(Clearwisdom.net) Recently some practitioners became "seriously ill" and passed away. There were many ordinary people as well as practitioners that did not understand this. What was the reason for this phenomenon? I would like to share a couple of points with fellow practitioners.

1. There was a practitioner, who was also a coordinator, from a farm in Heilongjiang Province. He suddenly became "ill" and died. No one knew what his loopholes were. A few days ago, I heard a practitioner say, "The practitioner who passed away had obtained life insurance. In the insurance policy it stipulated that if the policy holder suddenly died, then the full policy would be paid out." This practitioner was only 40 years old.

2. There was another coordinator from Heilongjiang Province who was a farmer. His wife was also a practitioner. After the husband and wife both applied for physical disability certificates, during the summer of 2010, the wife developed edema throughout her body. Her abdomen distended and she died one month later. She was a little over 40 years old. The husband had pain in his intestines and died 104 days after his wife. He was almost 50 years old.

Those practitioners whose paths were arranged by the old forces face issues that are relatively complicated, and they departed this world. The above-mentioned phenomenon only represents some of the issues but can't represent the entirety of the issues involved. So when we hear about or witness these kinds of situations, the most important thing is to reflect deeply from the perspective of a practitioner, because cultivation requires of us to look within and cultivate ourselves. We need to see whether we have similar fundamental problems and whether our belief in the Fa is steadfast enough. When we discover that we have these kinds of issues but have not awakened to them over a long period of time, then we need to quickly remove these attachments through cultivation practice.

Cultivation is not child's play. In order to attain Buddhahood, one must get rid of ordinary people's things like sexual desire, qing, and seeking fame and fortune. In the classic novel Journey to the West, the 81st and final tribulation was for the monk and his disciples to fall into the Tongtian River, which was about 250 miles wide. The ancients used water as a representation of personal gain and profit. The monk and his disciples obtained true scriptures at the Western Paradise. Sitting on the back of a giant tortoise, they were poised to attain enlightenment and return to one's true home. Falling into the river symbolized the attachments that must be given up. Falun Dafa is the great Fa of the universe and cultivates at a very high level, so the standards are correspondingly high, and the requirements strict.