March 19, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
On the Internet, practitioners often call on fellow disciples to send forth righteous thoughts to help a certain area or certain situation. From inside China and outside China, there are new calls everyday and there are also recurring ones. Recently, in our local Fa-study group, one practitioner half jokingly said that he recorded all the calls for sending forth righteous thoughts on one piece of paper and went through them during the set times for sending forth righteous thoughts. But one day he forgot to bring that piece of paper and he had to recall them from memory; but before he could finish, the time was up. What could he do?
I understood what he was thinking. I used to experience a very similar situation, and had cultivated my understanding on the issue step by step. I remember at the very beginning of sending forth righteous thoughts, just like many other practitioners, we all sent forth righteous thoughts while reading Clearwisdom. At that time, there weren't that many specific calls for sending forth righteous thoughts; but we voluntarily sent forth righteous thoughts on every persecution news article posted to eliminate evil, because we felt that those persecutions were against Fa-rectification and all Dafa practitioners as a whole; we felt responsible and obligated to help other practitioners to reduce the losses. Often we would feel exhausted after that, as our minds were not calm. Later on through studying the Fa and reading experience-sharing articles on the Internet, I realized that sending forth righteous thoughts is based on a cultivator's compassion and the mightiness of Dafa; they do not originate from bitter hatred of the "enemy." Then I was able to achieve a better state of sending forth righteous thoughts.
Eventually more practitioners began widely calling for support in sending righteous thoughts for specific situations. Maybe they intended to remind practitioners to improve their understanding of certain elements of the persecution and to send forth righteous thoughts more often. Maybe some practitioners really hoped to get support from outside because they felt that their own strength was not enough. In summary, calls for sending forth righteous thoughts on the Internet gradually increased. Time was scarce and there were many projects and we couldn't handle them all. What should we do? With all these calls added on top of it, it was hard to distinguish which ones have a high priority and are more urgent, what to do?
When a problem emerges, besides looking within, studying the Fa more is critically important. One day while studying the Fa, I suddenly realized that Master Li taught, "humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking." ["Lunyu" from Zhuan Falun). I suddenly realized that the problem of "what to do" that we encountered was related to how we view the issue. Dafa is harmonious and all-encompassing, but we were still limited by the human way of thinking. We felt that each problem was supposed to have only one answer, either this or that, very mechanical. I realized that as cultivators, we need to continuously change the way we used to think, and learn to view problems from the Fa's point of view. Then we can recognize and resolve our own problems in a timely manner, so as to navigate freely during Fa-rectification.
Once I understood things in this way, the problem was naturally resolved. Now, more than half of the time I follow Clearwisdom Net's instruction on sending forth righteous thoughts: "Encompass everything and leave out nothing." I know that my supernormal ability can intelligently and reasonably handle different things with various intensities and take care of all the things I want to take care of, thoroughly and from an overall point of view. Maybe sometimes I would still write down some special cases that I wanted to help directly, but now I only add one thought right after reciting "encompass everything and leave out nothing." I would add the intention: "oppose the evil behind all the cases recorded on that piece of paper." (instead of reading them out one by one.) Sometimes when I did not take notes but I wanted to help some of the practitioners in difficult situations, I would add, "oppose the evil behind all the persecution cases published on Clearwisdom Net."
I feel that if all of our problems of sending forth righteous thoughts are resolved, then many other situations can also be handled better and better; however it is best that in the near future, all practitioners in the world can reach the level described by Master Li,
"how are we to do a good job cooperating and coordinating with each other--that's what Fa-rectification needs the most from Dafa disciples. We don't dwell on surface forms. As long as you've studied the Fa well you will be able to do that. You know, in the old days before a group practice everybody would be talking and doing all kinds of things, and it would look really disorderly. But as soon as the music started--"Whoosh!" everybody stood together and gathered into a formation more orderly than a military one. There wasn't anybody drilling you and there wasn't anybody telling you what to do. Instead, it came from inside yourselves. That's cooperation, and that's the harmony of Dafa disciples. You shouldn't just display it in certain things, you should display that kind of cooperation in all areas of Fa-rectification." (Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, Draft translation from Clearwisdom Net)
As long as we have the heart to improve, we can definitely achieve it, because as we are assimilating to Dafa, the magnificence of Dafa will manifest through us.