(Clearwisdom.net)
Some fellow practitioners treat practicing the Falun Gong exercises rather seriously, but have not placed enough emphasis on global sending forth righteous thoughts, especially at midnight, which has not been kept up or has been completely given up. They use the excuse that they cannot get up. However, they were quick to join the 3:50 a.m. coordinated group exercises. I think the way this trade off has been made is due to an unclear understanding of the Fa combined with a mixture of inertia and some selfish considerations.
In fact, there is no conflict between doing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. They facilitate each other. If there are difficulties because of time constraints or other reasons, one has to make a choice: which one is more important? We practitioners really need to give it more thought on the basis of the Fa. Many diligent practitioners can do both well.
Regarding the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts, Master has talked about this issue numerous times in various lectures. Master has said in the "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference:"
"If you are doing work at the same time, you definitely won't manage to send righteous thoughts well. If you say that you really can't [stop working], then it's okay for you to continue with your work and make it up later. But that said, when Dafa disciples around the world send righteous thoughts together at the same time, the power is boundless. So, if each person had been able to handle this matter with very strong righteous thoughts and been doing it very well from the beginning, then perhaps there would be no evil remaining now. It's precisely because many practitioners have been interfered with by one thing or another that it hasn't been done well."
Fellow practitioners, how much more specific do we want Master to be? Global sending forth righteous thoughts is to round up the evil. If you miss it, then there is an omission in the area you're responsible for, and the evil will escape. We always wait anxiously for Master's Fa lectures. However, when a Fa lecture is published, we merely study it without following it. We need to know that the Fa is not just for study. More importantly, it is for us to follow!
