(Minghui.org) I recently met several practitioners who have practiced Falun Dafa for a decade or longer. However, none of them meditated with both legs crossed (on top the other, in the full lotus position). One who'd practiced for more than 20 years could only sit for a few minutes in the lotus position. They usually studied the Fa while sitting casually without their legs crossed, and sent forth righteous thoughts with just one leg crossed (half lotus).
I’d like to share some of my understandings about studying the Fa and practicing the exercises.
When I reflected on my own cultivation practice, I asked myself, “Do I have a sincere desire to study the Fa? Do I need the Fa like I need food and water? Do I really wish to meditate?”
My answer was, “Yes, I need to study the Fa and cultivate. That is what I truly want.” Some practitioners have gone on hunger strikes while imprisoned, for the right to cultivate.
Studying the Fa has never been difficult for me. But meditating with both legs crossed was very hard in the earlier years after I began the practice. I can’t even find the right word to describe the pain.
After the persecution started in 1999, I was detained several times and was tortured. My leg was injured, and afterwards, pus oozed from the wound for six months. The inmates used chopsticks to poke the wound so it wouldn’t heal, as a way to force me to give up my faith. I refused to give in to the pressure. In the end, they gave up and left me alone.
I was able to endure the torture thanks to my earlier years of enduring the pain while doing the meditation exercise. Before the persecution started I was usually the last one to leave the practice site because my legs were in so much pain that I couldn’t stand up. When I practiced at home, I often cried from the pain after finishing the meditation exercise.
Now if I don’t meditate I feel that something is missing. As soon I hear the music for the meditation exercise I relax and feel comfortable. Even though my right leg is still in pain after about half an hour, I feel joyful instead of uncomfortable. Enveloped in the peaceful music, I’m transported away from the noisy and filthy secular world that is filled with emotion and attachment to fame and gain.
Cultivation to me is as natural as breathing. It’s no longer just one aspect of my life but the entirety of my life. It is the focal point of my life.
My income is very limited. My meals are simple. My room is just large enough to sleep and do the exercises in, but it is warm and dry. I often remind myself that this is my cultivation environment, one in which I can study the Fa and practice the exercises.
I recently enlightened that studying the Fa and meditating are ways to become part of higher realms. If my heart doesn’t reach the purity and calmness of a higher realm, I won’t be able to live in that divine realm.