(Minghui.org) My parents live with my brother. He has a small store and my father helps him run the business. Both my mother and I practice Falun Dafa.
At 7 p.m. one night, I received a call from my mother. She said, “I went to the store just now to see if I could help with anything. I then saw your father having a lively chat with the woman next door. She was sitting in front of your father, but she was so close that she was almost sitting on top of him.”
I could tell that my mother was very upset. She also mentioned how well she treated my father. She’d rather endure hardship and go without things, but always made sure she saved goodies for my father. It was Master Li (Dafa’s founder) who asked us to be kind to others, let alone our family members. So she has taken care of my father painstakingly. My father, himself, said that my mother treats him very well.
If I had previously heard about my father’s behavior, I’d have become agitated, even to the point of attacking him to stand up for the injustice against my mother. However, I didn’t feel any resentment towards him when my mother told me about it. I was very calm and peaceful. I said to my mother, “Nothing happens accidentally to a practitioner, no matter whether it’s a good thing or bad, it’s to help us improve our xinxing.”
Master Li said:
“They usually occur unexpectedly so that they can test your xinxing and allow your xinxing to truly improve. Only then can it be seen whether you can guard your xinxing well.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I told my mother, “The scene you saw between my father and that woman was an illusion, you shouldn’t treat it as something real. It’s for tempering your xinxing. Otherwise, how could you possibly improve? Don’t take it to heart. If everyone was good to us, how could we possibly improve?”
Master has lectured on the Fa very clearly about this. We are cultivators; we shouldn’t treat things as regular people do, but have to look at the problem from the Fa. When we feel discomfort, it means that our hearts are moved. We should examine ourselves to see which attachment it hit upon. Isn’t it the perfect time to seize the opportunity and remove it? Where could we find such a good thing?
My mother said she already spotted her issues. So I knew she was fine. I called her the next morning, and she sounded very peaceful. Without my saying anything, she said she was fine and asked me not to worry about her.
I felt the power of Dafa. Dafa can resolve any grievance. I also felt that both my mother and I had improved on this matter.
Elevating Myself While Rescuing My Mother
My mother was illegally detained at the local detention center in 2019. Many practitioners were working to rescue her. Some practitioners shared about when they were illegally arrested, and how they broke through the detention by going on a hunger strike to oppose the persecution. I was anxious to have my mother released; thus, I wanted to have her return home by going on a hunger strike as well.
When the lawyer was to meet with my mother, the practitioners working to rescue her asked the lawyer to bring her some articles about practitioners opposing the persecution by going on a hunger strike. After the lawyer met with my mother, I asked him what my mother said about going on a hunger strike. The lawyer replied, “Your mother wants to follow Master’s requirements, as opposed to going on a hunger strike.” After hearing that, I felt very disappointed, complaining about why she didn’t want to pursue that course. My strong thoughts had formed a bad notion: If one goes on a hunger strike, one can be released.
This bad notion was manipulated by beings in other dimensions, which reinforced it and interfered with me. I thought: Was going on a hunger strike really that painful? Let me give it a try. So when I felt starved, I just thought: I won’t eat, let’s see if I can do it. For a few days, I had this idea in my mind. When I felt starved, I just held off on eating. I also thought: I can follow through on it; mom, how come you didn’t want to go on a hunger strike?
Suddenly one day, I felt my thinking wasn’t right. Hadn’t it become a strong pursuit to validate myself? When thinking about it, I felt a bit scared. This thought was too dreadful. If it wasn’t for Master’s compassionate protection, my unrighteous thoughts would have been taken advantage of by the old forces. If police officers were to come to harass me, wouldn’t we have them commit a crime against Dafa? They are also beings waiting to be saved.
After I realized this, I quickly dispelled the unrighteous thought. That thought wasn’t the true me. I don’t want to validate myself, nor want to follow that thought. I’d eliminate it and completely dismantle it. Behind the thought of attempting to not eat, there was an arrogance: I cultivated well, and I was competent. I thought too highly of myself. I said to Master, “Master, your disciple did wrong. This attachment isn’t the true me but is a fake me which formed postnatally. I don’t want it. I will eliminate this arrogance and this attempt to validate myself.”
I now understand: There is no reference in one’s cultivation, nor living examples. Is it a certainty that my mother would come home if she went on a hunger strike? Not necessarily. Because every practitioner’s xinxing level is different, how can one copy another? As long as we can comply with the requirements of the Fa at our level, that would work for us.
A Cultivator Should Not Meddle in Ordinary Matters
At work, I met a single girl. I then decided I wanted to introduce her to a relative’s son. Afterward, I found someone to ask her what she thought about it. On my way home that night, I gave it another thought and started feeling it was a bit improper.
Master said:
“Clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings are what you need to accomplish. There is nothing else for you to accomplish.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII)
Right, I’m a practitioner. The Fa-rectification of the cosmos has finished, and we are transitioning to the Fa-rectification of the human world. There are still so many sentient beings to be saved, and we shoulder great responsibilities. How come I was worried about a human matter? The extended time that Master has given us is for saving sentient beings, as well as giving any of us who didn’t do well an opportunity to reach consummation. Yet my thoughts were still on ordinary people.
In reflecting on myself, at least on the surface, I didn’t feel there was anything wrong with what I was doing, as I was helping someone. Among ordinary people, there are matchmakers, dating agencies, and so on, which comply with the level of ordinary people. For ordinary people to take care of matters of ordinary people is fine, it’s not wrong. However, we are practitioners. We shouldn’t use ordinary people’s principles to guide ourselves, but should use the principles of high levels to guide us. In other words, we shouldn’t do whatever we please.
From the Fa, I understand that a person’s marriage is a predestined relationship set by heaven. As a practitioner, we should not try to impose our will. We carry energy after all. Many things in ordinary people also are unsettled. If we are not careful, we are likely to do something that is not good.
It seemed like a good thing, yet it exposed many of my attachments. Thinking about introducing a girlfriend to my relative’s son meant I had strong sentimentality. How come I didn’t introduce someone to others, but only to my relative. Didn’t this come down to sentimentality? And if it worked out, my relative would have to thank me, making me feel good; thus, I would enjoy a sense of achievement.
Upon thinking about it, I had one thought: Master, your disciple realized there was something wrong with doing this; so I’ll stop. Afterward, the messenger never got back to me, and this matter just went nowhere.
Being Able to Distinguish the True Me to Negate the Persecution
From the Fa, I understood that one’s true self is one’s original soul, whereas one’s brain is only a processing factory. The messages our brains receive can come from many things that are not our true self. Thus, the thoughts we have could interfere with us. We, therefore, need to be able to distinguish between our true thoughts and those from elsewhere and distinguish the true self from a fake self. Our cultivation way is about cultivating our true selves, which means our main consciousness is obtaining the gong.
I was once studying the Fa with a quiet mind. An idea suddenly popped into my mind: Let me take a picture of myself; otherwise, there won’t be any pictures of me. What it meant was: if I were persecuted to death, there wouldn’t even be a photo of me to publish. I immediately realized this idea wasn’t from me. It wasn’t the true me, but was forced upon me by the old forces. I would never acknowledge it, but only eliminate it!
I’m a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. I came here to assist Master in rectifying the Fa. The departure of practitioners happens after Fa-rectification is over, as they’ll reach consummation and follow Master to return home. This is supposed to be the only end. This is Master’s arrangement, and no one should interfere with that. Whatever the old forces say doesn’t count. Their conspiring against me will never succeed; I will never follow them to perish alongside with them. When I clearly identified it, this bad idea vanished.
In the beginning, when my child went out with his classmates to enjoy themselves, some bad thoughts flashed through my mind: If he rode a bicycle, wouldn’t he run into others, or be hit by a car? These bad thoughts all came down to my negative thinking. Once it appeared, I became agitated and began to worry about my child’s safety. I then had to call him. And it wasn’t until he confirmed that he was fine that I could calm down. This kind of thing happened often. As soon as he went out, I had fear in my mind, being afraid that he’d run into something bad. I felt it was not right, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
After Fa-study, I came to understand that those bad thoughts weren’t me at all but rather were forced upon me by the old forces. Yet, I took them as mine and ended up having my heart moved.
With more Fa-study, whenever such negative thoughts appeared, I could tell it wasn’t the true me, and I could seize upon it to negate and dispel it; then, I could calm my mind. In addition, I warned the old forces in an upright manner: Practitioners’ family members are taken care of by Master; nobody should intervene. So the ploy by the old forces to persecute me was dismantled.
Afterward, I asked myself: How come the old forces could interfere with me? I realized that I had strong sentimentality towards my child. The old forces saw it and wanted to use it to drag me down, to have me interfered with. Because of that, I said to the old forces: Even though I still have attachments, I will never acknowledge the principles of the old cosmos, where one with attachments will be persecuted. I’ll only walk on the path Master has arranged for me. I’ll negate everything of the old forces from the root and cultivate myself well.
Through Fa-study, my understanding at my current level is that no matter what negative thoughts appear in our mind, the next thought we should have is to negate it. We should never go along with these thoughts. But if we were to, it’d be the same as our accepting them. It’d magnify our attachments and have us fall into the old forces trap.
Any thoughts in our mind from thought karma, postnatal notions, evil beings in other dimensions, our bodies in different dimensions, factors of the evil communist specter, or the old forces’ arrangements, are not allowed to interfere with us. Master told us the key to truly obtaining the Fa. At any critical moment, we must be able to distinguish the true self and have it play the lead role.
During the past 10 years of cultivation, I’m grateful for Master’s compassion and protection all along. He has been by our side to protect us for the sake of our improvement. I cannot express my gratitude in words. Only by cultivating diligently and saving more sentient beings, will I be able to exhibit my heartfelt gratitude to Master!
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Category: Cultivation Insights
