PureInsight | July 11, 2010
[PureInsight.org] Recently my wife was persecuted in the form of sickness karma. Because it came on so suddenly, I noticed her righteous thoughts were not strong. She felt helpless. I encouraged her to eliminate the karma with righteous thoughts and righteous actions. I reminded her that we had already gone through the massive tribulation and this tribulation was nothing. I sent righteous thoughts with her, but her righteous thoughts were still not present.
We went to another practitioner. That practitioner encouraged my wife as well. We watched the DVD of Shen Yun Performing Arts and my wife felt better. However, she relapsed the next day. I invited several practitioners to study the Fa and send righteous thoughts with her. We helped her to look within. She got better at that time but relapsed in the evening. In order to not give the evil a breathing spell, the coordinator arranged fellow practitioners to take shifts to send righteous thoughts for my wife. My wife studied the Fa as well as looked within. The tribulation lasted one month. During that month, my wife couldn’t lie down to sleep and she ate very little. She couldn’t keep up with the normal Fa study or exercises. It was obvious that she had reached the limit of her endurance and ability to bear hardships, so she painfully decided to go see a doctor.
While we exchanged our understandings, we enlightened that it’s absolutely not wrong to help fellow practitioners to look within; however we couldn’t regard it as the only way to help fellow practitioners. Even if fellow practitioners had loopholes in cultivation, that couldn’t be an excuse for the old forces to persecute practitioners. We should oppose everything arranged by the old forces first, and then look for the loophole that they have exploited. Meanwhile, the group should send strong righteous thoughts: completely oppose any persecution against fellow practitioners that was arranged by the old forces. Those fellow practitioners who have loopholes in cultivation will rectify it by themselves. We mustn’t allow the old forces to persecute our fellow practitioners.
When I saw practitioners change their old way of thinking—to oppose the persecution first rather than try to find that practitioner’s loopholes—I felt grateful and gratified. My wife was getting better and better with fellow practitioners’ righteous thoughts and support. Now she could routinely study the Fa, do the exercises, and send righteous thoughts. Thank you Master for your compassionate care and reinforcement! Thank you fellow practitioners for your compassion and help!
I also improved a lot from this experience. Moreover, based on my current level, I now have a clear understanding about how to help fellow practitioners who are persecuted by sickness karma. I would like to share this with fellow practitioners.
1. Help that practitioner to improve based on the Fa and to establish righteous thoughts.
Nothing is by accident in cultivation. Whether a practitioner is persecuted by sickness karma or in some other way, there are internal factors and external factors that cause it to happen. The internal factors might be more important. When we help fellow practitioners pass the test, we should regard the ways that could help them to change the internal factors as the first priority. For example, help them to study the Fa more; help them to be clear on the Fa principles; understand the persecution based on the Fa; do not confine the tribulation merely to the surface cause; draw a clear distinction between normal karma elimination and the persecution to our human body by evil factors; know what we should endure and what we shouldn’t endure and disintegrate what we shouldn’t endure with righteous thoughts. When the fellow practitioner is very clear about what they should do, when they establish strong righteous thoughts, they have the ability to pass the tribulation. Not to mention Master’s compassion and reinforcement and the help from other righteous guardian Gods.
2. The relationship between negating interference and looking within.
It is a requirement for a practitioner to always look within and find their loopholes when going through a tribulation. This is one of the keys to disintegrate the evil persecution and pass the tribulation. Master has already taught us the principles many times in the lectures:
“Calmly reflect on how many attachments you have
As you get rid of human mentality, evil is naturally defeated”
(Hong Yin Vol. II, “Don’t Be Sad”)
However, when other practitioners help a practitioner who is persecuted, I think they should first negate the persecution, and then help the practitioner to find their loopholes. This is because the biggest excuse that the old forces use to persecute Dafa disciples is that we have loopholes. Therefore if we also say to the practitioner: “The old forces persecute you because you have loopholes. Thus you need to find the loopholes first,” is this thinking no different from old forces’ thinking? Isn’t this strengthening the old forces’ excuse? Isn’t this acknowledging the persecution? At this moment we should send strong righteous thoughts against the evil factors: “My fellow practitioner is cultivating, it is normal that they will have shortcomings; they will rectify that by themselves [based on the Fa]. Master takes care of us and we don’t allow you to persecute our fellow practitioner by any means or using any excuses; whoever is involved in it will be disintegrated completely.” When we send such righteous thoughts, would the evil dare to persecute us? Of course, each practitioner who hears or knows about this principle still needs to look within themselves, and meanwhile find the loopholes in the group. This is because the persecution against any single practitioner is actually against the whole group. Thus, don’t regard yourself as an outsider or think that you are just helping others.
3. Step out of the long-standing mistaken thinking.
When we help a practitioner to find their loopholes, three possible factors might contribute to their mistaken thinking: (I) Practitioners say Master has taught us to look within to find loopholes; (II) We indeed have loopholes in cultivation; (III) Evil factors persecute a practitioner because they also see that practitioner’s loopholes. In my opinion, Master requires us to find loopholes in cultivation and we must do that. During the course of cultivation, we definitely have human notions and attachments, and we must look within and discard them. This is required when we cultivate to reach consummation. But we mustn’t acknowledge that the old forces use it as a so-called excuse to persecute us. We must completely negate it. It is right that we listen to Master to find our loopholes and we rectify our words and actions. But we can’t listen to the old forces and evil factors; neither can we allow ourselves to be ordered around by them, because we are the disciples of the Lord of Buddhas. They are not worthy. Our thoughts, understandings, and notions must not get mixed up with that of the old forces. We must be clear about this. Otherwise our thoughts will fall into the mistaken areas and fall into the same way as the old forces think. The old forces then might take advantage of this to persecute you. In fact, when one’s thoughts fall into the mistaken area, that’s because they haven’t studied enough Fa, or they are absent-minded when studying the Fa. As a result, they are not clear on the Fa principles and they don’t know how to handle it. That’s the key. Master has explained very clearly about completely nullifying the arrangements of the old forces in the lecture, “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference.” If we understand the principle clearly, would we still handle the issue incorrectly? Would we still fall into the mistaken thinking? So studying the Fa well is the most important and is the key.
This is just my personal understanding. Please kindly point out if my understanding is not in line with the Fa.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2010/5/10/66044.html
