(Minghui.org) I never refer to any physical pain or discomfort I have felt as an illness or as illness karma. The following is how I treat physical pain. 

I started to cultivate Falun Dafa in April 1999. I understood that looking inward to eliminate attachments should be unconditional, which is how I guide myself in cultivation. We should look inward at all times to eliminate attachments, so as to reach the standards of the divine. Of course this is easy to say, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I managed to do this at all times. However, when I had any sort of extreme physical discomfort, I took it as persecution by the old forces. This is because Master Li Hongzhi told us: 

“True cultivators have no illnesses...” (“Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun,” Further Discussions on Falun Dafa)

If the physical discomfort wasn’t serious, I wouldn’t think much about it. But if it was serious, I’d see it as persecution by the old forces. Because the old forces never wanted us to become gods. They exhausted their means to persecute us, to control our thoughts, and prevent us from cultivating to higher realms. They seized our loopholes to mislead us. 

We cultivate in ordinary human society, which is a society of delusion. Who is attachment-free?! Before we reach consummation, we’ll always have some attachments. So I said to the old forces: “Even though I have attachments, you cannot persecute me. I’ll rectify myself in Fa study. I am a better being than you have been. We are all beings who were created by Dafa. We cultivate in the delusion of ordinary human society. We all know to assist Master in the Fa-rectification to save sentient beings. You have no delusion, yet you don’t assist Master in saving people, but target Master’s disciples to persecute them and prevent them from saving people. In this universe, you are the worst beings. The beings who deserve to be eliminated first are you – the old forces.” 

The following are a few examples of attempts by the old forces to persecute me physically. I’d like to share how I saw through them and how I eliminated them. 

The first example was when my body became stiff and stayed that way for a while. I saw the symptom as coming from the old forces. I was fine with walking, but when it came to going upstairs or downstairs, or bending over, I couldn’t handle any of that. I knew my physical condition didn’t comply with Master’s Fa. 

Master said: 

“... though you may not be allowed to levitate, you will find that your whole body feels light and as though you are walking on air. If walking even a short distance tired you out before, now you will be able to comfortably go however far you’d like. When riding a bike it will seem as if you are getting a push, and no amount of stair climbing will tire you. I can assure you of it. Those who can’t attend a class but learn the practice by reading this book will experience whatever benefits they are meant to, just the same.” (The Eighth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

This is the proper state for a practitioner, yet I wasn’t like that. My whole body was stiff, even every joint in my fingers. As a result, I couldn’t bend my fingers, otherwise it hurt. I then began to send forth righteous thoughts towards my body, negating the old forces’ arrangements completely, dismantling every evil spirit meddling with my body, and restoring my body to the stage where Master purified it initially. I continuously sent forth righteous thoughts for at least three hours. When my erected hand naturally dropped down, the evil spirit persecuting my body was cleansed. After it was eliminated, my body relaxed and was no longer stiff. The effect was immediate. 

Another time, the old forces used the symptoms of catching a cold to persecute me. I had a headache, felt chilly, and had a fever. I then vomited, had a runny nose, and a sore throat; I felt awful. So I began to eliminate the evil spirit meddling with my body. After I sent forth righteous thoughts for four hours, all my symptoms disappeared, except my head was a bit numb. I then let down my erected hand and thought I’d be fine after a little while. 

In a few days, I unexpectedly had a terrible relapse, which was even worse than before. I was in great discomfort. At about 4 p.m., I began to send forth righteous thoughts until past 10 p.m. I felt I had returned to normal. And when I turned my head, it no longer felt numb. All my symptoms had disappeared. Up until now, I have not had these symptoms again. 

The third example occurred when I started to write this experience sharing article. The old forces tried to stop me. After 8 p.m., when I sat at my computer and was ready to type, it suddenly felt as if something like a stick as thick as a teacup was causing great discomfort below my chest. The abdominal distension was unbearable. 

After a while, I began to have unbearable chest pain. This was coupled with nonstop vomiting, which made it more and more painful. I couldn’t stand it! I sat in bed to send forth righteous thoughts until 4:07 a.m., when my hand naturally went down, and I was fine. 

It is actually an easy task to break through the old forces’ persecution of our physical bodies. One has to first see through the delusion, which comes down to knowing it is just a lowly spirit. Secondly, the key is not to think much about it. It’s just a spirit, whereas we are Dafa practitioners. 

Our Master is the Master of Dafa. When we send forth righteous thoughts, we have Him empowering us. When we recite the Dafa formulas, we have guardian gods assisting us. We are omnipotent! What’s to fear about an evil spirit? It’s nothing. It can be eliminated quickly. Isn’t this very simple? But the prerequisite is to truly believe in Master and Dafa, which is the key.