(Clearwisdom.net) From attending our recent group study, I have gained a deeper understanding of the Fa [Law or Principles].
The first thing that I came to an understanding about was about "tests." I had thought before that whenever I had a conflict in my heart, felt angry, wronged, or my zealotry was shown, it was to test my xinxing [mind/heart nature, moral character]. When I read Teacher's lecture in Boston: "Let me tell you, no matter how well you've cultivated, as long as you still have everyday people's attachments, those are what demons can use, and when you're not paying attention they can be used at any moment." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston") I understand that when a thought jumps into our head, if we can analyze it from the standpoint of the Fa, then every thought is an opportunity for us to improve. Maybe some practitioners would think that it is an attachment to be too picky and strict on every action and every thought. My understanding is that the cultivation of the mind is related to the cultivation of body. As Teacher said in the book Zhuan Falun, "This high-energy matter has intelligence, and it is very capable. Once it increases and becomes denser, it will fill up all cells in the human body and repress human physical cells -- the most incompetent cells. Once the cells are repressed, they will no longer undergo metabolism. In the end, the human physical cells will be completely replaced."
The purpose of studying the Fa is to replace our acquired notions with the Fa, and eventually to have our every thought and every action meet the requirements of the Fa. This is also in my view the moment when we break through the final surface layer, and the moment when the Fa rectifies the human world. I think that this might be one important reason why Teacher always tells us to study the Fa more frequently. I notice that many practitioners have the attachment to time. No matter how big the attachment is, or how small it is, they all interfere with the progress of Fa rectification. Therefore, I feel that everyone should be paying attention to his every thought. Especially during this extremely important moment, we cannot give the old forces any chance to try to damage the Fa.
I still remember that when I first began to study the Fa, I was looking for tribulations. I hoped that the tribulations could come sooner so that I could improve quickly. After I studied the Fa for a longer time, I thought that I could just wait and eliminate it when it came to me. Finally, I understand that all interference is caused by myself not studying the Fa thoroughly. When the interference appeared, I felt sad because no matter what it was, it was still necessary that I eliminate it. At this moment, I often talked with it and hoped that it could assimilate to Dafa. My interference only exists because I need to improve in some way. I know that lots of sentient beings do not know the truth about Falun Gong. Our own attachments can cause lots of sentient beings to destroy their futures, so purifying our every thought is very important.
The second point I'd like to make is about group Fa study. Because we do not have a deep understanding about the Fa, sometimes people only care for the formality that shows on the surface during group Fa study. Everyone reads some of the Fa and then discusses (but actually the discussion does not follow Teacher's instruction about discussion in the book of Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa). So when a problem would pop up and needed to be solved, practitioners did not analyze and understand the problem from the perspective of the Fa, but instead would only focus on the details involved in the method used to solve the problem. We would spend a lot of time on conventional thinking, and we missed the most important part of the problem. I think that this is a big obstacle that stops us from improving as a whole body. If we have righteous belief in our Teacher and remember to look inside ourselves, we can find the cause of the problem from the Fa. When it is clear, then we can arrive at a course of action within our discussion and at the same time, we can improve as a whole body. One more thing is that we should use a bigger heart to treat everything that is happening around us, and treat our fellow practitioners with a pure and compassionate heart while improving as a whole.
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out any incorrectness.
January 25, 2002