Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- Eliminate the Attachment of Validating Self While Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
- Truly Cultivating Oneself and Looking at Others' Merits Instead of Their Shortcomings
- Some Revelations from "Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan"
- Eliminate Attachments during Group Fa Study
- Aligning Every Thought with the Fa and Eliminating Evil Factors Around Us
- A Few Incorrect Mindsets that Hamper Diligence
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the March 2015 Falun Dafa India Newsletter.
In this issue, we have a compilation of experience-sharing Articles gleaned from Clearwisdom that always shine through because of their insights and fine quality of sharing. It is important to read the Clearwisdom, Pureinsight and other Dafa sites.
We make an effort to select Articles from the Archives which people don’t go back to and are relevant even today. Contributions are welcome from practitioners.
Heshi! Hope, you like the selection of Articles and gain some new insights!
Note: "All the contents in this newsletter - except for quotations and excerpts of writings of the founder Mr. Li Hongzhi - are only ideas and experiences of practitioners and do not represent Falun Dafa in itself."
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- 2. What’s Happening?
The curtains came down after a week-long extension of the Annual All India Industrial Exhibition (Numaish) at Hyderabad. Practitioners were there for over a month and created awareness of Falun Dafa and informed people about the persecution. Since this was the sixth year of participation a lot of people seemed to be aware of Falun Dafa and many expressed their desire to get back into the practice.
Practitioners from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Delhi participated at the Surat Book Fair where practitioners had a Stall. Since this was the second year of participation, many people were aware of the practice and there were several requests for follow up sessions.
Practitioners from Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Delhi, Varanasi and Jamshedpur participated for the first time at the Kolkata Book Fair which is supposed to be the largest in Asia. It was a great opportunity to introduce Falun Dafa to people of West Bengal. The response was good and there was a huge demand for Dafa Books in Bengali. Many people who learned the exercises volunteered to take up the practice and offered to help out in activities in the future.
Practitioners from Kolkata, Nagpur and Delhi participated at the Delhi Book Fair which concluded on 22 February. Participation over the years has created awareness but in terms of numbers there are not many conversions as diligent practitioners.
Practitioners from Bangalore and Varanasi were invited by the Heritage School in Ranchi to introduce Falun Dafa exercises to 1700 students. The students were touched by the Truth clarification video song and asked many questions and said they would share it on facebook.
Practitioners from Bangalore conducted follow up sessions for the Commerce stream at the Government College at Srinivaspur.
Practitioners from Mumbai and Nagpur participated at a Buddha Vihar function at Vasindh, a distant suburb in Mumbai. Many showed keen interest to learn the exercises and purchased the Books in Hindi.
Practitioners from Hyderabad met Mr. Venkateswar Reddy, Central Jail superintendent and explained about the practice and the on-going persecution of practitioners in China. He was impressed and immediately asked his assistant to download Zhuan Falun. Based on our request for permission, he wrote to his superior, the DG of Prisons to introduce Falun Dafa to the inmates for 15 days. He also gladly agreed to do the Fa study along with the inmates with the exercises for an hour. We are awaiting the approval.
Practitioners from Hyderabad will again participate in the Millet Festival from 27th to 1st March. We get a Free stall and a good opportunity to spread the practice and inform people about the persecution.
Practitioners from Pune participated in Happy Streets where they disctributed fliers and demonstrated exercises.
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- 3. Eliminate the Attachment of Validating Self While Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
By a Falun Dafa Practitioner in Mainland China
(Minghui.org)
While I was sending forth righteous thoughts today, I recited the formula "fa zheng qian kun, xie e quan mie (The Fa rectifies the Cosmos; the evil is completely eliminated)." Master has enlightened me to understand its meaning at my current level. I now realize that in the past, I had a strong attachment to validating myself while sending forth righteous thoughts. I thought that it was I who was using righteous thoughts to rectify everything not conforming to the Fa in my corresponding celestial body and it was I who was destroying all the evil.
Today, I have come to realize that it was not me who was capable of doing that. It is the Fa that rectifies the cosmos and eliminates the evil. It is all done by Master and the power of the Fa. The only thing I had was strong righteous thoughts. In the past, since I had a strong attachment of validating myself, my righteous thoughts were not pure. As a result, the power of the Fa was restricted and not displayed fully. Just as Master told us:
"As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and have prevented them from doing Fa-rectification. " ("Expounding on the Fa", Essentials for Further Advancement)
Meanwhile, this attachment of validating oneself separates one's energy field from that of the whole body, reducing the overall effect. If we all can let go of self, and understand sending forth righteous thoughts from the Fa, our energy field will form a truly unified body, complementing each other without any barriers, and its power will be tremendous.
Due to the limitations of my level of understanding, please kindly point out anything incorrect or inadequate.
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- 4. Truly Cultivating Oneself and Looking at Others' Merits Instead of Their Shortcomings
By Honghong, a practitioner in China
(Minghui.org)
I am a veteran practitioner and I learned Falun Dafa in 1996. I am ashamed of my lack of diligence and have had a hard time passing tests along my cultivation path. I would like to share my understanding after recently studying the Fa.
"Study Fa, obtain Fa,
Compare in studying,
compare in cultivating,
Examine each and every deed,
Accomplishing is cultivating." ("Solid Cultivation", Hong Yin)
Teacher taught us how to practice cultivation. In life my behaviors have deviated from the principles and I failed to integrate these principles into my daily life. Therefore, at times I am no different than an ordinary person. The interaction between ordinary people focuses on these values: "I will be good to you if you are good to me and I will not be good to you if you are not good to me." A cultivator should not behave in this way. Teacher has repeatedly emphasized that we should look inward when we encounter a problem, and we should search inside ourselves even when observe the conflicts of others. Why is it that we have not been able to live up to the standard of a practitioner? Because we have not studied the enough. It is easy to say that we should look inward, but if we do not study the Fa, or do not study the Fa deeply, we won't be able to find our shortcomings and improve. When we look inward, we can find our attachments. We should also use the Fa to guide us and cultivate away our attachments so that we may assimilate with Dafa. Only then is our cultivation solid.
Everyone has his/her own family and social relationships, which are environments for cultivation. I live with my extended family. For various reasons, my sister, myself, our children, and my sister-in-law all live with my parents. All of my family members practice cultivation, so fellow practitioners think that my family provides a very good cultivation environment, which is indeed true. We do not interfere with each other when we want to study the Fa or practice the exercises. But, we also have conflicts in our daily life, and when this happens we sometimes think that the other person should look inward because he/she is a cultivator. It is not easy to eliminate our attachments because we have not been studying the Fa well.
I have a very outgoing personality and when I talk I tend to neglect other people's feelings. I can easily hurt others and I have conflicts. I don't get along with my sister-in-law because we both have very strong personalities. Usually in ordinary society, a woman and her sister-in-low don't get along. But because we are both cultivators, we bury our grievances deep in our minds. They are not exposed until they become stirred up by a conflict.
A while ago my sister-in-law and I had a argument over a trivial matter. The situation got out of control and we vented our old grudges which had accumulated throughout the years. After it was over, I immediately realized that there was something wrong with me. It did not matter whether I was right or not, my words and actions were at the level of ordinary people. I did not act like a cultivator, and I failed to rely on the Fa to guide me in my actions. The next day I cried while I was looking at Teacher's picture. I shed tears because I had not been diligent, I did not deserve to be a Dafa practitioner, and because I had disgraced Dafa. I knew what I had done the day before was wrong. I started to search within myself. I discovered that I was very jealous and carried the mentality of fighting and being superior. I clung to my human attachments. How could that be considered cultivation? I was even worse than an ordinary person. I did not want to act like an ordinary person, I wanted to let go of all human attachments and become a genuine Dafa practitioner. When my sister-in-law came home that night, I told her I was sorry as soon as she entered the house. She was so moved that she held me and cried. She had also searched within herself and also felt that she had done something wrong. After that, my mind was calm, and I felt that I understood cultivation. If I make a mistake, I should look inward, find my attachments and eliminate them. This is the kind of behavior Teacher wants to see in his disciples. That's what cultivation should be. When I look inward, a tribulation is no longer a tribulation, it becomes an opportunity for me to improve myself.
After this incident, when I studied the Fa, I studied with my heart, rather than as if completing an assignment. Therefore, I have maintained a very good cultivation state. Whenever I ran into a problem, I first searched within myself. I put myself in others people's shoes, looked more at others' merits rather than their weaknesses. Whenever I did something I referred to the Fa to guide me. When I truly accomplished this my surrounding environment became harmonious, because I was changing, looking inward, and practicing genuine cultivation. Because I had studied the Fa well, I was able to achieve this. Cultivation is a very serious matter. If you have only read the books and practiced the exercises you may not be considered a Dafa practitioner. Only by examining each and every action and improving your moral character by looking within, is it considered cultivation.
At the final stage of cultivation, let us look more at others people's merits rather than their weaknesses. We must constantly look inward. Teacher has repeatedly stressed that we must look inward. We must let go of our human attachments and understand what cultivation is about, and for whom we cultivate, then we will be able to easily let go of human attachments. I sincerely hope everyone will search within themselves for attachments, strive forward more diligently, and seize the time to save sentient beings.
Please kindly point it out if there's anything incorrect in my understanding.
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- 5. Some Revelations from "Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan"
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
(Minghui.org)
After we have cultivated for a while, Teacher gives us new lectures, and points out our shortcomings as a whole, and enlightens our righteous thoughts. I am a little slow in understanding Teacher's lectures, and oftentimes my understandings and level only improve when Teacher points something out through his lectures. Therefore, whenever a new lecture or article is published, I always copy it by hand, and I also type it out on the computer as I study it. However, fellow practitioners and I were confused when we saw "Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan" and wondered why this lecture from Teacher had not been published until now. I calmed my heart and carefully read it.
I finally realized that many years ago, our compassionate Teacher had already pointed out many problems practitioners face at different levels. This lecture in 2006 is a "treasure chest" of hints as to how to solve problems we now face regarding cultivation. Next, I will share my understandings with fellow practitioners; please correct my shortcomings.
1. Eliminating jealousy, understanding other practitioners' paths of cultivation
Many practitioners in our area are heavily involved in various efforts to clarify the truth and validate the Fa. Sometimes, these practitioners' own cultivation got held up because they were busy with Dafa work. Hence, other practitioners would blame them for being too busy with ordinary people's affairs, and would publicly accuse these practitioners of not cultivating themselves well. They even believed that those practitioners "got acquainted with a lot of people, and gained a lot of goods" during Dafa activities, and were extremely jealous. As a result, the practitioners who had been doing Dafa work were gradually discouraged after being accused repeatedly, and they did not even want to share the Dafa materials they had made anymore.
I understand what Teacher has pointed out in this lecture "...any form in society could be adopted for cultivation." [...] "Then it becomes a matter of Dafa disciples figuring out how to best utilize this form that we have, and that is what amounts to walking this cultivation path well." I believe that after reading this lecture carefully, most practitioners will have a better understanding toward the practitioners who do Dafa work. Only if we Dafa practitioners can put our hearts together and walk the path of Fa validation together, can we honor our ancient vows to help Teacher save sentient beings.
2. Taking responsibility, being diligent and sending righteous thoughts as one body
Teacher said in the lecture,
"...despite the fact that it seems like, with this relaxed approach to cultivation, there are no regulations, no commandments, no systems of rules, and nobody keeping you in line, the requirements are actually extremely high, for you must keep yourself in check and you must arrive at the standard by your own doing."
Thus, I remembered some interference that I had encountered with regard to sending forth righteous thoughts.
For instance, some practitioners from other areas asked us to send righteous thoughts toward an activity that was hosted by the Chinese Communist Party. I am very sleepy around twelve o'clock midnight. Sometimes I get lazy and go to sleep early and intend to get up later for righteous thoughts, but at times I oversleep. Why can't I overcome laziness? The key is, I did not recognize the importance of sending righteous thoughts as one body, and that time is very precious. If I had clearly understood the meaning of sending righteous thoughts and it's full effects, I would not have been lazy. Therefore, I hope fellow practitioners take the initiative and listen to Teacher's words to be diligent in the face of various interference. Then, Dafa practitioners all around the world would be able to truly send forth righteous thoughts and assist Teacher in the Fa-rectification.
3. Eliminating fear, clarifying the truth selflessly
Fear has always been an obstacle for me. I did not genuinely enlighten to the Fa principles, did not look inward, nor improve on many issues because of interference from notions I had formed after birth, and ended up following the arrangements of the old forces. Teacher said: "Calmly reflect on how many attachments you have/ As you get rid of human mentality, evil is naturally defeated" ("Don't Be Sad" from Hong Yin II). Cultivation is the cultivation of the heart; our way of cultivation is targeting the heart. Teacher cannot be more clear about the Fa. However, I did not cultivate well. I started late to persuade people to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party. I am far behind fellow practitioners who are doing well in this area. Even now, I still have fear when I talk to people about withdrawing from the Party. However, I believe with Teacher's help, I can surely eliminate fear and advance forward in my cultivation.
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- 6. Eliminate Attachments during Group Fa Study
By Guizhen, a practitioner in China
(PureInsight.org)
We study one lecture of during our weekly group study. Participating practitioners take turns reading one section each. After finishing the whole lecture, the group members discuss and share experiences. The reading ends when it is time for sending forth righteous thoughts. After a time, we noticed varying degrees of improvement in each of us. I also discovered some hidden attachments of mine that had previously gone undetected. I write this article not only to alert myself, but also to remind fellow practitioners to remove attachments similar to mine as soon as they are made known. Some of the attachments that I identified are described below.
Attachment #1 - Over-emphasis on a strict linguistic sense, reading speed and the accuracy of word pronunciation. It is essential to be accurate in reading the lectures. However, I found that I have a tendency to emphasize certain sentences or sections and speed up the reading in order to show my deep understanding of those particular sentences or sections. Although the objective of reading fluency is satisfied, it is missing the requisite heart to continuously enlighten to the teachings. Some physical reactions to this attachment include numbness or pain in the legs, occasional drowsiness, and lack of vigilance.
When I began reading the lectures with a calm and peaceful state of mind, those feelings of physical discomfort disappeared. Instead, my body and mind were immersed in the joy of Fa study. I, thus, feel wonderful with a state wherein "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." (Zhuan Falun) Therefore, I now know the reason that I enjoy so much listening to some fellow practitioners read even though there are some errors or pauses while reading. On the contrary, I don't have as much feeling listening to some other fellow practitioners, even though their reading is very fluent. How can reading by rote compare to reading from the heart?
Attachment #2 - Interrupting others during group discussion. This is a problem I had before cultivation, and this problem still exists. During a group conversation, instead of listening to my fellow practitioner's statement patiently, I have the habit of interjecting when the topics interest me or when I feel I have more understanding of the topics. This is a typical manifestation of the show-off mentality. I have since begun to pay more attention to this attachment.
Attachment #3 - Evasiveness when admitting inadequacies. Instead of a straightforward admission of my own inadequacies, I always preface such admissions as follows: "Some of our fellow practitioners have such problem, and I also have a similar problem." It seems as if this evasion of my own real inadequacies not only saves face, but also "meets" the requirement of looking inward. Indeed, this is also a very bad attachment that needs to be eliminated.
Attachment #4 - Prejudgment of fellow practitioners. When I hear a practitioner mention another fellow practitioner's shortcomings, I will readily typecast that practitioner, applying his words and actions as if to confirm the predetermined conclusion. Without realizing it, I was thinking in my heart: "This practitioner is exactly like what the other said. He is that kind of person, worse than an ordinary person." When I realized my own problem, changed my previous opinions, and shared my experiences with him, I then found that this practitioner had many precious qualities a cultivator should have.
Group Fa study is also a place for our cultivation. As long as we are determined, we can learn from the strengths of other practitioners and find by looking inward our own shortcomings. As a result, we can upgrade our xinxing. I am pleased to be a participant in a Fa study group. I also hope all fellow practitioners join group Fa studies if circumstances permit; surely, you will benefit from the experience.
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- 7. Aligning Every Thought with the Fa and Eliminating Evil Factors Around Us
By a practitioner from Heilongjiang Province
(Minghui.org)
Dafa practitioners are becoming more and more mature, and as we become more rational, we will melt into the Fa. As long as we maintain righteous thoughts, we will achieve good results in everything we do. I have some personal experiences of this from several incidents that happened recently.
October 1 was approaching and employees in many work units were practicing for the CCP chorus, including those in my company. Every employee was required to join the chorus, and every day a large amount of time was spent on singing practice. Employees could be absent from work, but they were not supposed to be absent from chorus practice. The songs they sang were to praise the CCP. As a Dafa practitioner, I clearly understand the nature of the CCP, so I would never sing any songs to praise it. When people were singing, I would silently recite the formula for sending forth righteous thoughts. As long they sang, I recited the formula. At the same time I sent out one consistent thought: "The chorus competition will be canceled. Any means to increase the energy or extend the life of the CCP shall be stopped."
I recited the formula for several days, but it seemed that nothing was happening and the chorus practice continued. I thought it was because I had too many attachments and that my righteous thoughts were not strong enough, but I was determined not to give up. Whether my righteous thoughts appeared effective or not, I would do my best to disintegrate the evil. At the same time I developed severe "sickness" symptoms. It started with a toothache, which became severe. Half of my face was swollen and got very hot, and the tooth abscessed. Later I developed a severe headache and I became delirious and could barely walk. I felt ashamed of myself and not worthy of Master's compassionate salvation. I didn't clear the evil, instead I was persecuted by the evil. I failed to show people the greatness of Dafa or Dafa practitioners' good image.
I thought that I must have attachments and I looked inward. I calmed myself down and reflected on what I had been doing. I was doing the that Master requires of us, but I hadn't been doing well. Studying the was like a task that I had to complete, and I couldn't even finish a lecture a day. It had been a long time since I started to memorize the Fa, but I hadn't even finished memorizing the first lecture. I could not always send forth righteous thoughts four times a day and I often missed one or two. As for explaining the facts about Falun Gong to people, sometimes I did well and sometimes I didn't. I had been like this for a long time and I had become accustomed to it. If I hadn't reflected on it that day, I would not have noticed it. My cultivation state was not up to the standard required by the Fa. I was no longer a new practitioner. I had been cultivating for such a long time and I knew the meaning of Fa rectification. Was I in a state of a god? Was I able to achieve consummation in such a state? I was not attached to consummation, but wasn't it my purpose that, through cultivation, I would become a selfless enlightened being responsible for the truth of the universe?
I had my own work and life, but that existed for the Fa and for my cultivation. Realizing this, I gradually let my every thought become aligned with the Fa. I measured everything with the Fa. Every minute I was thinking of and saving sentient beings. I sent forth righteous thoughts around the clock. One day I had a dream. A man had a panacea. As long as you took one tablet, you would recover from your disease instantly. Other people rushed to buy his panacea, but he didn't sell it to them. He insisted on giving it to me. In the dream I said to him that I didn't have any disease and I didn't want his panacea. Then I woke up. I started to practice the exercises and then I went to work. I was busy all morning before I realized that the headache I had had so severely the day before was gone. A short while later it was announced that, in order to prevent the swine flu from spreading, the chorus competition among all the work units in the province was canceled. On hearing this, I couldn't help but shed tears. It was our respected Master who helped me once again to clear the old forces persecuting me and clear the evil factors that praised the CCP.
Yesterday I made plans to go out to clarify the truth today. I looked at the weather forecast, which said it was going to rain. I thought, "Rain can't prevent me from going out to tell people the truth about Falun Gong." Today it was clear and everything went very smoothly. Our compassionate Master is looking after us every minute. He looks at our hearts. As long as we have righteous thoughts, we are then in line with the Fa rectification process.
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- 8. A Few Incorrect Mindsets that Hamper Diligence
By a practitioner in Harbin City, China
(PureInsight.org)
The article “Thinking That All Will End in 2012 Is a Big Attachment That Hinders Fa-Rectification” (http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/4/2/132507.html) stated: “According to the practitioner's observations, currently, most Dafa disciples are generally not diligent. Among Dafa disciples, the human mindset is very dominant, and we are lax in doing the .” Although my celestial eye is not open, I feel that this is indeed the situation. Truly diligent practitioners are few. Most practitioners are being hampered by all sorts of human attachments and are not self-motivated in doing the three things. Based on what I've seen, I would like to share my perspective about the incorrect mindsets of fellow practitioners.
Attachment to Complacency Is a Strong Obstacle
I believe that the reason why many practitioners are not diligent is because they are complacent, particularly among those who did better in the past. They feel that they have contributed a lot, done a lot of things in Fa-rectification and in saving sentient beings, and think that they will have no problem reaching Consummation. They have become smug and no longer feel the urgency, and are not motivated to save people. They only study the , do the exercises, and share experiences, hoping to coast all the way to the end of Fa-rectification. In particular, some who are attached to time were very diligent in the past. But after a few years, with the Fa-rectification still not having ended, they feel that it will never end. They feel that they have done a lot and that no one knows when the Fa-rectification will end. So they want to relax a bit and begin to live a normal life. They have formed an attachment to comfort, with some even devoting their energy to ordinary people’s lives or businesses. Once I mentioned my observation in talking with a few fellow practitioners. One of them immediately saw in his celestial eye that many practitioners sat in a large, hard shell. They felt that they had cultivated very well and were satisfied with themselves. The shell was the corresponding manifestation of their complacency.
As soon as we begin to have this attachment, we will stop progressing and even invite serious consequences. I remember there was an article on the web talking about a 30-year-old single, female practitioner. She was very diligent working at the information center for several years. But with the passage of time, she no longer wanted to devote that much effort and wished to find a boyfriend, get married, and live like an ordinary person. Fellow practitioners urged her to remain diligent, but in vain. She later passed away due to sickness karma. Teacher said in “Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference” in Teaching the Fa at Conference IIV:
“There is interference from changes in the state of human society and from human notions that were formed in society. All of those things can drag you back to being like an ordinary person.” “Each step might be critical in determining whether each Dafa disciple can reach Consummation.”
Therefore, by no means can we let up now. In this time of urgency, there are so many sentient beings yet to be saved. Teacher is still bearing hardships for us. We have no reason whatsoever to be satisfied and become lax.
Being Selfish and Aiming for Personal Gain in Cultivation
Some practitioners have kept up with their Fa study and exercises, and are also doing the three things. However, they never altered their thoughts of thinking for themselves and doing things with human attachments. I heard about a Fa study group in which there are a dozen or so practitioners. Every week each person brings only one copy of materials--no extras. The motivation of these practitioners in making Dafa informational materials is not to save people, but rather to reach consummation. With such strong attachments to selfishness, how can one reach consummation? Teacher said in “Cautionary Advice” in Essentials for Further Advancement: “If you do not change the human logic that you, as an ordinary human, have formed deep in your bones over thousands of years, you will be unable to break away from this superficial human shell and reach Consummation.”
Such thoughts are very similar to the behavior of the two elderly people in the story “Golden Buddha.” How can one with such attachments become a Buddha? Such a mindset is miles away from the realm of a divine being. So we must always keep our motivation righteous. If our motives are for other people, everything we do will be virtuous. Otherwise, with selfish motives, it is ordinary people doing ordinary things. The best one can get then is a little good fortune.
Some people think that as long as they can persevere and last till the end, they will reach consummation, so they are not very diligent and do very little of the three things. I think that perseverance is dependent on the condition that one follows what Teacher says. Jesus said that if you believe in him, then you will go to heaven. But you need to follow what he said and cannot just superficially believe in him. Teacher said in : “Even if you are able to persevere in your cultivation, it remains to be seen whether you can succeed.” Teacher said in “Teaching the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference:” “Time is running out, and those of you who haven't done well should think about it--you should really take a hard look at yourselves. This is the first time I've warned Dafa disciples this way. (Applause) Whether you can Consummate is up to you.” “Those who won't be able to Consummate, when that day comes all you can do is just sit there and sob! For the ones who haven't cultivated well, I'd say it'll be too late to cry.”
So we must take cultivation more seriously, and earnestly and devotedly cultivate according to the Fa. We should not miss this opportunity.
Mistakenly Regarding the Amount of Fa-study as a Measure of Diligence
Some practitioners do not fully understand the meaning of studying the Fa well. They mistakenly take the amount of Fa study as evidence of their diligence. They go to one Fa study site today and another site tomorrow. All they care about is how many lectures of Fa they have studied on a particular day, and their Fa study has become a formality. Their has not elevated. Teacher asks us to study the Fa more and well so that we can understand the content of the Fa at different levels. That way, we will elevate our xinxing as soon as possible, and when faced with problems, we will know how to follow the requirements of the Fa. If one cannot behave according to the Fa, it amounts to not studying the Fa. Teacher said in “Solid Cultivation” in : “Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing
be measured against the Fa.
Only then, with that,
is it actually cultivation.”
Teacher also talked about the reason why monks cannot succeed in their cultivation in the Dharma-ending period. That is, they treat the Fa as an academic matter and do not actually cultivate themselves. Once I met such an elderly practitioner. She could recite the Fa very well but did not actually cultivate herself. Later her illness karma appeared, and she took medicine and was put on oxygen. She lived by herself and wanted to hire someone to take care of her. A fellow practitioner introduced another practitioner who was without a job to take care of her. She ate by herself and did not let the practitioner helping her touch the food in the refrigerator. Such a mindset is inferior to that of an ordinary person’s. Even if one studies so much Fa, it seems useless if one does not cultivate and act according to the Fa.
Some practitioners cannot rationally understand the relationship between Fa-study and saving people. They focus solely on studying the Fa and doing the exercises, but think of saving people as something extra or incidental to cultivation. Teacher said, “Some people have not stepped forward and don't take this task seriously, and they don't think that saving sentient beings is all that important. In reality, your responsibilities as Dafa disciples all lie right there.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference” ) “I've asked you to do the three things well. You must do the three things well. You should do those things well all the way up to your Consummation. Your mighty-virtue and everything of your future come from those things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington DC Fa Conference”) “If someone considers his individual Consummation the most important thing, I'd say that he's not worthy of being a Dafa disciple of the Fa-rectification period.”(“Touring North America to Teach the Fa”)
In fact our individual cultivation and consummation cannot be compared with Fa-rectification. Our individual cultivation is only to build up the required foundation for helping Teacher rectify the Fa, and saving sentient beings is our true purpose. Some people emphasize that we need to study the Fa more whenever we do something. They think that without studying the Fa they cannot do things, and will be more easily exploited. Fellow practitioners, we are at the last phase of the Fa-rectification period. We should all grasp the Fa-principles in each of our own realms. If we keep stressing studying the Fa but miss the opportunity to establish our mighty virtue, that will truly be a pity.
The Attachment of Fear
The attachment of fear is another reason why we are not diligent. It is the largest obstacle for us in saving people. Some practitioners are still not stepping forward because of their fear. They only stay at home to study the Fa and do the exercises. Teacher said, “A Dafa disciple who fails to achieve the effect of safeguarding and upholding Dafa has no way of reaching Consummation.”(in “Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciples” in Essentials for Further Advancement II ) “These people who only want to take from Dafa and not give for Dafa are, in the eyes of Gods, the worst beings. Moreover, this Fa is what’s fundamental in the cosmos, so those people who are still unable to step forward today will be weeded out after this tribulation is over.”
What such practitioners will face is truly horrible, but in history they have been very devoted. Teacher does not want to give up on a single disciple. Helping these practitioners is also our responsibility and is part of our cultivation. We should not look down on them. Instead, we need to share experiences with them and let them begin with easy tasks, such as sending forth righteous thoughts near the evil’s dens or telling the facts about Dafa to relatives and friends. Let us help them slowly step forward and get rid of their fear.
There are many attachments that prevent us from being diligent. I have only mentioned a few of the more common ones and hope that it is useful to fellow practitioners. Currently, every second is obtained with Teacher’s sacrifices. We need to start from ourselves, cultivating well and accomplishing what Teacher wants. Let us not allow our attachments to hamper Teacher’s Fa-rectification.
The above is my personal understanding.
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