(Minghui.org) I’m 77 and I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. After studying the Fa, I’d like to share my recent insights on the importance of taking small matters seriously.
Before I began practicing Dafa, I had a dozen chronic illnesses. Although I received treatments (my spouse is a doctor), nothing completely cured them, and I suffered greatly. But just a few months after I began practicing Dafa, all my illnesses vanished. Thus, I placed myself in Master’s hands.
For over 20 years, I haven’t taken a single pill and I haven’t thought about nutritional supplements, health products, tonics, or any fitness methods. Every year, my work unit offered free, high-end free physical checkups, but I never participated because I knew I had no illnesses.
Over the years, I have learned from many personal experiences that if I think a problem cannot be resolved through cultivation, it means I haven’t cultivated well. I will definitely improve in that area going forward, because I have Master. No ordinary people’s methods are able to resolve the issue from its root.
I’ve repeatedly experienced illness tribulations. Some passed quickly; others lasted a month. Whether these tribulations were big or small—or even life-and-death—as long as I found my attachment, improved my xinxing, and conducted myself according to the requirements of Dafa, I always passed them quickly under Master’s protection. I have lived very happily. My days have been full and fulfilling, and I’m cheerful every day. I just do the three things I’m supposed to do. Others say I look like I’m in my sixties, and people often ask me how I maintain my health. I use this as an opening to clarify the truth about the persecution.
However, this February I went through a somewhat prolonged tribulation. My body developed symptoms similar to a cold. I didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable, but I couldn’t stop coughing, thick phlegm was produced, I had a nasal discharge, and my eyes kept tearing up. This made it difficult for me to clarify the truth to people—how would it look if I told people how wonderful Falun Dafa is, while I kept coughing, spitting up phlegm, and blowing my nose?
A month later, after I identified my attachment, the illness symptoms disappeared. But they soon returned, but less intense this time. I kept looking inward, searching for the root attachment that was causing these symptoms. I tried everything I had previously done to pass tribulations, but this time they weren’t very effective—I still didn’t know what the problem was. But one thing was clear: this was interference, because it seriously interfered with my ability to do the three things.
While I studied the Fa, one passage moved me deeply. I felt as if Master were right in front of me, speaking to me very seriously. I realized Master was giving me a hint. In the past, when I saw this passage, I just read it. Why did I notice it today? I read it several times and couldn’t calm down. I shouted in my heart, “Fellow practitioners! Let’s all study this passage of Master’s teaching!”
Master said:
“Some of our practitioners are struggling with passing the tests of sickness karma. Don’t think that it’s necessarily something major [that causes that]. You might think that you haven’t done anything majorly wrong, and that you are very firm in your faith in the Fa. However, you shouldn’t treat the little issues you have like they are nothing. The evil will seize upon any gaps. Many practitioners have even passed away on account of little things; it really was due to something very minor. That’s because cultivation is something serious, and requires having no gaps. If for a long time you haven’t dealt with those things through cultivation, small as they may be, if you haven’t taken them seriously for a prolonged period of time, then it is a big issue. Many people have passed away on account of such things. The old forces wouldn’t venture to directly persecute Dafa disciples at present—none of the larger beings that assume a form would venture to do that. Then what sorts of things are doing that now? Things like worms, bugs, bacteria, and all kinds of foul things like that. 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”, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)
Master’s words pointed out my major loophole—I failed to take small matters seriously. About two years ago, a young practitioner in our Fa-study group said he had a dream in which he pulled worms out of his arm. I said, “When you send righteous thoughts, add a thought to eliminate the worms and bacteria from your dimensional field.” However, I failed to take the practitioner’s words as a mirror that reflected my own issue.
After studying that passage of Fa, I began paying attention to small matters and looked inward. I also focused on sending righteous thoughts—I focused on eliminating worms, bacteria, and all kinds of messy things in my own dimensional field layer by layer. I always disliked snakes, worms, and similar things; I’m afraid of them and I don’t even want to see them. I find them disgusting. I realized this was the right time to eliminate them! Very quickly, the false appearance of illness disappeared, and my body returned to normal.
One night, I dreamed that the ground in my courtyard was really clean. There were many plants around and a very tall tree, from which red and yellow leaves drifted to the ground. It was a beautiful scene. I leisurely swept up the leaves. I realized Master was encouraging me: the small-range dimensional field around me had temporarily become clean, but the areas farther away still required long-term, continuous effort.
However, in this mental state, every time I sent forth righteous thoughts, I felt that at the lowest level of a larger-dimensional field there was a thick layer that was very hard to move, but I didn’t know why.
I continued sending forth righteous thoughts, studying the Fa, and looking inward: Aren’t I a Falun Dafa practitioner who is supposed to cultivate great compassion to better save sentient beings? Where was my compassion? I realized that my disgusted mindset toward these things was a problem. I reflected on it: such things are also created by the universal Dafa and are governed by their own main consciousnesses. Many lives among them could be saved. Although I don’t like them, they are quite pitiful. No matter why they reincarnated into this life form, I still want to save every life that can be saved.
I told all lives that are worms, bacteria, and similar beings, as well as all lives within their spheres of control: “The universe is now undergoing Fa-rectification. Falun Dafa practitioners have the great mission of saving sentient beings, and you must not interfere with us. You may live in the places where you belong, but you must not infiltrate practitioners’ dimensional fields or persecute them. Although some practitioners have loopholes in their cultivation, they will rectify themselves. During this special period, make the best choice, do not commit crimes against Dafa, and remember “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” Then, you will have a good future.”
When I sent forth righteous thoughts one morning, I saw thousands of baby-like faces, each about the size of an egg. They all stared at me intently. I was startled—so many lives were waiting to be saved! I immediately clarified the truth to them. In an instant, the feelings of aversion and disgust in my heart diminished, and I felt compassion for them.
I realized that even small matters offer cultivation opportunities. I discovered that there are many aspects of my daily life I hadn’t paid much attention to. Especially in cultivating my speech, I hadn’t done well at all. When I talked with ordinary people, I frequently said things that were not in line with the Fa. When I spoke to my relatives and friends, I was even more inclined to say whatever came to mind, but I felt I was being honest.
I paid even less attention when I talked to my family members. When my spouse, also a practitioner, was not diligent in cultivation or did things poorly, I often spoke harshly. When educating and tutoring my grandson, I sometimes became angry and was emotionally moved. Many times I neglected to cultivate my thoughts and speech in small matters. Although I’ve cultivated for many years and feel I’ve improved somewhat, I still do very poorly in many small matters.
I rarely focus on cultivating each and every thought. With many thoughts and a restless mind, it’s hard for me to calm down. I’m always thinking, and many of my thoughts are not aligned with the Fa. Although I’m busy doing the three things, my attachments resurface during free moments. I manage to catch and eliminate some, but others slip by. These are all areas I need to pay even more attention to moving forward.
Over the past few months, in addition to sending righteous thoughts at the set times, I added additional times and targeted specific things. Afterwards, I noticed some subtle changes in my body. For example, I had pharyngitis for many years before I began practicing, and it was basically cured after I cultivated. Still, there was always a slight sensation in my throat—not painful—but I could always feel it. Recently, I noticed it is completely gone. In recent years, some patches of skin on my face had become a bit rough. Others couldn’t see it, but I could feel it when I touched my face. It didn’t affect my truth-clarification, but I hadn’t figured out where the problem was. In the past few months, this also disappeared, and my skin is smooth again. Also, I had severe athlete’s foot since my teens. It got better after cultivation, but there was always some peeling at the base of the toes, and sometimes the area was very itchy. Now, it’s gone. All of these are miracles that appeared after taking small matters in cultivation seriously, changing my notions and behaviors that did not conform to the Fa, and eliminating the bad substances in my other dimensions.
We must never treat what seem to be trivial matters as insignificant. We must eliminate all our attachments and desires and not allow the old forces to exploit our loopholes. We should constantly cultivate every thought. While passing major tribulations well, we must also pay attention to passing very small ones well. We need to strictly follow Master’s teachings, seize the time to truly cultivate ourselves, and fulfill our great mission.