(2) Two Weeks into Dafa, A Wondrous Encounter in Heaven Two weeks after obtaining Dafa, [great law and principle] back in 1996, I was reading the whole day every day, as all I wanted was to memorize Dafa in my mind. Yet, for whatever reason, the first parts of the book always seemed to be forgotten when I read the later parts, so the only thing I could do was to read the book endlessly, over and over again. One day, I suddenly remembered the lifetime plan that I had been formulating just before obtaining Dafa, knowing in my heart that it was a totally different issue from cultivation. Still I contemplated, "Could I not give up either of them?" Without knowing, I fell asleep. While sleeping, my yuanshen left my body, and transcended many many spaces; the speed was so fast that it made me dizzy for a while. Later, those seemingly familiar galaxies were left far behind, and I still continued flying; in order not to be afraid, I closed my eyes. When the dizziness was gone and I opened my eyes again, I thought, "Ooh, what a place - so clear and bright, so sacred and wonderful!" These indescribably pure and beautiful scenes were much clearer and more real than what one could normally see on earth with one's eyes wide open. Though there was much I couldn't recall when I woke up, I still remembered everything being so clear and so happy. I wondered, "Where is this?" No one answered me. I wondered, "Where is the sky?" Looking around, there wasn't one. I pondered, "The sky is blue, but how come it is not around here?" Instantly a clear blue 'Sky' appeared above my head. Then I thought, "How about purple?" Instantly the sky turned purple. I stopped my train of thought, feeling that I should not have been thinking wildly using my human notions, but my thoughts wouldn't stop. "Who are those Buddhas?" Let me see if there is any Buddha that I know. I only knew of Buddha Sakyamuni and Buddha Amitabha. I had once seen a statue of the Medicine Buddha in a temple, but what did they all look like? I could not remember; so I wanted to take a closer look. With this thought, those whom I wanted to see appeared right in front of me. At the time, there were many many Buddhas all dressed in golden Jiasha [Buddha's clothing], happily sitting inside a palisade, which was carved of white jade, surrounding a grand palace with a purplish-red top. The carved jade railing was enclosed by yet another palisade of white jade, and then another; the closer it got to the palace the higher reached the palisade and the seats. There were so many Buddhas, the majority were unknown to me. I seemed to be invisible to them; in fact I had a feeling that most of them seemed to have arrived there after I had left. Two Buddhas saw me and nodded to me smiling, as if they knew me. I was guessing in my heart, "Was he Maitreya? or was he Sakyamuni?" At this time, a great voice boomed from the grand palace, resonating deep in the universe, shaking everything; it was the Teacher, a Fa lecture had started. Teacher's lecture was so wonderful to listen to, one could feel one's whole being melting into the boundless universe. After a little while, I suddenly remembered that I was a Dafa practitioner, and didn't Zhuan Falun teach the seriousness of practicing only one cultivation way? How could I not have thought to examine whether all of this was real first? If it were not real, then wouldn't what I practised there be all messed up, making my practice in vain? What exactly did the book say regarding the issue of "only one cultivation way? With that thought my head began to hurt badly, and I could not remember in which part of the book I had read about this issue; after all, I had only been a practitioner for two weeks. Time must not be wasted; I could not remember, and Teacher's lecture was so wondrous that one could not help but want to listen. I listened again for another long while before I once again started thinking about wanting to check with the book; finally, wearied, my yuanshen returned. After I woke up with a shock, my whole body was so hot that it felt like I had just been through a series of "guanding", full of energy. Naturally my attachment to my old lifetime plan vanished into nothingness within a blink of an eye. Also, I acquired a deeper appreciation that I, who had received a good education, who had had an easy path both with study and career, knew nothing really about the most fundamental and the most important truths, including who I am, what is life, and what is the purpose of human life, etc. It took me a long time to get over my sorrow for having forced myself to leave that sacred and most wondrous Fa lecture site, due to my attachment of wanting to compare against the book. Fortunately for an equally long period of time, Teacher's penetrating voice during that lecture in heaven boomed in my heart whenever I studied the Fa. All practitioners know that it would require a great amount of energy to go up that high. That a new practitioner, just two weeks old, one who still has many, many attachments to get rid of and not knowing how, could be sent to such a place to listen to the Law, shows that the vastness of Dafa, the powerfulness of Dafa, the capacity of Dafa to a path to the unmeasurably high, is truly beyond our wildest imagination. (To be continued) April 23, 2001