(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa just before the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution on July 20, 1999. After the persecution began I lost the environment for group Fa study and to do the exercises with others.
For safety reasons, we could only read the teachings in small groups of two or three, and we had to practice the exercises individually at home. Inevitably, our exercise movements began deviating.
This is especially true for elderly practitioners: even though they diligently did the three things every day, they saw little physical change, and some have even passed away.
Of course, this may be due to our xinxing (mind-nature) and other factors, yet the movements themselves are crucial in transforming one’s physical body. I would like to tell you about some of my insights.
One afternoon last December, I went to a practitioner’s home to study the Fa. After we sent forth righteous thoughts we began practicing the exercises, and we wished to check each other’s movements.
Because the persecution began shortly after I began practicing I never had the opportunity to do the exercises with a group of practitioners. I didn’t know what it meant to cultivate or truly practice; I simply learned the movements by copying other practitioners and assumed I mastered them. When another practitioner pointed out that my movements were incorrect, I was shocked! I thought: I’ve practiced for 26 years, yet my movements are wrong—am I truly a practitioner?
Master taught us:
“One purpose of the exercises is to strengthen the practitioner’s supernatural abilities and energy mechanisms by means of his or her powerful gong strength (gong-li), thus achieving “the Law (fa) refines the practitioner.” Another purpose is to develop many living entities in the practitioner’s body.” (The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection)
If the movements are not executed correctly would we have the energy to strengthen the functions and the mechanisms Master installed? Let alone evolve into a life form.
When I got home that evening, I took out The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection and practiced according to Master’s instructions. I did the five sets of exercises in front of a mirror until I got them right. It was hard to correcting my movements—my legs trembled when I did the second exercise, my hands and arms shook, and my body felt numb. However, by the third week it was much easier.
One night I dreamed I was in a very large room with two beds, one at each end. I was sitting on the edge of one bed, with a machine that looked like a loom in front of me. Two wheels were sticking out from the back of the machine, leaning heavily to the right, and the thread at the front had snapped.
I called out to the person on the other bed and said, “My machine is broken; could you take a look at it?” The person came over, gave the base a little nudge, and the two wheels slid back into place. “It’s fixed,” they said.
As for the loose threads, I needed to trace them back to their starting points one by one to reconnect them. When I woke up I realized that Master was hinting to me that the original mechanism had been out of alignment, but now it was back on track, and the connections were being restored. I knew this was Master’s way of encouraging me.
Another week passed, and when I did the exercises, I felt a sensation of heat throughout my body. While holding the wheel, it felt as though my feet were planted on clouds—a truly wondrous sensation—it felt like I was riding on clouds. From then on, my body felt light, and every physical ailment vanished.
Master’s compassion is beyond words. Even though I distorted the mechanisms Master installed for me Master did not give up on me; instead, he granted me a significant elevation. I truly feel deep shame and regret for having failed to live up to Master’s painstaking efforts and compassionate salvation.
Reflecting on the insights gained from this process of correcting my movements, I discussed and compared notes with several practitioners. I discovered that three out of seven of them did the movements incorrectly, and some even added extra movements. Notably, all of these practitioners obtained the Fa prior to July 20, 1999.
If we don’t do the exercises correctly then aren’t we inadvertently altering Master’s cultivation method? Isn’t this a serious issue? I am sharing this as a reference for fellow practitioners—especially the elder ones—in the hope that we all take the Fa as our guide, correct our movements in accordance with The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection, avoid unnecessary detours, and advance and improve together. Let us fulfill the momentous mission of saving sentient beings and return home with Master.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners! This is my understanding at my current level. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Category: Cultivation Insights
