(Clearwisdom.net) Some time ago I went to visit a practitioner with whom I was once acquainted. He had seemed relatively good at making progress in cultivating. However, after the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, he quit practicing and even seemed unable to understand Dafa; his viewpoint and understanding of Dafa had gone astray. Upon talking to him, I found that his initial problem concerning the basis of cultivation had not been solved from the beginning. He has been stubbornly adhering to his own opinion of Teacher and Dafa. I have vividly and clearly felt the stubbornness of those lives in the old universe. They have been holding on to their ideas and opinions that they don't want to give up and that they still use to view Dafa. Teacher said,

The old universe is in the process of disintegration. As a life inside the universe, whether one can assimilate to Dafa without any of his own opinions will be the key for him to enter the new universe.

After carefully studying Teacher's Fa-lectures, I have understood that the whole universe has deviated from the original characteristics of the universe a long time ago, and there has been degeneration in sentient beings' many ideas and mentalities. Having descended level by level, they experienced many reincarnations in this human world. Finally, there has been the long-term brainwashing by immersion in the Communist Party culture. As a Dafa practitioner, if one does not start practicing from a sound basis, or has not rationally rectified his own basis in his or her cultivation practice, it would be very hard for him to make it through this unusual tribulation and withstand the suffering that has occurred. Only when one really melts into the Fa and assimilates the self with the Fa, can one really rectify various postnatal mentalities, including those impure factors based on selfishness and self-centered ideas that have accompanied us since our life was created. Only then can we really become a particle within the Fa. Also, only through such a process can one gradually see through his own various postnatal mentalities, to really witness from the bottom of his heart the incomparable purity and greatness of Dafa. This is the unending process of true cultivation practice. Only by following Teacher and Dafa closely, witnessing the process of one's true cultivation practice step by step, can one break through various tribulations and degenerated mentalities layer by layer, and truly reach the special, wonderful situation of Dafa practitioners.

On the other hand, if after a long time one fails to rectify the basis of his cultivation practice, one will not be able to melt into the Fa since the Fa will not reveal its principles to those practitioners with impure motivations. Therefore, one would have been unable to truly understand the Fa and will hesitate to move forward when facing various postnatal mentalities and attachments and will be puzzled by various degenerated mentalities. Teacher said,

If one has not really understood what the Fa is, from the heart, he will certainly waver in the face of this big tribulation, be puzzled and drift away from Dafa in the end. The before-mentioned fellow practitioner drifted off further and further from Dafa simply because he didn't want to give up his own mentalities and never rectified his basis for cultivation, which blocked him from really understanding the Fa.

It was before 1999, as I remember, that there was a young practitioner who had started studying the Fa earlier than many others. After studying the Fa for quite a long period of time, he once suddenly asked, after finishing group Fa study, "What is the Fa? What on earth is the Fa?" I was very surprised. How could one ask such a question after studying the Fa for such a long time? I also remember another relatively old practitioner. Not long after he started studying the Fa, I heard him exclaiming in surprise, "It turns out that the universe does have Fa!" Later I realized that everybody, especially the beginners, understand the Fa quite differently from others. The key to studying the Fa is whether one really understands the Fa at heart, and is not dependent on the superficial forms, the length of Fa-study time every day, or the length of time one has practiced. I have been cultivating with all my supernormal abilities locked. Before, I felt baffled by the phenomenon that some practitioners who had their celestial eye opened very early and, in the course of their practicing had seen many special wonderful scenes in other dimensions, nonetheless quit practicing when facing the big tribulation, and some even turned to the negative side. How could these people quit practicing after seeing such wonderful scenes? How could they not be firm?

Upon passing through this big tribulation and seeing both positive and negative examples of practitioners' behavior, I have realized more soberly the importance of the basis of cultivation practice and the seriousness of cultivation. Without a solid foundation based on a right understanding of the Fa in one's heart, one could easily lose his righteous belief in the Fa when facing the old forces' destructive tests. When one has lost his righteous belief, his xinxing will drop down, and consequently his cultivation level will also drop down. His xinxing level and state of his heart, including the feeling of a light body after his benti [physical body in this and other dimensions] were changed, would also disappear and he would feel nothing. Maybe, even his memory of those wonderful situations experienced in the practice environment would disappear, as well as those supernormal abilities and wonderful scenes seen in other dimensions. Everything would become faraway and dimly discernable. Only firmness in the Fa, formed from deeply understanding the Fa principles in one's heart, is what is truly indestructible and solid as a rock in the face of various tests. After being able to really understand the Fa, one can realize the incomparable greatness and the might of the Fa. As long as one can assimilate to the Fa he will be a particle of the Fa and will be able to demonstrate the unlimited power of the Fa. This is really the most crucial thing.

This is my understanding at my present level. I hope fellow practitioners will point out any improper understandings.