(Minghui.org) For a very long time I always asked, “Do I have to do this?” I would only do something if it benefited me.

The other practitioners and I talked about our experiences in regards to doing the meditation exercise. This April my legs started to be in excruciating pain both at the beginning and at the end of the meditation exercise. The pain was so unbearable that it almost felt like I was going through an execution. It got so bad that I was afraid of meditating. I was only able to do an hour of meditation exercise once in April and I usually just meditated for half an hour. This made me reflect seriously on my cultivation and I began reading numerous experience-sharing articles from other practitioners.

In May we celebrated World Falun Dafa Day. While meditating one day, something unexpected happened. I meditated in tranquility without moving for an hour. Ever since then, my meditation state has changed for the better. It was relatively easy for me to meditate for an hour without feeling much pain and I looked forward to meditating. I thought this change was because my cultivation state improved by looking inward, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa.

Some practitioners recollected something Master said during a lecture. One practitioner said that she deeply felt Master suffered a lot for practitioners and sentient beings these past two years. 

I was struck by her words and was suddenly enlightened to the fact that no matter how intensely I sent righteous thoughts or studied the Fa, these were all things done at an ordinary person’s level. The excruciating pain that I no longer felt during the meditation exercise was actually suffered by Master. Ever since then whenever I felt excruciating pain, I would ask myself, “Can I bear it for five minutes to save sentient beings?” The answer was “Yes!”

With this thought in mind, I pushed myself to prolong my meditation exercise. I felt this thought was correct but today I had new insights into the meditation exercise. 

I was able to enter into tranquility relatively fast this morning. I started to think about Shi Dakai from the Taiping Rebellion. After Shi turned himself into the Qing army, he was executed by slow slicing (a form of torture where a knife was used to remove portions of the body over an extended period of time). Why didn’t he cry out in pain? Why didn’t he react and express his indignation after being defeated? He remained silent and endured everything. Why was that? I always thought he was an amazing hero and not afraid of death. 

I kept asking myself “Why” and realized that I always had an ulterior motive in doing things to save sentient beings when I participated in truth-clarification activities. Why can’t I unconditionally cooperate and fulfill my responsibilities? Isn’t this better?

I finally understood that when a person can be in immediate contact with the universe’s characteristics, he will be able to do anything. Or perhaps when one relinquishes secular desires, including the human body, he is already assimilated with the universe’s characteristics. The universe’s characteristics allow him to break through the bonds that tie us to this realm, especially suffering. After enlightening to this part of history, I remembered one section of Fa I memorized last year. 

Master said,

“It is because one with good inborn quality has a lot of the white substance that is assimilated to our universe and to the characteristic Zhen-Shan-Ren without any barrier. The characteristic of the universe can manifest directly in your body and be in immediate contact with your body.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

I was shocked. I wanted to be able to see every little detail of what I enlightened to and I did not want to come back to reality. The Fa is so boundless and limitless. I closed my eyes and recited this section of the Fa over and over again. It is truly wonderful and everything around me seemed to slowly fade away and freeze in time as I immerse myself in the Fa. 

While meditating one day, I was able to enlighten to the fact that when one assimilates to the universe one can surpass all human suffering and rectify oneself. A cultivator can also surpass all hardships and tribulations while living many lives in other dimensions. When I no longer thought about “why” Dafa revealed its beauty and majesty to me, and I truly felt wondrous. 

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)