(Clearwisdom.net)
"Today is Easter, the day of a god's resurrection! This is all I'll say today. On this special, glorious day, may Dafa disciples' divine sides also be resurrected!"
("Teaching the Fa on Easter, 2004, at the New York Fa Conference")
When I read this sentence, I was shocked.
For a long time, I had not been able to correctly position myself in regard to being a human or being a cultivator (a future god). From the perspective of the Fa, all Dafa practitioners have appeared to know for a long time that we should allow our divine sides to function. However, in reality, we have, at many times, still taken ourselves as ordinary persons and are trapped in human notions. Judging from the present situation, we are still far from what Master has required of the great Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period. Here I want to share my recent understanding on this issue with fellow practitioners. Please point out anything that is inappropriate.
"In a dream, things may be this way one moment and some other way in another moment. Where do they come from, anyway? It is said in medical science that this is because one's cerebral cortex has experienced changes. This is a reaction manifest in this physical form. In fact, it is the result of receiving messages from another dimension. Therefore, when you dream you feel muddle-headed. This has nothing to do with you, and you do not need to pay attention to it." [ Zhuan Falun]
One day when I was reciting this paragraph, I suddenly came to understand one principle: Aren't human beings dreaming while living in the human world? It was said in the past that human life is like a dream, and this statement is actually true. Before Master woke us up, we were the same as ordinary people. We were muddle-headed while busying ourselves in doing things and we had forgotten our true selves.
When Master taught us Dafa, our main consciousnesses started to gradually wake up. We came to realize that only those things related to our cultivation are what we should be truly concerned with, because doing these things can directly change the place we came from and our true bodies, namely, all the things that a god has. Particularly now, Master has asked us to do the three things well, so only these three things are real and beyond the dreams.
A few manifestations of being in dreams
However, in the "dream" of the human world, we are, most of the time, muddle-headed, and may be this way one moment and some other way at another moment. This has caused frequent occurrences of the phenomenon that Dafa practitioners, who possess great divine powers, are repeatedly persecuted and mistreated by low level dark minions and rotten demons. This is the case not only for many of the practitioners illegally put in jail, but also for practitioners who are not arrested. The most obvious manifestation is that when we read stories of Dafa practitioners' righteous actions and divine powers, we unknowingly exclude ourselves from having divine powers. We see how well those practitioners have cultivated themselves and how far we still lag behind. What we are saying then is that we have not cultivated ourselves very well and we do not have divine powers. Or we thought that those practitioners' divine powers were unlocked during their cultivation, and we cannot see anything, nor can we use our divine powers.
These are, in fact, manifestations of being in dreams. I will roughly explain some common notions as follows:
1. "I do not have divine powers" or "I do not know how to use divine powers"
This is a typical example of "being in dreams and recognizing no divine powers." I came to understand that when we are clarifying the truth and sending forth righteous thoughts, both of which Master has asked us to do, we exhibit our mighty and magnificent divine powers all the time. It is just that we are in a dream and are not aware of our divine powers.
Let's talk about clarifying the truth first. It appears to be the same as opening the mouth and talking about the principles; but in fact, it is a display of mighty divine powers. Let's take a simplest example: When a Dafa disciple is clarifying the truth to an ordinary person, what is really happening in other dimensions? As the practitioner clarifies the truth, his divine sides, which are layer upon layer and increasingly enormous, are explaining the magnificent Fa principles they have enlightened to in their own dimensions, using the various divine powers to benevolently awaken the numerous beings who are listening, and eliminating the corrupt beings in all dimensions. It is increasingly more magnificent as the level arises. However, in the human world, when the practitioner clarifies the truth to a member of the public, it appears to be very ordinary.
The divine powers that Master has given us are not petty skills. Let us take "Ding" [the supernormal capability of immobilizing a being, which Master mentioned in Lecture Seven of Zhuan Falun] as an example. My understanding is that it is not a supernormal capability of immobilizing a being in the Three Realms. Behind it are the most supreme divine powers. For example: one Dafa practitioner went out to distribute flyers and was seen and chased by a bad person. While the practitioner was running, he remembered the supernormal capabilities that Master had told him about. He turned around and said, "Ding!" and that bad person immediately stopped and became immobile. The fellow practitioner walked away from the danger. Think about it carefully - this "Ding" is really unusual.
So from this perspective, almost every day Dafa practitioners use great divine powers given by Master to assist Master in rectifying the Fa in all dimensions, clarifying the truth, and saving people. It is just that some practitioners are still in the mystery of dreams in the human world and cannot clearly see what is happening. So when they say, "I do not have divine powers," it really makes the heavenly gods laugh.
2. "I am nothing and it is all done by Master"
Saying it this way is no doubt correct. However, sometimes many practitioners partially understand these words. They use similar words to negate their own supernormal capabilities, which shows that they probably have not enlightened to a higher level of understanding.
All living beings in the universe, no matter how high their levels are, are created by the Fa. All their wisdom and capabilities are given by Master. This is absolutely true. However, under this precondition, any god is also almighty to all the sentient beings below his realm. Then, we may understand it this way: In front of Master and Dafa, we are nothing, but in front of the living beings we try to save, and the evil beings that damage the Fa, we are almighty and have divine powers. In fact, Master also hopes that we can act this way.
How could a member of the public understand the significance of divine powers? For a living being who has assimilated to the Fa, he automatically possesses the wisdom and capabilities at his level. Take a simple example: When a bacterium nearby sees a human taking up a bowl of water and drinking it up, the bacterium would be shocked that the human is so capable, to the extent that he even has the power of picking up a "sea" and the capacity to drink up the "sea." But to a human, this is not a capability at all and every human being can do it, and it is nothing important. Similarly, a god appears to be super capable to all the beings below his level. But to the god himself, his powers are just as usual as eating and drinking, and there is nothing supernormal about them.
It is true that all our capabilities and wisdom come from Master. We should better use these divine powers in eliminating the evil beings and saving people. "If your divine powers truly manifest in a magnificent way as you clarify the facts, save beings, and defy the persecution, then all the Dafa disciples and I will praise you." ["Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference"]
For a Dafa practitioner, to think that he has no divine powers, or to show off that he has supernormal capabilities, both indicate that his "main consciousness" is not rational and that he cannot control himself.
3. "So-and-so has good inborn quality and they are very capable, but I am not"
This shows that the understanding of Fa-rectification has not improved to a higher level. It is similar to the question of how to break through inborn quality raised at this year's Western U.S. Fa Conference.
In fact, Master has expounded on this issue very clearly in Zhuan Falun,
"Inborn quality determines one's enlightenment quality, but this is not absolute. Some people do not have very good inborn quality, but their home environment is very good; many family members practice cultivation. Some of them are also religious believers and believe very much in the matter of cultivation practice. In this environment, one can be made to believe in it, and this enables enlightenment quality to improve. So it is not absolute. Some people have very good inborn quality, but due to their being educated with that tiny bit of knowledge from our practical society, and especially because of the absolute methods in ideological education a few years ago, they have been made very narrow-minded and will not believe anything beyond their knowledge. This can seriously affect their enlightenment quality."
If we talk about "inborn quality", wouldn't the supreme gods in the old cosmos and the factors in extremely microscopic levels that keep the cosmos existent have incredibly good "inborn quality"? Yet in the Fa-rectification, many of these beings have very poor enlightenment quality, as they try hard to interfere with and manipulate the Fa-rectification.
On the other hand, in the eyes of these beings, many Dafa disciples' "inborn quality" is not so good, and they even look down upon them. (There are practitioners who have obtained the Fa even though they might not have come from very high levels. Yet the Dafa disciples have very good enlightenment quality, they just listen to Master and follow Master; and no matter how they are persecuted, they are steadfast with righteous belief. About their position in the future cosmos, Master has said, "their beings will switch positions with those highest beings that persecuted them!" ["Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference"]
This is a period of time for repositioning, which is unprecedented and will not happen in the future. "The great Fa is boundless. Cultivating it depends entirely on your heart." [Zhuan Falun]. This sentence really reveals all the heavenly secrets. Isn't the so-called "inborn quality" an ingrained factor in the old cosmos? Why do we want to be attached to them in the Fa-rectification?
Thinking whether one has good or poor inborn quality is a symptom of staying in the dream of the old cosmos without awakening, which has severely affected the manifestation of Dafa's divine power.
4. "We should conform to the state of everyday people."
Although there is nothing wrong with the above statement under many circumstances, however, it has become an excuse to not use one's divine power.
"For a practitioner, one's mind-intent dictates supernormal abilities to do things. For an everyday person, one's mind-intent directs the four limbs and the sensory organs to work." [Zhuan Falun] For thousands of years, we have formed deeply ingrained habits of using our thoughts to direct our limbs and sensory organs to deal with things we come across, whereas a god does not have such notions at all, and his divine powers come in at the same moment as his thoughts and everything is accomplished instantly.
Of course, we have not reached complete enlightenment. In ordinary people's society, we still use our thoughts to direct our limbs and sensory organs to do things. But this is only an illusion in this dimension. Actually whenever we truly accomplish something in our Fa-rectification work, with no exception, it is the true manifestation of Dafa's divine power rectifying the Fa in other dimensions. Everything existing in the human world is actually a reflection of other dimensions. Changes can occur in this dimension only after there have been changes in other dimensions. How can human beings use their limbs and sensory organs to change things in other dimensions?
5. Take degenerate notions as garbage and continue cultivating
Fellow practitioners in this kind of state often say: "I cultivate very poorly and I have too many attachments."
A God views the attachments manifested in this dimension in a different way from humans. A God would treat those attachments as a pile of garbage in his room, or a pile of bad apples, "keep the good ones, and remove the bad ones," [Zhuan Falun], he would never view them as part of himself. Especially for a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period, he would treat these attachments as sentient beings that need to be saved or as bad beings unable to be saved. Save the savable ones and remove the unsalvageable ones, why do we need to be attached to them?
However, for practitioners who are stuck in personal cultivation, it is not like that. Under many circumstances, he will treat the garbage as part of himself. "I keep cultivating and cultivating, why am I still not good? Why am I still so dirty? Why do I still have such big tests?"
Because he always regards garbage as himself, although he struggles very hard in the numerous tests placed by the evil, he still thinks that he is "cultivating." Without strong minds, the tests will be as high as mountains. [Hong Yin (II) unofficial translation]If one cannot strengthen his divine thoughts and cannot firmly focus on saving sentient beings, the tests will be truly like high mountains touching the clouds in the sky. No matter how many mountains he has climbed and how tired he is, he is still a person immersed in his dreams and cannot ascend from an ordinary person's level, let alone manifest his profound divine powers.
The above reasoning can often be heard among practitioners. While they sound modest, in reality the meaning behind the words is nothing more than "I am not capable. I have no divine power, only certain practitioners or practitioners who cultivate well have divine power." All of these are signs of lacking enlightenment or lacking belief in Master and Dafa.
The next part of this article is the Fa-rectification experience of one practitioner I know. It looks like nothing special, however it is a true display of profound divine power.
(to be continued)
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