(Clearwisdom.net) When we first started sending forth righteous thoughts, I paid much attention to purifying my mind. I was then locked in a detention center. I noticed that when my righteous thoughts were not focused, my head would hurt. It would then be over after a while, and I would again gather my thoughts to cleanse my mind. I would then experience a headache again and it would disappear after a while. I could clearly feel that the bad matters were being eliminated piece by piece. Recently, however, when I didn't pay much attention to cleansing myself, there was more interference. I couldn't devote the full five minutes to cleansing my mind, as there was always something to do during the five minutes before the top of the hour. There was even interference in my own thoughts. I always miss one or two minutes. Sometimes I didn't even purify myself at all and immediately started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate external evils. I discovered that this is a common problem with many practitioners.
The Fa teaches us that sending forth righteous thoughts consists of two parts. One is cleansing oneself inside, and the other is sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil matters which are extrinsic. Sending forth righteous thoughts should be done for at least five minutes. This is what Master asks us to do, and this is the Fa. Taking three or four minutes may not have the optimum effect. I think other practitioners and I who are in same state only paid attention to half of Master's Fa. We have paid less attention to clearing our minds and only paid attention to eliminating the external evil matters. It may seem that only holding the upright palm to send forth righteous thoughts is what sending forth righteous thoughts encompasses, and clearing our minds prior to that is not sending forth righteous thoughts, but this is an incorrect understanding.
There will be many problems if we cannot clear our minds well. On the one hand, it will interfere with maintaining our strong righteous thoughts, and the evil factors will also interfere with others. On the other hand, when the bad matters in our mind are not well cleansed, they will interfere with our minds, causing us not to be able to focus our thoughts. Soon our minds will think about other things or even be muddle-headed, like falling asleep. These are the results of not being serious about purifying ourselves. So now I try my best to clear my mind for a full five minutes. If it is only three or four minutes prior to the top of an hour, I use the first five minutes to clear my mind and then use the two hand gestures for a full ten minutes. In other words, I pay equal attention to clearing my mind and to eliminating the external evil factors.
June 26, 2006
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