The Consequences of Playing a Prank

(Minghui.org) For nearly two weeks, the right side of my face was frozen, and it was painful. I also felt pain in the back of my skull, on the right side. I could not sleep well, and my mouth was lopsided, sloping to the left side when I talked. It seemed to me that one half of my face showed compassion, and the other half showed evil.

The day before I developed these problems, I had downloaded a program to my cellphone that allows one to take selfies with different hairstyles. I figured that I could use it to see what hairstyle suited me best. The app also can overlay images of dresses onto photos. After I downloaded the app, I tried it and saved some pictures.

In the evening, when my husband returned home, I showed the pictures to him. Suddenly, I thought of playing a prank by taking pictures of him and our son. My son realized what I was doing and played along. I had a fit of laughter when looking at their pictures, especially the one in which my son showed a slanted mouth, squinted his eyes and was in a woman's wedding dress.

The next morning I felt pain in the right side of my face and it got worse over the next several days. My face was also distorted. That alerted me, and I started to look within for my attachments, such as showing off, narcissism and lust. I send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate these bad thoughts. However, the pain became even worse. I thought to scrutinize what had happened that day. Still, I did not find anything wrong.

When my son sat in front of me one day, I realized that I looked exactly like the picture I had taken of him; I had a lopsided mouth and squinting eyes. I was frightened: were my physical problems caused by my attachment to playing pranks? I never imagined that this could be an attachment.

I often played pranks and thought that they amused others. Sometimes, I belittled myself to make others laugh, and at other times I mocked others with rude remarks, especially family members and friends. I never thought of that as something inappropriate. Even after I started cultivation in Falun Dafa, I never thought that was wrong.

After exchanging thoughts with fellow practitioners, I realized that my tribulation was indeed caused by this attachment. The pain in my face and skull weakened, and I was able to fall asleep at night. But I still thought there was a good side to playing a prank. Thus, my mouth and eyes did not fully recover.

Another practitioner and I discussed my tribulation, and I realized that playing a prank to amuse others is at the cost of insulting them. One does not consider other peoples’ feeling when playing a prank. Sometimes, I even found it funny when others suffered as a result of my little jokes.

This attachment is selfish and evil. Today, I wrote this article to expose my attachment. From now on, I will certainly pay attention to eliminating this attachment.