(Minghui.org) Master said,
“Once you bring up the word "illness," I am unwilling to listen.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
I thought about why Master said that. Master cleansed and purified practitioners’ bodies to “milk white” status from the beginning so that they could start cultivating at a very high level. In other words, a practitioner has no illness.
But practitioners occasionally have illness symptoms. This is because a person has accumulated karma during repeated reincarnations. The purpose of showing some symptoms is to eliminate the karma. But it is karma, not illness.
When practitioners call the karma a “sickness karma”, the term itself brings in the notion of illness. It becomes an attachment to illness. Your efforts to be diligent become a pursuit of reducing the suffering from the karma. This is not a righteous thought.
Practitioners who encounter sickness karma should realize it is a xinxing test. They should calm down, look within and decide whether this is interference from the old forces who have taken advantage of their lack of righteous thoughts.
I believe practitioners should abandon any thought of illness. Since the symptoms don't signify illness, we should not use words like sickness, illness or ailment. We should purge this illness image from our minds completely.
For many practitioners, their thoughts of a symptom on their bodies may follow this sequence: “Am I sick? No, I don’t acknowledge it. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner so I don’t have illness.” This appears very righteous but there's still some worry about the symptom. Thoughts of illness are always linked to some kind of suffering. Of course people don't want to be ill and don't want to suffer.
Some practitioners only start to look within when the symptoms become severe. They usually find a lot of attachments. They study the Fa more and do the exercises more. On the surface they appear more diligent.
But their minds were filled with all kinds of thoughts. They keep evaluating their symptoms, hoping that they will begin to disappear. The reason they're diligent is to reduce their suffering.
Since their motive is wrong, their symptoms linger a long time. Their situation might become better with the help of fellow practitioners. But as soon as the symptoms disappear, they slack off. They're no longer diligent because the symptoms are gone.
It appeared that they overcame sickness karma but their xinxing did not improve. They merely suffered and eliminated some karma. Since the goal of the test is to improve their xinxing, they didn’t pass the test in reality, so they will be tested again. If they can’t pass the test and hang onto the attachment, it may become a big tribulation.
Some practitioners fear sickness symptoms because they fear pain and suffering. But the symptoms help you improve xinxing, so practitioners should realize it's a good thing. Why do we fear discomfort? Are we refusing to raise our xinxing?
Some practitioners had cancer symptoms but then the “cancer” disappeared. How? I think they weren't attached to the illness. They completely forgot the symptoms, so they disappeared.
As a practitioners we strive to improve our xinxing and do the three things. When a practitioner only thinks of their mission to save more people, and their mind is filled with Fa, they won’t have any time to worry about sickness symptoms.
My understanding is that practitioners experiencing some symptoms should negate any interference from the old forces. They should eliminate the idea of illness, purify their minds, sincerely look within to find the attachment they ignored or didn't realize they had. If our main consciousnesses are strong and we continue to correct our thoughts, no symptom or karma can stop us.
I also believe a simple thought is better than a complex one. Simple doesn’t mean it's low level. I believe a practitioner with a simple mind can improve faster.
These are my personal understandings. Please correct me if they do not conform to the Fa.
Category: Improving Oneself