(Clearwisdom.net) In the past, I would go to sleep around 10 at night and get up at midnight to send righteous thoughts. However I would either oversleep and missed the time or fell asleep while sending righteous thoughts. The aggressive interference from the sleep demons kept causing me to be distracted. Later on, I resolved to go to bed only after sending righteous thoughts at midnight. At first, I was already falling off to sleep even before midnight and did not even notice that the book in my hand had fallen. I did not give up, however, and persevered in my righteous thoughts, making sure that I only went to bed after finishing righteous thoughts. I have been memorizing Zhuan Falun at night. When I was about to doze off, I would stand up, book in hand and memorize the Fa while pacing up and down. As I memorized the Fa, I became more alert and by midnight, my mind would be very clear. I have finally passed this test.
Since I started practicing Dafa in 1997, I have never participated in morning exercises, because I was afraid that I wouldn't get enough sleep. If I slept less I thought I would feel tired and weak and would keep dozing off. I also often fell asleep while sending righteous thoughts. I tried all kinds of methods but none were effective, and I was very troubled by this. A fellow practitioner shared that she did not take part in the morning exercises because she thought she had no time to do them. I then arranged with her to do the morning exercises together. This time, I let go of my attachment to lack of sleep and got up at 3 every morning to do the exercises. After doing this for a period of time, I discovered that I did not feel tired even though I was sleeping less. Instead, I was energetic and alert. While doing the exercises, my mind was even clearer than before with fewer random thoughts. Before, I used to fall asleep while sending righteous thoughts. Miraculously, this situation greatly improved, and I could feel a very strong energy field. When I clarified the truth, I had strong righteous thoughts. Just as Master said in "Rational and Awake" (Hong Yin Vol. II)
"Pause for a moment of self-reflection,
and increase your righteous thoughts"
Doing morning exercises is such a wonderful thing.
A fellow practitioner once said that it used to be very painful for her to sit in the lotus position but since taking part in morning exercises, her legs don't hurt that much. It seems that there are many benefits to doing morning exercises.
The greatest obstacle to participating in morning exercises was the fear of lack of sleep and that sleepiness would affect my work during the day. Once I had that thought, I had already accepted that reality and I was unsure. Thus I indeed felt that I had not slept enough and gave up on taking part in morning exercises. From my experience, we have to let go of this attachment first. Then we must affirm our righteous thoughts. Regardless of any interference by the sleep demon, we must have strong righteous thoughts. No matter how difficult it is, we must persist and not waver! If we have firm righteous thoughts, Master will help us.
I hope fellow practitioners will join in morning exercises.
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Category: Improving Oneself
