(Clearwisdom.net)

About “False Appearances”

In the process of cultivation, when a practitioner suffers from a false appearance of sickness karma, other practitioners tell this practitioner not to acknowledge it and that it is merely a false appearance. This practitioner says, “Well, you say it is a false appearance, but the suffering sensation does really exist. How can I treat it as merely a false appearance?” Meanwhile, other practitioners recognize the existence of this false appearance, either intentionally or unintentionally. This causes the practitioner to suffer from long and repeated interference, and he cannot get over this tribulation.

Recently, I was exchanging understandings with Practitioner A on this. She gave me several examples that allowed me to have a clear understanding of false appearances. When Practitioner A was out of town, Practitioner B showed symptoms of lung cancer. All of the other practitioners went to visit her and discussed with her how to deny this false appearance. This actually stressed Practitioner B so much that her condition deteriorated. Practitioner A was asked by another practitioner to visit Practitioner B. After inquiring about the situation in general, Practitioner A told everyone, “Since you all believe what happened to her is merely a false appearance, then let’s stop discussing this issue in order to help her. Just act as if this situation does not exist. If you go visit her, then just study the Fa with her and discuss our understandings of the Fa. If we tell her not to recognize the false appearance, then we should not recognize it, either. Everyone, please look inside yourselves and correct your own thoughts, then let’s see what happens!” As a result, Practitioner B recovered in just a few days. Later, whenever someone brought up the word “cancer,” she would immediately wave her hand and say, “Don’t impose those bad substances on me. I don’t have such things in my body.”

In another instance, Practitioner C's thyroid gland swelled overnight into something hard and thick. She felt very unwell and lay in bed. Practitioner A went to her house and sat on her bed to read the Fa to her. Later, when she saw that Practitioner C was still in bed, she said to her, “What I am reading is the Fa. How can you lie in bed to listen to the Fa? That is disrespectful to the Fa!” Practitioner C sat up unwillingly. When it was suppertime, Practitioner A told Practitioner C, “Why don’t you go cook us something. I'm hungry now.” Practitioner C said, “I feel awful. Can't you cook for me?” Practitioner A said, “I am your guest. How can you ask me to cook?” Practitioner C held up her head with her hand and grudgingly finished cooking dinner. As such, Practitioner A stayed in Practitioner C’s home for an entire week to study the Fa and sharing understandings with her. Meanwhile, she ordered Practitioner C around to do this and that and did not let her lie down. As a result, Practitioner C’s condition improved day by day. She was almost fully recovered after a week. Later ,when sharing this experience, Practitioner C exclaimed, “At first, I was resentful that Practitioner A was so mean to me. Later I realized that she was really doing this for my benefit.” Practitioner A also shared with me on this issue, “At first she was tortured by that thing and was very disturbed, so she just wanted to lie down. I thought of everything I could to prevent her from lying down and to bring forth her righteous thoughts. You see, in that situation, how could that bad substance have stayed with her?”

(To be continued)