(Minghui.org) My aunt, a fellow practitioner, suddenly passed away. I never thought that this would happen. She suffered illness karma for years. She had extreme pain in her legs, and could not move, but she was very spiritual, and she did the three things all these years. Through our chatting, I felt that she believed in Dafa very firmly.
Her daughter said that she occasionally took medicine to relieve the pain. The direct cause of her death was that she took a medicine to prevent Alzheimer's disease twice. She hid this from us. Her husband bought the medicine. She thought this medicine was right for her. Soon after taking it, she had a myocardial infarction and died.
Her family members who knew Dafa is good began to misunderstand Dafa, including her daughter. They thought my aunt firmly believed in Dafa and suffered so much pain to struggle through the illness, and then died. They said if they had known that this would happen, they would have encouraged her to believe in another qigong or in some religion. I tried to talk to her daughter, but it was not convenient to do so by phone. They questioned whether it was worth suffering the pain.
Another fellow practitioner was arrested twice. The superficial reason for his arrest was that an imprisoned practitioner could not bear being tortured and gave his name. He was then sentenced to nine years in prison. After he was released, he complained about why he was always betrayed, and that he felt there was no one he could trust. He thought he was the real cultivator and looked down others. He hasn’t gone out, and has not connected with other practitioners. Now he has some 'health interference.'
Seeing the situations of these two practitioners, I started to think about why they complained.
Teacher said,
“The world's miseries endured,One departs the earth a Buddha."(“Tempering the Will”, Hong Yin, translation version A)
This persecution was forced onto Dafa practitioners. We have denied it, as we should not experience such torture. But the old forces take advantage of our attachments and karma. It pushes such persecution aggressively.
The persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners eventually happened. Master takes this as an opportunity to help us cultivate. If during a tribulation, we focus more clearly on Dafa and treat it according to Dafa, we then become mature.
Teacher said,
“No matter what it is you have encountered as you've gone about validating the Fa, it is all, I will tell you, a good thing--and that's especially so in these years of persecution--for those things have come about specifically because you do cultivation. Those ordeals and the suffering, no matter how great or harsh you find them to be, are good things, because they take place solely on account of your cultivation. A person can eliminate karma and shed human attachments when he goes through ordeals, and through ordeals he can improve.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference”, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. III)
Some practitioners may only do the three things well on the surface, but maintain human notions, and pursue comfort, happiness, and health. Then when they do not have these things, they complain or become depressed. Thus, in an often radical way, they don’t treat themselves as true cultivators.
When experiencing a tribulation, some practitioners don't look inward and find their attachments, but instead look outward at others' attachments. Then they complain about others, or they even ask why Master is not there for them. Thus, they doubt Dafa. Is this true cultivation? They do not have confidence in Dafa from within, but instead cultivate Dafa to pursue something. If they cannot obtain what they pursue, they complain or become depressed.
From these two cases, I have seen that it is almost impossible to cultivate if one holds onto an ordinary mindset to understand the Fa, using human notions to understand extraordinary things.
Teacher said,
“But you need to remember one thing I’ve said: when two people have a conflict and a third person sees it, even that third person should think about whether there are any problems on his part—“Why did I happen to see it?” This is all the more so for the two people involved in the conflict. They should examine themselves even more, since they need to cultivate themselves internally.” (Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference )
The above cases remind me to eliminate any human notions, and find those notions that might be deeply hidden. I must eliminate these, and be a real Dafa practitioner.
Category: Improving Oneself
