(Minghui.org) A Falun Dafa practitioner who truly cultivates will usually practice the five sets of exercises and study one lecture of Zhuan Falun every day. However, to persist in this for a long period of time is sometimes not easy.
At some point I developed a skin lesion on my big toe known as a clavus. It was a small, hard lesion that felt a bit painful, but it did not affect my ability to walk normally. This skin condition persisted for many years. As it did not affect anything and did not grow bigger, I never cared much about it.
Last year, after the pandemic started, the clavus on my big toe became inflamed. As it hurt when I walked, I limped a bit. As my company had decided to let everyone work from home for a month, I thought of making use of the situation where I did not have to walk every day and quickly bought some medicine for treating the clavus. At that time, I felt that this thought was not correct, but I still decided to try it out.
After using the medicine for some time, I felt there was some improvement, but the clavus did not go away. I also realized that a cultivator should not use this kind of method to address health problems. However, I kept finding excuses for myself, such as thinking that a clavus is not a disease so there was no problem with using this medication. Just like that, a month went by, but things did not turn out as well as expected. Later, I understood that no matter what grew on my skin, they were all caused by my karma. In that case, how can medication resolve it?
Due to the pandemic, my company extended the work-from-home period. I used the time I would have spent commuting to study the Fa teachings that Master gave in different areas. I wanted to study all these teachings in addition to my usual daily Fa study. I practiced the exercises every morning before 8.10 a.m. and then studied the Fa teachings. I continued to read a lecture in Zhuan Falun every evening. At night, I delivered truth-clarification materials to nearby mailboxes.
I slept only about four hours but was full of energy every day. I could do the exercises during break times at work, so I made use of the morning exercise time at home to study the Fa teachings too. In general, I studied about a hundred pages,which is about a book a day. If the book had more pages, then it took me about three days to study two books.
I also began to think about how to be more diligent and improve my cultivation by looking within to see what attachments I needed to get rid of. Whenever I practiced the exercises, I treated any non-righteous thoughts that surfaced as attachments and tried my best to get rid of them. I dug deep into my heart to see what I was attached to and why. After that, I got rid of it. Whenever I looked within, I recalled what Master had said,
“In truth, the spiritual journey is none other than an ongoing process of learning to let go of the things of this world that we may be attached to.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I cared a lot about how people looked at me and their opinions about me. At work, I also cared a lot about people’s attitude when they talked to me. I was an especially sensitive person. If their attitude towards me was not so good, I felt uncomfortable and thought about where I had gone wrong. I felt that people should just tell me if I did anything wrong instead of treating me like that. I looked deep within myself and found attachments to not being humble and a dislike of criticism and rejection.
If the other party was a fellow practitioner, I felt especially uncomfortable and unable to resolve my feelings. I believed that I was treated with a bad attitude by others because I had a lot of karma and did not cultivate well. Then, I recalled what Master had said,
“If you were to have no karma, everyone would smile at you as you walked down the street, and people you don’t even know would come up to do things for you. You would be utterly carefree!” (Fa-Teaching Given at the Conference in Sydney)
I told myself that I must really get rid of all attachments and bad thoughts that I had acquired after birth and quickly improve in my cultivation. After that, when colleagues at work and fellow practitioners treated me with a bad attitude, I simply faced them calmly. Whenever I meet with unhappy matters from then on, I would look within to see what I did wrong.
Things went on like that for about two months. Then, one day, while cutting my toenails, I discovered that the stubborn skin problem on my toe, which had been there for years, had disappeared. The skin had become flat and proper just like new skin. The clavus had fully disappeared! At that moment, I was very shocked, but immediately I knew that this amazing healing must be related to my persistence in practicing the Falun Dafa exercises every day, studying the Fa a lot and looking within. Therefore, I immediately thanked Master Li for his benevolence.
After that, I persisted in practicing the exercises, studying the Fa and looking within. I further changed to memorizing the Fa every morning after completing the exercises. It is a pity that I ultimately did not manage to persist in my memorizing of the Fa due to various reasons.
Looking back at my years of cultivation in detail, I realized that I had always practiced the exercises and studied the Fa. So why only at this time did my skin problem of many years recover so quickly? I understood that this was because I did not treat looking within as an important matter. I also did not really know how to look within. I knew that I needed to look within, but how to do so escaped me back then.
However, recently, due to reasons such as being busy with work, I feel that I am not as diligent in my cultivation as before. Therefore, I hope that through sharing my cultivation experiences I can return to my earlier cultivation state. Sometimes, due to exhaustion from work, I overslept and could not finish practicing the exercises in the morning. There was also no time for me to study or memorize the Fa.
Sometimes I cannot do the five sets of exercises before work, but I will definitely practice every day. Recently, there are also occasions when I could not complete all the exercises, but I have never stopped meditating for a single day. I really feel sorry about this. I feel ashamed of myself when I think about all the elderly practitioners who have never slacked off in their practice of the exercises and study of the Fa.
When I practice the exercises, I feel energetic and peaceful. If I cannot complete the exercises before starting work, I feel sleepy and irritable in my mood. Just as I was completing this cultivation experience sharing, I regained my former diligence in practicing the exercises every day.
The above are my own understandings of my cultivation experiences at my current level.
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Category: Improving Oneself
