(Minghui.org) Other Falun Dafa practitioners have frequently said that they could not concentrate well when studying the Fa or doing the exercises. Besides they shared that they could not let go of everyday thoughts, and sending forth righteous thoughts did not help. I remember to have had that problem. Sometimes I failed to eliminate my unrighteous thoughts, which in turn reinforced my attachments. I lingered at this level for a long time.
I recently gained some deeper understanding on this issue when reading Master's European lecture.
I began to cultivate about eight years ago. During the past three years, I have been telling people the facts of Falun Dafa on my way to work and home. I felt nervous, apprehensive and pressured every time. However, all the negative thoughts would disappear as soon as I opened my mouth to talk to people.
Master told us,
“You certainly won’t acknowledge those bad thoughts [as yours], so of course they’ll quickly be eliminated. Isn’t this also 'cultivation depends on oneself, gong depends on one’s master'? Why do I tell you not to acknowledge them? Think about it, everyone: Which part of your body isn’t you? Your hands move however you want them to, your arms move however you want them to, and your head moves however you want it to, and that’s because all of them are you. Then why don’t those thoughts settle down when you want them to? It’s because they are not you. Your true self is pure and clean. Dirty things are postnatal contamination. That’s why they have to be removed and discarded in cultivation, and this is rejecting them.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe)
On reading this paragraph, I thought, “Oh! The apprehension before I started talking is not me. Even the excitement, frustration, and depression I have experienced during truth clarification aren't part of my true self! In this case, all the thoughts that interfered with my Fa study, exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts are not me either. I should reject them!”
Sometimes I felt it was fine to watch television (TV) or read WeChat for a while, but I did not realize it was not what my true self intended to do. I did not reject this desire immediately, and it developed into an attachment to TV and WeChat.
Ever since I gained such understanding, I would immediately remember Master's words about our true selves being pure and clean when I could not concentrate.
Master taught us,
“To cultivate, you know, a person has to find himself and cultivate himself. If you’re able to differentiate it from yourself and think, 'Those aren’t me. Think if you want to, but I want to become tranquil. Let’s see how long you can keep running off like that,' then treat them as others’ thoughts.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe)
I followed Master's instruction to reject the bad thoughts, and found it to work very well!
Whenever my apprehension attempted to stop me from clarifying the facts to people, I would think, “This isn't me. I should be pure and clean.” I would calm down quickly and tell people the true facts about Dafa without any attachment to the number of people I could talk to. It's a great state of mind! I experienced a peaceful, benevolent and beautiful mindset I had never experienced before.
I realized that if we want to cultivate our thoughts, we have to look inward and differentiate bad thoughts from our true selves, reject them, and eliminate them. It would help us if we would do the three things well.