(Clearwisdom.net) Looking back over my cultivation, I found that I had incorrect thinking about the basic issue of believing in Master and Dafa. I wrongly thought that it was simply about doing the three things required by Master. I thought that as long as a practitioner did the three things a lot and did them well, which is seen on the surface, that he/she is one who firmly believes in Master and Dafa. Therefore, I only paid attention to doing the three things, and I even considered it an ordinary, everyday job. This is not to say that doing the three things every day is wrong. However, while doing the three things, I ignored paying attention to truly cultivating my heart.
During the past two years, my experiences and those of fellow practitioners have showed me that differing degrees of belief in Master and Dafa have brought about differing results. This has helped me to let go of my incorrect thinking, and to enlighten to thinking that it is really as Master said, “The Great Law looks at a person’s heart.” (“Untitled,” from Hong Yin Vol. II) Moreover, I understand that how firmly you believe in Master and Dafa depends on whether you truly practice cultivation.
Let me first talk about practitioner A. She is related to me and is nearly 70. I always admired that she cultivated very well because it seemed to me that she did the three things much better than I did. Take studying the Fa, for example. She has recited Zhuan Falun from memory five times. Regarding clarifying the truth and helping people withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, she has saved at least two to three people every day. She has also done the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts very well.
This fellow practitioner, who I thought had strived forward diligently, one day returned from another relative’s home in another city. She came back with a great attachment to her children, and seemed to have become another person. She said to me, “My relative spent hundreds of thousands of yuan for her children. I felt ashamed when I compared myself with her. Now, all my children have gotten married; they have their own jobs and homes. Maybe I should save some money for my grandchildren, so that I will feel better about this.” After hearing this, I told her that it was an attachment that should be removed.
She soon started to cough and gradually became short of breath. Later she was too weak to walk upstairs and her asthma became worse. She asked me, “An ordinary person would get good rewards by simply saying, 'Falun Dafa is good.' I have practiced cultivation for over 10 years. I have been doing the three things. Why hasn’t Master helped me eliminate this illness karma?” I told her at that moment, “Just firmly believe in Master and Dafa, you will break through it. Your thoughts just now were not correct. They are not something you should say. Eliminate them.”
Afterwards, she didn’t come to see me for a long time. I then went to visit her. She told me with tears, “I’m sorry to you. I’m sorry to Master. I didn’t maintain my xinxing. Per my son’s and uncle’s requests, I went to the hospital. It turned out that I just had mild pneumonia. All of the various tests showed normal results.”
I comforted her and asked her to seize the time to watch the video of Master teaching the Fa. She agreed and then I returned home. Soon after that, I heard that she had been sent to the hospital again. I then went to visit her in the hospital. She was receiving IV fluids and was breathing via an oxygen tube. She said in her conscious moments, “My sons and daughters came after you left. They asked me to stay in the hospital for further observation, saying, 'the county hospital is not good enough; we will send you to a city hospital for careful examination.’” I told her, “If your children really arrange for a car to send you, you should keep one thought in your heart, ‘Master, save me please!’ Will you remember?” She said yes.
She was later sent to the city hospital. The doctors who were in charge of examinations had already gotten off work, so she had to wait until the next day when the doctors came to work again. While waiting for the next morning, the illness karma took her life away, leaving a regret for her and negative impact for Dafa.
Practitioner A’s death confused me for quite a while. At that time, I thought that she should have passed through that test since she did very well in doing the three things. Looking back at that moment, I thought that she perhaps had a loophole in her heart for truly practicing cultivation and believing in Master and Dafa, which was taken advantage of by the evil.
Next, let me talk about practitioner B. Regardless of what tribulations she encountered, she always asked Master for help. As a result, miracles were often revealed to her. Some examples of this are detailed below.
After her son suffered gallstones, practitioner B firmly believed in Master and told her son, “This is because you were ignorant before and burned my Dafa books. If you really confess this to my Master, I believe that my Master will save you! Now, it is up to you.” Her son took her advice and said in front of Master’s picture with tears, “I was wrong! Master, please help me, an ignorant child who previously committed a crime against Dafa!” Then he got onto his knees and made three gestures of kowtowing. A miracle then occurred. Within 10 minutes, practitioner B’s son experienced a shaking in his body in the area where he had experienced pain from the gallstones. As a result, his gallstones, which were 1.5 cm in length, disappeared. He never had that problem again.
More than two months after practitioner B’s granddaughter was born, she was diagnosed as having a congenital, fetal umbilical tumor. Doctors said that the only solution was to have an operation; however, the baby was too young to be operated on. The doctors asked the parents to bring her back when she was older and when the tumor was affecting her eating. The parents then had to bring the baby home without any treatment.
As soon as practitioner B heard this, she said to her son and daughter-in-law, “You don’t need to wait anymore, and there is no need to wait until the baby’s tumor becomes bigger. From now on, just sincerely say, ‘Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’ to your daughter. My Master will take care of her. Then everything will be fine.”
Then practitioner B’s son and daughter-in-law started to sincerely recite these statements. Three days later, the baby’s fetal umbilical tumor disappeared.
My understanding of this occurrence was that it was just how practitioner B believed in Master and Dafa; that she asked Master for help regardless of the tribulations she encountered. Thus, she was walking the path arranged by Master. The results of course were miraculous and beyond ordinary people’s expectations. Practitioner B had those thoughts at each critical moment. It was not lip service, but true belief and heart for cultivation.
Last but not least, I would like to mention two things that happened to me recently. One was on November 26, 2010. A practitioner’s experience-sharing article enlightened me concerning Master’s Fa principle of settling karmic relationships with benevolent solutions. I then followed the practitioner’s suggestion to benevolently settle my karmic relationships with the lives of the cockroaches in my home. I didn't want to kill the ones in my home, and I knew they were there for a reason. A miracle then occurred. All the cockroaches at my home disappeared. I didn’t develop zealotry at that time.
However, three days later, my daughter, who also practiced Falun Dafa, asked me why all the cockroaches had disappeared in my home. I said, “It is because I followed a practitioner’s suggestion in a sharing article and sent forth righteous thoughts to use Master’s Fa principle of settling karmic relationships with benevolent solutions; then all the cockroaches disappeared.” While explaining that, my zealotry surfaced. Then on the fifth day, I found several cockroaches in my home. I looked within and found that it was due to my zealotry. Moreover, I had thoughts deep in my heart that, “Are the cockroaches really gone just by settling any karmic relationships with benevolent solutions?” For several continuous days, I even searched for cockroaches at home to see whether the Fa really had this effect.
I looked deeper within myself, and I found that when I explained it to my daughter, I was showing off. I was putting Master’s Fa principles in the second place, and I was actually validating myself.
The reappearance of the cockroaches made me realize that the issue of believing in Master and Dafa, even if you have a tiny tribulation, will bring different results.
The other thing that happened was between practitioner C and me. Practitioner C had serious symptoms of an allergy after dying her hair. Her eyes were so badly swollen that she couldn’t see anything. She was very fearful at that time. Thinking that it affected her clarifying the truth to others, she at once asked Master for help and sent forth righteous thoughts. As a result, her eyes recovered.
She shared with me later, “I realized that it was Master enlightening me to not dye my hair anymore. The hair coloring was a chemical substance, which was toxic.” Master said,
“Don’t we practitioners want to purify our bodies? We should constantly purify our bodies and constantly progress toward high levels. Yet you still put that in your body, so aren’t you going the opposite way from us?” (Zhuan Falun)
Practitioner C’s sharing helped me to discover my own vanity that was hidden for nearly 20 years. I also remembered Master’s response to a disciple’s question, “Can cultivators take nutritional supplements?” in “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland.” Both of these helped me to deeply enlighten to the Fa principle. I see that using hair coloring is the same as taking nutritional supplements. It seems that hair color is a simple thing; however, it is a basic issue of really believing in Master and Dafa.
After I enlightened to this, I went to a barbershop and cut off all my dyed black hair, leaving only my naturally white hair. Because I really let go of my vanity, I felt undisturbed and no longer worried if others said that I was old.
Three days later, I went to practitioner C’s home again. She said with a surprise, “It really is miraculous! There is a lot of black hair on your head.”
This miraculous change made me enlighten to the understanding that as long as one truly practices from his heart, gets rid of attachments, and firmly believes in Master and Dafa, Master can do everything for him, such as purifying his body and making him younger and younger. I appreciate Master from the bottom of my heart. The miraculous change wouldn’t occur until I really believed in Master and Dafa. This is because, “Cultivation depends on the efforts of the individual while transforming gong is done by the master.” (Zhuan Falun)
Through all of the above, I enlightened that when you experience real tribulation, the key is not how much you have studied or recited the Fa, or how many things you have done. This is not to say that studying the Fa more and reciting the Fa more are not correct, instead, it depends on how much you have assimilated to the Fa after studying the Fa and to what extent you have truly cultivated your xinxing and let go of attachments while doing the three things. Only after you truly believe in Master and Dafa from the bottom of your heart, can you reach the level where you meet the Fa’s standards as a cultivator. Based on this solid foundation, when you experience real tribulation, you will have the important thoughts to ask Master for help. The miracle then will appear, and you will really pass the test.
Through all of this I enlightened to the understanding that, “How firmly you believe in Master and Dafa depends on your heart for truly practicing cultivation.”
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Category: Improving Oneself
