Antelopes Crossing a River

A fellow practitioner from another region came to our place to share her experience. She told us the following story. She went to visit a practitioner who was suffering from sickness karma. She saw that this practitioner was persecuted severely by the demon of illness. During her sharing, she told this practitioner a story that she heard before. There was a herd of antelopes about to cross a big river. Just before they started, they discussed on how to do it and agreed on swimming together to cross the river. They decided to keep a close eye on each other and never stray from the group. The reason for this is that there were alligators swimming in the river, and lions waiting on the other side of the river. If anyone of them left the herd and went off by itself, it would be very easy for these beasts to catch and eat it. Therefore, they formed a big herd and swam across the river. Suddenly, a young antelope jumped out from the herd and said: “I want to swim by myself; I will get ahead of everyone.” As soon as it left the herd, it was caught and eaten by an alligator that had been hiding under the water for a long time waiting for such an opportunity. The antelope herd continued to swim forward and got closer to the other side of the river. At this moment, another antelope left the group and ran ahead wishing to be the first one to reach the other bank. As soon as it got to the other bank, it was taken by lions.

As the practitioner telling the story stopped here, the fellow practitioner who was suffering from illness karma said: “Oh, now I understand.” This fellow practitioner stopped going to group study half a year ago for some reason. She did not do the three things (study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts, clarify the facts) together with other practitioners. Thus, she was in the self-cultivation state. Even though she continued to do the three things by herself, her physical body started to show illness symptoms of different kinds and became worse and worse. She did not know what was wrong with her cultivation. This antelope story helped her find the root of the issue of why she was being persecuted by illness karma. Her fundamental problem was that she left the group cultivation environment that Master arranged for his disciples. She did not join the group and form a united one body. So if she did not follow Master’s direction, she ended up following the old force’s arrangement. Once the root of the illness was identified, her illness karma was eliminated. The next day she went out to the street to clarify the facts.

This episode led me to understand something: when we help fellow practitioners who are suffering from illness karma, we cannot request them to do such and such solely based on our own thoughts. If we do it this way, we will not achieve any effect. In contrast, we may easily get the opposite effect. We need to care more and encourage them more. We need to share our understanding based on the Fa and help them to find where the root of their problem is. I felt that what this practitioner from the other region did is a very good example and worth following.

Another thought is that Dafa disciples are considered as a whole body. Every one of us is a particle. We need to cooperate well to improve together and elevate as a whole. It is like what Master has said in “Fa Teaching Given at the NTDTV Meeting”: “If each of my five fingers here wants to be extended, a fist can’t be formed and there will be no punch to throw (laughs). It’s weak this way. So you need to work together well.” As a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period, if you separate yourself from the cultivation environment and your main spirit is not very strong, you will be interfered with by ordinary people’s attachments without noticing. You will become less and less diligent. This is exactly what the demons want to accomplish.