(Clearwisdom.net) It has been mentioned recently in fellow practitioners' articles that under the interference and persecution from the evil dark minions of the old forces, there have always been some practitioners showing symptoms of severe sickness karma to the point of even losing their lives. I feel very sad about this. A number of such examples occurred in my local area. Not long ago, at our Dafa materials-production site, my fellow practitioners and I encountered severe interference of this type. But with our determined righteous thoughts and actions, we broke through it. I want to explain what happened to us and I hope this can serve as an indication to those practitioners who are still amidst the tribulations of sickness karma. Let's exchange our understandings, and please point out anything that is incorrect in my sharing.
At our Dafa materials-production site, we did not have enough people and the workload was rather large. However, every day we studied the Falun Dafa teachings, sent forth righteous thoughts, and did our tasks to clarify the truth about the persecution. Every one arranged and did his or her work in a very orderly fashion. So over a period of two years, we were able to do this type of work smoothly. Although we occasionally encountered some interference and had some conflicts amongst ourselves from time to time, we were all able to find our shortcomings and correct them.
However, in the beginning of July 2004, almost every one of us at the materials-production site suddenly encountered the interference of sickness karma, which came upon us very violently. One fellow practitioner had a bad toothache and his face became severely swollen. Another practitioner showed symptoms of having a severe cold; he felt aching all over his body, had a bad running nose, and tears ran from his eyes. There was another practitioner who vomited and had diarrhea, and his stomach cramps were so severe that he could not even straighten his back. The persecution of the practitioners at our site as a whole was a sudden event. I told every one that no matter how difficult it was, we should persist in our Fa study and increase the frequency of sending forth righteous thoughts. We also searched within ourselves to see what gaps existed in us and had been taken advantage of by the evil.
Through discussion, we found the gap, which was that our group Fa study as well as our sharing understandings of Fa [principles] had become less frequent, which had caused some practitioners, when they had different opinions on a certain matter, to not be able to speak out in time. Additionally, some misunderstandings had resulted in a rift among practitioners. This gap had been taken advantage of by the old forces. After each of us searched within him or herself and identified his or her own attachments, our bodies soon recovered. However, in less than two days, the interference came towards me again.
One evening, when I was on the Internet, I felt a ghastly negative energy suddenly come and cover my body. I felt a chilling cold all over my body. I persisted in finishing my work and sent forth righteous thoughts at the exact times. I felt a little better when sending forth righteous thoughts. However, in a moment, I felt very cold again and my body was shivering. I had a headache and sore throat and felt pain all over. I thought in my mind, "I am a Dafa practitioner, and I will never let the dark minions control me. I am determined to defeat them." In the morning, I got up as usual to practice the exercises. Although I had no strength, I still kept doing the exercises. As usual, I sent forth righteous thoughts at the exact hours, studied the Fa, and did Dafa work.
The next afternoon I felt a little better. However, the following day I started to feel awful again and this time it was worse. I could not eat anything and felt pain all over my body. I sometimes felt hot and sometimes cold. My mind became muddled. Although I kept sending forth righteous thoughts at the exact hours, I felt that it was too painful and my righteous thoughts were not that strong.
I felt this way for over ten days while my symptoms got worse with time. My head felt like it was about to crack open. My whole body ached, no matter whether I sat or lay down. My mouth was full of blisters. My teeth also ached terribly. I coughed and vomited blood. I could not sleep through the night because of the pain. Although I still kept sending forth righteous thoughts, they were not strong and could not achieve a very good effect. I thought, "Ah, I indeed cannot bear it anymore. It would be simple if I just died." Once this thought came up, I immediately realized that it was wrong. I am a Dafa practitioner. How many sentient beings were waiting for me to save them! Saving lives is our historic mission! To save us, Master has endured so much for us. Couldn't I just overcome this bit of tribulation? How selfish I was!
Then I started to calmly ponder all these events. Ordinarily, when I encountered interference with my work or my body, I felt that I had very strong righteous thoughts. Sometimes, when I sent information through the Internet, the evil beings utilized all means to interfere with me; they caused a breakdown here and troubles there, which could all be cleared out through my sending forth righteous thoughts. Although I encountered some interference with my body, I could get rid of it quickly during my sending forth righteous thoughts. However, this time the interference was so bad; it was the worst in several years. I realized that there must be some gaps existing in me. It was because I had not done well that the evil was able to take advantage of the gaps. But where were my gaps?
One day I struggled to get up to study the Falun Dafa teachings. I opened "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference" and started to read quietly. A paragraph caught my attention and I read it over and over:
"But after all, they did do what they wanted to do, so there's all the more reason for Dafa disciples to do even better and cultivate themselves well in the course of saving all beings. When you encounter ordeals during your cultivation, you have got to cultivate yourself and look at yourself--that doesn't mean acknowledging the ordeals arranged by the old forces and trying to do well amidst the ordeals they've arranged, that's not the case. We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue. It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations. (Applause) So looking at it from this angle, what we need to do is completely negate the old forces. Dafa disciples and I don't even acknowledge the manifestations of their last-ditch efforts."
After reading this paragraph my mind suddenly became clear. Master wants us to negate even the manifestations of the old forces' last-ditch efforts. However, amidst the persecution aiming at me, I had kept thinking about how to defeat them and eliminate their persecution. Was it the case that I wanted to cultivate myself within the tribulations they created? Did this mean that I unknowingly acknowledged the existence of the old forces? If they existed, they could persecute and interfere with me. This was because I had acknowledged their existence.
After I was enlightened to this point, I started to send forth righteous thoughts. I said to myself, "I will never acknowledge any persecution aiming at me from the old forces' dark minions and the degenerated gods. No matter what contracts I signed in history, I will not acknowledge them at all. I am a Dafa disciple, and you (the old forces) are not qualified to test me. I will only follow the path arranged by Master." After sending forth righteous thoughts, I felt a sense of relief that I had not experienced for many days. My toothache soon stopped.
I then started to search within myself. I found that I had had many attachments. I made arbitrary decisions and I was arrogant when doing Dafa work. I was one of those practitioners, as mentioned by Master, who did not listen to others' criticisms and become angry when criticized by others. After reading Master's lecture, I knew that I should get rid of this bad habit. In the past, I also exchanged views with fellow practitioners, but when I really encountered criticism, I just superficially restrained myself from getting angry. In actuality, I had not accepted the criticism. I had not really let go of the attachment. I had not exhibited the harmonious mindset of a Dafa practitioner. Even so, I had still tried to find excuses for myself, feeling that I had already been very good. How could this work? Because of the problem with my mindset, the coordination inside our Dafa materials-production site had not been very good, which had constituted the biggest excuse for the old forces' dark minions to interfere. I realized that it was me who was the major root cause for the persecution of the practitioners at our site. Every one of us had gaps, but if I had not had that strong attachment, I would have been able to coordinate things well with fellow practitioners, and we would have been able to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts well and solve the problems that we encountered in a harmonious way. In that way, the gap we left would have not been that big.
After I realized the root cause, my pain disappeared that same day. Next day, the blisters in my mouth also disappeared. I could eat again. Soon everything became normal. Other practitioners also recovered after searching within themselves. Our Dafa materials-production site became normal again. Now all of us are trying our best to do the three things Teacher asked of us (1), even better.
I wrote this down to inform those practitioners who are still amidst the tribulation of sickness karma. At the critical moment, every thought of ours is very important. We must study the Fa well no matter how huge the tribulations are.
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts."
("Drive Out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
We must follow what Master has told us to do and not acknowledge even the manifestations of the old forces' last-ditch efforts.
(1) Study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts, clarify the truth about the persecution.
