(Clearwisdom.net)
The health of a certain male Dafa practitioner was fine when he was released from the labor camp, but it suddenly deteriorated two months ago. He can hardly eat anything and passes blood in his stool. He has been unable to walk and has become terribly emaciated and has even occasionally lost control of his main consciousness. He looks like he is on the verge of death.
His fellow practitioners helped him to study the Fa, to look into what happened in his heart, and to send forth righteous thoughts. However, his health still kept deteriorating, despite our help and encouragement.
In the last couple of days, I also heard of two similar cases as follows:
(1) An 80-year-old female practitioner, who lives together with her relatives, suddenly collapsed one day. The other practitioners circled her and sent forth righteous thoughts. After that, she felt a little bit better. They helped her to study the Fa and to see what was wrong with her. The old lady said that her xinxing had been good even before cultivation, so there was nothing wrong with herself. She felt bad again after saying that. Another practitioner sternly said something to her, and then the old lady yelled out, "I found what is wrong." After that her bad state left her.
(2) The members of a family are all Dafa practitioners. One day the old lady suddenly felt very poorly. So all the others sat down around her and helped her to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts. The old lady said, "I feel different today, and what Teacher said is so clear." She continued that she did not actually believe in Teacher's Fa in the past, though she practiced Dafa for so many years. It was then that she finally came to believe in Dafa. Her health improved immediately.
So far I have heard of more than 10 such cases. In some of them, the practitioner in tribulation can break through the persecution, but in others they cannot. As for the cases themselves, they caused some negative influence among practitioners, though they can never damage the Fa. In some of the cases, the evil found gaps with the practitioners' fundamental attachments and, therefore, brought severe persecution on their physical bodies. In other cases, the evil tried to prevent the practitioners from defending the Fa and saving sentient beings, because they found these practitioners thoughts and actions were not consistent with the Fa in some aspects.
This persecution manifests in the human world and is reflected in practitioners' seemingly poor health. Once we understand where the problem lies and become consistent with the Fa again, we will be able to deny the persecution thoroughly. However, if one fails to find the essential points, there will be endless interference and persecution. The efforts of other practitioners cannot take the place of one's own cultivation. However, when our fellow practitioners' efforts fail to help them to understand the issue, does that mean we still have something unclear about the Fa in the face of these matters?
This is my present personal understanding, although I have not completely understood how the abovementioned practitioner should do better in these matters.
In discussing these similar matters, Teacher said in Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,
"For a long time now some students just haven't gotten rid of their fundamental attachments! And as things have piled up, at the end they aren't able to overcome them and their tribulations get big. When problems occur, instead of searching for problems in their xinxing, fundamentally improving themselves, or truly letting go of the matter and coming through in an open and dignified manner by another route, they focus on the thing at hand--"Goodness... why is it that I still can't overcome this thing? I've done better today, so it should have improved a little. Tomorrow I'll do even better and it should improve some more." He can never let go of that thing. On the surface it appears that he's letting it go--"Look, I'm doing well now." You're doing well now but you are doing well now for its sake. You aren't doing that for the purpose of doing what a true Dafa disciple should do!
[...]
"Why don't you stop and think about it: Why is someone interfering with you? Why is it able to interfere with you? Is it because you have an attachment, or because you have something you can't let go of? Why don't you look at yourself? The true reason lies with you yourself, and that's the only reason it can exploit your gap! Don't you have Master watching over you? Even when an ordinary person shouts out "Falun Dafa is good" today, Master will protect him, since he's shouted those words I can't not protect him amidst the evil. And how much more so am I protecting you cultivators! In some isolated cases some students really did come down with an incurable disease. But think about it, so many people who had severe health problems or incurable diseases before they learned the Fa became well after learning Dafa, so why is it that some students on the other hand can't make things work? Is it that Dafa makes distinctions among sentient beings? Is it that I, your Master, treat students differently? I really have to ask you: Are you truly cultivating? Have you truly followed Dafa's requirements? Are you clarifying the facts with the human mindset of disagreeing with the persecution of Falun Gong, or are you validating the Fa and saving sentient beings truly from the standpoint of a Dafa disciple? Yes, the old forces have arranged for some people to get in, but why is it that most people can handle things now but you can't? Haven't I taught the Fa to you?!
"When problems arise, when something doesn't feel right, you have to look at yourself! Look at where you were wrong and allowed the evil to exploit your gaps. If you were wrong you should recognize it and do better. Don't forget, you are all Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples!"