First I want to share a little story, from about two years ago. I had decided to go to a park to do the meditation practice. After a while of practice I could hear two boys approach, talking. Then began to ask me aggressively, "What are you doing, why are your eyes shut? Why are you sitting there like that?" I thought that this was interference, or a test to see if I could remain calm, and continue with my practice. They continued to ask me questions, and to make comments, becoming more aggressive and abusive. I thought to myself that this was to test if my heart remained unmoved, so I tried to ignore them, to have a compassionate heart, and to remain tranquil. They then threatened to take my watch. I thought to myself - I am not attached to my watch - go ahead. They threatened to take my shoes - I am not attached to my shoes - go ahead. They began to wave a stick in front of my face, and threatened to hit me with it - I thought that this was to see if I was afraid. Finally they left, but I was not calm, and I really could not say that my heart was compassionate. I felt confused; concerned that I had not been able to pass this test with a compassionate heart.
Later that evening, I happened to read Master's article, "Expounding on the Fa." I read the words, "Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely from your human side." I suddenly realized that I had completely understood it from the human side. No wonder I wasn't able to be compassionate and tranquil! My thoughts had been entirely selfish. I thought to myself - so how does my original nature view it? Suddenly my heart filled with compassion towards these two boys, and I understood. I should have stopped practicing, opened my eyes, and told them about Dafa, about Zhen-Shan-Ren.
For me, this experience was important as it signifies stepping out of individual cultivation into Fa-rectification.
Last year, I was talking with another practitioner on the phone about how I understood the tribulations I had been going through. I felt that my understanding seemed hollow, but I couldn't understand how. Luckily for me, this practitioner was able to see through my words, and recognize that I had not at all understood things from my original nature. He said to me something like,
"I think that you have not fully realized yourself as a Dafa particle and have not completely let go of self-cultivation, and the old evil forces are taking advantage of this, and your tendency to intellectualize, and are teasing you, so you go around in circles. I think that you need to make a clean break, completely step out of self-cultivation, and regard yourself as a Dafa particle."
I said little, except to agree, nodding quietly as tears welled up in my eyes. I knew that he was right, and felt deeply thankful. However, I did not fully step out of this mind-set of individual cultivation immediately. Over the last few months, through diligently studying Master's new articles, and embracing Fa-rectification more and more, a great change has occurred in me, and now I can really say that I have truly fulfilled my fellow practitioners righteous words.
Whenever I didn't read Master's latest articles, and did less Fa-rectification work, it seemed that I would come to a dead end and go around in circles, and that the tribulations in my daily life would seem to increase and distract me. Whenever I did read these articles more, and do more Fa-rectification work, the tribulations I struggled with seemed to fade into the background and become irrelevant, and I would only really care about Fa-rectification. I began to realize that everything really revolves around Fa-rectification and that only when we do Fa-rectification can we be truly following our path of cultivation.
I found that attachments that I could not quite abandon would disappear with no effort after I spent some time handing out flyers or doing other Hongfa (Fa promotion) activities. Notions and bad thoughts that I struggled to let go of seemed to disappear after I had done Fa-rectification activities. I found that sometimes, while handing out flyers, I felt a strong compassionate energy field, stronger that anything I experienced reading Zhuan Falun or doing the exercises. I could feel that my Gong was rising, and my wisdom and compassion were deepening, as though handing out the leaflets was now part of a vast and profound energy mechanism.
A couple of months ago I found I was being led by the human world's pursuit of comfort, finding strange excuses for my inappropriate actions. I kept chastising myself about these things - sleeping too much, seemingly indulging in attachments I knew I should long have given up, and so on. But no matter how hard I tried, and no matter how much I tried to read, I kept making the same mistakes and doing the same things. If I felt I gave up an attachment, it would seem to return very quickly. I knew that all of this was preventing me from doing Fa-rectification work, but the more I tried to let go of these things, the more difficult it seemed.
One day I read about a practitioner who had memorized all of Master Li's latest articles, and who said that we really must understand everything rationally and realized that I really hadn't made enough efforts to read the articles - to really study them. Amongst other articles, I felt that I really needed to understand Master's article, "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples" so I committed myself to reading it over and over several times - to really study it, and to try to memorize it. As I made a determined effort to do this, I really felt that something broke inside me, and each time I read it, I felt that I needed to read more, and each time I read it, I found new wonders, but really felt I needed to understand more. Before I had taken this article as something like a warning from Master to be more diligent in Fa-rectification. I had not clearly and rationally understood that Master was teaching us a principle of Dafa. I really now felt that Master was really spelling out to us in this article the principle and mechanism of Fa-rectification cultivation. I also realized that the process of cultivation itself is different in Fa-rectification cultivation.
As I read this article again and again, and some of Master's other latest articles, I began to understand, for the first time, really rationally and really clearly from the bottom of my heart what a Fa-rectification disciple is - to understand what I am. Although the words I use to describe my understanding of Fa-rectification are the same as before, and the superficial meaning is the same, the feeling behind is completely different -I have been touched to the very bottom of my heart and shaken to the core at every level of my being.
I really cannot stress enough how profound this realization and change over the last few months has been. You know when I first came to practice Dafa, I understood that I needed to cultivate xinxing, but I understood this somewhat on the surface, like a theory, and kind of put into action what I felt I should do from a theoretical understanding of compassion, rather than acting from the most natural heart-felt compassion and understanding of Dafa. Later in cultivation, sometimes, when reading about the cultivation of xinxing, I would feel that it really touched me, and my eyes would fill with tears, and I really felt the purest wish to assimilate to Zhen-Shan-Ren, and found that afterwards I acted with true compassion from my own nature, rather than from superficial lip service to the idea of compassion.
Similarly, with my previous understanding of Fa-rectification, I thought that I had a good understanding, but actually I had understood things somewhat on the surface, understanding them as what I should do, almost like a theory, rather than understanding them from deep down in my heart, as what I really want to do. As I read Master's recent lectures and articles again and again, they really touched me, and I began to understand Fa-rectification all over again, at a much deeper level - directly, simply, righteously and without notions, from my original nature. Another practitioner recently said to me - "Don't be complicated. Just be righteous. Be righteous."
For a few days, one sentence from Master Li kept coming to mind, often bringing tears to my eyes, - "If you are still unclear about what a Fa-rectification disciple is, you won't be able to step forward in the current tribulation, and you will be led by the human world's pursuit of comfort to "enlighten" along an evil path." ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples")
I found that the fundamental problem behind being stuck in the tribulation was simply that I myself hadn't truly embraced Fa-rectification from the bottom of my heart, hadn't rationally understood the process of Fa-rectification cultivation as being different from ordinary cultivation, and hadn't truly completely stepped out of the mind-set of ordinary individual cultivation. I had not been clear about what a Fa-rectification disciple is, so I was being led by the pursuit of comfort, which I was unable to abandon, and was stuck in the tribulation. I found that instead of struggling to let go of the pursuits and attachments, and to overcome tribulations, I just needed to focus wholeheartedly on Fa-rectification.
I had previously thought that other practitioners' comments about having righteous thoughts at every moment and second as being too extreme, but I then realized that this is not so - we need to be clear at all times that we are Fa-rectification disciples. This is not to say that we repeat superficial thoughts about Fa-rectification to ourselves every second - I think we simply need to truly understand clearly what a Fa-rectification disciple is from our original nature, and this will naturally be reflected in all our thoughts and actions. I found that sometimes, when I encountered a tribulation at work or at home which seemed to have nothing to do with Dafa work, if I remembered clearly what a Fa-rectification disciple is, then the tribulation would just disappear, or I would realize that actually it wasn't a tribulation, and it suddenly seemed like nothing. When I didn't fully, 100 percent regard myself as a Fa-rectification disciple, then the tribulations in my daily life, and in Dafa work were actually arranged by the old forces to conform to my notions of individual cultivation. The evil forces then toyed with me, placing futile tribulations in my way, and distracting me from the true path of Fa-rectification, encouraging my notions of individual cultivation, and leading me around in circles. I really now think that for a Fa-rectification disciple to hold onto even the smallest notion of individual cultivation will cause great problems, and will hold them back from truly melting into Fa-rectification.
Now I really feel a great change in myself. I am not doing things as before - because they should be done for Fa-rectification. I am doing them because I want to, from deep down inside. The things I do for Fa-rectification, I no longer see as Dafa tasks which I am honored to be involved with, separate from myself - I now feel that these things which I do are my own things, and are connected to my very nature. I am doing things because the deepest and truest wish from the bottom of my heart is to save sentient beings, and I clearly understand that I must do this myself - it is my responsibility. Before, I saw responsibility to Dafa as being about what one should do, as though what one does is separate from ones true wishes, like being polite because your mother tells you to, rather than because that you want to be. Now I really want to embrace my responsibility to Fa-rectification. I am no longer afraid of making mistakes. I know now clearly that I did not come here to this world to cultivate myself - I came here to do Fa-rectification. This is my true self, my truest wish, and my original nature.
Master Li says, "Over the course of prehistory, everything of yours was being created, all along, according to how magnificent the disciples would be in the Fa-rectification period. So, it was arranged that when you reach the standard for ordinary Consummation, you still have, in the human world, all kinds of ordinary human thoughts and karma. The purpose is so that while doing Fa-rectification things you bring in, through your clarifying the truth and for the consummation of your paradises, beings that can be saved. As you consummate your own paradises you are, at the same time, eliminating your last karma, gradually getting rid of your human thoughts, and truly stepping forward from humanness." ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples")
I think before, I somehow understood that I first got rid of my attachments, notions, dissolve my karma through self-cultivation, then with this pure heart I can then go do Fa-rectification, and save people. Now I realize that I had it backwards. Only through doing Fa-rectification will I step out of humanness, abolishing my karma and attachments. Only through doing Fa-rectification can I enlighten to my true nature. Fa-rectification comes first.
I really feel that I need to diligently strive forward in Fa-rectification, and completely forget about individual cultivation. I know that the more I embrace Fa-rectification, the more my karma is eliminated. The more deeply I understand my sacred responsibility to Dafa, to sentient beings and to myself, the more I step out of humanness. The more I do to save sentient beings, the more the attachments are eliminated. Now I just have the feeling I just want to focus my whole self on Fa-rectification. I know that everything will follow from this.
I think that wanting to do Fa-rectification is the purest, highest and most righteous wish in this vast universe.
Master Li says in Zhuan Falun, "Once this person thinks about taking the path of cultivation practice and once this thought occurs, it shines like gold, shaking the world in ten directions." (Lecture Two, "The Supernormal Ability of Precognition and Retrocognition") I think that if one truly has the heart to do Fa-rectification, then one would be helped without conditions, and that no attachment, notion, or interference would be able to stop one's path of Fa-rectification. When one's heart is totally focused on Fa-rectification, the tribulations, attachments, notions and humanness will be washed away in the powerful torrent of Fa-rectification.
I really hope that we can all study the Fa more, and study Master's latest articles more. We did not come to this world to cultivate ourselves - we came here, to this world with one heart, to rectify the Fa. Let us whole-heartedly embrace our paths of Fa-rectification, completely step out of individual cultivation, send forth the purest righteous thoughts, and make the best use of this precious time to save sentient beings.
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