(Minghui.org) I read an experience sharing article about cultivating every thought a few years ago. Given my limited level and understanding at that time, I did not really comprehend what cultivating every thought meant and why it was important to do so.
Now I have enlightened that the old forces play an important role on prearranging our thoughts. These thoughts and our notions drive our actions every day. When we constantly dig out our bad thoughts and attachments, and diligently cultivate to eliminate them, we improve and elevate.
At the beginning of my cultivation, many things I dreamed actually happened in real life. Once I went to a friend's home. She was with her grandmother, a scene I saw in my dream. In the dream, her grandmother spoke to her and, during my visit, her grandmother said exactly the same words.
I knew that everything in the human world was prearranged, but I did not realize that the arrangement was down to every movement and every sentence. This triggered my understanding of another practitioner's sharing that you have to cultivate every single thought, so as to negate the old forces’ arrangements.
Since the old forces made intricate arrangements for every practitioner, if your thoughts are not in line with Dafa, your mind may follow the thought patterns arranged by the old forces. Many times you believe that those thoughts were from yourself, but you are not be able to distinguish between your True Self and the old forces, let alone to negate them.
After enlightening to the importance of every thought, I began to pay attention to my thoughts every day and found out that they were rarely from my True Self.
The restaurant where I worked was not doing well, and there were usually not many customers. One day it was full of people. I reflected on this and tried to figure out the reason. It was simply because there were many visitors, not customers, that day. People simply assumed that the food was good after seeing many people there. So it attracted more and more people.
Even though a crowded restaurant does not mean it serves good food, why do people still think this way? People do it based on their notions instead of themselves. The people visited that restaurant on that day because their notion successfully controlled their bodies.
Master said,
“A person has a master soul and an assistant soul(s), he has all kinds of notions that have been formed after birth, and both good and evil are part of his nature. Also there are external factors that play a part.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference V, Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference)
Our everyday thoughts are very likely mixed in with the thoughts imposed by the old forces, your own notions or interference from other dimensions. When you do not recognize which thought is truly yours, you would easily walk down the path arranged by the old forces or be controlled by others. You would end up impacting doing your Three Things or wasting your time.
Later I found out that many practitioners who suffered severe persecution had not cultivated their thoughts very well. They did not constrain their thoughts and let the thoughts control them to do things. More problems emerged, and the old forces had excuses to persecute them.
When a thought flashes in your head, you should actively discern if it is from your True Self or from other things. If it is not good, you should send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it.
If you cannot do it at every moment, you can look back on your day before bedtime. When you discover that you did some things with thoughts that were not in line with Dafa or according to the way that the old forces arranged, you should consciously cultivate them in the future.
On the first night, if you discover your strong attachment of fear when you tried to clarify the truth or to chat with others, you should target your attachment on the second day. You should force yourself to talk to strangers on the street, maybe just a few sentences. If you can manage to do it, it is an improvement.
One the second night, you should find out more attachments and where you did badly or had bad thoughts. You should do better on the third day. If you keep doing so every day, you are making progress daily. You are constantly targeting your attachments and eliminating them every day.
Master said,
“Study Fa, obtain Fa,Compare in studying, compare in cultivating,Examine each and every deed,Accomplishing is cultivating.(Hong Yin, Solid Cultivation)
I enlightened that “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating” also means to examine your thoughts and actions according to the Fa. You should examine if your every thought and everything you do is in line with Dafa, or if you are solidly cultivating yourself. Through repeated reflection and correction, you are stepping closer to the Fa every day and getting closer to the characteristic of the universe.
The above is my personal understanding, please point out any mistakes or shortcomings.