(Clearwisdom.net) During Fa-rectification and cultivation, I have more deeply realized the principles of the Fa and raised my level. Sometimes I used Master's principles to break through disturbances and obstacles. The following includes several stories to share my thoughts with fellow practitioners. They help to show that no matter how difficult something seems, as long as we follow Master's Fa, it will be resolved well. In fact, when we are basing our thoughts and actions on the Fa, everything will happen correctly. Within Dafa's easy-to-understand language, there are boundless miracles. Master uses the simplest modern language to explain all aspects of the human world and cultivation principles. Therefore, as we study and act according to Master's teachings, we will find that our questions will be resolved and our goals achieved.
Neighbor's Disturbances at Night
In 2002, I rarely saw my next-door neighbors. Only at night, I could sometimes hear their door close. I always tried to find an opportunity to clarify the truth to them. But I never got a chance to do so--due to the attachment of fear, my wisdom was limited. One night at around 11:30 p.m., I was doing the meditation exercise and heard the door open and close very loudly, and they were shouting. This went on for three straight nights. I felt disturbed by it, but I calmed down and thought about what Master said:
"Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference" in 2002)
The next day, I put a truth-clarification flyer on their door. Starting that same day, there was no longer any disruption at night.
Since then, there have been many similar situations. But each time something interferes, I clarify the truth and it gets resolved right away.
Silently Accepting Interference
Because there have been more and more occasions like the one above, I gradually developed a thought in my mind: the beings who want to be saved would come to bother you. With this thought, lots of trouble came to me. Once at work, my client frequently asked me to do something I didn't have to do before. At that time, I thought this was a "necessary" reflection of people who haven't been saved yet. Master says in "Expounding on the Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancement:
"You should also be clear that 'natural' does not exist, and 'the inevitable' has reasons behind it."
I silently accepted that they were allowed to interfere with me. As a result, it affected normal things that I was supposed to do. Fellow practitioners reminded me that even for those people who haven't been saved, they should still not interfere. We can save them, but interference is absolutely not allowed. With this thought, those troubles went away.
My silent acceptance of the interference allowed the old forces to further interfere with me, as they will jump on any opportunity to create problems for Fa-rectification.
The Death of a Chick
My child bought three little chickens. Several days later, at dinner, my child said, "I don't like the smaller one. I don't want it any more." After dinner, the previously lively little chicken started shaking all of a sudden and couldn't stand still. It died that night. My child was very sad and said, "It was me who didn't take care of that little one..."
This episode caused me to think about my own actions. I realized that sometimes with those who didn't want to listen to or look at the truth, I often thought: "That person is not savable." But as Master said:
"You can't just have compassion for those who read the materials, and have no compassion for those who don't--you can't do that (laughs). In saving people, you have to be patient, and that's Dafa disciples' compassion." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," 2003)
We are representatives for countless sentient beings, and they are depending on us for their futures. We need to handle our interaction with every being patiently and kindly, and not give up on them. Master told us,
"That's because your every thought and whim, and each and every action, are affecting major things." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington DC Fa Conference")
The Door in the Human World versus the Righteous Thoughts of a God
Once I heard some strange noises outside my door. I thought it was the noise of a policeman snooping around. I started panicking and thought: "My door can block them..." Later, in other similar situations, I always thought that way. One day I suddenly realized that this was ridiculous. How could a door block the evil? There is no door that can't be opened in this world. Anything in the human world can be overcome. This is the principle of "Mutual-Generation and Mutual-Inhibition" in this world. Another example is that I sometimes think: "If there is any danger, I can run..." "In front of any instruments of torture, it would depend on your willpower..." From the viewpoint of a human being, no matter how fast you run, you can't be faster than cars. No matter how strong your will is, there is a limit. If you use human principles, they will yield human results. If you only focus on how to escape from the old forces, they'll make use of those attachments to trap you.
We should have divine, righteous thoughts. They are the weapons for truly defeating the evil because they are beyond this dimension and cannot be defeated by human beings.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference" (in 2005):
"If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace. One thought born of righteous faith is all it takes. And whoever can hold firm that righteous thought and go the distance will become a magnificent god forged by Dafa."
Digging deeply in my heart, I found that there was still some remaining fear of the evil Communist specter that was affecting me. I still thought of the spirit as an abstract concept, rather than a material thing that can have big impacts. This is a big reason that lots of our fellow practitioners can't keep their strong righteous thoughts. I was finally able to overcome this attachment and understand the nature of righteous thoughts better.
Master taught us in "Stop the Evil Acts with Righteous Thoughts:"
"You can do it with or without your palm erected--it works as soon as your righteous thoughts emerge."
Which one should we rely on, the door or righteous thoughts? When I better understood the principles of the Fa, I suddenly felt that my righteous thoughts became stronger.
Separation
Fellow practitioner A suddenly felt pain in her knee and had difficulty crossing her legs in meditation. Fellow practitioner B suggested that she send forth righteous thoughts. After a while, B asked A: "How do you feel?" "It still hurts," she replied. "Maybe you can send forth righteous thoughts more frequently..." Later B met A and A still had the same pain. B asked A: "Is there any problem with your xinxing?" A was puzzled. On B's way home, B suddenly realized: "Why did I encounter this? Why did I view this only as her problem? Why didn't I send forth righteous thoughts with her? We Dafa practitioners are one body. Why did I have the attitude of a spectator?" After this thought emerged, the next morning when B met A, A's knee had totally recovered.
I realized that when we use human logic to divide up "my problems and your problems", when in our minds, we still have the thought of "helping somebody send forth righteous thoughts," we are creating a gap among us. This gap is caused by all kinds of obstacles formed by human notions. The reflection might be just a difference in one thought. Of course, this also highlights the fact that our one thought is a critical factor in determining any outcome because it is a divine thought.
The idea of "hers, yours and mine" leads to divisions and problems, and it should not exist over the course of Fa-rectification cultivation. Only then can we truly become one body.
More Thoughts about the "One Body"
One morning a fellow practitioner was arrested by the evil. Fellow practitioner Jia and some other practitioners had a discussion shortly after they got the news. At the beginning, most practitioners thought that the arrested practitioner must have had attachments that were taken advantage of. So they started discussing what the issue was.
Practitioner Jia helped everybody gradually change their viewpoints. Later everybody agreed that even though the practitioner had problems, the persecution still should not exist. Our Master arranges our path. No other beings have the right to interfere. So everybody sent forth righteous thoughts at the same time from noon to night. They felt the field of righteous thoughts grow stronger and stronger.
In the meantime, the arrested practitioner had a strong attachment of fear in the morning, and the evil was very aggressive and threatened to sentence him. He didn't know what was going to happen. But at around noon, he felt that the field of the righteous thoughts was very strong around him. The attachment of fear decreased and the righteous thoughts grew stronger. When the evening came, he was very calm. He said to Master in his heart: "I can't stay here." He was soon released and the evil was no longer as aggressive as it was in the morning.
When he returned home and shared his experience, he realized that Dafa practitioners are indeed one body. Although we have distance among us in the human world, in other dimensions all practitioners are in one field. When Dafa practitioners are sharing experiences, sending forth righteous thoughts, and improving as one body, we are eliminating the evil in our common field. As Master taught us, we should seek
"...holistic improvement and holistic upgrade..."(Zhuan Falun)
Learning from the Fa versus Learning from Other Practitioners
The above-mentioned practitioner Jia had strong righteous thoughts in many areas and often helped other practitioners to break away from their states of being in tribulation. Therefore, lots of practitioners came to her to discuss the principles of the Fa.
Not too long after the above-mentioned arrest, practitioner Jia was arrested when she was clarifying the truth and distributing flyers. Lots of the practitioners were puzzled: "Practitioner Jia always did this and did it well. She has strong righteous thoughts and didn't have any obvious attachments. Why was she arrested?"
Although puzzled, the practitioners were still actively involved in the rescue efforts. They sent forth righteous thoughts, looked for lawyers, sent flyers and used the Internet to expose the evil. Later practitioner Jia walked out of the police station with dignity. After she returned, she shared her thoughts with the fellow practitioners: "With the 'encouragement' of fellow practitioners, I started getting a show-off mentality and the attachment of zealotry. But this was not the most important thing. The most important issue was that fellow practitioners had attachments towards me. Everybody thought I understood the Fa well. So lots of the practitioners viewed me as a model and even used my viewpoints as their understanding of the Fa." Many practitioners did the same thing. Therefore, we had a gap in our one body. This was a huge lesson for us!
"Remember this--some of our students have done well, but she is still cultivating. So if we do those things, won't it lead students to form new attachments? And won't it make the students a little too pleased with themselves? So I think you still need to be careful. Yes, when a student has cultivated well in some regard, we should learn from him. But the student is still cultivating and still has human attachments that haven't been removed yet, so you still need to use the Fa as your standard... Whenever a person cultivates well in some regard, that's because she has cultivated well in the Fa, not because she is better than the Fa. So if you follow somebody's example instead of learning from the Fa... [remember that] before the person has finished her cultivation she still has flaws, and when she's good in one regard it doesn't mean she's good in every regard. Now it's really happened, you've triggered the student's attachment. Be careful with this type of thing." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students" in 2004)
"There used to be some students who would often say, 'So-and-so at our practice site has done so well! We'll do whatever he does.' Let me tell all of you that you absolutely must not do that and absolutely must not think that way. Cultivators can't take other human beings as their role models. They must take the Fa as the teacher! (Applause) As soon as you start doing things [like I described] and thinking in that way, two problems will surface. One is that you will likely push that student to a place where there is no way out for him. And it's likely the old forces will lead him to have problems and even make him leave us early in order to test other students. [They'll think,] "You're all looking to him. With things like this, are you still going to study, and are you still going to cultivate?" Under circumstances like this, there are really some students who think, "If even he couldn't make it, will I be able to?" They waver. Isn't that the old forces taking advantage of gaps? [In that situation] even I, your master, can't say anything! The old forces say, "Take a look. See how that test ended up? What we did was right, wasn't it?" So when the righteous thoughts are not strong, people's minds waver. You absolutely must be on guard against that! You should take the Fa as the teacher. You can't look at how well a certain individual has cultivated and as a result learn from that person instead of the Fa." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")
With regard to experience-sharing among fellow practitioners, I think it's very necessary and important. However, we can't over-emphasize it because we have the Fa and we have our Master. Our experience-sharing is arranged by our Master, as well. These things can only be attained through predestination.
"When someone reaches a high level he sees that these things are gained by predestination...." ("Talk in Guangzhou to Some Assistance Center Heads From Around the Country," Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
(To be continued)