(Clearwisdom.net) Even though I had read the phrase "completely negating everything arranged by the evil old forces" many times, I did not enlighten to its deeper meaning, no matter how earnestly I tried to understand. So, the only thing I could do was to study the Fa more. Recently, when I was reading an experience-sharing article, "My Understanding of 'Taking Things as They Are'" in Minghui Weekly, I realized the arrangements of the old forces. I then enlightened to the real reasons why I encountered the same difficult problems in my cultivation that I was not able to resolve.

Passing the Test of Sentimentality

Before I practiced Falun Gong, I did not have a boyfriend. After I started to practice, I had the mentality of not wanting to "sacrifice" precious time considering marriage. However, that did not mean I had no feelings. After coming to better understand the Fa principles of the importance of maximally conforming to the way of everyday people, I no longer worried about the attachment of sentimentality becoming a severe obstacle in my cultivation, and I got married.

My husband does not practice Falun Gong. When we first met, I asked him about Falun Gong and he said, "If it is not good, how come so many people practice it?" I was moved by his answer and kindness. However, after we got married, he revealed many bad habits, and we argued about them constantly. At that time, my attachment to sentimentality was completely exposed. I tried my best to look inwards and improve, but he still did not change. Therefore, I spent more than a year trying to help him get rid of his bad habits and almost stopped studying the Fa. With great efforts, he improved, but our environment was still not as good as I hoped it would be. I had wasted a lot of time and energy on this matter to the point that I felt extremely tired. Yet still I did not know which attachments hindered me.

Predestination

As a child, I was always drawn to Buddhism and Taoism, and had a great passion for ancient Chinese literature. I was also very attached to the pursuit of truth. When I watched Teacher's nine day lectures for the first time in 1999, everything I did not understand before suddenly made sense. I enlightened to the true purpose of my existence. Practicing Falun Gong feels very natural to me.

Sometimes I would experience a familiar sensation of having cultivated in my past life. This strange feeling made me sense that something was wrong. Since I practice according to Teacher's Dafa, why would I have this kind of memory of the past? With doubt in the Fa passing through my mind, and from my own understanding, I thought there were many cultivation forms in history and that I may have possibly cultivated in my past life. I also thought that my inborn quality was quite good since I had memory of my cultivation realm. Only after I enlightened that this thinking was an old force arrangement, did I awaken.

Whether I have practiced in past lives, read about it from cultivation stories in history, or have some memories, they are not part of Teacher's Fa-rectification since Fa-rectification is now and has never happened before. What Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa practitioners do today, and their path to consummation, cannot be found in past cultivation forms. How can it be the same as before? When I realized this point, my heart finally saw the light and truly understood that my notions and my so-called memories are actually everything of the old cosmos.

I think many practitioners may have the same experience as I had - they recalled some kind of memory about cultivating in their past life, which led them to cultivate to a higher realm during the stage of personal cultivation, and stabilized their determination and the correct status of their cultivation. However during the Fa-rectification period, this became a big obstacle and hindered my improvement in cultivation.

Teacher says,

"I'll tell you. Today's people can't perceive their own warped thinking because the very nature of people has changed. No matter what cultivation way is adopted, you can only change what they can be aware of, but not what's warped in their very nature. That's why after this one year plus, no matter what methods they used and however cruel they were, they were unable to change the students' fundamental issues and didn't achieve their purpose in the end....

"For any being, let alone human beings, no matter how high a being he is, as long as he's a being within the cosmos, I can rectify him during the Fa-rectification, from his fundamental nature, from the origin of his existence, and from all the elements that constitute his being, eliminating the impure and turning those things around." ("Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America")

I realized that my cultivation actually contains many notions of old cultivation practices, including the warped notion of being determined to give up myself to protect the Fa. With the understanding of great compassion and great tolerance, we think we are cultivating according to Teacher's Fa. However within this, the cultivation way of the old cosmos and the factors infiltrated by the Fa of the old cosmos are everywhere. Let us not be careless in our path of cultivation and be taken advantage of by the evil.

Since I did not truly enlighten to what the old force arrangements are, or strictly require myself to act according to the standard of a Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa practitioner for a long time, I was unable to break through many difficulties and improve. With a helpless mentality, I pushed the boat along and had thoughts like "taking things as they are" and "can't be too emotional" in cultivation. I began to pursue comfort. As a matter of fact, it wasn't because I was attached to comfort, but rather I couldn't find the root cause of my attachments to break through tribulations that I fell into that state. Recalling it now, being in that state was quite dangerous. While sharing my understanding about this with fellow practitioners, I also found that many practitioners were experiencing the same thing. I hope we will be more diligent in breaking through this issue of "completely negating everything arranged by the evil old forces" and enter the state that a Fa-rectification period practitioner should be in.

Find and eliminate the old force arrangements, while assimilating every thought to Dafa and doing well the three things. Then every sentence of the Fa can become clear and have a powerful effect. I hope practitioners study the Fa, read the book and send forth righteous thoughts more. The more Fa that is in your mind, the less the old cosmos' factors can exist. Let them have nowhere to hide!