as truth-clarification materials. They are controlled by sentimentality and cannot see through it to the real reason behind their tribulations. They failed to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference, and help their families look at things rationally, with righteous thoughts. They dared not to clarify the facts to their family, fearing that they will be annoyed. Therefore the old forces were able to do the bad things they wanted to do.
This was exactly the case for the practitioner who left with tears of blood. After he got out of the evil den, he went into making it up to his family. His wife is a practitioner, but he couldn't let go of sentimentality and failed to advance diligently in his cultivation practice. At last the old forces pulled him away using the attachment he could not let go of.
Master said in Zhuan Falun,
“Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble. Of course, it is not easy to abandon this sentimentality right away. Cultivation practice is a long process and a process of gradually giving up one’s attachments. Nonetheless, you must be strict with yourself.” (“Lecture Four”)
I have come to understand that, to reach consummation, one must let go of the attachment to fame, gain and sentimentality. The goal of cultivation practice is to transcend sentimentality and look at things with the principles of the Fa. The three realms were created for the Fa-rectification. Lifetime after lifetime's reincarnation was a play, waiting to obtain the Fa, practice cultivation, return to one's true self, and save sentient beings at the same time.
The people that have become the family of Dafa disciples during this lifetime supposedly have great predestined relationships with Dafa and Dafa disciples, which means they have a better chance of obtaining the Fa and practicing cultivation, or understanding the truth and be saved. But whether they can be saved or not depends on their attitude towards Dafa and Dafa disciples. If we can conduct ourselves according to our understanding of the Fa principles, and treat our family with rationality and wisdom, then as our understandings of the Fa improves, and we understand what is really beneficial to our family, Master will help us remove the tribulations. Master had warned us in the beginning of cultivation practice,
“Those who are attached to affection for family will definitely be burned, entangled, and tormented by it. Pulled by the threads of affection and plagued by them throughout their lives, they will find it too late to regret at the end of their lives.” (“Cultivators’ Avoidances” in Essentials for Further Advancement)
During the several years of detention in the evil den, I had been memorizing Lun Yurepeatedly every day. As soon as I had no activities, Lun Yu would reflect in my mind automatically. For a period of time, my mind was constantly reflecting the sentence: “… change its conventional thinking.” I carefully looked for my conventional thinking and removed them as soon as I found them. In other words, following Master's article “The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be,” I found what my conventional thinking was and how they were formed, and I truly learned how to understand the Fa from the Fa, looked inside, and found my attachments and human thoughts. From then on, I was able to pass tests quickly and was rarely trapped in tribulation for long. I hope fellow practitioners in tribulations can all learn to look inside following the Fa, and remove the attachments and human thoughts found in ourselves.
Practitioners that have gotten out of the evil den, we've got to change our conventional thinking and understand from the Fa what is truly beneficial to our families. Do not stay trapped in the cage of sentimentality, and let go of the attachment to it. What has passed has passed. What's important is to correctly face today and tomorrow. We must cultivate in the Fa and let go of the guilty mentality towards our family. We must be sober-minded that: this mentality was imposed by the old forces to break our will. We must use righteous thoughts to negate the mentality and related confusions, and we must rationally use righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil forces that control our family to persecute us and stop us from doing the three things well.
Also, we must believe the effects of our righteous thoughts. Master told us in “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”,
“I’ll tell you, for years I have been continually saying that Dafa disciples’ abilities are tremendous, yet many people don’t believe this since those abilities were not allowed to be seen. Under the effect of righteous thoughts, everything around you, as well as you yourself, will undergo changes. Yet you have never thought to give it a try.”
Master has also told us in the same lecture,
“When bad people in this world appear to be evil, and might act so ferocious, that’s because there are evil entities behind them propping them up. Eliminate those evil entities and that person wouldn’t be able to muster that ferocity anymore.”
My fellow practitioners, let's all give it a try. Of course we must look inside first and remove the attachment to struggle and resentment. When we can truly be compassionate to our family and regard them as one of the numerous sentient beings we need to save, our righteous thoughts will become very powerful.
With the compassion and righteousness we have cultivated in Dafa, we surely can completely disintegrate the various kinds of traps the evil has set up for us, break out of the tribulations, keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification, and create an environment in which we can openly and nobly validate the Fa and save sentient beings.
This concludes my understandings. Please kindly point out anything improper.
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