(Clearwisdom.net) We all know that in personal cultivation, cultivating oneself well is simply studying the Fa and cultivating the mind. But during the Fa rectification period, only through simultaneously doing the three things well can a Dafa practitioner cultivate oneself well. Of course, studying the Fa with a calm mind is the precondition of doing the three things well. So I want to talk about the significance of cultivating oneself well from the angle of studying the Fa with a calm mind. Cultivating oneself is also the key to saving sentient beings.

I experienced a period of deeply and perceptually understanding the importance of studying the Fa with a calm mind. I now share it with fellow practitioners hoping to show how closely related cultivating oneself well is to saving sentient beings.

The persecution started just after I obtained the Fa. My personal cultivation and validating the Fa were mingled together. Since the beginning of my cultivation, my primordial spirit has frequently left my body. Although the dimension that my primordial spirit initially entered was very evil, I felt that I had strength in my heart and I was guided by righteous thoughts. Although the density of evil was so high that I felt extreme mental pressure, I was determined to aggressively surpass the tribulation and overcome the difficulty. I had the courage to conquer the tribulation. Since then, I almost always broke through many kinds of tribulations in other dimensions. Although my heart trembled and it was difficult, overall I felt that the more I moved forward, the steadier my heart was, the stronger my righteous thoughts were and the less pressure I felt. At the same time, the evil dimensions and the evil in other dimensions lessened. I could distinguish more dimensions and experience more and more things.

Later, Master asked us to send forth righteous thoughts and eliminate evil with divine power. I realized only then that when my primordial spirit left my body, I actually was eliminating evil all the time. I just did not have a clear rational understanding about this. Afterwards, I wondered why my primordial spirit automatically left my body to eliminate evil almost every day when I did not know about eliminating evil and why I did not give any clear instruction to eliminate evil. I learned the reason later: every day I diligently studied the Fa with a calm mind and did actual cultivation.

Since the beginning of my cultivation, I have treated every day's Fa study with a calm mind as the key and always kept a serene mind. I strongly felt that the power and courage of my primordial spirit when it left my body and broke through the ordeals fundamentally came from my studying the Fa with a calm mind. I also intuitively felt that if I did well in studying the Fa with a calm mind every day, then automatically I had the best mentality and behavior in every day's practicing, forbearing the pain in meditation, balancing the activities of ordinary life and handling relationships with family members who do not cultivate Falun Gong. It seemed very natural and could be achieved effortlessly without needing to think or arrange it.

For example, because I always studied the Fa calmly, I was in a constant state of serenity. I was barely afraid of difficulty when doing the exercises every day. From the beginning, the longest time that I could continue embracing the wheel was one hour and I could forbear the pain of meditation for one hour. Yet this was under the circumstance that I was cultivating at home after the persecution and there was no outside force to urge or supervise me. When there were conflicts with other people, I immediately looked inside. It took just a moment to overcome the uncomfortable feeling in my heart of not wanting to admit my mistake and I restored the mind of serenity right away. I did not feel uneasy, nor did I feel it was difficult. When handling everyday life routines, I did not go to the extreme either. Seeing it was the time to cook, I just cooked naturally. Seeing that the floor had become dirty, I just cleaned it naturally. Seeing dirty socks and other clothes that my family members had put on the clothes-washing platform, I washed them as needed.

Activities in everyday life are pretty commonplace. I did my best to hurry when doing these things, but I did not feel that it was wasting time to do these things and neither was my heart impatient. I did not even think about how a practitioner should do it well and so on before doing these things. I just did them naturally and did them well. I think that doing things naturally came from studying the Fa with a calm mind day after day. Precisely because of this, family members who did not cultivate did not oppose my cultivation and neither did they make any trouble for me. Even though I was later arrested, imprisoned, persecuted and became homeless because of validating the Fa and my family was often harassed and persecuted as a result, up to this day they have never complained and have continued to help me. Neighbors also treated my being persecuted with a positive attitude.

Studying the Fa with a calm mind brought out a stable and serene mind. When doing the three things with a serene mind, one's mind is pure, clear and clean. One also does not develop an attachment of zealotry. I think the reason that I could take good care of every aspect of cultivation and everyday life was because every day's Fa study with a calm mind was guaranteed. With a clear, righteous mind, a practitioner naturally does things in the direction of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, naturally knows how to do things and can easily do things very well. Now I know why my primordial spirit automatically left my body almost every day to eliminate evil when I did not know I should eliminate evil and neither did I give any clear instruction to eliminate evil. It was because I gauged well from the root of studying the Fa with a calm mind every day. It was precisely because of this stable, pure compassionate status that the cultivated divine part of my body could be mobilized and "Your enlightened, original nature will automatically know what to do" ("Expounding on the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement). So I actually already participated in eliminating evil before Master asked us to eliminate evil with righteous thoughts. "Those whose primordial spirit can leave the shell are the ones who are able to control the divine part of their body that has completed cultivation" ("Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art"). Of course, whether your celestial eye is open or not, whether your primordial spirit can leave your shell or not, as long as you always maintain righteous thoughts, you have a positive effect and can eliminate evil.

The purpose of writing this article is to once again discuss the relationship between cultivating oneself well and saving sentient beings. Not being able to cultivate ourselves well from the root will definitely affect our saving sentient beings. The last remaining degenerated factors in the universe are still interfering with the Fa rectification and saving sentient beings. I think if we pay more attention to actual cultivation and cultivate ourselves well when doing the three things, then we will quickly decompose those last remaining evil factors in the universe. With a sober mind that is not controlled by other factors, sentient beings can treat Dafa wisely and make the best choices--choose not to interfere with Fa rectification, choose being saved, and choose a wonderful future.