(Clearwisdom.net) I have practiced Falun Dafa for almost 10 years. Until March of this year, I had not been doing the exercises much. It was mainly due to my laziness. In April, I read an article, "Dafa Practitioners in Mainland China Practice the Exercises Together at 3:50 a.m." on the Clearwisdom website. Afterwards, I realized that I had to do the exercises. Thus, I downloaded the exercise music and set the alarm on my watch to 3:40 a.m. However, deep inside I felt that it would be impossible for me to get up that early. As a result, the next morning when the alarm went off, I told myself that I was too tired today and that I would do it another day. Then, I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. The alarm continued to go off again twice, but I just turned it off. After falling asleep, I had a dream. In it, I received a short letter that said, "Is this how you save sentient beings?" I immediately woke up. I knew it was Teacher who enlightened me, and I felt ashamed of myself. Since then, I persisted on doing the exercises on time every day. As long as we are determined, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. The only thing that can defeat us is our own lack of determination.
Then, why do we need to do the exercises? I think there are three reasons:
First, the five sets of exercises are one of the main features of Falun Dafa. Secondly, doing the exercises can allow our bodies to be cleansed, and our space and field to be purified. This will in turn enhance the power of our righteous thoughts. Thirdly, if all Dafa practitioners can persist in and join the group exercises, then we can create a strong energy field. Not only can this energy field constrict the evil, but it can also eliminate it.
Therefore, doing the exercises is very important.
Before, I also had a serious misunderstanding about doing the exercises. I thought that it did not matter whether I did the exercises. I found excuses through reading the Fa, and thought that as long as I continued to upgrade my xinxing, it would be fine not to do the exercises. Now that I examine this, I was simply looking for excuses for my own laziness, and that I did not see this issue based on the Fa. Now, my understanding is that Teacher has elevated us to a high starting point in cultivation, but we also need to practice and cultivate ourselves. Furthermore, most of us are still at a xinxing level far below Teacher's expectations. The fact that I was looking for excuses in the Fa showed exactly how low my xinxing level was and that I was not able to endure hardship.
We should not just do the exercises, but also ensure that our motives and state of mind meets the Fa's requirements when doing the exercises. That is, we need to maintain the Fa's standards in our every thought and action. I have learned a lesson in this regard. One morning in June when I was doing the first exercise, the music suddenly skipped the "Cheng" (stretch) and "He Shi" (press the hands together) movements directly to "Shuang Long Xia Hai" (two dragons entering the sea). At first I did not mind or paid attention to it. The second day, the skipping of the exercise music got worse. Not only was there problem with the first exercise, but the same problem occurred in the second exercise. I then realized that there must be problems with my xinxing. It is not accidental that we encounter problems in our cultivation; they all happen due to problems in our xinxing.
I looked inward and found that I did not maintain a good state of mind when doing the exercises. Everyday when I got up, I always had the thought of "escaping" from doing the exercises. Sometimes I even had the thought of when I would not have to do the exercises at all. Therefore, when I did the exercises, I was merely doing for the formality or to comfort myself. Although I persisted in doing the exercises, I only did it to prove that I was a strong-willed person. I wanted to show off in front of my fellow practitioners.
After I came to this understanding, I corrected myself immediately. Now that I look back, I have really done poorly in cultivation. Now, the exercise music no longer skips. This makes me deeply feel the solemness of cultivation.
