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Some Understandings on Sickness Karma
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Beijing (Clearwisdom.net) Recently, several fellow practitioners in our area have experienced severe
sickness karma. Some of them have passed away. Here I would like to share some
of my understandings. Practitioner A had nephropathy (a kidney disorder), but recovered after
practicing Falun Dafa. However, he stopped practicing after July 20, 1999, when
the persecution started. Consequently, the nephropathy recurred, and the doctor
could do little about it. So he resumed his Fa study and did the
exercises, but he was not diligent. After his symptoms were alleviated, he again
returned to ordinary life, so the disease became worse. His wife, also a
practitioner, and other practitioners noticed that he focused on his disease and
kept it in mind constantly, although he did not take medication to treat it.
Finally, his life was taken away by the old forces. It was interference by the evil forces, although he was very clear that we
should break through the interference by the old forces. Why did he follow the
old forces' arrangements? He did not take any medication, but he could not let
go of the attachment of being cured. As Teacher said, "So he also knew, 'Oh, as long as I don't mention treating illness and
don't ask Teacher to heal me, Teacher will surely cure my illness in due
time.' You see, he didn't say it verbally and he might have even stopped
mentioning his illness to anyone, but after a long period of time he was still
thinking deep inside, 'As long as I do the exercises Teacher is sure to heal
me in due time.' He was still thinking about it like that. That tiny deviation
made for a real, fundamental difference. That tiny bit of deviation revealed
his true nature: He was still concerned with getting healed."(Teaching
the Fa at the Conference in Europe) I understand that the key point for practitioner A was to get rid of his
attachment to being healed. It is the fundamental difference between humanness
and godhood. How does one do that? Only by studying the Fa! We should pursue
nothing and gain naturally, as the Fa teaches us. When studying the Fa, owing to
the interference of our attachments, we may not fully concentrate on it, so we
have to deny and expel them. Gradually, we will improve ourselves. Teacher will
take care of everything that should be taken care of. Teacher pointed out, "If you face death today--regardless of what form of death--and are
completely fearless, if you aren't concerned about it whatsoever and think,
'Perhaps I'll go to Heaven after I die,' then death will truly no longer take
place. The key is a person's mind. Our Dafa cultivation aims exactly at one's
mind--to cultivate is to cultivate the human mind. If your mind doesn't change
everything else you do means nothing. Outward acts mean nothing." (Teaching
the Fa at the Conference in Europe) How should his family help him? Of course, their assistance should ideally be
based on the Fa rather than on family love, because family love itself is an
attachment that needs to be eliminated. If his wife's heart and mind wavered
constantly based on his symptoms, then she also did not pass the trial well and
was also taken control of by the old forces at this point. How could she deny
the arrangements by the old forces? Here I am not recommending practitioners to be indifferent to our family
members, but just suggesting that we use righteous thoughts, more encouragement,
and complain less. The better we do, the fewer excuses the old forces have to
take advantage of. The purpose is not to prevent interference by the old forces,
instead, we should do well as required by the Fa. What about other fellow practitioners? We should look inward for everything
to see if there is anything that we did well superficially but did not meet the
requirement of the Fa in our hearts. Some may think, "Practitioner A was
still harmed by the sickness karma, and he cultivated badly!" This thought
is actually a reflection of a lack of compassion. As a fellow practitioner, we
must be compassionate. This thought will form a gap between us, which is what
the old forces want. As a practitioner, we should help him to establish
righteous thoughts unconditionally and reinforce his righteous thoughts. But
when he dies, we should follow the ways of ordinary people. Otherwise, if
practitioners surround the corpse and send righteous thoughts, misunderstandings
may arise. It was reported that one practitioner revived eight days after entering the
state of death. That may have been a case in which the practitioner put down the
attachment of life and death without reservation. We should remember that there
are no models in cultivation, so we should not follow this example just because
it was reported. Pursuing a result is an attachment. There is no problem in
sending righteous thoughts to break through the interference by the old forces,
but we should be very righteous, or else the loophole will be exploited by the
old forces. We also should not regard taking medication as a crucial point to judge a
practitioner. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, "How can being a vegetarian enable one to cultivate Buddhahood?
Everyone knows that eating meat is only one attachment and desire--this is
only one attachment. Being a vegetarian only removes this one attachment. One
still needs to relinquish jealousy, the competitive mentality, the attachment
of zealotry, the mentality of showing off, and various other attachments;
there are numerous human attachments. Only by removing all attachments and
desires can one complete one's cultivation practice." As a practitioner, if one does not pass this trial well, just pay a lot more
attention to it and stand up again after falling down, because removing every
attachment is equally important, not just one, such as taking a pill. If
everyone overreacts on this point, it is the exact loophole the old forces will
take advantage of. That is why the CCP regime fabricated the lie that Falun Gong
practitioners are not allowed to take medicine. This article is not to criticize fellow practitioners but to remind everyone
that we must have stronger righteous thoughts under such circumstances to form
an indestructible whole body.
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