Helping a Fellow Practitioner Who Is Experiencing Tribulations

By Jinglian, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Hebei Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) One day, I went to the countryside to visit a fellow practitioner. On the way back, I ran into a farmer who was holding the handlebar of a motorized tricycle, and another farmer who was pushing with great effort from behind. They worked strenuously to push the tricycle from a ditch. They both seemed vigorous and healthy, so I pushed my bicycle to the side of the road to make room for them, planning to wait for them to pass first. Their vehicle rocked a little but did not move. While I was thinking to myself that I was not very strong and wasn't going to be much help to them, they called to me for help. I parked my bike and walked over, while I told them, "I'm really not that strong." Unexpectedly, as I pushed, the tricycle came out of the ditch. They looked at me and thanked me with a smile, "It looks like we only needed two ounces from you."

From this incident, I came to understand that we are Dafa practitioners during Fa-rectification, and no matter what form the persecution appears in, we all have the ability to help. The key is whether we are controlled by our notions and doubt our abilities in the face of a fellow practitioner being persecuted. Fellow practitioners who were not suffering did not treat this as persecution to the entire body and look inside. They blamed that practitioner for having attachments or not behaving like a practitioner. It is just like a fellow practitioner who is trying to overcome the corrupt influences of society. Are we aloof and think we do not have the ability to help him? Or are we helping him to overcome the tribulation with strong righteous thoughts? Or are we unconsciously standing on the side of the old forces and pushing him further away?

After July 20, 1999, the evil was extremely rampant. I could feel tremendous pressure from other dimensions. In fact, all of the Dafa practitioners in our county encountered varying degrees of persecution, which I will not describe here. One evening I went to post Dafa banners with another practitioner in a heavy snowstorm. Even though we put on cloth shoes, my feet hurt for nearly two months afterwards. It even affected my walking. At that time, I did not study the Fa much and was lazy in doing the exercises, so I was overwhelmed by a rush of attachments. A good job position also came along. I worked in a hospital, and during that time, there was an unexpectedly large amount of patients. I was a hard working, responsible and capable person in my job. In order to do a good job, I worked days and nights, and I did not take breaks on Sundays and holidays. I had forgotten the solemn nature of practicing. I could not let go of the attachments for reputation and self-interest. It seemed that I did not realize this, or I was not willing to realize this. In the spring of 2001, after I persisted in going to work for over a month with painful "karma elimination," (at that time, I did not realize that it was the persecution from the evil) I finally underwent a medical examination. I was diagnosed as having "acute single nucleus leukemia." It was a serious type of leukemia.

In the day-to-day world, through the difficulties in life and the suffering of diseases, I was quite resilient. My optimism and attitude toward the illness surprised all the people in my family, my company, and some other acquaintances. I told my family that it was because I practiced Dafa. Therefore my husband (who did not practice) supported me in making a fresh start in studying the Fa. At that time, what I needed most was help from other practitioners. In Dafa, I was not steady and lacked righteous thoughts. A lot of fellow practitioners did not want to come to my home because of all sorts of reasons. Some of them thought I did not do well, and told me to do this and that. After they left, I felt lonely and did not know what to do. After several days, an older practitioner who was always regarded as timid, with too much fear and everyday people's thoughts came to see me. He said, "You do not have to be afraid. We will overcome this. One righteous thought will subdue a hundred evils." Immediately I felt that this practitioner was standing in the same place as I was, and our strength was formidable (I could only understand that much at that time). I realized that I have only one path - to follow Teacher and to follow the Fa. No matter how much life I have left, the rest of my time was meant for Dafa.

Because of the chemotherapy, the internal organs in my body were seriously damaged. Once I got out of my bed, my heart rate increased to around 160 per minute. I had to take a break by the bed and gasped for breath after only a few movements of the exercises. I had become deaf, and my vision was poor (my astigmatism and light nearsightedness had become normal after practicing Falun Dafa). I was staying in a big hospital in Beijing at that time, and the director admonished me, "In order to protect your vision, do absolutely no reading." I thought, "What I am reading is a Dafa book, and it will not affect my vision." I studied the Fa for the entire afternoon every day. Through studying, I became aware that the hospital was not the place for me to stay, and that I must go home. The director and the doctors said, "Go home? That will kill you." When he saw that I was extremely firm, the director said, "Is it because you miss your child? You have to come back in two weeks; otherwise your life will be in danger."

I returned to the ranks of Dafa practitioners. The supernormal power of Dafa manifested on my body anew. Now I have extremely good hearing and vision, and I am in good health. During my Fa-studying, sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth later on, I always remembered that it was the fellow practitioner who stood by my side and quoted Teacher, "One righteous thought will subdue a hundred evils" that helped me overcome the tribulation. Later in the process of practicing, I quoted this sentence many times to fellow practitioners who suffered from "sickness karma." At the same time, merciful Teacher repeatedly gave me opportunities, and had me, who was about to be lost, come back to Dafa. In the past few years, I remember my promise to the Teacher all the time: In my life, the Fa is the biggest thing. The life left for me is to become a qualified disciple during Fa-rectification.

At the same time, we should not go to extremes: Putting too much emphasis on one's own opinions and thinking of helping a fellow practitioner as a "job." An older practitioner in my city was not in a good state, and other practitioners went to visit her, trying to help her. They told her to look for her attachments. They told her that it must be that she did not do this right, or she did not do that right. They were very worried and anxiously trying to make her understand. After several rounds of "anxious" visits by several practitioners, she finally said, "You guys please go and do not come again. I will not practice any more."

Later, when we exchanged opinions on this matter with a local coordinating person, we finally became aware that there was a problem with the practitioner who could not improve, but the mentality of every one of us who went to help her was similarly important. When we anxiously hoped that practitioner would improve and even accused her of this and that, it was precisely what the evil wanted us to do. We had already helped the evil unintentionally and dragged the fellow practitioner down.

In the end, what I want to say is the same thing: Believe in your own ability; stand by a fellow practitioner when he or she suffers from different forms of persecution and resist the evil as one body. In order to save sentient beings during the course of Fa-rectification, each particle in Dafa should do well in what he or she should do.

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