(Minghui.org) A few practitioners recently passed away in our area due to sickness karma. This has affected our resolve and weakened our truth-clarification efforts. There was also concern that everyday people had become suspicious about the healing effects of Dafa they heard about from practitioners. I've also seen articles on the Minghui website that describe similar cases in other areas; therefore, I would like to share some of my understandings on the issue.
Practitioner A started practicing Falun Dafa early on and became very diligent. She made great contributions to the promotion of Dafa before the persecution began on July 20, 1999. Afterward, she was illegally arrested and detained on two occasions. Even though there were periods when she was less diligent, she never gave up cultivation. However, she passed away very quickly due to sickness karma.
Practitioner B came to cultivate Dafa with a mentality of curing illnesses. She soon became very diligent in cultivation and actively distributed truth-clarification materials. When she talked about her experiences, we could see that she was trying very hard to let go of her attachment to illness. She still passed away in the end.
Later, our local group met to discuss what had happened and came to a common understanding: The Fa-rectification has progressed to the final stage and those who still hold strongly to everyday people's mentalities, without looking within and cultivating their hearts, cannot truly change. Practitioner A was very diligent on the surface: she studied at least one lecture a day, did the exercises and actively distributed truth-clarification materials. At the Fa-study site, she would sit in the double-lotus position, sometimes for two to three hours. But it appeared that she did not treat the issue of lust and desire seriously and was unable to quickly improve her xinxing.
Examining the Issue From A Personal Perspective
One night, I had a dream. Because I was running a shop, some people from the 610 Office came by and I asked them, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” They said they were there to search for fake products and started carrying my merchandise away. I shouted, “All my products are genuine. Nothing is fake. I will call the police if you don't stop.”
When I woke up, I saw shining characters in front of my eyes that read – “genuine cultivation!” I realized what happened in my dream was to test whether I was genuinely cultivating or not. I felt pretty happy at the time, thinking I could endure tests, even in my dreams. But then I also developed a fear: Could it be that Master was dropping a hint that the evil would persecute me? I sent forth a strong righteous thought: “I only accept arrangements by Master and won't accept or acknowledge any other arrangement.” Later, I realized that this should be my true focus and all other thoughts were wrong. First of all, how could I happily accept tests by the old forces? Wasn't it acknowledging their arrangements? Secondly, my thought about Master dropping me a hint was also wrong. Master told us to completely deny all arrangements (the persecution) by the old forces.
Later, I also realized that the reason for the serious situation in our local area must be that we, as one body, have acknowledged the persecution imposed upon our fellow practitioners by the old forces. Looking back, we all thought that the reason for these practitioners' deaths must have been that they were not diligent enough, or they were unable to let go of their attachments. Then, on what basis did we form such views? We all know that we must completely deny the arrangements of the old forces, but unwittingly, we had already accepted them because we acknowledged the evil tests to begin with. However, the cosmos is going through Fa-rectification, so any principle of the old universe can only act as an obstruction. Of course we still have many attachments to let go of, but the Fa is boundless, and Master can employ other means for us to cultivate our hearts.
By holding onto wrong notions, we have also forgotten that we are Master's disciples. Any other arrangement can only serve to destroy us, regardless of who they are, or how high their level might be, because “cultivation depends on oneself, gong depends on the Master.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Eight)
We are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples and we are carrying out our mission to validate the Fa and to help save sentient beings. Master does not acknowledge the old forces, and neither will they be acknowledged by the future cosmos. We should remember what Master said in the poem “Troubles” from Hong Yin III:
“Neither heaven nor earth can block my road of Fa-rectification
But disciples' human hearts can”
Looking within ourselves when encountering problems is a requirement of Dafa cultivation. However, we should base our looking within on completely eliminating all interference and persecution from the old forces, and not target their so-called tests. Some practitioners used to comment about a practitioner facing a tribulation by saying, “How can he get better if he cannot let go of his attachment to illness karma?” or “How can he pull through with such weak righteous thoughts.” What sort of mentality is this? How can our fellow practitioners pull through if others create obstructions with such notions? Aren't we then also acknowledging the persecution by the old forces?
Although we often talk about eliminating the persecution with righteous thoughts, we must actively change our deeply-rooted degenerate notions. And only by letting go of such notions, as one body, can we break away from the various kinds of persecution wrongly imposed upon us.
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper.
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