(Minghui.org) I am a female Dafa practitioner who is 42 years old this year. Despite obtaining the Fa in 1997, for many years, my understanding of the Fa remained at the level that Dafa is good, what Master said is right, and this practice is very good. But I did not truly and solidly cultivate myself. I would like to share some of my recent cultivation experiences.
Studying the Fa Well and Taking Exercise Practice Seriously
For so many years, I did not really cultivate seriously, and did not treat myself as a true cultivator. Most of the time, I was a practitioner when I picked up the book to study the Fa, and returned to my mundane self after I put the book down. For the past year or more, I have studied the Fa with other practitioners at home and gone online to the Minghui.org website to read fellow practitioners’ cultivation experience sharing articles. I have benefited greatly from this.
I heard a practitioner say that we should treat Fa study seriously, and that he sat in the full lotus position or knelt whenever he listened to the Fa. Yes, it’s such a good Fa, shouldn’t I treat it with the most heartfelt sincerity? If Master was giving lectures right in front of us personally, what would we do? Would we think about other things?
So when I study the Fa now I sit in the full lotus position. If my legs ache so much that it affects my Fa study, I put down my legs and rest them for a while, before continuing to sit in the full lotus position to continue studying the Fa. I place full concentration on the Fa, and if my mind thinks about other things, I immediately pull it back and reduce my reading speed. I understand that we should be gradual, slow, and smooth when we study the Fa, without artificially wanting to understand the Fa principles behind the words. When we put our hearts into studying the Fa, Master will enlighten us, and we will suddenly understand the principles that we are supposed to understand.
As I practice sitting in the full lotus position when I study, I have become able to sit in meditation for much longer. In the past, I had not placed much emphasis on practicing the exercises, and I seldom practiced them.
Initially, my legs ached when I meditated for 20 minutes. Once my legs started to ache, my mind became unsteady and I would no longer want to meditate. Sometimes, my hands naturally went into the heshi posture. I understood that the time had come for me to improve my xinxing.
Through studying Master’s lectures from other regions, I understood that this was actually a good thing. Doesn’t suffering hardships and reducing karma help me improve in my cultivation? After changing my thinking, when I meditated again, the pain no longer made my mind unsteady. I thought to myself that it was a good thing so I should not care about the pain in my legs, as it was eliminating my karma. Later, my legs wouldn’t ache even if I meditated for an hour. Instead, I now feel very comfortable when I meditate. My legs no longer ache.
I did not persist in completing the second exercise set, the Falun Standing Stance. Later, a practitioner who is two years younger than me came to find me to study the Fa together, and we were both in a similar state. We were not diligent in our cultivation. So we decided that after working our day jobs, we would study one lecture from Zhuan Falun together each night, then practice the first four exercise sets together, after which we would go home to do the meditation on our own.
When I first started to do the Falun Standing Stance, my hands felt very heavy, such that they would slide down after a while. When this happened, I would force them up again, but within a few seconds, they slid out of position again, so I forced them up again. This was how I completed the one-hour version of the exercise, and I felt very good.
However, in my heart, there was always an unwillingness to practice the exercises. I knew that this thought was not good. My main consciousness is a god and my true nature is innocent and kind. If my main consciousness were to practice the exercises, what kind of thinking would it have when it practiced the exercises? It would definitely be sincerely willing to practice the exercises!
I thus changed my mindset. The unwillingness I felt about practicing the exercises was definitely not mine. So when I did the exercises again, I did them with sincere appreciation for the exercises from the bottom of my heart. Doing the exercises is also a process of assimilating to the Fa. It is also being responsible to the lives in my small universe. They are also willing to practice the exercises, assimilate to the Fa, and be immersed in the Fa.
A miracle then happened. When I do the morning exercises and do the Falun Standing Stance, I now feel very light. The heavy feeling that I had in the past is gone. Instead, I feel very relaxed.
Master said,
“You put in the effort and your teacher will handle the rest. ” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
When Master sees that our cultivation state has improved, he will help us pass a tribulation. Master is always looking after and protecting us.
A Small Family Matter
My son came home from school yesterday afternoon and said, “I lost my key. I changed my school uniform pants today and the pocket was too shallow, so I lost my key.” My first thought was to follow his logic, and I replied, “Since you lost it just don’t use it. The key can’t be duplicated.”
I then thought more and said to him, “Why don’t you try to search for it?” My son said, “It’s so far, I’m not going to look for it!” I got impatient with him, “How could you not go to find it? Our district card is attached to your key. If people see it, they will know whose key it is. Losing the key puts us at risk.”
I had been preparing dinner so I asked my husband to continue preparing dinner, and I went with my son to search for the key along the route from our house to his school. Despite following the route he had taken home, we did not find the key. Many pedestrians were out and about because school had just finished. My son said, “We didn’t find the key. Let’s go home!” I then thought to myself that nothing that happens to a cultivator is a coincidence. Why would such a thing happen to me? I begged Master in my heart to help us find the key. I then said to my son, “Beg Master in your heart to help us!” My son agreed.
After we got home, my husband asked, “Did you find the key?” I said, “No.” “My husband said, “The key was not lost at all. It was in the pocket of his cotton jacket.” I took a look and indeed, the key was there. My son said to me that he had recited “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” all the way home, and the key was finally found.
I scrutinized my every thought and notion through this matter and dug them out. When I had first heard about him losing the key, my first thought was to follow the logic of ordinary humans to consider what the outcome could be. This thought was not correct, as it was an attachment. As a Dafa practitioner, what should my first thought be?
Master said,
“We believe in letting things happen naturally. We know that we won’t be deprived of what is rightfully ours, and shouldn’t labor to get what is not.” (The Seventh Talk,Zhuan Falun)
Because my first thought was not correct, my subsequent thinking and behavior were not based on the Fa. I was even impatient toward my son, so all the more did I not achieve the requirement of being compassionate, and even less did I have forbearance.
It was only when we were on our way back that I calmed down and recalled that I was a cultivator and that I should beg Master for help. After getting home, the key was found. This whole process was really a process of cultivating my heart.
I understood a sentence that Master said in his lecture,
“...all human attachments act as impediments.” (“Another Stern Warning”)
I must examine every thought and notion of mine, and remember that I am a Dafa practitioner, and I must remember what Master said about the matter. I will then know if my thoughts and behavior are right. I should hold myself to a high standard at all times, no matter where I am, and cultivate myself in practice. I should not wait until trouble comes to beg Master for help, giving Master a lot of extra trouble and bringing trouble to the people around me as well.
Thank you Master for this arrangement. When I practiced the exercises the next day, I felt that Master must have again enlightened me that this happened to help me understand the Fa principle of looking inward. One will never find the answer when looking outward. Looking inward is really a gem of the Fa!
Cultivating Myself While Producing Truth-Clarification Materials
The pandemic suddenly erupted during the New Year of 2020. The Dafa practitioners in our locale had the heart to save sentient beings. Many sentient beings were still yet to be saved and practitioners really wanted to distribute truth-clarification materials over a large area immediately so that these sentient beings could all have the chance to be saved. Around this time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to harass many local practitioners. Some practitioners were even arrested. There was suddenly no longer anyone to help produce the truth-clarification materials.
A practitioner who was not very steady in her righteous thoughts stored her printer and Dafa books at my house. She later taught me how to make truth-clarifying bills, and I gradually grasped the technique. I had many ordinary human attachments during the process. Whenever the printer did not function normally, my heart would be stirred up and I would worry about what was happening to the printer. My first thought was that there was a problem with the printer. In my heart, I knew it was my own problem but I just habitually looked outward.
Through cultivating this past year, I truly experienced that everything is alive. The printer and computer did not have any problems. Their abnormal behavior was all a false display. The actual problem lay within me. Later, through coordinating with a fellow practitioner, the printer that we were using to print truth-clarifying bills was given to another practitioner. We needed to produce large amounts of truth-clarifying materials, so I changed to an HP laserjet printer to produce small truth-clarification booklets.
After working during the day, I now squeeze in time to provide small truth-clarifying booklets to local practitioners. I believe that we are one body and I am just a particle of the Fa. I will cooperate with the body in whatever we need to do.
My cultivation has been filled with many different twists and turns. Through tripping and falling, I have tried to take a righteous path amid the battle between human notions and righteous thoughts. I believe in Master and I know that I am still lacking in many aspects. I also still have a lot of shortcomings when it comes to doing the three things well. However, I have the wish to improve in my cultivation, help sentient beings be saved, assimilate to the Fa, and become one of Master’s disciples who are truly cultivating.
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