A few days ago, when I exchanged experiences with a fellow practitioner, he talked about some of his cultivation experiences and unintentionally pointed out that I should strengthen my main consciousness and enhance my righteous mind. He also suggested that I read Dafa more often. In the beginning, I did not pay much attention to his words. Then, I pondered his words further and found them very reasonable. What he had pointed out is where I was in urgent need of improvement. In the following days, I repeatedly read Dafa and did notice the above issues and awakened to my shortcomings in my previous Fa study.
When I studied the Fa before, I simply held Zhuan Falun in my hand, glimpsed through the text line by line and read it out with my mouth. Soon afterward, I discovered that so long as I started reading the Fa, my mind ran wild and some odd stuff began to pop up. In addition, my eyes often jumped to the wrong lines. Since Teacher says in his Fa lecturing that those are all the interference of thought karma, I thought to myself: "these are the interference of thought karma, so I should repel them." I thought as such, and I did as such (in fact, there are deeper reasons behind it). In the beginning, it worked. But later it no longer worked. As times went on, the interference grew stronger and stronger. Sometimes, while I was reading, my mind ran errant (I was still reading correctly) or I became sleepy. After my consciousness came back, I did not remember what I just read. When I discussed these experiences with fellow practitioners, we simply believed they were thought karma's interference. This state lasted for several years. Meanwhile, I did not really understand Teacher's articles such as "Cautionary Advice," "Expounding on the Fa," "A Dialogue with Time" and some recent articles, but simply understood them vaguely. My understanding of the Buddha Law was limited to the sense of gratitude derived from physical changes and understandings of supernormal abilities. These shortcomings also manifested themselves in my daily life: I repeatedly made similar mistakes and regretted them after they happened (but I could not control myself when they happened). Sometimes, the conflicts in my life became very acute (sometimes I could remain tolerant, sometimes I could not). Gradually, I no longer attached as much importance to Fa study as before and believed I had little changes before and after Fa study (of course, I'm not comparing myself with ordinary people). Even worse, I believed I was close to Consummation and became inactive in Fa study. Later I felt a little bit uneasy but could not recognize where I was wrong. When exchanging opinions with other practitioners, I found they did not realize that either.
It was not until a few days ago when I personally exchanged experiences with another practitioner (thanks to Teacher's benevolence); he simply told me: "You should strengthen your main consciousness" "Use your mighty righteous mind to eradicate the evil" "read through Dafa more often" "read Teacher's articles 10 times and see what happens." I also felt Teacher was helping me; what he told me was where I most needed to improve myself. Back home, I followed his advice by repeatedly reading through Dafa. Every time before I started reading, I told myself: "you must strengthen your main consciousness to eradicate the thought karma with a mighty righteous mind." Sometimes as I read on, the old state came back again. But I did not fear it any more. Whenever it happened, I made more of an effort to strengthen my main consciousness and my righteous mind. Whenever I found myself making mistakes in reading or when my mind ran errant, I went back and read it again, word by word. All of a sudden, I understood why other practitioners suggested that I strengthen my main consciousness and my righteous mind. As Teacher once made the metaphor of a pot of melted steel dissolving a piece of wood, it is extremely easy for such a big Fa to eliminate our thought karma or disease karma. But it cannot do that. Dafa can easily eliminate those things, or help us reach Consummation, but behind those things are old forces of the old universe, which are the real cause of them. "Nevertheless, in this affair, they have also fully shown the positions of their Xinxing after their deviation from the Fa and have fully revealed their impure side. This has resulted in many situations that shouldn't have occurred and all kinds of interference; this is quite similar to the performance of our students' Xinxing at present during their own cultivation. All beings in the cosmos are amidst the Fa-rectification, and all that they do might reflect in this human place since I'm doing this in this human place. I can tell you that all the suffering and tribulations endured by our Dafa disciples is not only aimed at their own cultivation--it's also due to high-level beings testing Dafa using students' karma, using 'improving them' as an excuse, and using the persecution that's being carried out by degenerate beings at low levels. In fact, all of these have harmed the Fa-rectification." (from "Speech by Master Li Hongzhi at the Western US Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference of Falun Dafa"). "This is what a Dafa disciple should do, and it is without any selfish elements. It is sacred, it is magnificent, and it is establishing the magnificent mighty virtue of an enlightened being in the face of the real evil--the old forces". (from "Persons in Charge of the European Fa Conference and All Attendees")
I realized that the interference I had encountered in reading and practicing was not from thought karma or disease karma, but from the degenerate beings at low levels being used by the degenerate old forces of high-level beings, including the impure parts of my main consciousness and para-consciousness that had deviated from the Law of the Cosmos. Before I attained Dafa, my life had deviated from the Law of the Universe. After attaining Dafa, for lack of deep study of Dafa, I did not have a deep understanding of such issues as "your main consciousness should dominate"; "whoever practices cultivation attains Gong", etc. I simply believed that so long as my main consciousness remained sober during practice, it was fine, but totally ignored the issue in studying the Fa or in my daily life. Therefore, the evil came into play. In particular, when my mind ran errant, I did not realize that my Para-consciousness was studying the Fa but my main consciousness was sleeping. After I understood this issue, whenever the same problem happened, I would stop and my mind would produce a strong righteous thought (not simply repel the karma as before): eradicate all old forces and evil elements in my own universe. At the same time, I demanded my para-consciousness: "I'm the host. You are protecting the Fa. Since the Fa Teacher teaches is to cultivate the main consciousness, if I cannot reach Consummation, no matter how well you cultivate, you will not attain Consummation. You should all be clear about this point." When some bad thoughts came up, I remembered, "For a practitioner, one's mind-intent dictates supernormal abilities to do things. For an everyday person, one's mind-intent directs the four limbs and the sensory organs to work." ("Mind-intent" Lecture 9, Zhuan Falun). Then I ordered my supernormal abilities or para-consciousness: "when I study the Fa, those interferences are not permitted. Go and eliminate them." After a while, those interferences disappeared. At that time, I was suddenly enlightened to a paragraph of Fa in Teacher's article "Cautionary Advice": "If every one of you can understand the Fa from the bottom of your heart, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary,the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" When I truly understood the Buddha Law, the mighty righteous thought that came from my mind appeared just as my fellow practitioner said: "Your indestructible, mighty righteous thoughts shine through the entire universe in other dimensions. They will arrive with unconquerable force." The old forces, the degenerate beings, the foxes, yellow weasels, ghosts and snakes, are all struggling in vain to survive and are to be wiped out.
After I was awakened to this issue, my state of mind in studying the Fa totally changed. Previously, I studied Fa only for the sake of Fa study. But now I study the Fa for assisting the Teacher in rectifying the Fa (and improving myself at the same time). Moreover, I regard all interferences in Fa study and practice as old forces using the degenerate beings to sabotage Fa-rectification. Instead of passively giving in to the old forces, I actively destroy them, because all those conducts meant to hurt Dafa are not recognized by Teacher and should be rejected by the disciples. Especially when those degenerate beings appear that usurped Dafa (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance) to sabotage the Fa-rectification, we should clearly respond: "you are degenerate beings, not ordinary human beings, so you are not qualified to listen to Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance."
When I read Teacher's article, "The Knowing Heart", my eyes were filled with tears. Yes, I should use my mighty, indestructible righteous mind to assist Teacher in the human world.
Above is a little bit of my experience for your consideration.
A Dafa disciple
March 29, 2001