Eliminating the Concepts of Ego and Inferiority

(Minghui.org) Even though they seem to contradict each other, ego and inferiority complement each other. They manifest in various ways and represent two opposite states. Being in either state causes one to be unable to view themselves correctly from the perspective of the Fa.

People who are egotistical or arrogant think highly of themselves and look down on others. They usually have an inflated sense of self-importance and may believe they are superior and more intelligent. They are not willing to listen to other people’s opinions and try every possible means to justify their decisions, believing they are always right. Some Falun Dafa practitioners may have felt this way because they momentarily stepped off the cultivation path. Others developed negative thoughts and eventually succumbed to the old forces’ persecution.

People who feel inferior look down on themselves, have low self-esteem, and are self-deprecating. They are often depressed and lack confidence in their abilities. They constantly undervalue or belittle themselves, have a negative self-image, and feel uncertain. Practitioners with feelings of inferiority often fail to achieve their goals and do not believe they can succeed in cultivation. They may be unable to meet the requirements for Falun Dafa cultivators and may stop practicing.

Fa-rectification is nearly over, and the phenomenon of serious “sickness karma” is sprouting up in various regions. Some practitioners were bedridden for a long time, and some even passed away. Because of this some practitioners began to have doubts about Dafa. This phenomenon also had a very negative impact on their families and made it very difficult for practitioners to clarify the truth to people. Some who initially believed in Dafa and withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) no longer believed in Dafa.

But why are such things happening? I met with some practitioners who experienced sickness karma and I would like to share my understanding of the causes of these phenomena. If I say anything that is not on the Fa, please kindly point it out.

Ego Causes One to Disregard Others’ Opinions

One person began practicing Falun Dafa in the early days. She was steadfast, intelligent, and capable. She provided a place for practitioners to work on projects for years and actively participated in those projects.

When the CCP began persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999, she was fired from her government job and thus lost her primary income. Within a few years, she also lost two relatives because the CCP persecuted them to death. The heavy mental blow did not stop her. She continued walking firmly on the path of cultivation and coordinated the production of informational materials, such as flyers, about Falun Dafa.

When she developed severe illness karma, to help her, the other practitioners pointed out that she was stubborn and felt she was important, which she vehemently denied. Due to her dominant nature, she also controlled family matters, which often led to family disputes and troubles, causing her to become exhausted and she was unable to look inward and cultivate herself. In the end, she passed away and lost the opportunity to assist Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Dafa) in saving sentient beings in the human world.

Another elderly practitioner, who also practiced Falun Dafa since the early days, was clever and capable. She worked diligently and assertively, and was competitive and ambitious. Although she was arrested and sentenced many times, she never wavered in her belief in Master and Dafa. She took the lead in memorizing and studying the Fa, clarifying the truth, and saving people. Local practitioners admired her.

However, her insistence on “self” had always been particularly prominent. Sometimes, when her understanding clearly deviated from the principles of Dafa, practitioners kindly pointed it out to her, but she did not accept what they said. For several years, she stubbornly held onto her understanding and disregarded others’ advice on certain fundamental issues. She even refused to follow the requirements set out by Minghui and acted on her own initiative, trying to prove herself. She often failed to reach a consensus with fellow practitioners in Dafa projects aimed at validating the Fa, which caused a gap among fellow practitioners, and affected the overall collaboration of the local group.

Extreme Egotism

A person who had a certain social status was a knowledgeable and respected practitioner. In the early days of the CCP’s persecution, she was fired from her job for refusing to give up her belief in Dafa and was incarcerated in a labor camp. After she was released, she moved in with her parents. She became depressed and lay in bed all day. Her mother, also a practitioner, served her meals and took good care of her. With the help of fellow practitioners, she started practicing Falun Dafa again.

Because she was more educated, she gradually became arrogant and looked down on the other practitioners. She traveled around giving lectures on “high-level Dafa principles” and bragged about her cultivation. She said her goal was to help practitioners improve. She often stayed at practitioners’ homes for several months at a time, which negatively impacted them.

She created her own wording for sending righteous thoughts and spread it among those who did not study the Fa well and had a poor understanding of the Dafa teachings. She also took Master’s lectures out of context, compiled them into booklets, and asked her followers to learn, read, and memorize them, claiming that by using this shortcut in cultivation, they would learn faster and develop higher abilities. She and some of her followers even boasted that they had cultivated beyond the universe and had broken away from “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Their behavior was obviously inconsistent with the Fa and created confusion among those practitioners who had not studied the Fa well.

After Master published his lectures pointing out that practitioners giving speeches severely violated the Fa, many stopped following her. However, a small number of people still worship her.

Mistaking Sickness Karma for Real Illness

Many practitioners, especially those with little education or who had not studied the Fa well, do not have a clear understanding of Dafa’s principles and mistake sickness karma and think they are real illnesses. When they appear to be “sick” they forget that ordinary people’s principles are opposite of cultivation principles. What is considered good among ordinary people is bad when viewed from a cultivation perspective.

When symptoms of illness karma drag on, and the tribulation becomes too challenging to overcome, these people feel anxious, believe they are ill, and thus give in to their family’s urgings to seek medical treatment. After hearing a doctor’s diagnosis, a sense of inferiority grows, and some even complain that Master ignored them and they eventually lose confidence in Dafa. In the end, the old forces drag away their physical bodies and interfere with the validation of Dafa.

Many practitioners who passed away due to illness might not have called it an illness but inwardly felt that it was an illness. They secretly had doubts about Master and the Fa (teachings). They did not let go of their attachments, and some felt that cultivation was too difficult and lost the confidence to continue, which caused them to give up cultivation.

Attached to Human Sentimentality

One practitioner’s third eye had been open since childhood, so she could often see scenes in other dimensions. As soon as she read Zhuan Falun, she said everything Master said was true. But she had strong sentimentality towards her children and was upset by their unhappy marriages. All three of her children were divorced, and her emotions were constantly stirred by their troubles and problems. These strong emotions eventually made her sick, and she stopped practicing Falun Dafa.

Some elderly Dafa practitioners felt that their limbs were not working properly as they aged; their eyesight declined, their hair turned gray, their teeth fell out, and their backs became hunched. Over time, they developed a sense of inferiority and slacked off in their cultivation. If a local practitioner passed away, they thought the deceased practitioner was cultivating even better than they were and hence lost confidence in themselves to ever succeed in cultivation.

In fact, no one can see clearly how well another person has cultivated because the parts of us that have cultivated well have been separated from our body in this dimension, and what we see are the manifestations of the parts that have not yet been cultivated well in the human world.

If a practitioner believes he or she is old and always talks about being old, the old forces will grasp the loophole and make him or her noticeably age.

I hope these examples explain the phenomena that are currently occurring. In my understanding, ego and feeling inferior are distorted concepts acquired in the human dimension, and they are obstacles to our cultivation that prevent us from advancing. We must eliminate them along with our other human attachments.