(Clearwisdom.net)

Continued from Part 3: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/12/15/130131.html

When the original self returns, our hearts are compassionate. With this energy, no matter what we do, it is compassionate. It is just like when we have coins in our pockets, we will spend the coins. If we have paper money in our pockets, we will spend the paper money. If we have gold in our pockets, we will spend the gold. Our brains were full of attachments and notions in the past. No matter how well we treated others, how hard we cultivated ourselves, or how we smiled at one another, behind it all were still attachments and human notions, because at that time all we had were human attachments and notions.

- Author

Some of the practitioners in our city already have very good cultivation states. When everyone sits together, their hearts are pure and harmonized. When one practitioner wants to do something, all the others fully support him with their righteous thoughts. It is a complete trust. One can entrust one’s life to another. This would never happen before letting go of self. When we reach the state of gods and Buddhas, we automatically trust each other, which is the direct opposite to the way humans are. This trust completely goes beyond life and death. In the past, we would rather trust the human “self,” and our human notions instead of Master's Fa, choices, and arrangements made for us. We always trusted the "self," yet it brought us many tribulations. Self drags humans into the sea of bitterness (when humans are in the delusion, they don't realize the bitterness brought about by self. Instead, they are willing to sacrifice everything they have that is good for the false self and its notions and attachments).

This year even though I had understood the difference between the false self and the true self, the false self gradually seeped back into my life again. It was like I had just changed my hat. Inevitably I found it hard to believe in the true self and was at a loss as to how to improve my cultivation state. All the truth became illusion again, and it felt just like a dream.

During the ups and downs of cultivation in the past, I know the sense of “self” stopped practitioners from attaining mighty virtue and raising their xinxing level in cultivation. They imagined that they could cultivate to higher levels better than others. Under the illusion of the self, practitioners would consider cultivation as a human job. At times we might have kept count of the times we studied the Fa, how long we practiced the exercises, or how many people we saved. Among the practitioners, we may have been eager to be considered a leader. We may have been eager to participate in Dafa projects that could bring us more mighty virtue, and that could show how special we were. No matter how divine the things were that we did, we still could not really let go of our human sides.

I understand that we should not pursue how great we are. We only need to assimilate to the Fa. Cultivation is not work, and we should not count the levels of cultivation, how much karma we paid off, or how much virtue we have received. We should simply believe in Dafa and assimilate to the Fa with great courage. We should let go of fear, hesitation, notions, time, and the false self like a fearless warrior and welcome the improvements in our cultivation states. The key is whether we can change our minds.

Master said,

“There’s no way everybody can attain the Dao. Even if you are able to persevere in your cultivation, it remains to be seen whether you can succeed, and it remains to be seen whether you’re really committed to cultivating. There’s no way everybody can become a Buddha.” (Zhuan Falun)

I wondered why I hadn’t fallen down completely in my cultivation and remembered that I put my heart of gold into cultivating in Dafa. Our Buddha nature wants to cultivate firmly in Dafa. It is really a golden heart. The reason I improved very fast during the early stages of cultivation was because I was already a monk in my heart, even though my body was still within the human world. I borrowed a place to practice the exercises and I found a place to eat food. But when we became too concerned with the things we did, we started showing off. For example, when a practitioner started to coordinate a Dafa project, Dafa's arrangements will follow up, and Master and all the gods will protect and guide it. But when we don't let go self while participating, the project may not achieve very good results. We may have had frequent arguments, been unable to harmonize our minds, and experienced many conflicts. I understand that the golden heart truly exists divinely.

This is my understanding: There is a “concentric heart” in other dimensions. When we were still in heaven, Master knew that we were all lords from the different cosmos and we came from very distant places that never had any connections with each other. When we came down to this world and began cultivation, with the interference of the false self, we may have thought we were the best and not shown respect to others. I like to think that Master created a “concentric heart,” divided it into countless pieces, and gave each practitioner a piece. All the beings that came from faraway places had no connections before sharing this concentric heart. If any of us within Dafa cannot selflessly love others and not provide our best to unconditionally support others, we are selfish, and not yet rid of humanness. We haven't woken up from the dream at all. In the past, when I did the hand gesture “Heshi,” I felt it was a very polite gesture. But now when I do “Heshi,” it is a completely divine and pure state showing beautiful respect to others.

Upon letting go of the false self, we will have a different way of eliminating karma. When each level of our bodies, including the outermost human cells, are replaced by high-energy matter, our ability to eliminate karma is greatly improved. In the past, we used a human body to eliminate the karma. From a certain point on, we used the body formed by gong to eliminate our karma. At that stage our bodies no longer have human cells. Eliminating karma in a human being is very painful, as we all know from the sitting meditation. If a lot of karma were pushed onto an everyday person's body, the body would immediately die and dissolve. But when all levels of our bodies are converted into gong, it is fairly easy to eliminate the karma.

Master taught us that if our karma was not enough for us to cultivate with, we could help relatives and friends to eliminate their karma. I understand that this doesn’t indicate how high our original levels were, but means that every level of our bodies could be converted into gong.

Our cultivation is different from other paths of cultivation. I understand, based on my level, that our cultivation begins from the middle and reaches toward the two extremes. But the progress of cultivation immediately slows down when it reaches the Three Realms. Why? One reason is that our human bodies haven’t been transformed into gong yet. The human body is very weak and has very minimal ability. In addition, we have not yet let go of many attachments and notions. The human body within the Three Realms is constructed with the lowest unclean elements. Yet our bodies in other dimensions were originally formed by the pure and high-energy matter at the microscopic level. How can the body convert into high-energy gong? We need to let go of all our attachments of self and return to our original true selves to guide our lives.

Understanding the Fa from our original true selves is completely different than understanding the Fa from our human self. Our true selves don't have trouble passing tests, eliminating karma, or overcoming the persecution. We just keep saving the sentient beings. We tell them, “The tribulations have already ended. Our ship already set sail. We will return to our positions. Those who want to go home should get on the ship quickly! Returning home has been your expectation for thousands or millions of years.” Afterwards, many magical states would appear in our cultivation. We all know we must completely let go of the attachment to consummation. In our school of practice, we gradually obtain enlightenment. When the moment of complete enlightenment really comes, we must firmly and clearly welcome the arrival of that moment. We could not keep practicing and never reach consummation. It is time to get ready for returning home.

When we truly walk out from the human side and look back, nothing will entangle our hearts except for the three things that Master asks us to do. When we let go of self and break away from being human, we will experience the pure state of Gods and Buddhas walking the earth. It is very solemn, and the compassionate energy we emit will change the people around us unknowingly.

For the past few years, the old forces have continually arranged bad people to interfere with practitioners who have gone astray. If we have a pure state of cultivation, our ways of safeguarding Dafa and resisting the evil people will significantly change too. In their true hearts, the people who went astray momentarily also still want to cultivate. Many times we felt that we needed to do something to change a difficult situation. Actually Master already taught us,

Master said,

“Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.”)

Master said,

"Pacify the External by Cultivating the Internal." (“Pacify the External by Cultivating the Internal,” from Essentials for Further Advancement)

So the key is that we must cultivate ourselves well. If we cannot cultivate ourselves well, and we become entangled by right and wrong, then we will not be able to allow the “Buddha’s light shines everywhere” to manifest.

I recalled that when I was not within the Fa, I really could not eliminate even a tiny attachment. The old forces could easily plant an attachment on me that would be stuck to me, such as the attachments of sensations, fame, joy, and showing off. But when I am completely within the Fa, it is very easy to eliminate attachments.

Every being needs to assimilate to Dafa in the end, just like a small wood chip drops into and assimilates into burning molten steel. So, no matter who we are, whether we have already reached consummation, or have great divine powers and great mighty virtue, no matter how many sentient beings we have saved, we must completely assimilate to Dafa in the end. When we totally let go of ourselves we will be completely assimilated by the great and pure energy of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Let's completely immerse our selves into Dafa.