(Clearwisdom.net) I have experienced tribulations one after another in my cultivation. What I have faced recently was the difficulty of getting up early to practice the exercises. Although this difficulty was relatively easy to overcome when compared to previously encountered tribulations, I still needed to use righteous actions and thoughts to overcome this, in order to meet the requirements that the Fa has set for us. Let me tell you how I handled it.
I had some difficulties getting up at 6:00 a.m. to send forth righteous thoughts together with all the practitioners around the globe (because my job was highly demanding). Sometimes I could not do well in sending forth righteous thoughts in the early morning. It became even more difficult for me to get up two hours earlier than 6:00 a.m. to participate in the group exercises, but I started to participate in them after several days of mental preparation. When I initially started I felt a lack of energy and my head was aching. My eyes were hard to open yet they were aching too. I also felt pain in the area of my forehead. Sometimes I also felt that I wanted to vomit. The most painful moment was my getting out of bed; sometimes the alarm rang for one minute but still failed to wake me up. Sometimes, after I managed to wake up, I fell asleep again. There were also times when I got up and practiced the exercises, but after I sent forth righteous thoughts at 6:00 a.m. I went back to bed and slept until 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. Sometimes I practiced the exercises for two days with much struggle, and then stopped for two days. I felt dizzy all day long and I had no energy. I even could not study the Fa well. I felt very worried.
This circumstance alerted me. Have I fundamentally changed my conventional thinking? Have I taken myself as a Dafa practitioner? Have I considered myself as a divine being? Ordinary people cannot endure less sleep. Only practitioners can overcome this. Only beings walking toward godhood can do this. As a Dafa practitioner, I have to change my ordinary people's thinking. I have to change the notion that one would be sleepy when I slept less. Dafa cultivation is extraordinary.
Master has clearly stated the Fa in the section of "Transcending the Five Elements and the Three Realms":
"When your cultivation reaches this point, high-energy matter will replace all cells in your body. Think about it: Is your body still made of the Five Elements? Is it still matter from this dimension of ours? It is already made of the high-energy matter collected from other dimensions. The element de is also matter that exists in another dimension. It is not restricted by this time field in our dimension." ("Lecture Two" of Zhuan Falun, March 2000 translation version)
Although a Dafa practitioner's appearance is that of an ordinary person, in essence, he or she is already completely different from ordinary people. Through Fa study I further realized that when we have cultivated ourselves to a certain stage, our bodies will become Buddha bodies, and such a body can enter other dimensions. This dimension or the world's common principles will not restrict this kind of body. The practitioner will thus feel no tiredness. This is just what the exercise formula "Shenshen Heyi" (Join the Mind and Body Together) says. After thinking deeply I felt that the exercise formulas really carry deep meanings and have concrete manifestations.
Another phenomenon happened when getting up early and practicing the exercises. That is, after I got up so early, while practicing the exercises with much sleepiness I felt very uneasy, but my mind was extremely active. Things I did during the daytime - truth-clarification issues, xinxing conflicts and so on - kept popping into my mind. Were these obvious interferences? All these odd thoughts were from my thought karma. They were demonic interference! They were the demons' sabotage! One will certainly encounter this or that kind of interference on one's cultivation path. Sleepiness and tiredness is the reflection of demonic interference, which is preventing us from practicing the exercises and reaching Consummation. This is just like Master has said,
"If you practice qigong and achieve the Tao, what about those unpaid debts you owe others? They will not allow it, so they will not let you practice qigong. Yet it is also an indication of a certain level. After a period of time, this phenomenon will no longer be allowed to exist. In other words, after these debts are worn out, they will not be allowed to come and interfere again. This is because those who practice cultivation in our Falun Dafa make rapid progress, and they also make quick breakthroughs in their levels." ("Lecture Six" of Zhuan Falun)
I had to maintain a strong main consciousness and recognize the interference. I had to repel and not acknowledge it in my mind. At the same time I had to get rid of my attachment to comfort and make a determination to continue practicing the exercises in the morning. This way I experienced some unimaginable changes.
I then sent forth righteous thoughts before I went to sleep. When I got up in the morning and practiced the exercises I concentrated on listening to the exercise music and made my movements strictly follow Master's instructions. I kept my concentration. I thought that Master also got up early to lead us to practice the exercises. Master is calling on us and protecting us by our sides.
I remembered Master's Fa,
"My fashen sit in a circle, and above the exercise site is a shield on which there is a big Falun. A large fashen guards the site above the shield. This site is not an ordinary site, and neither is it a site for an ordinary qigong practice: It is a site for cultivation practice. Many of our practitioners with supernormal abilities have seen that this Falun Dafa site is shielded with red light, and it is red all over." ("Lecture Three" of Zhuan Falun)
The energy field of all the practitioners in China practicing the exercises together must be enormously spectacular. On our way toward the final consummation, Master leads all the Dafa practitioners in China in evolving our divine bodies. How extraordinary this is! What a great thing this is!
Master said, "That ought to be a good thing. I am still observing it and looking to see how it ultimately turns out." ("Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference" on April 7, 2007) Since Master said that it is a good thing, it is no doubt a good thing. Although Master has not clearly stated the significance, we can understand it from the Fa Master has told us. All Dafa practitioners remember when Master taught the Fa in Jinan City in Shandong Province, Master asked the listeners to put down the fans in their hands. It was very hot; the packed auditorium made it even hotter. So, waving a fan was a normal thing for an ordinary person. But why should we not wave our fans? Those who believed in Master and had good enlightenment quality put the fans down. They immediately felt a waft of cool air.
One will not be told all the good things in detail; otherwise it would be the same as letting one go there and grab them.
It is fine as long as one can understand the point. Whoever has understood gains. Furthermore, this also reflects the greatest issue--whether or not one firmly believes in Master. Perhaps, one day before we have reached Consummation, when Master tells us what to do, we would still hesitate in a state of half belief; we would thus miss the chance that we have awaited for millions of years. If that had happened, we would have great regret and pain.
Dafa practitioners, through bitter tempering along the cultivation road have become increasingly mature, and their xinxing has elevated. The higher the gong rises, the greater the bodily changes we will experience. So, at this time, the significance of the Clearwisdom editors' calling the practitioners to practice the exercises together is quite clear; it's for improving together.
Additionally, and more important, when we have shortened our hours of sleep we have more time to do the three things well and rescue more sentient beings. We are nearing the end of the Fa-rectification. Practicing in the morning together is the best arrangement Master has made for us on our path to Consummation. The new situations and requirements that have come up during the Fa-rectification are all contrary to human notions and attachments, and the old cosmos' principles. How to overcome these issues and how to cultivate ourselves are problems we have to seriously deal with.
We should not fail to live up to Master's expectation in our every step. When it's hard to do, we can do it. Being difficult means that the Fa's requirements for us have become higher, and we need to reach even higher realms. Isn't this the greatest thing?
When I became clear on the Fa, I realized I should get up on time to practice the exercises. As the days went by, my mind gradually became calm and the sleepy feeling disappeared. The dizziness and pain in my forehead also becomes less and less; it has dwindled and melted away. My whole body is immersed in the pleasant exercise music. I practice the exercises in a relaxed and easy way, as if I have truly united with all my bodies in the other dimensions, and I keep improving myself under the sacred Fa light.
Once we remember the oaths we made, our diligence that we had when we initially attained the Fa, our pride in being Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, our cherishing this rare cultivation opportunity and our infinite gratitude toward Master for his boundless compassion--then our tiredness and sleepiness will completely disappear and we will leave this tribulation behind us.
I just finished reading Master's "Fa Teaching at the U.S. Capital" (July 22, 2007). Reading this lecture, we can become even clearer on the Fa. Master said in the lecture:
"That is what Dafa disciples do. If it weren't for the need to do such things, Dafa disciples' cultivation would have already concluded. So all of what you are doing now is meant for sentient beings.
"I said in my previous lecture that individual Consummation is no longer an issue for Dafa disciples. Perhaps a good number of people didn't quite understand what I meant, but that's the idea. Of course, while in the process [of achieving that,] the final path that you as Dafa disciples need to take seems to have been lengthened."
"...for there are so many sentient beings that we have yet to save. You still need to push yourselves so that you may establish even greater mighty virtue within a limited timeframe, and so that you won't have any regrets when all is said and done. So I hope that you will do even better and be even more magnificent."
Considering these words, how could we still get attached to time? We really should use the limited time and everything we have to rescue sentient beings and accomplish our historic missions, because we have not come for personal gain or personal cultivation, but instead for the salvation of sentient beings.
Due to my limited level I may have some misunderstandings. Please kindly point them out.
