(Clearwisdom.net)
Greeting Master! Greeting fellow practitioners!
Since I began Falun Dafa cultivation just one and a half years ago and am still regarded as a new practitioner, I was afraid that if I wrote about my experiences they might be considered laughable. My mindset fears losing face. I care too much about others' opinion of me. To break my fearful mentality I'm now writing down my recent experiences to share with fellow practitioners.
1. My understanding of memorizing the Fa
First, I want to relate my recent experiences in memorizing the Fa, which I decided to do in April 2005. Initially I was not diligent. When many experience-sharing articles recently published on the Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) website mentioned it and fellow practitioners encouraged each other to do so, I started to memorize the Fa every day. In this process I am able to understand every word of the Fa in more depth. When reciting the Fa, the Buddhas, Daos and Gods in the book give me many hints on the principles that I can understand at my level. Here I will give two examples of what I learned about our boundless cosmos through memorizing and reciting Dafa. Of course, practitioners know that Dafa has even higher and more profound connotations.
Understanding "time"
One day as I memorized the section, "Transcending the Five Elements and the Three Realms," I read,
"Modern science holds that time has a field. If something is not within the scope of a time-field, it is not restricted by that time. In other dimensions, the concepts of time-space are different from ours here. How can the time here regulate matter from other dimensions? It does not whatsoever."(Zhuan Falun)
When I recited it, my mind was jolted. Our practitioners eventually will not be within the Five Elements and will be out of the Three Realms. If our bodies have been transformed gradually into high-energy matter, how is time in the human dimension able to restrict us? Isn't it true that one will not be restricted by time if one is not in the scope of the time-space field of the human society? Although we are still in the process of cultivation, the substances in our bodies are already different. Then I think we should be able, more or less, to break time's restriction. How can we still feel sleepy during Fa study?
Understanding "getting rid of fundamental attachments"
"The ill part of your body, which you thought was healed before through qigong exercises or by a qigong master, will again have illness. This is because that qigong master did not cure the illness for you--he only postponed it. It was still there and would recur later if not at that time. We must dig it out and eliminate it completely from its root." (Zhuan Falun)
When I memorized, "We must dig it out and eliminate it completely from its root," I realized, although the wording was about diseases, wasn't it the same as attachments? Master is so responsible for us and keeps helping us to dig out our attachments and let us find out our bad thoughts. We may think we have already gotten rid of the attachments in the past but they may be just removed from the surface, and the fundamental attachments have not been rooted out yet. When any thoughts that are not good occur, we should treat them seriously and look inward carefully to get rid of them from the root. They must be removed from the root.
When there are other thoughts occurring during our study and memorizing the Fa, we must try hard to examine and eliminate them. Perhaps it is about important Dafa things or other things, yet they may be interference. It is the time to recite Dafa. No other thoughts should be allowed to interfere with memorizing and reciting Dafa.
Besides, memorizing Dafa is just a formality, not an end in itself. The goal is to assimilate into Dafa through memorizing and reciting the Fa, and to solidly cultivate Dafa. The fact that you have recited Zhuan Falun several times or that one person memorizes more pages than others cannot be used to prove how well one cultivates.
The above are my understandings with respect to memorizing and reciting the Fa. Everyone knows Dafa is precious. Do not let a human mentality block your memorizing the Fa. Let us memorize and recite the Fa and advance diligently together.
2. My understanding of "lust"
I want to talk about my recent understanding of "lust." I remembered what Master said about conforming to the state of ordinary society as much as we can. As someone at the age of marriage, I understand that unmarried practitioners are not required to be monks or nuns. Recently, a story made me have a further understanding of qing and "lust." For example, when we see a person of the opposite sex who is very attractive, we like to give a few more glances. I realize this is also a kind of "lust," and is treating people differently. Also, if I know someone likes me, no matter whether I like him or not, I will feel happy. I realize that these are unhealthy thoughts.
I read an article on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website in which a practitioner told a story from The Investiture of the Gods. King Zhou once said to himself while appreciating the portrait of Goddess Nuwa, "What a beautiful lady! If only I could have such a lady as my companion." The Goddess Nuwa then sent Daji [a concubine that was possessed by a fox who is referred to in Zhuan Falun] to mess up the affairs of the Shang Dynasty as punishment for the evil thought of King Zhou toward her.
After reading this story, I realized that the requirements for practitioners are very high. Knowing that someone admires you is perhaps cause for happiness from an ordinary person's point of view, but it may actually be the opposite on a different level. We should follow a higher standard in our every thought and not allow even a little bit of unrighteous thoughts. In the story, the god didn't allow ordinary people to have evil thoughts toward gods and regarded it as blasphemy. If all of us can cultivate without any loopholes about lust - no matter if we have any evil thoughts momentarily or make others have evil thoughts - we cannot say we cultivate quite righteously. We cannot have unrighteous things occurring in our mind and also be able to restrain ordinary people's thoughts.
Master said in Zhuan Falun,
"Only the energy field from cultivation practice in a righteous way can produce this effect. Therefore, in the past there was this saying in Buddhism: "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." This is what it means."
Genuine practitioners should not have any thoughts that are inappropriate. We must treat this issue seriously.
Later I looked inward for my own attachment, which more or less comes from the ordinary mindset to seek the happiness of non-practitioners. It is a type of mentality of comfort to seek so-called happiness in the ordinary world. In fact, happiness or hardships are like passing clouds. Shouldn't this precious body that we get through thousands of years be used to cultivate?
I realize that the requirement is not that unmarried practitioners should not marry, but that they should not succumb to the emotional attachment of desiring to marry. If the marriage can be harmonizing to the environment , it is ok. Master teaches us in Zhuan Falun,
"One should not want anything, and neither should one pursue anything. A practitioner believes he should only focus on practicing, without paying attention to obtaining gong. In cultivation and practice one should be in a state free of intention. As long as you focus on cultivating your xinxing, you will make breakthroughs in your level and certainly get things you deserve."
The key is whether you have any attachments that need to be gotten rid of.
3. Not work but cultivation
I have been clarifying the truth through the Internet, because for me it is simple. As time went on the work became mechanical, just copying or pasting. I didn't understand the principle that Master taught,
"Everything you, a cultivator, encounters is related to your cultivation and Consummation, or else those things absolutely would not exist." (from "Dafa Is All-Encompassing," Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I just did this work superficially and not from the standpoint of rescuing sentient beings. I calmed down and realized that any Dafa work contains the factors of cultivation practice. Sometimes I was not conscious of that and didn't pay attention to Dafa work. It is because my heart and mind were not there. From the beginning, when I started to do truth-clarifying work, Master let me see that I didn't put my whole heart into it. In the process of clarifying the truth, I gradually realized how to do it and also learned how to do it proactively.
Not long ago, the Internet project needed support. I took the initiative and asked for some work. I understood that Master was asking me to increase my capacity and strength to do well in the mission of rescuing sentient beings. I was busy contacting different websites to post articles every day. Some articles are popular ones for non-practitioners; some are to clarify the truth. In the evening, my brain was full of considerations about what articles to post, which affected my Fa-study and sending righteous thoughts with a calm mind. Even during sending forth righteous thoughts I was still thinking about how to go to the website to clarify the truth afterwards, or I suddenly had an idea during Fa study about what article to post for non-practitioners on what website that may attract more people to click the link, and so on.
When my mental state was wrong, Master gave me a hint in time to let me remember that it is Dafa that opens our wisdom to clarify the truth. Everything comes from the Fa. When doing Fa-rectification work, never ignore studying the Fa, just as Master said in Zhuan Falun,
"If you only practice the exercises without improving xinxing and without the powerful energy that strengthens everything, it cannot be called cultivation practice; neither can we treat you as Falun Dafa disciples."
Doing such work without studying the Fa cannot be regarded as cultivation practice and neither can one then regard oneself as a Dafa practitioner. Such work then becomes ordinary work. Realizing this, I try to eliminate those thoughts that do not belong to my own thoughts and I watch one of Master's lecture tapes per day. Now my mind has become much calmer and I can concentrate better when doing things.
Let me talk about my opinions on the effect of clarifying the truth through the Internet. Some time ago I thought about clarifying the truth with the help of the media. After sharing with other practitioners, one practitioner's words touched me. At present, how can we let people in China see the news? The Internet is the quickest and most timely way to deliver the news to the mainland. Master said,
"Clarifying the truth directly and clarifying the truth via the media complement each other. You can't rely on just one way of clarifying the truth." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students")
I realized that all Dafa work in fact connects with others tightly, like circles within circles and it is all-encompassing and unbreakable as a whole. The practitioners who work at the media meticulously make those truth-clarifying media programs. If they cannot be delivered to Mainland China in time, they cannot play an effective role. Master said that the main body of Dafa practitioners is in China. Overseas practitioners are all doing work around the main body. The Internet is indeed an indispensable part of validating Dafa as a whole. Why is the Internet called "no distance and no boundary?" No matter how far away people are, the news can immediately be delivered into their hands. This is the responsibility of those practitioners that Master has arranged to clarify the truth on the Internet. I'm one of them; how can I not put my heart into it to clarify the truth?
Practitioners have created the profiles including software to break the Internet blockade, published "The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" and the news regarding Dafa. It is just like delivering "the whole package of truth-clarification" to people's doors. Master said,
"Don't overlook any of the things that Dafa disciples do. Your every word, every flyer, every keystroke, every telephone call, and every letter is having a huge impact."("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")
Once a practitioner posted a software package on a Chinese website that is used to break the Internet blockade. In a very short time it had been downloaded many times. A practitioner mentioned that she saw a big blank public poster in her computer "stream" and realized Master was giving her a hint that there were many websites in China where the truth was not posted. Posting truth-clarifying articles on the Internet is just like the practitioners in China posting the truth-clarifying materials along the street. We are merely doing it on computers while the practitioners in China are risking their lives or have to do it in the middle of the night. After I heard her story, I realized that I have much that needs improvement; I need to speed up my efforts to rescue sentient beings. Our lives are for cultivation practice. Let us advance diligently.
Because of limitation in my cultivation level, please point out anything improper.
(Presented at the 2005 Taiwan Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)
January 1, 2006
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