(Minghui.org) I became a Falun Dafa practitioner in 1994. I've stumbled from time to time, but with Master's protection I've made it through and have had many miraculous experiences. Practitioners cooperating as one body to eliminate false sickness karma was one of them. Please kindly point out anything improper in my sharing.
Practitioner Xiaoming was found fast asleep on the floor in September 2011. The things around him had been knocked over. When I heard, I rushed over. I was told that Xiaoming kept saying he was very tired that night, so he studied the Fa and sent righteous thoughts for a while. The he fell on the floor and slept.
Two other practitioners and I immediately started sending righteous thoughts and did it all night. Near dawn, Xiaoming woke up. He didn't remember how he fell down or why he was lying on the floor. He couldn't remember much about practitioners studying the Fa with him and sending righteous thoughts in the evening, either.
We had a discussion and decided that Xiaoming should come to stay with me for a while and that practitioners living nearby could take turns coming to my place to study the Fa, send righteous thoughts, and share our understandings together.
Xiaoming's condition improved during the first several days. However, about two weeks later, he started to jerk from time to time and sweat. His clothes were soaked with sweat. He got weaker and weaker. We were very concerned about him.
We worked out a roster so that there were practitioners at my place 24 hours a day to send righteous thoughts. When he was conscious, we would recite poems from Hong Yin with him loudly or help him look within. Some practitioners also suggested that we all look within ourselves.
In addition to intensively sending righteous thoughts, practitioners were initially keen to help him search inward. We sat around and tried to help him look within.
We asked him questions if he couldn't find anything: "Do you think you still have this attachment? Can you see if you still have loopholes somewhere? Is there anything you have not done well? Do you remember if you have done anything wrong?"
Xiaoming got really confused and thought there were many things he hadn't done well. Due to interference and persecution by the old forces, Xiaoming became very weak. When practitioners “forced” him to look within, he became even weaker and his righteous thoughts further eroded.
Xiaoming's condition became critical a few days later, and more practitioners came to send righteous thoughts. However, he got even worse. The uncontrollable twitching became more frequent, and before he recovered from the previous episode, the next one had already started.
I had a discussion with another coordinator, Xiaoliang, and we decided we should inform his family, especially since they were still reluctant to learn the facts about Falun Gong.
One practitioner reminded me to look within, and I found that I had become a bit unsteady myself. I decided that I would regard this as a test I must pass myself. I would keep strong righteous thoughts without any doubt.
We decided to notify the practitioners involved to come to my place for sharing so that we could cooperate well and send righteous thoughts for another night together. We would leave everything else till the next day, including notifying his family or taking him to a hospital.
As more and more practitioners arrived, I tried to organize everyone to send righteous thoughts in another room, so that we could start sharing when everyone was present. But they all wanted to see how Xiaoming was and tried to use their own ways and understandings to help him get over it quickly.
Some female practitioners wept when they saw Xiaoming twitching in pain. It was pretty chaotic. I felt rather helpless and almost lost hope for a reasonable cooperation.
A practitioner who works in the medical profession came and thought that Xiaoming could hold on till the next day, although some of his organs had already started to fail. His twitching became even more frequent. He was unconscious by and large. Some practitioners suggested that if we were considering taking him to a hospital, we'd better do it now instead of waiting till the next day.
I called an ambulance while waiting for the other coordinator, Xiaoliang. Xiaoliang arrived when the ambulance came. I told him it was better we get him to a hospital now. Xiaoliang didn't show any sign of blame. He didn't even ask any questions or expect me to explain (we had agreed to get practitioners to send righteous thoughts earlier). He simply said, “Let's go together” and started to arrange for a few practitioners to go to the hospital.
Medical staff put Xiaoming on a stretcher, secured him, and carried him downstairs. We went with him in the ambulance. I was not worried and assured the distressed fellow practitioners that he would be fine and would be back in a few days.
Practitioners in tribulation need understanding, encouragement, and compassion. Xiaoliang' way of handling the situation made me feel the warmth and power of one body. It also helped strengthen my righteous thoughts. I was under a lot of pressure from the tribulation at the time.
Unfortunately, Xiaoming's condition became more serious after he was taken to the hospital. He was able to use the restroom by himself at home, and his limbs were functioning fine. But when the doctors at the hospital checked him, he had no feeling in his left arm and left leg. He was conscious for a while, then started to twitch and passed out.
Because I'm his relative, the doctors started blaming me for not bringing him to the hospital sooner. Some of the things they said were very hurtful. They also wanted me to pay more money and told me to sign papers to agree for them to issue a notice of critical condition. The requests came flying at me. I wasn't allowed a moment to myself and was under a lot of pressure.
Xiaoliang and a few other practitioners stayed with Xiaoming and me all the time, and their presence helped me keep my xinxing up. I remained unmoved despite the repeated requests from the doctors to issue a critical condition notice.
I refused to pay any more no matter how hard they tried to force me to, because I knew that the hospital usually doesn't return overpaid amounts. They keep the patient in the hospital until the prepayment is all used up.
I refused to allow them to take Xiaoming to the intensive care ward no matter how hard they pushed me. I held a firm belief in Master and in the Fa and refused to give up on Xiaoming. I believed he would make it through.
The doctors finally agreed to do a CT scan of his brain first. We kept sending righteous thoughts outside the room to eliminate the evil persecution of Xiaoming. We reminded each other that he was fine. The results showed only minor older stroke lesions, so the doctors stopped trying to move him to the intensive care unit.
Xiaoming was in a deep coma and was put on a drip. The doctors connected him to some equipment and tubes, and told us to monitor the equipment, saying that he could stop breathing at any minute.
The atmosphere was so tense in the ward that a heart patient in the same room asked to move to a different ward. We divided ourselves into two groups. A few practitioners and I stayed with Xiaoming, while Xiaoliang returned to my place to keep sending righteous thoughts with a few other practitioners.
Xiaoming woke up the next day. He looked very surprised. He asked a practitioner he knew well, “Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here?” I let him listen to Master's Fa lectures, but he did not show any response.
I moved close to his ear and asked him if he knew he was a Dafa practitioner. He thought hard and said he felt he was far away. He had lost all feeling on the left side of his body and could not look after himself. The doctors said he was still in danger. They still hadn't found the cause of his problem and said he could suffer a relapse.
Xiaoliang went home the next day. While sending righteous thoughts at noon, he felt very sad and asked Master in his heart: “Master, why is Xiaoming getting worse when so many practitioners are sending righteous thoughts to help him? Why can the evil still persecute my fellow practitioner so unscrupulously? Where have we fallen short?”
Suddenly, he saw a big gray mountain. It was so tall that he could not see the top and so wide he could not see around it. Two golden Chinese characters appeared on the mountain – together they meant “notions." A beam of golden light from the characters came straight at his chest, and he immediately saw three of his notions about Xiaoming: He doesn't cooperate with other practitioners. He's capable but doesn't use his ability properly; he has a bad temper.
Xiaoliang understood straight away: So, this is where the problem is!
He came to the understanding that it was not only a matter of cultivation for the practitioner in tribulation, but also a matter for all practitioners involved to change their notions.
On the surface, we were all trying to help the practitioner to eliminate the evil persecution and hoped that he would change for the better, but in our hearts, there existed all kinds of negative notions about him. We were blaming him for not doing well enough and held grudges against him. All this formed a huge gray mountain in other dimensions, separating the practitioner from the rest of the body of practitioners, thus allowing space for the evil factors to exist and to persecute the practitioner.
Our negative thoughts and notions also suppressed the power of our righteous thoughts. When a fellow practitioner suffers tribulation, we should unconditionally and sincerely help him. This is what every Dafa disciple should do and must do well. This is our responsibility.
We should let go of our own self at critical moments, not be attached to the shortcomings of fellow practitioners, not bear any grudges, be broadminded and generous, look at things with righteous thoughts, and play a positive role under any circumstances.
Five or six practitioners who played a key role in dealing with the matter gathered at my place the next morning and we had a sharing. Xiaoliang recalled what he saw in other dimensions when Master gave him the hint. He said he indeed had three notions about Xiaoming. He found them and let go.
He asked us all to search inward. I thought I was pretty nice to Xiaoming. He was a fellow practitioner and a relative. I thought I treated him nicer than my own family members.
But I also had some notions about him, similar to Xiaoliang's. I kept in mind he had been persecuted and things hadn't been easy for him, so I didn't have the heart to point out his shortcomings.
As I was sharing these notions, I felt much more relaxed, as if something that had been pressing on my heart was removed. I told others that I felt like I was on the right track. The others also talked and found their own notions and negative thoughts about Xiaoming.
We agreed that we would share our understanding with other practitioners when we saw them so that we could improve together. I would share with those practitioners in the hospital.
I asked Xiaoming to listen to Master's Fa lectures on the third day. He said the volume was too low for him to hear clearly. I put the headset to my ear and thought it was loud enough, and put it into his ear. I called the three practitioners out and told them about what we had shared the night before.
Two of them said they had similar notions about Xiaoming: he had a bad temper. He was capable but didn't like to cooperate. The third practitioner said she didn't know Xiaoming and she just came to send righteous thoughts to support him. They all agreed that we should look within instead of holding any negative thoughts about him.
We went back to the ward about seven or eight minutes later. Xiaoming suddenly said he could hear the recording clearly. I then called the male practitioner to come outside. He had been sitting with Xiaoming throughout the night. I told him briefly about our sharing and we went back into the ward. Xiaoming told us he could now see us clearly.
We were all very happy and thought his arm and leg must have recovered, too. I asked him to raise his leg, but he didn't want to, saying dully, “I'm paralyzed. I'm done. Just leave me alone.” I pulled up his bedding and asked him to move his toes, and everyone encouraged him. His toes indeed moved.
I then urged him to raise his leg. He raised his leg up high. But he said sadly that he had lost his arm. I noticed that his left arm moved up to smooth his hair, so I grabbed it and said, “Your arm was up here. There's nothing wrong with it.” Everyone laughed.
Xiaoming ate a lot of noodles at lunchtime. He could move about by the afternoon. He could use the restroom by himself. We also clarified the facts about Falun Gong to other patients and the doctors. They also witnessed the miraculous power of Dafa. Xiaoming was discharged from the hospital on the fourth day.
In just one hour, Xiaoming regained his hearing and vision and the symptoms of hemiplegia all disappeared. The power of Dafa is so miraculous, so extraordinary, and so wonderful. It is beyond words.
In fact, all we did was have a sincere talk and looked within the night before and shared with practitioners in the hospital that next morning. We understood that we should truly look inward, rectify ourselves, change our notions, and let go of all negative thoughts about our fellow practitioner. Other than that, we didn't do anything else.
I have gained so much understanding during this process. It's all the evil persecution, whether it's the illegal arrest or the false appearance of sickness karma, whether it's financial tribulation or being unable to walk one's path righteously. They vary only in form.
As for practitioners in tribulation, they must firmly believe in Master and in Dafa and strengthen their righteous thoughts, look within, and improve themselves instead of relying on others. If they have strong righteous thoughts, they will naturally make it through by themselves, or with a bit of help from fellow practitioners.
However, when we regard the matter as a task for the whole body--and we usually do when the practitioner in question is not in a good cultivation state or it has been dragging on for a long time and other practitioners have mixed in their own notions, or it has something to do with practitioners around him in the first place--we need to look inside.
I used to think that practitioners in tribulation must improve themselves first, otherwise, no matter how hard we try to help, it won't have much effect.
Another layer of the Fa was revealed to me this time: As long as practitioners involved all truly look within and cultivate themselves well and treat the issue as their own and face up to it together, that solid cultivation will create a righteous energy field, the cultivation state of the practitioner in tribulation will get better and better, and he would also improve, and all those tribulations will be dissolved miraculously.
We began to pay attention to solid cultivation later in our coordination work and to making improvements together instead of just busying ourselves with tasks. We all put ourselves in the situation in our sharing and truly searched inward instead of merely trying to help other practitioners in tribulation. In this way, we achieved “twice the results with half the effort,” and sometimes we experienced miracles.
There is more. In our cultivation, we must pay attention to changing our human notions. Practitioners around us have been very magnanimous and protective of Xiaoming. They held few notions about him, without major conflicts or grudges.
However, in other dimensions, these notions could form a huge mountain, causing Xiaoming's physical body to be persecuted until his life was threatened. Even when we tried so hard to send righteous thoughts to dissolve it, we couldn't do it. How scary that was!
Cultivators' negative thoughts not only interfere with themselves, but can also harm fellow practitioners. In fact, Master has already told us what to do when sending righteous thoughts:
“… thinking about eliminating the bad thoughts, karma, bad notions, and external interference in their minds” (Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference ).
We must pay attention to constantly eliminating our own bad notions.