(Minghui.org) When practitioner A had illness symptoms recently, her husband sent her to the hospital. After we shared understandings with her, her mind became clear and she returned home. When we later studied the Fa together at her home, however, we saw that she had an expensive new medical ventilator. One practitioner said to her, “If we consider ourselves genuine practitioners, how can a breathing machine help us? This is a serious issue.”

This incident reminded me of what happened to practitioner B. For a while, she appeared to be very sick, and in a life-threatening situation. When she was conscious, she had told me that she planned to meet her husband, who had died three years earlier. In fact, both her portrait and shroud had been ready for three years, and her daughter did not even know about it. It was from that time that her health had started to deteriorate, although she had practiced for more than 10 years. I asked her, “Do you know what a genuine practitioner would do in your situation?” “Yes, I do,” she replied, “but I cannot stop thinking about my husband.” Soon after that, practitioner B passed away.

Cultivation is indeed serious. In Zhuan Falun, Teacher said,

“In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance.”

That means we have to discipline ourselves with Dafa's principles. If we still hold onto human notions, the old forces can easily take advantage of it. We all know the importance of looking within. That requires us to have faith in Teacher and the Fa.

When something happens, our cultivation status, our viewpoint, and how we handle things all make a difference, and lead to various outcomes. This is how to tell a genuine practitioner from an everyday person.

Teacher told us,“Every one of these attachments has to be eliminated. It’s still considered an omission if any one of them isn’t removed. One cannot reach Consummation if there’s an omission. A person needs to cultivate until there is no omission and no attachments left. He or she will be able to reach Consummation only when there’s truly no longer anything omitted.” (Lecture at the First Conference in North America)

During these years of cultivation, I have stumbled many times. The tribulations happened because I did not study the Fa well and my understanding of the Fa was not clear. Due to my human notions, I often treated cultivation as something in everyday society and the old forces took advantage of that.

For example, I was once sent to a labor camp. The cause on the surface was that my husband did not understand my cultivation and reported me to the police. But the real reason was that, because of lust, I did things inconsistent with the requirements of a practitioner. Although my family and other practitioners did not know about it, this was a serious lesson for me.

Through Fa-study and sharing with other practitioners, I was able to come back to the path of cultivation. But this experience is a reminder for me, of the serious consequences of harboring human notions. Attachments and human notions are omissions that can undermine our cultivation. We really have to pay attention to them.