(Minghui.org) I recently read Master's teachings, “The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa” and “Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Jinan,” in which Master said,
“If you don’t conjoin your hands, the energy flow can’t be formed. If the energy can’t flow freely, how could you and your gong be evolved and developed?” (Zhuan Falun Fajie)
I was stunned when I read this paragraph, because I had never realized that there is so much profound meaning in the movement of conjoining the hands! It seems to be such a simple movement and yet it plays such an important role in the energy flow and in making a fundamental change in a cultivator.
It's been 15 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, and during this lengthy period of time, practitioners in mainland China have been doing the exercises at home. We lost the environment for group cultivation and the opportunity to help and encourage each other.
As time has gone by, we've forgotten the profound inner meaning of practicing the exercises and our movements are becoming less standard. We began to regard the sacred practice of the exercises as ordinary physical exercise. For example, when I did jieyin (conjoining the hands), I relaxed my hands as soon as my thumbs touched each other before the other fingers even got into their proper position. Before the music for jieyin was finished I'd already begun doing household chores.
I was really shocked by how slack I was in doing the exercises. I took out the chart of Master teaching the exercises and looked it through closely several times. I was even more distressed when I realized I was doing so many movements wrong. Master told us that we should keep both the knees and hips slightly bent, but my legs were almost straight. The movements should be unhurried, slow and smooth, but I ignored Master's instructions and did the exercises to my own fast rhythm, and very often when Master was still giving instructions I had already jumped to the next movement. When my legs got tired doing the second exercise, I walked back and forth. When I did the fifth exercise, I kept my arms in front of my chest instead of keeping them at shoulder level, and sometimes they dropped down to my abdomen when I began to doze off.
As I write this, I am full of regret. Practicing the exercises is part of the Fa, and if we slack off in doing the exercises, we are being disrespectful to Master and the Fa. Master taught us a cultivation way of mind and body so that we could elevate to higher levels. How can we change our bodies if we ignore practicing the exercises? In other words, if we ignore doing the exercises, we are being irresponsible in our cultivation and lowering our standards.
I have been cultivating for over ten years, but I've experienced very little change in my physical body. A few more age spots have surfaced on my face, and the skin on my feet is very dry, and it always cracks and bleeds in the winter. I often have leg cramps. This hasn't improved even though I kept sending righteous thoughts. I think that, apart from xinxing issues, my physical state is directly connected to my not doing the exercises properly.
Because I feel this may not just be my issue, I need to share this with fellow practitioners. This is also being responsible to fellow practitioners. I went to a number of practitioners' homes and watched them doing the exercises. We were all upset to see that our movements were non-standard.
Someone said, “Sometimes I felt very sleepy when doing the exercises in the morning, so I walk around while doing the exercises to stay awake.” The three practitioners were the same as me that when they did the fifth exercise: they kept their arms in front of their chest instead of keeping them at shoulder level. When I told them they were doing it wrong, one of them even asked me, “Has there been a change in the movement?” It seems that, because we have lost the group exercise environment and have ignored practicing the exercises, we have even forgotten the correct forms of the exercises, and we have taken the non-standard movements for granted.
This seems to be a common problem in mainland China. We hope this sharing can serve as a warning to other practitioners. We should watch Master's exercise instruction video from time to time, or do the exercises with other practitioners so that we can check and correct each others' movements. We must take practicing the exercises seriously and keep to the standards of the exercise instructions given by Master.
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