(Clearwisdom.net) Over a year ago, I was fortunate to attain the Fa through the Internet. After I downloaded Master's exercise videos and the Dafa books, I started to follow the video to learn the exercises.
Because I did not know other practitioners, I studied the Fa and practiced the exercises by myself. It was inevitable that some of my exercise movements were wrong. When I first practiced the sitting mediation, I started with the half-lotus position. I was in such extreme pain that I even limped afterward. Later on I read an experience-sharing article on the Internet in which a practitioner mentioned the use of a "meditation cushion." I did not know what a meditation cushion was, so I used a pillow. This enabled to sit in the full-lotus position. While sitting in the double-lotus position, the ankle of my bottom leg exerted a great deal pressure on my upper leg, which caused a lot of pain, so I used thick pads of cloth to cover that ankle. With these modifications, I no longer felt the pain or numbness in my legs. Even though others mentioned how difficult the sitting meditation was and how painful and numb their legs were, I thought otherwise--I thought I did not have much karma. As a result, I developed the attachments to seeking comfort, complacency, and pride. I was unaware of the fact that I had developed self-induced demonic interference. There were times when I felt that I was not practicing the sitting mediation correctly, but I was able to feel my head nodding, the heavenly circuit moving, and my body uplifting, which are some of the phenomena experienced by some practitioners in their normal practice. I thought to myself, "If I were practicing in the wrong way, I would not feel the motion of the heavenly circuit." Later I came to realize that it was because benevolent Master saw that I could not find a practitioner to correct my movements, so he let me experience whatever I should experience to encourage me and then later arranged for someone to correct me.
This year I went to Hong Kong. When I tried to get a copy of the video "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners," I got to know a Hong Kong Dafa practitioner. This practitioner kindly helped me get a copy of Master's Fa lectures. He also offered to correct my exercise movements. Here I want to express my deep gratitude to him! At that time, because I just showed my movements so that he could correct me, I did the meditation exercise in the standard full-lotus position and I did not tell him how I actually practiced the meditation at home.
Last week I read an experience sharing article about the sitting meditation. In the article a cultivator in another school of cultivation practice asked a Dafa practitioner how to do the sitting meditation in a full-lotus position. My attachment of complacency and showing-off surfaced, and I told the practitioner how I practiced sitting on a pillow and that I did not feel any pain or numbness. This practitioner soon responded to my email, indicating that I was not practicing the correct way. I immediately searched within myself, finding that I was indeed wrong. Practicing the exercises is a very serious matter, and I should do them correctly, the way Master taught us. Otherwise, what I practiced would not be Dafa. Has anyone ever seen Master sitting on a pillow practicing? I also put thick pads of cloth on my ankle. Was what I practiced a Falun Gong exercise? Trying to be clever about mitigating the pain almost ruined me! I feel fortunate that benevolent Master did not give up on me and arranged for a fellow practitioner to correct me. I can do nothing to repay my gratitude for Master's protection but to do the three things well.
For the past two evenings, I practiced the sitting mediation in a half-lotus position; the numbness and pain, which I had not had for a long time, appeared again. I endured and recited Master's words, "'When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it.'" (Zhuan Falun) I think that because of Master's boundless compassion he has accepted me into Dafa and it means that I will certainly be able to make it. Based on that thought, I went through the mediation in a half-lotus position. Now I will start to mediate in the full-lotus position, and I believe that I can certainly make it.
