(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, some practitioners in our area were interfered with by sickness karma and couldn't overcome it. Some were hospitalized, some became paralyzed after being discharged from the hospital, and some even passed away. I'd like to share my understanding with everyone, in the hope that it will be of some help to those whose cultivation has slowed down due to their understandings of illness karma.

Some practitioners in our area had been doing important Dafa work and had devoted themselves to it, and on the surface they appeared to be very diligent. Some practitioners lost their lives due to illness while they were living in exile in order to avoid the persecution. Some others weren't diligent enough, and weren't clear enough in their understanding of the Fa, so they either had a lingering disease or died of it. These have created a negative effect on saving sentient beings in our area, and have caused those not-so-diligent practitioners to doubt Dafa. In my humble understanding, the practitioners being interfered with by sickness karma should take a good look inside themselves from the point of view of the Fa. Teacher said,

"Cultivation practice is extremely arduous and very serious. If you are being careless for a moment, you may stumble and become ruined at once. Therefore, one's mind must be right." (Zhuan Falun)

It is an honor for us to practice cultivation in Falun Dafa at this special period of time. We must be strict with ourselves. Some practitioners have suffered from sickness karma but weren't able to understand it from the point of view of the Fa, instead, they treated it as a barter, and said, "I've devoted myself a lot to Dafa work, how come this happened to my body?" Some said, "I believe in Teacher. How come I still suffer?" Some practitioners were hospitalized and the doctors asked them, "Aren't you a practitioner? You're supposed to be very healthy. Why are you here?" Some practitioners indeed behaved like the ones Teacher mentioned in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,"

"'... I've done better today, so it should have improved a little. Tomorrow I'll do even better and it should improve some more.' He can never let go of that thing. On the surface it appears that he's letting it go--'Look, I'm doing well now.' You're doing well now but you are doing well now for its sake. You aren't doing that for the purpose of doing what a true Dafa disciple should do!"

While other practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts for him, on the surface he sent forth righteous thoughts as well, but in his heart he couldn't hold his righteous mind and worried about his illness, and in the end he lost his life to the illness.

Teacher said,

"Even when an ordinary person shouts out 'Falun Dafa is good' today, Master will protect him, since he's shouted those words I can't not protect him amidst the evil. And how much more so am I protecting you cultivators! In some isolated cases some students really did come down with an incurable disease. But think about it, so many people who had severe health problems or incurable diseases before they learned the Fa became well after learning Dafa, so why is it that some students on the other hand can't make things work? Is it that Dafa makes distinctions among sentient beings? Is it that I, your Master, treat students differently? I really have to ask you: Are you truly cultivating? Have you truly followed Dafa's requirements? Are you clarifying the facts with the human mindset of disagreeing with the persecution of Falun Gong, or are you validating the Fa and saving sentient beings truly from the standpoint of a Dafa disciple? Yes, the old forces have arranged for some people to get in, but why is it that most people can handle things now but you can't? Haven't I taught the Fa to you?!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")

Teacher said at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference,

"You know, I give you automatic mechanisms for increasing gong and other elements such as the Falun. Also, my Law Bodies are personally looking after Dafa disciples, and my Law Bodies appointed some Gods who can truly assist with Fa-rectification to help. But, the old forces have systematically arranged their elements, too, and in that way they specifically arranged everything they wanted. So this has put every student under the influence of specific arrangements by the old forces, and under the influence of those old force beings. Those beings that the old forces arranged to do specific things aren't those messed up, low-level spirit or rotten ghost kind of beings that I've talked about. There are Buddhas, Daos and Gods among them, though they're all of low levels, and here at this lowest level that is the human world they're doing things given to them by the old forces." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")

In the article "Eliminate the Dark Minions with Righteous Thoughts," Teacher said,

"The dark minions have been a part of all the disruptions to things big and small that have happened to all Dafa disciples since the start of their cultivation and all the different situations [that have arisen] in Dafa disciples' personal cultivation; they have seized every opportunity."

According to the Fa quoted above, in my humble understanding, during our cultivation practice, we are looked after by Teacher's Law Bodies and righteous Gods, and at the same time we are under the influence of the arrangements by the dark minions arranged by the old forces. Therefore in our cultivation practice, at every moment, we should require ourselves according to the standard of the Fa. If a single thought of ours does not conform to Dafa, then the black minions would seize the opportunity, take advantage of our loopholes, and persecute us using the form of sickness karma, etc. If we cannot distinguish them clearly, we would easily follow the old forces' arrangements.

Why was it that through our truth-clarification, many everyday people had their illnesses cured as soon as they recited, "Falun Dafa is good?"

My personal understanding is, everyday people do not practice cultivation, but as long as they know that Dafa is good, Teacher would protect him, because this person's thought has determined their future, and the old forces have not arranged black minions to influence them. For the practitioners that I have met who are suffering from sickness karma, however, they claim to deny all the old forces' arrangements and believe in Teacher, but as soon as they started to feel uncomfortable physically, they would use everyday people's methods to ease their pain. Fundamentally they still do not believe in Teacher and couldn't let go of the mindset of everyday people. If you do not let go of your fundamental attachments, will the black minions let you go?

Finally, I hope my fellow practitioners who are delayed by illness let go of all their attachments and take the path that Teacher has arranged, completely deny the old forces' arrangements, study the Fa more, cultivate more diligently, and do well the three things that Teacher has told us to do.

This concludes my limited understandings. Please point out anything inappropriate.