(Minghui.org) Several mornings ago, I suddenly felt a light ache in my left-upper tooth. I initially paid little attention to it and just thought, “Oh, perhaps it is the result of some excessive body heat due to changes in the weather.”
I did not immediately realize that this was a human thought, and the old forces thus saw an opportunity to attack me. By that evening, the toothache had become so severe that even drinking water made me tremble with pain.
I eventually realized that this was the old forces’ doing. I sat down and started to send righteous thoughts. Nevertheless, the pain continued. Soon, half of my face was in pain and I was unable to open my left eye. I was unable to concentrate on reading Dafa books or listen to audio recordings.
I looked inward and identified many of my prior wrongdoings. I knew that I had not cultivated my speech well, and always liked to make my opinion heard. I had very high requirements for my kids, and often criticized them due to my attachment of showing off and a general fighting mentality. I enjoyed watching ordinary people's TV, especially some Korean entertainment programs. Although I had been doing the three things, I could rarely reach a state of inner peace. When sending righteous thoughts, I was often disturbed by all sorts of human thoughts.
And yet, I knew very clearly that despite my human attachments, I have Master. I will follow Master's guidance and eliminate my attachments. I will not acknowledge the old force's arrangements!
I kept sending righteous thoughts throughout the night. Sometimes the pain was better and other times it got worse. I thought of how much Master must have to endure for saving us; even simple toothache karma was almost unbearable for me! I felt Master's mercy. I cried.
After sending my kids off to school the next morning, I thought of not going out to do my usual morning exercise since I got very little sleep the night before due to the toothache. I immediately realized that this thought was from the old forces, who did not want me to go. I was the only person in charge at the exercise site. If I didn’t go, other people who were looking for Falun Dafa might miss their chance. So I went to do the exercises as usual. I did not feel much pain during the exercises.
The pain got worse. All my teeth on the left side started to hurt. The pain was non-stop. Suddenly an old saying appeared in my head, “Toothache is not a disease, yet it hurts to death.” Right away I thought, “This was an ordinary person’s thinking. It would not apply it to me as I am a Dafa disciple!”
I continued to send righteous thoughts, but the pain persisted. I remembered Master's words:
“Sending righteous thoughts is extremely effective in these cases! They are annihilated in large batches. But there are a lot of them, given how big this cosmos is; and the cosmos consists of many layers. So after you have wiped these things out, shortly after, before long, they might infiltrate again, and you need to eliminate them again. So you need to keep sending righteous thoughts like this, and persist with it for some time, before you will see obvious results. Don’t lose confidence just because, after feeling good following a while of sending righteous thoughts, things don’t seem to go well again. I can tell you that they are using this approach to wear you down—to whittle away at your strong sense of conviction. So you need to be alert to these things.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)
I knew that my righteous thoughts had eliminated a large amount of the evil forces, but there still existed layers of decayed foul substances. When was this going to end? I felt somewhat helpless, since I did not know how long it would last and how long I could withstand the pain.
The third night, my entire left face hurt badly, and so did the left side of my neck. I had not eaten anything for three days, as it was painful even to take a sip of water. I felt that I had reached a breaking point and decided to go to see a dentist after the morning exercises next day. The dentist advised that I have a root canal. It was going to be costly. I suddenly felt that I should not be there at all. I told the dentist that I would not do the treatment. “I will endure it,” I said. “No problem.”
I think my firm righteous thought did it. When I returned home, I found the pain was significantly reduced. I sat on the couch and closed my eyes. There was a feeling in my hurting tooth, like a big tree had been uprooted. There was a very light pain; a comfortable, healing type of pain.
Master had pulled out the root of the old forces for me! Thank you Master! Tears covered my face. I was so grateful. Master was always there, guiding and protecting me! I sent more righteous thoughts to eliminate all remaining bad substances.
While sending righteous thoughts, I came to understand that all feelings like pain, numbness, bitterness, hunger, heat, coldness, tiredness, etc., are human feelings, which only work at the human level. When I send righteous thoughts, I can observe these feelings peacefully, but do not feel them. They cannot disturb me. If one has human thoughts and wishes to feel them, they will take control over you.
I did no longer felt the toothache. However, I felt a slight spicy taste around the tooth. I think it was due to my attachment to spicy food. I used to enjoy spicy food very much. Obviously it was another attachment.
Master said:
“Eating, but caring not to taste—The palate’s attachments severed.”(“Abiding in the Dao,” Hong Yin)
I finally passed this sick karma test. I would like to share this experience with my fellow practitioners. It is important to maintain righteous thoughts and not follow ordinary people's notions. We shall never lose our confidence in Dafa!
Category: Improving Oneself
