(Minghui.org) Some practitioners say about those who are going through sickness tribulations, “They need to have righteous thoughts.” I initially thought this was an issue of looking outward. I later realized that true righteous thoughts come from following what Master said about sickness tribulations. When I examined myself I realized this kind of thinking contains jealousy—when we think we’re better than others we say, “He doesn’t have righteous thoughts.” Otherwise, our initial thought would be to look for our own shortcomings and feel bad for not being able to help the practitioner. If we can’t let go of the thought: “He doesn’t have righteous thoughts,” it may interfere with the practitioner who needs help. We should use this as an opportunity to cultivate ourselves, remove our negative thoughts, and treat other practitioners with righteous thoughts.

Master said,

“No matter what happens, nobody should be affected inside. Each student should think only of giving help as a Dafa disciple as he’s able, and there is nothing to get worked up about. Even if you can’t help that person you should still face this issue with righteous thoughts. Continue to do whatever you are supposed to. Don’t become attached to it by looking at it in a human way, and don’t make these problems worse in your minds. Look very righteously at how it relates to everything else and don’t think of it as being very important, and be very calm. The old forces will then lose interest, thinking, “These people aren’t moved. If none of them are moved, what is the point?” They will then let the matter drop, and that person’s sickness karma will disappear instantly. That’s one scenario.” (“Teaching at the 2005 Fa Conference in San Francisco)

“The other goal applies to that person himself: How well has the person who exhibits the sickness karma cultivated? Is he able to make it through with strong righteous thoughts while in such a state? Does he truly treat himself as a god and pay no attention to any of it whatsoever?” (“Teaching at the 2005 Fa Conference in San Francisco)

According to Master’s teachings, we must remain unmoved. If we can help, we should help. Even if we can’t, we should still face the issue with righteous thoughts. We are “helping practitioners,” not “helping practitioners in sickness karma.” Also, in order for the practitioners going through sickness karma “to let go,” we must first “let go” and cultivate ourselves. Many local practitioners haven’t realized this issue. I believe the best approach is to study the Fa more so we can all understand the principles and rectify ourselves according to Master’s teachings.

For example, one practitioner experienced sickness karma for two months. The other practitioners knew it was an illusion, but felt helpless. He couldn’t lie down to sleep—when he lay down he felt nauseated and vomited. I thought of what Master said,

“You have already developed a habit of abandoning your Main Consciousness. Once you close your eyes, you put your Main Consciousness to rest, and then it disappears. You have already developed this habit. Why doesn’t your body swing while you sit here? If you maintain the state in which your eyes are open, will your body start swinging if you slightly close your eyes? Absolutely not. You think that qigong should be practiced this way and you have formed such a concept.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)

I asked him, “You’re fine sitting here, right? So why would you feel nauseous when you lay down?” I told him it was a mental notion he formed. I said, “Just lie down now and think, ‘It feels very comfortable.’” He lay down and immediately fell asleep. He recovered after that. We previously discussed this issue with him many times without a breakthrough, but when the root cause was directly addressed, he immediately understood.

Another example: two practitioners, who are sisters, constantly argued—each thought the other one was not in line with the Fa. I felt the one sister didn’t understand Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun. We read what Master said,

“In cultivation, there may be two scenarios when dealing with specific conflicts or when others treat you badly. One is that you might have treated this person badly in your previous life. You feel in your heart that it is unfair, “How can this person treat me like this?” Then why did you treat this person that way in the past? You might claim that you actually did not know it at that time, and this lifetime has nothing to do with another lifetime, but that won’t do.” (Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun)

I asked her, “Do you think you may have treated your sister badly in a past life, or do you just think it’s a negative predestined karmic relationship?” After we read Lecture Four, she said, “Now I understand.”

This method works very well. One practitioner had trouble accepting others’ suggestions. One day she and I read Lecture Four in Zhuan Falun. When we got to: “...when a problem arises, if it does not irritate a person psychologically, it does not count or is useless and cannot make him or her improve. Accordingly, his mind cannot get over it and is still bothered by it. It could be that his mind is hooked on it.”

I asked her, “If your husband blamed you, wouldn’t your heart be even more stirred?”

She said, “It’s exactly because he didn’t argue with me, and simply ignored me that I can’t let it go.” I said, “Exactly—he’s doing whatever it takes to make you unable to let go.” After we read about half of Lecture Four, she said, “Wow, I never knew this is how we should study the Fa!”

I just wanted to share my understanding about how to help practitioners experiencing sickness tribulations. If anything is inappropriate, please kindly point it out.