(Clearwisdom.net) A practitioner from our local area died on November 22, 2005. Before her death, she spared no effort in clarifying the truth, from our county to the nearby counties and cities, from her family members, relatives and friends to all corners of society. All people she came into contact with--laborers, farmers, students, officials, police officers--she clarified the truth to everyone.
At about 7:10 p.m. on November 19, 2005, the practitioner stumbled while carelessly going downstairs which resulted in a serious head injury. She had internal bleeding in her head and lost consciousness. The people at the hospital were unable to rescue her and she died at the age of 57.
I learned from a practitioner who knew the practitioner that died well, that early in October last year, she had learned that her husband had an extra-marital relationship. She was greatly traumatized by the situation. Grief, indignation, and humiliation entwined her. She was trapped in emotion (qing) and couldn't extricate herself from it. At first she grieved and was indignant, but her husband's rudeness and arbitrariness led her to hire people to tail him and the other woman. Her strong attachment prevented her from doing well the three things that a practitioner should do. She couldn't study the Fa with a peaceful mind and often stared blankly while holding the book. She often forgot to clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts, or did them with difficulty.
After finding out about her condition, fellow practitioners went to her home to study the Fa and share with her. They told her about her attachment and the danger of it. She expressed that she would let go of the attachment and overcome the test. But actually, she didn't let go of it. She often cried when she was alone. Her mind was preoccupied and her behavior was influenced by it. The evil took advantage of her weakness and succeeded in its attempt to end her life.
This practitioner's death caused us to reflect deeply. One time in May, she had shown serious symptoms of a disease. Non-practitioners thought that there was no way that she could recover. However, through studying the Fa and sharing with fellow practitioners, she developed righteous thoughts and found her attachment; she thus overcame the test. But in November, she died, persecuted by evil. She was seriously persecuted twice, but the results were completely different the second time. What was the reason?
"Whether you can let go of ordinary human attachments is a fatal test on your way to becoming a truly extraordinary being. Every disciple who truly cultivates must pass it, for it is the dividing line between a cultivator and an everyday person." ("True Cultivation" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Since practitioners cultivate among ordinary people, it is inevitable that they will have attachments and human notions. Whether you can let go of these human attachments is the dividing line between a cultivator and an everyday person. You are a cultivator if you can let go of them; otherwise you are an everyday person. When that practitioner was persecuted to near death the first time, and non-practitioners around her thought that she would definitely die, she still had righteous thoughts.
"When Disciples Have Sufficient Righteous Thoughts, Master Has the Almighty Power to Restore the Whole Cosmos."(from Hong Yin II, provisional translation)
Master and the Fa-guardian gods could then eliminate the evil for her and save her from dying. This is the mercy of Master and the power of Dafa.
When the practitioner was persecuted the second time, she couldn't let go of her strong attachment for a long time and conducted herself as an ordinary person. An everyday person's life should follow the principles for an everyday person, that is, she would go the path arranged by the old forces. Nobody can disobey the principles. Master's Fashen and the Fa-guardian gods could not help her when she was persecuted, even though they truly wanted to. The evil persecuted her with the excuse: "She can't let go of her attachments. She is not a practitioner, but an everyday person. An everyday person should follow my arrangements." The evil thus took advantage of her loophole and persecuted her to death.
Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference" on February 26, 2005:
"If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace."
We should never forget that we are Dafa practitioners. No matter whether we are validating the Fa or in our personal cultivation, we should maintain righteous actions and righteous thoughts. Then when we encounter tribulations, Master will protect us, and the evil will not dare to touch us.
The rapid progress of Fa-rectification requires from us practitioners that we constantly upgrade our xinxing. During the tribulation caused by her husband, the practitioner was traumatized and suffered greatly. It may indicate that she should have removed some attachments and upgraded her xinxing and thus improved.
Teacher said in "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be," October 9, 2005:
"But in reality, what human society takes to be truths are, from the perspective of the cosmos, inversions of truth; when humans go through hardship and suffer it is so that they may pay off karma and thereby have happiness in the future. A cultivator thus needs to cultivate by correct and upright truths. Going through hardship and suffering is an outstanding opportunity to remove karma, be cleansed of sin, purify the body, elevate your plane of thought, and rise in level-it's an extraordinarily good thing. This is a correct and upright Fa-truth. But as cultivation is lived out, when the suffering bears down on you and conflicts come up that hit upon the deepest part of you-and especially when it rattles the rigid notions you have-the test is really hard to pass. It can even be to the point that you know full well it's a test but still can't let go of your attachments."
Tribulations are really very painful and difficult to endure for an everyday person. But she was a practitioner. She should have followed the standard of Dafa and dealt with the problem with a calm mind. She should have taken the opportunity to look inward and find out her attachment so that she could have removed it.
"If the person did not create this situation for you, how could you upgrade your xinxing?" (Lecture four, Zhuan Falun, from March 2000 translation)
However, she didn't treat it this way.
In our cultivation, in clarifying the truth to save sentient beings, and in validating the Fa, we may come across tribulations that are even more serious than what this fellow practitioner had encountered. If we don't cultivate ourselves well, we cannot overcome these tests and hardships. It is even impossible for us to do the "three things" well. So Master emphasized again and again that practitioners should cultivate themselves well. Only when we cultivate ourselves solidly according to the standards of Dafa, can we walk our cultivation paths well and correctly.
