(Clearwisdom.net) Something occurred to me after reading the article “Can We Protect Ourselves?” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/3/25/124027.html ). In addition to the issue of whether we can help fellow practitioners remove sickness karma, I'd like to share some of my understandings.
A few years ago, the police took away a practitioner member of my family, and they stationed somebody to monitor my home. I immediately thought of notifying fellow practitioners and telling them not to come to my home, and I wanted to ask them to send forth righteous thoughts for my family member. At that time, I was experiencing sickness karma, and I was only able to make phone calls from home. However, I spent a day and a half on the phone without getting hold of a single practitioner. Feeling quite without hope, a sentence of the Fa occurred to me, “A Buddha is mighty capable, and he could wipe out all of humankind’s illnesses with a wave of his hand.” (“Lecture Seven” in Zhuan Falun) I told myself, “It's nothing but a brainwashing session and a single practitioner, I should be able to solve it myself. Why am I relying on fellow practitioners?” I calmed down and sat down to send forth righteous thoughts to disintegrate all evil that was persecuting my family member.
As soon as I did that, the doorbell rang, and, surprisingly, a fellow practitioner appeared at the door. She told me she was passing by and just wanted to pay a short visit. So she conveyed my message to all fellow practitioners and solved the safety issue. Then we started sending forth righteous thoughts collectively to rescue my family member. As a result my family member was soon released.
Looking back, nothing has been coincidental. I know Master has been helping me all along. When I was anxiously calling practitioners, I was looking outward and forgot I was a practitioner that has supernormal capabilities. Master must have been worried, so He imprinted the Fa in my mind and let me enlighten to it. I then enlightened to it, and my righteous thoughts came forth. Even though they were not as powerful and pure as they should be, I had returned to the Fa after all. Then, with Master's ingenious arrangement, a seemingly unsolvable problem was resolved right away. Master has been doing everything for us.
Can we protect ourselves and remove danger ourselves? Absolutely! By righteous thoughts. Master has told us untiringly,
“...the Fa will be with you when your thoughts are righteous, and this is the greatest assurance. But on the other hand, when your righteous thoughts are inadequate and not in line with the Fa, you will be cut off from the Fa’s power, and it will seem like you are alone and getting no help. Even if the things you are doing are Dafa things, you still have to conform to the Fa or else the Fa’s power will not be there.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan” in 2006)
“When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn back the tide” (“The Master-Disciple Bond” in Hong Yin Vol. II)
Another matter occurred to me, which is about helping fellow practitioners eliminate sickness karma. In my humble opinion, even though we all pay a lot of attention to sending forth righteous thoughts for fellow practitioners to eliminate the evil factors that persecute them, we have fallen short in helping them to look within, remove attachments, and strengthen their righteous thoughts. Master has said, “It is a principle of this universe that nobody should interfere with what you pursue.” (“Lecture One” in Zhuan Falun) In my understanding, those practitioners who have big sickness karma tribulations normally have big loopholes in their xinxing or have unconsciously acknowledged the sickness and failed to treat it righteously, so the evil has taken advantage of it.
Righteous thoughts come from the Fa. Therefore, the most important aspect and most effective way to help fellow practitioners overcome sickness karma is by studying the Fa with them. Fellow practitioners should help them to improve their xinxing and rectify their thoughts according to the Fa.
My personal experience speaks for itself. Several years ago, I was suddenly stricken by sickness karma. Fellow practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts for me, and I recovered relatively fast. However, it happened in an on and off way. Even though I constantly looked within and removed attachments, I could not recover completely.
Looking within, I came to understand that, while fellow practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts for me, Master was able to help me because my xinxing met the requirements of my realm at the time and my righteous thoughts were sufficient. Therefore I recovered relatively quickly. However, to continue that speed of recovery required stronger righteous thoughts and higher xinxing. In other words, I needed to reach a higher realm. But, because I couldn't study the Fa wholeheartedly and my xinxing was not improved in time, and, instead, I was feeling quite good about myself for the praise I received, the sickness karma repeated itself over and over again. Moreover, I unknowingly acknowledged a lot of human notions about sickness during the process. Consequently, I failed to completely break away from the persecution in the form of sickness karma.
Not long ago, an elderly practitioner was critically ill, even though her mind was clear. Many practitioners gathered around her to send forth righteous thoughts, and her condition improved. However, it worsened the next day. So the practitioners send forth righteous again, and her condition improved again. But it repeated the next day. The practitioner was subjected to the persecution of sickness karma for a long time, even though she believed in Master and the Fa. However, she had never let go of her attachment to the illness, and deep down she believed it was an illness. We decided to help her rectify her thoughts, from the root, after the tribulation passed. But sadly, she passed away, and the opportunity was forever lost.
If only, during the five or six days she appeared critically ill, we had studied the Fa with her and helped her look within and eliminate her notions about illness layer by layer, rekindle her righteous thoughts, and at the same time send forth righteous thoughts collectively to eliminate the evil, then we would have been able to turn the bad thing of sickness karma persecution into a great thing of displaying Dafa's mighty power and saving people. The combination of her righteous thoughts and that of fellow practitioners' would have certainly worked wonders.
Master's Fa rectification is approaching its end. We need to become more diligent because the closer to the end, the higher and stricter the requirements for Dafa disciples are. If it required 30 percent or 50 percent of righteous thoughts in the past to negate the persecution in the form of sickness karma, then it requires 80 percent, 100 percent, and even 120 percent of righteous thoughts now. Dafa disciples' levels have to constantly elevate in cultivation. Fa-rectification is constantly progressing, and Dafa disciples can only keep up with the progress of Fa rectification by constantly improving their xinxing and strengthening their righteous thoughts.
These are my understanding. Please point out anything improper.
