(Minghui.org) About two weeks ago, I suffered a sudden, severe migraine. The pain came in spasms a few seconds apart.
I had come to the enlightenment a year and a half ago that the old forces were weak and insignificant, so I had been taking them lightly while sending righteous thoughts to eliminate them. I did not think they were able to interfere with me in any meaningful way.
Master recently taught us,
“Similarly, I have told you that while a person lives he inevitably makes karma—by eating, dwelling, moving about, interacting with others in this world, and so on.”
“For this reason, as cultivators we don’t consider experiencing something a bit unpleasant or trying in our daily lives to be a bad thing.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference,” Team Yellow Translation)
Thus, I took the migraine as a form of shedding karma or Master helping me cleanse my head. I did not take it seriously.
It lasted for two days, during which time I could not eat or sleep as normal due to the unbearable pain, before I started to realize that it would hinder my truth clarification activities if left unchecked.
Because my mother is also a Dafa practitioner, she said, “It could be the old forces' interference and persecution. I will help you send righteous thoughts.”
She and my son, who is also a practitioner, sat down and sent righteous thoughts for half an hour. The pain was significantly reduced. After the half hour session, my son had pain all over his body and he had cramps in his hands.
Seeing this, I suddenly realized that it was the old forces interfering with me and while my son was sending forth righteous thoughts for me, they had begun to interfere with him.
I started to send righteous thoughts myself. The strong and powerful energy kept flowing without any interruption. My headache subsided and I enjoyed a sound sleep that night. The next morning I had a quick breakfast and set out to distribute Dafa materials as usual.
I learned my lesson through this episode. Denying the old forces must be done thoroughly and without any condition.
Some practitioners in my local group have been struggling with illness karma or domestic discord. Although they have been sending righteous thoughts regularly, the interference has lasted half a year and even several years without any improvement.
Master told us,
“Except for newer students, from July 20 of 1999 on, Master hasn't created any personal cultivation tests for you, and that's because overall your personal cultivation has changed in every respect so that it's in the direction of saving sentient beings and validating Dafa.” (Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference)
As Dafa practitioners who started practicing prior to July 20, 1999, we have passed the period of personal cultivation and now is the time to assist Master in Fa-rectification.
In other words, the persecution and interference imposed on us by the evil forces are intended to impede Master's Fa-rectification and prevent it from achieving the best outcome. The evil forces' excuse is that practitioners have attachments and karma and that they want to help practitioners upgrade their cultivation levels.
If we still regard ourselves as being in the stage of personal cultivation, we will bear the karma for our future consummation. That intent is a selfish one and puts us in the first place, instead of thinking about saving people and our roles in the Fa-rectification.
Master said:
“......to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials For Further Advancement)
When we encounter any incident or tribulation, we must view it from the perspective of Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings. Only when we let go of our selfish mindsets can our righteous thoughts be pure and truly effective. Such righteous thoughts will be able to eliminate the evils quickly.
Master said,
“I can tell you explicitly that early on I had planned on ending the persecution this year......” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference,” Team Yellow Translation)
I was saddened to read this. Master is rectifying the entire cosmos. All has been done except the Earth and this human world. Master has endowed us with the glory of being a particle in the Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings.
But because we have not followed closely the Fa-rectification process and have not saved enough people, the process has had to be prolonged once again, delaying the whole Fa-rectification.
Needless to say, recognizing that the time for personal cultivation is over does not mean that we don't need to cultivate ourselves. As long as we are living in the human world, we will be influenced by human emotions and notions, attachments and karma.
To counteract all of these, we have to study the Fa well to improve ourselves. We can also exchange understandings with fellow practitioners and read Minghui articles to find our shortcomings.
We should search within when facing conflicts and examine each thought according to the Fa. However, we must never follow the old forces' arrangements in our cultivation.