(Clearwisdom.net)

I'm a veteran practitioner who began my practice of Falun Gong before 1999. Under Teacher's compassionate protection and with fellow practitioners' help, I have been able to make it through after stumbling along my cultivation path.

Recently, I slacked off on Fa-study and sending righteous thoughts due to my attachment to comfort and the evil's interference. Consequently, the evil took advantage of this gap and persecuted me severely using a form of illness. At first, small blisters developed on both of my hands, which caused extreme itchiness, redness, swelling and oozing, and which also caused my skin to thicken and crack. Then a cluster of small blisters also appeared on my forehead, two eyelids and face, which also caused extreme itchiness, redness, swelling, oozing and scabbing. My whole face became too ugly to be seen and both of my feet were badly swollen. Under such circumstances, I also studied the Fa, practiced the exercises, sent righteous thoughts, and asked for Teacher's blessing and protection. However, the effect was not obvious. One day when I was at work, my colleagues made comments on my situation: "Take some medicine," "Get some injections," and some even said, "She has her Master to protect her." Hearing their comments, I was aware that I had caused losses in Fa-validation and I was very upset about that. After returning home I told Teacher in my mind, "This evil is so vicious that I cannot make it. I won't take any medicine or get any injection, but I'll apply some external medicines." On the second night, after learning my situation of being persecuted, two practitioners came over to my home and shared their understanding of the Fa. We studied the Fa and sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions that had been persecuting me. We also searched inside ourselves. I realized that I did not have a firm enough belief in Dafa and neither did I have righteous thoughts or righteous actions. Therefore, I stopped applying the external medicines, which could have only treated the symptoms but could not eliminate the root cause. After studying the Fa, practicing the exercises and sending righteous thoughts for two days, my situation changed dramatically.

On the following night, a fellow practitioner told me that another practitioner whom I knew had also developed the same symptoms as mine. She knew that it was the evil's persecution, therefore she solemnly told the evil, "You want to make my face swell and look ugly so I won't be able to go out and clarify the truth to save sentient beings. Don't even think about it!" So she asked for Teacher's help, and the next day her symptoms disappeared. I was so ashamed of myself after hearing this that I also asked Teacher to help me. Nevertheless, the next day my eyes were even more swollen. I knew that it was because I had asked Teacher's help with an attachment; therefore it didn't work. At this time, I received Teacher's new article "Eliminate the Dark Minions with Righteous Thoughts." I read the article over and over again and finally I was able to memorize it by heart. I followed Teacher's words to send strong righteous thoughts to "aim directly at those dark minions and completely eliminate them." Then my symptoms were alleviated significantly. When I practiced the exercise, the phrase "that are at low levels" suddenly popped up in my head. I immediately understood that I had considered those dark minions way too strong and powerful, when in fact they were nothing at all. In the meantime, a miracle happened: the swelling and itchiness on my face disappeared.

I'm writing this hoping that it will help practitioners who are in tribulation.