(Clearwisdom.net) I am from Dalian City and I am 68 years old. In the afternoon on November 24, 2004, I suddenly suffered from violent abdominal pain. It felt like my internal organs were tangled up and twisted. This condition lasted for several hours. I felt nauseated but I couldn't throw up. I was sweating so profusely that I soaked my clothes in just a moment. My stool was black. People all said it was a gastric hemorrhage. I couldn't eat anything for more than 10 days, and all I could take in was a small bottle of a soft drink each day. I couldn't fall asleep at night. I knew it was the old forces persecuting me, so I maintained a rational mind and righteous thoughts. This situation continued for two weeks, and now I am completely recovered.
The whole process was truly a fight between life and death. From this, I keenly realized that only when I firmly believed in Teacher and believed in Dafa, keep my righteous thoughts firm and put myself in the Fa at every moment, could I pass this tribulation. I could not have even a tiny bit of human thoughts, otherwise it would have been very difficult for me to pass this tribulation. The purpose for my sharing it today is to advance diligently and encourage those practitioners who have been persecuted by the "sickness demon."
To be honest, under normal circumstances, it's easy to speak of letting go of life and death, but it's not that easy at the critical moment, and my thoughts were extremely complex and intense. Before I started cultivation practice, I had serious heart trouble for four years and was sent to the emergency room several times. Besides this, I had hemorrhaged due to internal and external hemorrhoids, and suffered serious prolapse of the rectum, and for years, I had to use a pad to hold it in place, making it difficult to move. After I started practicing cultivation in Falun Dafa, all these symptoms were gone.
I underwent karma elimination four months after I started cultivation practice. The symptoms were the same of a heart attack: I sweated all over my body and had difficulty breathing, I felt as if I was being pierced by tens of thousands of needles in the chest, and it was extremely painful. It lasted for more than three hours. At that time, I indeed let go of life and death, and firmly believed in Teacher, so it went away quickly. From then on, I felt that my body was light, and I was very robust. Everyone said that I didn't look my age, almost 60. During this recent tribulation, I thought to myself, "I have passed the test of life and death, have eliminated almost all my karma, and have been relatively diligent in doing the three things in Fa-rectification. So why am I still being persecuted by the evil? What is my omission?" When the pain was very intense, I couldn't move a bit, and couldn't even talk.
At that point, my three sons-in-law, who are not practitioners, couldn't stand by anymore and held an emergency meeting. "We have to be responsible to our father-in-law. We must send him to the hospital if it doesn't look good." Upon hearing this, I suddenly awakened and realized that they were treating me like an ordinary person, not a Falun Gong practitioner. So I said to them peacefully and seriously, "I know you all want to be good to me. But what you don't understand is that I am not an everyday person. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, and Teacher is watching over me. Please don't panic, this is the old forces persecuting me. If I went to the hospital, I would be compromising with the evil and falling into their trap, and I might never come back again. Please don't worry about it, I guarantee it will be alright."
The three young men saw my sincerity and stopped talking about sending me to the hospital. I thought, "If I die, it would be a big influence on the people around me, because I have been clarifying the truth to them and promoting Dafa. Many neighbors have seen the changes in me after I started cultivation practice. In addition, I have not fulfilled my mission yet. Many of the world's people who have been deceived by the lies of Jiang's faction are waiting for me to clarify the truth to them. Perhaps because of this thought, I had a dream one night. I dreamed of two human skins on the ground. As soon as I put on one of them, I woke up immediately. I understood that, maybe my life on earth is over, and the old forces arranged for me to take off the human skin and leave, but because I have this thought of fulfilling my mission, Teacher let me put on the human skin and come back again. At the same time, I understood that we older practitioners never know when our predestined time is, so it requires us to be more diligent. Cultivation practice is serious. I remember Teacher said,
"There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your mind goes wrong a little bit, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over." (Zhuan Falun, 2000)
Teacher said in the article "An Explicit Reminder,"
"Our cultivation system does cultivate both mind and body; a cultivator can prolong his life while he practices cultivation. But some people have not diligently made progress in their In-Triple-World-Law cultivation, and they always linger at a certain level. After much effort to move up to another level, they then linger at that level again. Cultivation is serious, so it is difficult to guarantee that one's life will not come to an end at the predestined time." (Essentials for Further Advancement)
Therefore we must realize that the form of cultivation practice for Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples is doing the three things well so as to keep up with Fa-rectification.
During these more than 10 days, I indeed came to understand some principles, and realized some attachments of mine. At the peak of pain, I recited,
"When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it." (Zhuan Falun)
Later on, I enlightened to the understanding that in the previous period, that of personal cultivation, it's good enough if one can endure while eliminating sickness karma and suffering tribulation. However, in Fa-rectification period, it's the old forces persecuting me, and I cannot passively endure and suffer: I should eliminate the dark minions and completely deny them, and at the same time look for omissions in myself and get rid of my attachments. Therefore as long as I can move, I will study the Fa, practice the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts. If I could not move due to the pain, I would recite "Lunyu" [preface of Zhuan Falun] and Hongyin [the collection of Teacher's poems], keep my mind clear and not give the evil a chance.
In addition, I also found my omission. Before this tribulation occurred, for a period of time, deep down I felt pretty content with what I'd done in terms of doing the three things every day. I had become complacent. I thought it was no big deal to watch and enjoy TV sitcoms. During those days, everything was fine. After a while, I realized that I had slacked off, so I improved. Then immediately this tribulation happened. I enlightened that when I'm slacking off, the demons are pleased and therefore nothing happens, but when I become diligent, the demons are afraid, so they take advantage of my loopholes to persecute me. This is caused by my omission.
I also enlightened to the understanding that the external conditions are not something to be ignored. In this period of time, my having firm righteous thoughts is important, and the environment is also important. The field of our family is very righteous. My wife and daughters have continued, as always, in studying the Fa, sharing experiences and sending forth righteous thoughts. Moreover, we are diligent in organizing our fellow practitioners living nearby to study the Fa together without delay. In experience sharing, we try our best to speak up about the real thoughts deep down, and expose every thread of our thoughts, and then we understand it from the perspective of Fa principles and find our omissions. We never felt it was adding burdens to others, because Dafa practitioners are one body. Teacher said,
"The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things."("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")
Everybody will benefit from the principle that each other has enlightened to.
After about two weeks, I was completely normal. My three sons-in-law were amazed. My third daughter's parents-in-law previously didn't believe Dafa's power, but they came to see me in person and said emotionally, "Falun Dafa is indeed wonderful!"
I have understood so much from this incident, and I'll remember it with gratitude constantly and forever. From now on, I will do what Teacher requires us to do.
"Rest momentarily for self-reflection, add righteous thoughts
Analyze shortcomings explicitly, advance again whole-heartedly"
(Hongyin II, "Be Rational, Awaken" -- provisional translation)
