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Mirrors: My Recent Understandings of “Looking Inside”

January 22, 2012 |   By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I have recently have gained much understanding of Master’s Fa,

“But you need to remember one thing I’ve said: when two people have a conflict and a third person sees it, even that third person should think about whether there are any problems on his part—‘Why did I happen to see it?’” (“Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference”)

Example one: Practitioner D had been going through a xinxing test at home for two years. Many practitioners had tried to help her pass it and often shared their understandings with her, but she became very emotional each time, and felt wronged and hurt. Practitioners had to say harsh words to wake her up, and while she was a little better for a while, she reverted back soon after. I realized that we had developed an attachment to this matter and that her situation wouldn’t improve if we couldn’t let go of our attachment. I shared my understanding with the other practitioners. As soon as we were all at the same level of understanding, and improved ourselves, D passed her test.

The above matter didn’t seem to have anything to do with me until later. Around the same time period, I heard that Practitioner A had wanted to quit his out-of-town job because he wasn’t doing very well at it. Practitioner B and I, who were thinking about it using human thoughts, persuaded him to think twice, and I became a little emotional. I suddenly realized that I had made a similar mistake, so I changed my thinking and decided to take lightly whether he stayed at his job or not. The last thing I said to him was that, as long as he could improve even just a little from the job, it would be worth the trip. In the end, Practitioner A was able to handle his boss’ criticisms much better than before.

Example two: Practitioner C is the mother of a 26-year-old. C often irritates her daughter by the way she wakes her up for work every morning. It seemed to me that C was too emotionally attached to her daughter. One day, I was busy making truth-clarification materials and missed the time to pick up my daughter before noon to go to lunch with her. So I stayed home and sent forth righteous thoughts at noontime, and the effect was very good. I came to realize that, between sending forth righteous thoughts and my daughter, I had always chosen the latter without thinking about it. The next day, my daughter suddenly told me that she could go to lunch by herself and didn’t need my company any longer.

Example three: An elderly fellow practitioner has been suffering sickness karma for a long time. She said she was not afraid of death, but was afraid of physical pain. She complained that some less-diligent practitioners were too fearful, so she simply stopped delivering truth-clarification materials to them. I didn’t believe that was the right thing to do because it amounts to pushing those less-diligent practitioners to the old forces.

I looked inside and realized that I feared doing the second exercise, the Falun Standing Stance, and this was a good example of an attachment to fear of hardship. After I overcame the problem and did the second exercise again, I felt extremely light and wonderful holding the wheel.

I also recalled that, during the effort to bring back a fellow practitioner who had fallen behind, I brought Master’s lecture video Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners to her home on my first visit. She wanted to call another practitioner, who was also left behind, to join her. I was worried about safety and wanted to visit them one by one, failing to realize that those who had never stepped forward needed company that they felt comfortable with. When I visited her the following week, she said that she was still too afraid to practice. I was so discouraged that I never visited them again. I have now come to the understanding that letting go of those who were left behind amounts to letting them choose the path arranged by the old forces, which is exactly the same as the older practitioner not supplying truth-clarification materials to them.

Example four: My daughter had a hard time getting up one morning. I didn't like it, but I tried my best to hold my tongue. Approaching the school, she rushed me to keep up, and I snapped at her, “Now you know to hurry. What have you been doing earlier?!” I regretted it as soon as the words came out. I came home and wondered, “She has been doing pretty well keeping time herself, what’s wrong today?” I suddenly realized that I had been doing poorly in my morning practice, and I had skipped it altogether this morning. Looking inside, none of my shortcomings can go unnoticed.

My husband recently showed signs of wavering in his belief in Master and the Fa, and he repeatedly said that he didn't think our fellow practitioners’ bodies had been completely transformed into high energy matter. Looking inside, I realized that I had been fascinated by everyday people’s things for a long time, that my Fa-study and practice was worse than his, and that my problem was, in fact, my not believing wholeheartedly in Master and the Fa. His words woke me up. Thankfully, my energy field was rectified soon, and my family environment is being rectified as well.

I also didn’t like the dawdling of a fellow practitioner who makes truth-clarification materials for me. I looked inside and realized that I tended to dawdle myself. It shows that my attachment to laziness has not been removed. During the process of looking inside, I felt tangible xinxing improvement in myself, and it felt as if I had just come to understand how to practice genuine cultivation.

A few practitioners tend to criticize their children. In my case, however, through looking inside, I realized that all my daughter’s shortcomings, including laziness and lack of Fa-study and not doing the exercises, also exist in me. Oftentimes our children are a mirror for us. I also discovered that, as soon as my state improves, it often brings about positive changes in my child. The other day when I was reading the Fa, “The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities.” (“Lecture Three” from Zhuan Falun), I suddenly came to understand that this should be the normal state of practitioners living in society today.

This concludes my shallow understandings. I hope all practitioners can:

“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.” (“Solid Cultivation” in Hong Yin

Please kindly point out anything improper.