(Minghui.org) I heard a fellow practitioner share about being troubled that he wasn’t able to understand high-level Fa principles through Fa study. He had tried all kinds of methods, including reciting Dafa books, but he couldn’t seem to become enlightened to anything and was very frustrated.
He looked within to determine why he couldn’t be enlightened to high-level Fa understandings and said that he found many issues in himself. Of course, one should look within to rectify oneself and get rid of one’s attachments and deficiencies. But this fellow practitioner didn’t realize that he was attached to pursuing high-level Fa understandings, an attachment which should be eliminated.
Master Li Hongzhi said,
“If you come to learn the practice and this Dafa with various pursuits, you will not learn anything.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
“The only way to gain a good understanding of Dafa is to study it without any intention. Each time you finish reading Zhuan Falun, you have made progress as long as you have gained some understanding. Even if you understood only one point after reading it, you have truly made progress.” (“Learning the Fa,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I realized that if you always strive to become enlightened to high-level principles when studying the Fa, it is also a pursuit and a big obstacle for practitioners who are obtaining and assimilating to the Fa.
Through years of cultivation, I understood that “high-level Fa understandings” are not obtained through pursuit. One solidly cultivates oneself, improves and raises one’s level, and then Master and Dafa enlightens us. If one intentionally pursues Fa understandings, it can become a strong attachment, in which case he would not become enlightened to anything, regardless of what approach was used. Even when one has improved in other areas, he wouldn’t be able to see the Fa principles because of the attachment.
Master said,
“Pursuit itself is an attachment. In cultivation practice, attachments are what need to be eliminated.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
Intentionally trying to understand some high-level Fa principle can easily make you go astray. I have witnessed some fellow practitioners who showed off their understandings of “high-level Fa principles,” misinterpreted the Fa, created karma, and brought tremendous interference to their cultivation.
A few of our local fellow practitioners were like that. They told other practitioners that they had enlightened to higher-level Fa principles. One of them told me mysteriously and proudly, “So an so in our group has such good enlightenment. She understands so much. Do you know this sentence means this…?”
She was pointing at a sentence in Zhuan Falun. I was shocked at what she said, because it was far from the superficial meaning of the book’s words. I told her that such an interpretation and “enlightenment” was not right, but she wouldn’t listen.
Many other practitioners worried about them too and tried to talk to them, but they wouldn’t listen. Eventually, the practitioners in that group were either persecuted or had severe illness tribulations. Some of them even gave up cultivation and never came back to Dafa. It’s a harsh lesson to experience.
When we read the Fa, we should not be attached to obtaining “high-level Fa understandings.” When we read or recite the Fa, we should just calm our hearts and study with focus and respect, think of nothing, and pursue nothing. Master’s Fa teaching is simple and clear. There’s no puzzle, and we don’t need to guess the meaning. It is to see if we can believe and follow the Fa.
We simply need to read and understand the surface meaning of the Fa. When we cultivate to higher levels, the Fa principles of those levels will be revealed to us. When we truly are enlightened to the deeper meaning of the Fa, our hearts will be moved in ways difficult to express with words. We should not be anxious or frustrated when we can’t reach higher Fa understandings. As long as you are doing the three things Master asks us to do, that’s everything. Perhaps huge changes are happening in you and your universe, but you just can’t feel it in this dimension. We should do what Master tells us to do, and all the wonderful things we deserve in the future will be prepared by Master.
Master said clearly,
“A practitioner believes he should only focus on practicing, without paying attention to obtaining gong. In cultivation and practice one should be in a state free of intention. As long as you focus on cultivating your xinxing, you will make breakthroughs in your level and certainly get things you deserve. If you cannot give something up, isn’t it an attachment?” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
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Category: Improving Oneself
