(Minghui.org) Over the past decade of my cultivation in Falun Dafa, I came cross some Falun Dafa practitioners who had been severely persecuted by the old forces in other dimensions. Some even lost their lives. When they looked inward to find their shortcomings, they just did so superficially, focusing on reputation, personal interests, sentimentality or lust, but ignored the most important issue of being respectful to Dafa and Master.
Here are a few examples.
Leaving Master's Picture on a Messy Balcony
One practitioner who started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997 has been doing the three things well. However, she started having health problems in these last two years. Half of her body became numb and her mind seemed clouded over. Her neck was covered with different sized sarcomas.
She couldn't concentrate when studying the Fa. She looked inward and sent forth righteous thoughts, but her cultivation state still wasn't good. Eventually, she lost her confidence in cultivation, and asked her sister to take all of the Dafa books away from her home. She worried that if she lost her life, her family would destroy the books.
After some practitioners heard about her situation, they went to her home and shared their understanding of the Fa with her. The practitioners noticed an old table on her balcony, with Master's picture stuck on an old wooden board. Master's picture wasn't in a frame, and the top of the picture was torn and folded over. Wet clothes had been hung out to dry above Master's picture.
Practitioners remarked straight away that this was very disrespectful to Master. Master has shouldered all sentient beings' karma and looked after us; how could the practitioner treat Master like that?
This practitioner realized her mistake, and immediately tidied up the Dafa books and put them neatly in order. She was determined to let go of all her attachments, and to truly follow Master. She recovered soon after.
Tearing Master's Picture Is Disrespectful
Another practitioner also encountered sickness karma. She is an elderly practitioner and a coordinator in her area. She seemed to be quite diligent, but she had a stroke and became paralyzed on one side of her body about 7 years ago.
Many practitioners shared with her, studied the Fa together, sent forth righteous thoughts and looked inward with her as well, but the situation didn't change.
One day a practitioner, who had been close to her, said that when this practitioner printed Master's pictures, if the print quality wasn't good, she just casually tore it up.
Displaying Master's Picture in an Inappropriate Position
A married couple, both practitioners, have a three-year-old son. Their son had a fever. One day a practitioner went to their home and saw that the couple's mother, who is also a practitioner, was reading Lunyu, but the page was wrinkled, and there were oil spots on the page.
There was also an oil painting displayed on the small table in the bedroom, which was painted by Dafa practitioners, depicting countless gods coming from heaven to the human world to fulfill their vows to save sentient beings. However, in the lower right corner of the painting Master's picture had been inserted into the frame.
The practitioner immediately pointed out that all those gods had come to the human world to follow Master to rectify the Fa. How could they casually put Master's picture under the gods' feet?
This practitioner realized the mistake, took Master's picture out of the frame and hung it in the highest position. Then she knelt down and kowtowed to Master with their son, and repented for their mistake. Later her son's illness got better.
The reason I shared this with practitioners is to remind all of us to pay attention to this issue. We should take the Fa seriously and show our respect to Master. Don't let the old forces take advantage and use this omission to destroy us.
Category: Improving Oneself
