(Clearwisdom.net) Mankind is constantly in pursuit of fame, profit, and emotional rewards in this world. The pursuit of gain and profit, in particular, is a major source of motivation for the survival of the human race. People work hard and go out of their way to seek profit. Practitioners, however, should relinquish these kinds of attachments. Many practitioners who have weathered numerous difficulties and overcome tremendous tribulations still experience severe interference from sickness karma, but do not know why this happens. Moreover, some practitioners' relatives have died suddenly. In my opinion, this could be the result of practitioners being dependent on others financially and thus neglecting to eliminate their attachments to gain and profit.
A practitioner from a nearby county is a very competent person and is the sole supporter of her family. Her parents and younger brother are also practitioners. Despite her hard work, her family still lives on a very tight budget. Therefore she has borrowed money from her parents, her younger brother, and even other relatives to buy a house and to pay for her children's schooling. However, she has not paid back the money she borrowed. Her relatives were willing to help her out because she had financial difficulties. The practitioner gladly accepted the financial assistance but did not feel obligated to pay it back. Later, both of her parents died. This year, the practitioner experienced severe sickness karma. Other practitioners came to help her but could not figure out the cause of the problem. Eventually, she could not take it anymore, checked into a hospital, and spent tens of thousands of yuan for treatment. When I heard about what happened, I wondered if her sickness karma and the death of her parents had anything to do with her being dependent on others for financial support and a possible attachment to material gain.
I know another practitioner whose sisters practice Falun Gong, but the parents do not practice. The three sisters are not doing well financially as a result of the persecution. Her father had a generous retirement fund and was supporting all three of them. Furthermore, the youngest sister depended on her father financially to raise her child. Later, the father died suddenly. Her mother, in her seventies, takes care of the youngest sister's child; and the other sisters help to support her and her child financially as well.
An elderly practitioner, her youngest daughter, and her granddaughter are Falun Gong practitioners. The elderly practitioner does not have any source of income, so she accepts payment for taking care of her granddaughter. Her youngest daughter, who is financially well off, does not pay her mother much for the childcare. The elderly practitioner loves her granddaughter and wants to give her the best, but does not have enough money to do so. Therefore the mother and daughter constantly argue about the amount of money spent on the granddaughter. The situation between the two of them has become very tense.
The Fa rectification process has nearly reached the end. The old forces will intensify the persecution of practitioners who do not get rid of attachments. The attachment of depending on others and the pursuit of gain are, in particular, very hard to detect. Thus, practitioners fail to eliminate these attachments. If practitioners do not eliminate the attachment of depending on ordinary people, then the old forces may cause the death of those on whom they depend in order to "help" practitioners eliminate their attachments. If a practitioner depends on other practitioners, this will bring hardships to other practitioners as well. Some practitioners have posted articles on Clearwisdom about suffering from sickness karma as a result of not paying back their debts. They probably neglected to look inward. If their sickness karma does not go away, it may eventually create great losses.
Teacher wrote in Sage (Essentials For Further Advancement), "he is full of great aspirations while minding minor details." The ancient Chinese placed great importance on being obedient and respecting one's parents. Being a Dafa practitioner, should we not obey and respect our parents? How could we depend on our parents financially and let them help us raise our children and not feel guilty about it? With such a big loophole, will the old forces let us get away so easily? If we do not eliminate this attachment, not even Teacher can do anything about it. Therefore, I would like to remind practitioners to look inward in this regard. Let's be diligent in this final moment and do the three things well, in order to minimize our losses when we validate the Fa and save sentient beings.
October 13, 2008
