(Minghui.org) I would like to share some recent enlightenments I've had about doing the exercises.
I slacked off on doing the exercises for a long time. I never thought about doing them on my own, because I didn't think it was as important as studying the Fa. I had a thought that, since the gong (high energy) would cultivate me, my energy would be reinforced by the gong anyway.
For ten years, I'd held that same erroneous notion in my head.
However, this all changed when I had a severe toothache. The dentist said the bad tooth was beyond repair and needed to be removed. I realized that this was the result of my slacking off in doing the exercises, so I decided to do something about it.
I read The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection and watched Master's exercise instruction video again. I was surprised to discover that I had even forgotten some of the exercise verses. I immediately started looking for errors in my thinking, and found two major ones.
First, I saw doing the exercises as a burden, and I didn't want to suffer. Even from the beginning of my cultivation, I never enjoyed the exercises or did them actively. On the surface, I was diligent, but, actually, I was just trying to finish the task.
Also, I wasn't self-motivated.
I was the contact person at our local exercise site, and it was my job to bring the audio player every morning to the site so I had to get up early. But I never wanted to do the exercises deep in my heart. After the persecution started, we had to stop exercising in groups, and there was no external force pushing me. So I slacked off.
I also thought that getting up early in the morning to do the exercises was painful. I never tried to feel the wonderful sensations when I did the exercises. For some practitioners, doing the exercises was like breathing, but I saw it as a burden. It was an extra task for me, which I was obligated to fulfill everyday.
One practitioner once said to me, “Is there any cultivator who does not do the exercises?”
To her, doing the exercises was a natural part of her life. I felt ashamed comparing myself to her.
Second, some of my exercise movements were not accurate. Since I was the contact person and often taught new practitioners the exercises, I thought that my movements were correct and never tried to improve.
Actually, some of my movements were not accurate. A while ago, my back was often sore after I did the exercises. I didn't know why until a fellow practitioner pointed out that my knees were too stiff when I did the standing exercises, and that my back was not relaxed. I followed his suggestions and corrected my gestures and felt much better afterwards.
After I realized this, I tried to calibrate all of my movements again, which proved to be very helpful. For example, I had difficulty holding the wheel above my head in the second exercise. When my gestures and movements were corrected, I felt relaxed.
Now when I hold the wheel, I am not constantly anticipating the end of the exercise as I did before.
Also, I realized that I need to closely follow Master's instructions when doing the exercises. Before, my movements were either ahead of or behind Master's instructions. Now, I try to closely follow the instructions – not just physically, but mentally as well.
Following Master's instruction is also an issue of “respecting Master and the Fa.” If every practitioner can do it, then the power of the whole body of practitioners will be great. Shouldn't a practitioner follow Master? Doing the exercises is similar to cultivating one's xinxing—we need to continuously correct ourselves and keep improving. Many of us, including myself, thought that doing the exercises was easy, so we did not pay enough attention to it and neglected the little details. In truth, doing every movement correctly is no easy task.
Master said:
“Why do we leave a space between the upper and lower teeth? It’s because if your teeth are clenched during the exercise, the energy will make them clench tighter and tighter during its circulation. Whichever part of the body is tense can’t be fully transformed. So any part that’s not relaxed will end up being excluded and not transformed or evolved. The upper and lower teeth will relax if you leave a space between them.” (“The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection”)
Even such a minor gesture can have such a great effect. Shouldn't we treat the movements seriously and try our best to do them accurately?
Nowadays, I do all five exercises together and try my best to correct my thoughts and movements continuously during the exercises. I humbly and respectfully follow Master's instructions. Gradually, I am beginning to sense the wonderfulness of the exercises.
It is no longer a burden to me to do the exercises. It is no longer an extra task. Instead, it has become a pleasant experience, in which I enjoy the Buddha's compassion and renewal of myself.
It seems that I have new understandings of every word in Master's instructions. Of course, I am not saying that we should pay extreme attention to the accuracy of the movements. As long as we are focused and put our hearts into it, we will feel the greatness of the exercises, and we will develop new understandings every day.
As a cultivator, we should always be in the state that Master as described to us:
“The old and the young alike will all feel energized from head to toe.”
“A practice that cultivates both your nature and longevity can have a rejuvenating effect and make you look a lot younger than you are. ” (Zhuan Falun)
If we do the exercises seriously, the power of the Fa will naturally emerge and have a positive impact. Here are two examples.
Practitioner Z used to get carsick very easily. Even a short time in the car would make her throw up. She started practicing more than 10 years ago, but this problem continued to plague her.
Recently at a group sharing, she told us that she had discovered why.
“I never did the exercises seriously, and often slacked off. I was never able to do the exercises several days in a row for over 10 years,” she said.
After she started to do the exercises every day, her car sickness, which had bothered her for several decades, disappeared.
Practitioner A does the exercises every day. But a while ago, she often felt tired afterwards. Sometimes she had to take a break after each exercise. Her feet were swollen, and she could not walk.
She asked us to help her find out why. Were there any loopholes in her xinxing?
Back then, I had just developed some new understandings of doing the exercises, so I told her, “There must be something wrong. Doing the exercises should always make you relaxed. Do you do every movement accurately?”
She showed me how she did the exercises, and we found many small mistakes in her movements. For example, her knees were stiff, her spine was bowed, and she leaned backwards when she stood. She was grateful and decided to read The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection and watch Master's exercises instruction video again carefully.
Now she feels much better. She felt bad that she didn't find those problems earlier.“I did the exercises with those mistakes for the last ten years! How much time did I waste?” she lamented.
Master taught us:
“Have you ever thought of the fact that practicing cultivation is the best form of rest? You can obtain the kind of rest that can’t be obtained through sleeping. Nobody would say: 'The exercises are making me so tired that I can’t do anything today.' One would only say: 'The exercises are making my whole body relaxed and at ease. I don’t feel sleepy after a sleepless night. I feel full of energy. It doesn’t seem to bother me at all after a day’s work.' Isn’t this the case? So if someone who doesn’t come out to do the exercises says that he has no time or uses other excuses, I’d say that it’s completely because he doesn’t have a deep understanding of the Fa and lacks the will to make painstaking efforts.” ("Lecture at the First Conference in North America")
I would like to remind fellow practitioners to pay more attention to the exercises and do them well. Let's defeat the demons of sleepiness and tiredness.
After I finished the first draft of this article, Master gave me a wonderful experience when I was doing the exercises the next morning. When I was holding the wheel, my whole body felt like it was melting into the universe. It seemed that my body became transparent and permeable to many particles. I felt light.
It was a really wonderful and comfortable experience, which was the natural result when I tried to follow Master's instructions and do the movements accurately. And it came without my pursuing it.
I realized that The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection is part of the Fa. It is more profound than what I saw at the surface level. One cannot see the profoundness of it if one just simply repeats the movements everyday. Only if we put our hearts into it, and seriously do every movement, can the wondrous power of the exercises manifest itself.
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Category: Improving Oneself
