PureInsight | June 17, 2018
[PureInsight.org] Recently, I have been enduring sickness karma and have read a lot about how other practitioners have overcome sickness karma on the Minghui website. I would like to share my experience.
Practitioners do not have Sickness Karma unless they want it.
We always say that sickness karma is false. However, it does not feel false. Ordinary people believe that it is real and true. But Falun Dafa practitioners believe that it is false because the real reason behind it is not illness, but instead the old forces. Even with practitioners who obtained the Fa after July 20, 1999, if they get sickness karma, it is false sickness karma caused by the old forces.
As long as we are true practitioners, Master eliminates almost all of our karma and leaves very little for us and uses it to improve our Xinxing. We should be able to pass tests and overcome tribulations as long as we improve our Xinxing. As we all know, we will never be able to repay Master for everything He has done for us. Master said in “Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)” from Essentials for Further Advancement II, “I know all of the suffering of my disciples. The truth is, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves!”
Master has told us about the three sources of illness: the most prominent example is the karmic field; another is a very microscopic being in high density that is like a cluster of karma; and lastly, the karma accumulated from one’s ancestors. I understand that Master eliminates all of this karma from us and leaves just enough behind to provide tribulations for our cultivation. Master said in Zhuan Falun, “All of the bad things on your mind, the karmic field surrounding your body, and the elements that make your body unhealthy will be cleaned out.” Therefore, any prolonged sickness karma must be persecution caused by the old forces. Although the old forces can generate the illusion of sickness karma, it does not have any roots. As long as we have strong righteous thoughts, it can be eliminated instantly.
Why do some practitioners pass away if sickness karma is false? Master said in Zhuan Falun, "As a practitioner, if you always think that it is an illness, you are actually asking for it. If you ask for an illness, it will come inside your body.” Master also talked about the story of the blindfolded man who thought that his veins had been cut and that he was bleeding profusely - when it was instead running water from a tap; but the man thought that it was his blood. His mental fear caused his death. If you treat sickness symptoms as real, the old forces will make you suffer as much as they can. If you believe that it is true, you will fall to the ordinary people’s level. The old forces may then indeed kill you because you believe that it is an incurable illness.
The stronger the Righteous Thoughts, the more effective.
In the face of interference from sickness karma, we can send forth righteous thoughts and look inward. Master said in there are two gestures in sending (Also in a Few Words) from Essentials for Further Advancement II, “Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos’s Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples’ rock-solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings’ thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that’s how great the power is.”
Righteous Thoughts: the vertical hand position and lotus hand position. My personal understanding is that the vertical hand position is to eliminate low level evil using our cultivated side. The lotus hand position is to get help from Master to eliminate higher level evil. My understanding is that we can eliminate all evil by sending forth righteous thoughts no matter whether it is beyond our ability or not.
Master said in Touring North America to Teach the Fa, "By July 20th of 1999 I had already pushed all of the pre-July 20 students to their positions - I pushed you to your highest positions.” My understanding is that Master told us that our changes start from the most microscopic part of our being. When we improve, the improved part is separated from us instantly. It means that our most microscopic and highest parts are already beyond the Three Realms. Therefore, when we send forth righteous thoughts, we should think of ourselves as Gods who dominate the world. It is true even when we cannot feel anything. In addition, it is also very important when sending forth righteous thoughts to totally eliminate any previous agreements made with the old forces in the past. We only accept Our Master’s arrangements and no one else’s.
In Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles, Master said, “If your mind is unsteady, that means you are not meeting the standard to begin with, and prolonging the process won't lead to any changes. And if someone holds out for the purpose of saving face, that is adding attachments on top of attachments. In such cases there are only two choices: You either go to the hospital, thus give up on trying to overcome the test; or you completely let go of everything, behave like an upstanding and noble Dafa disciple who has no resentment or attachments, and leave it to Master to arrange whether you stay or go. When you are able to do that, you are a god.”
Many sharing’s in mainland China talk about the importance of helping other practitioners. We should look for help from other practitioners if we are unable to endure our sickness karma. We should look inward and expose our own dark side which would be helpful in eliminating the evil. It is very helpful for a practitioner who is in the midst of a sickness karma tribulation to receive face-to-face encouragement and righteous thoughts from other practitioners.
A magical tool - looking inward
The first five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts is to clean up our bad thoughts, karma, bad ideas and external interference. We are cultivating layer by layer. All cultivated parts are immediately separated from us. Thus, to the uncultivated side of the human body here in the human world, it always seems as if there is very little improvement.
In addition to the usual attachments of selfishness, fame, arrogance, jealousy, lust, joy, showing off, greed, a sense of inferiority, vanity etc., there is also thought karma, such as involuntary delusions, disrespecting Master and the Fa, not trusting Master and the Fa, and all kinds of different bad ideas.
A lot of outside interference might come from family members. They try to painstakingly persuade us to go to the hospital, or scold us for being selfish and disregarding their feelings. In fact, some cultivator’s family members have been used by the old forces to try and pull the cultivator down.
Sometimes it is hard to eliminate demonic interference. It can also be a test of our faith. If we can be firmly resolute and continue to cultivate, Master will help. “If you are determined, the karma can be eliminated” (Zhuan Falun).
Our cultivation directly targets the mind. When we find an attachment, we can eliminate it by sending forth righteous thoughts. If for example when looking inwards, we find jealousy, we don’t have to wait for it to surface but can instead eliminate it when sending forth righteous thoughts. In some sharing’s on Minghui, some practitioners could recover very quickly from sickness karma right after eliminating their attachments; some practitioners had no change even after many attachments were eliminated. Although there was no change, they would try their best to eliminate as many attachments as possible.
Believing in Master and the Fa and eliminating the attachment of fear
If we don’t feel better after a while of looking inward and sending forth righteous thoughts, we can sometimes become doubtful and possibly a little scared. It can also mean that we have not met the standard. The old forces wouldn’t stop persecuting a practitioner just because they were scared. Instead they would exploit their fear and do as much harm as possible.
Master said in Zhuan Falun, “If you are a true cultivator, our Falun will safeguard you. I am rooted in the universe. If anyone could harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe.” We have read these words often. It is critical for us to firmly understand and believe them.
Firmly believing in Master and the Fa is the only way for us to pass the test. “Fear can cause one to make mistakes, and fear can cause one to lose a predestined opportunity. Fear is a death trap on a human being’s journey toward divinity.” (Pass the Deadly Test from The Essentials of Diligent Progress VOL. III). As long as we have any attachment of fear, we will be unable to cultivate into a God. Master specifically told us the story from Buddhism about the person who nearly became an Arhat and who ended up failing just because he had a little attachment of fear. So we should take every opportunity to totally eliminate the attachment of fear.
Master said in What’s to Fear? from Hong Yin Vol. II , “Should you have fear, it will seize upon you. If your thoughts are righteous, the evil will collapse. The cultivator’s mind is loaded with Fa. Send righteous thoughts, and rotten demons explode. Gods walk the earth, validating the Fa.” Memorizing this part has helped me to have stronger righteous thoughts.
Some practitioners use human notions when experiencing sickness karma and believe that they are indeed sick. The more he learns about his symptoms, the more unstable he feels. Sometimes he would feel alone. Actually Master is always with us and we are not alone at all. In the face of persecution, Master told us in Lecture in Sydney, “If you do not care and do not put them on your mind, with the Master and the Fa here what is there to fear? As long as the green mountains remain, there is no fear of having no firewood to burn. Ignore them! Once you give them up, you will find that the tribulations have become smaller and you have become bigger. You will overcome them in one step, and the tribulations will become nothing. It is guaranteed to be this way. If one cannot overcome them, it is actually that he cannot give up the attachments or does not believe in the Fa. In most cases, it is because one cannot give up one or another attachment. His failure is all due to his inability to give up the attachments. Because he cannot go that one step further, and break from humanness, he cannot overcome those ordeals.” As long as we put down the attachments, we would become bigger; the bad thing would become a good thing. The sickness karma would be a good opportunity for us to strengthen our body and improve our level.
Denying the old forces in action
Our sickness karma is arranged by the old forces. Master wants us to completely deny the old forces. Master said in Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference, “We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue.”
Denying the old forces is not only done in our minds, but also in our actions. In Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles, Master said about sickness karma, “It's not good enough if someone merely comes to realize something: He must be righteous in both thought and action. If the righteous thoughts of somebody are not strong during his cultivation, he won't be able to pass his tests well and they will drag on. Also, when he's not able to achieve strong righteous thoughts, his confidence will be weakened. Haven't some people lost confidence and even arrived at crooked "realizations" as a result?”
If sickness karma has made us unable to practice or study the Fa because of body pain, we should try our best to deny the old forces arrangements and do our best to exercise and study the Fa. If one’s swollen eyes are not able to open, we can deny the old forces arrangements by instead listening to Master’s audio lectures.
Self-confidence
There are usually several scenarios where one cannot pass sickness karma tribulations. Firstly, a practitioner might think that they have not cultivated well and thus believe that persecution is unavoidable. They have then accepted the old forces persecution in disguise.
In Salvation Far and Wide from Hong Yin, Master said, "Lay down your human, mundane mind, The Fa gained, you now stand divine.” We have obtained the Fa and are now cultivating. Whoever has persecuted the disciples of the Lord Buddha and persecuted Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period is committing crimes. A Dafa disciple not only represents the innumerable sentient beings in his huge celestial body; he/she also saves so many people and the numerous, countless beings they represent in truth clarification. The persecution of a Dafa disciple means to destroy many arrangements of the Lord Creator. Could Master allow this? Could the gods allow this? Can we allow it? Absolutely not.
Even if I have not cultivated well; even if I still have a lot of attachments, I do not belong to the old forces. I am Master Li Hongzhi’s disciple. I will not accept any other arrangements at all except those of my Master. Some practitioners have said, we should not only trust Master and the Fa but also believe in ourselves; believe that we are good enough and that we can make it!
Master said in Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, “And at even higher levels, concepts like eliminating karma, enduring hardships, and cultivation no longer exist, and it's just a choice! This is the principle at high levels of the cosmos: you think someone is good enough, so you choose him—that's the principle.” Since Master chose us, Master would clean us up and help us to return to our world. Because Master has chosen us, we are able to make it. It is not because of how strong or clever we may be, but because of Master's boundless power, Master's greatness, and Master’s mercy.
At this point, do not underestimate yourself! “We now stand divine” (Salvation Far and Wide from Hong Yin). We are the "Gods walk the earth, validating the Fa” (What’s to Fear? from Hong Yin Vol. II,). We must have righteous thoughts about ourselves and clean up any negative feelings of inferiority, cowardice, suspicion and confusion. Especially under the torture of sickness karma, it is easy to give birth to these negative thoughts. We should remain optimistic and confident in ourselves.
Perseverance is one of the keys to achieving Rightful Attainment
Some practitioners may set goals such as “I must pass this sickness karma test within a week or before sometime.” When this plan fails, he would become very disappointed. After failing several times, he will lose confidence. This is a manifestation of the communist party culture. It is totally wrong because we are wanting to control everything.
In cultivation, we all know “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Zhuan Falun). Master does everything for us as long as we try our best to genuinely cultivate. We should know that Master’s arrangements are the best.
If the sickness karma is ongoing, some people start to complain to Master instead of being respectful. A practitioner requested help from Master without righteous thoughts or respect. When his situation deteriorated, he started to complain to Master for not helping him. The old forces saw this and took the opportunity to fully persecute him and he passed away soon after.
An article on the Minghui website described a practitioner who had a big belly because of advanced liver cancer. She had little chance of survival. She had tried everything including lots of looking within and frequently sending forth righteous thoughts. After persevering for a long time she said to herself, “I give myself to Master no matter what the result is. Not happy, not unhappy. I know that nothing is accidental for a Dafa disciple. This is just the way my cultivation is.” She took the hardship as a good thing and persevered through it until eventually passing the ordeal and in the end she regained her health.
In many cases, the process of overcoming sickness karma is not a straight line, but instead has many twists and turns. Sometimes the repetitive suffering is also to test our faith. When the condition is prolonged and gets worse, do you still believe you are good enough to succeed at cultivation? Being persecuted by the old forces makes one’s life full of suffering, exceedingly difficult and painful, as their goal is to ruin, break or kill practitioners. However, it can also strengthen our righteous thoughts. We must always keep our righteous thoughts and always believe that Master is with us.
In Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference, Master told us, “Then what sorts of things are doing that now? Things like worms, bugs, bacteria, and all kinds of foul things like that. Sending righteous thoughts is extremely effective in these cases! They are annihilated in large batches. But there are a lot of them, given how big this cosmos is; and the cosmos consists of many layers. So after you have wiped these things out, shortly after, before long, they might infiltrate again, and you need to eliminate them again. So you need to keep sending righteous thoughts like this, and persist with it for some time, before you will see obvious results. Don’t lose confidence just because, after feeling good following a while of sending righteous thoughts, things don’t seem to go well again. I can tell you that they are using this approach to wear you down—to whittle away at your strong sense of conviction.”
We should always maintain our righteous thoughts, not just in times of difficulty. Increasing the number of times each day sending forth righteous thoughts can also reduce the effects of sickness karma and also make us stronger. I think the most important thing is to always trust and believe that Master is always watching over us and that one day there will be no more persecution. Master said in Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S., “Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations.”
Finally, I wish that all Dafa disciples are able to make it back home with Master after eliminating the evil beings with righteous thoughts and righteous actions.
Translated from https://www.zhengjian.org/node/242625
