(Clearwisdom.net)

Eliminating Distractions and Peacefully Studying the Fa

With Fa-rectification approaching the surface, my body has become more sensitive to distractions from other dimensions. I have had symptoms such as a headache, sleepiness, and neck pain, and I often fell asleep while studying the Fa. I tried to calm myself by copying the Fa by hand, reading out loud, and memorizing the Fa. For some time (when my eyes were closed) I saw that black substances from other dimensions were attacking me. I was unable to recognize that stuff and felt suffocated. To overcome this, I increased my Fa study by transcribing the entire book Zhuan Falun. I also increased the time I spent sending righteous thoughts. As a result, each word of the Fa stayed in my mind when I studied.

Master said,

"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" ("Cautionary Advice" from Essentials for Further Advancement)

I began looking inward while I studied the Fa - to see why I was so deeply distracted. I discovered my self-centeredness, my breeding demons in my mind, and my fear that prevented me from returning to my original, true self. I stayed away from the other Dafa practitioners, thinking I was maintaining a pure environment, but instead this allowed the old forces to take advantage of me.

Because of fear, the old forces brought black substances to attack me and make me uncomfortable. All the positive comments from other practitioners fed my ego. My wanting to see things in other dimensions made me see tragic scenes through my third eye. They were all apparitions that were tests for me. After I studied the Fa, I realized that they were brought on by thought karma and sickness karma. I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate them. Master said,

"As long as you upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them." (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun, Translation Version 2000)

While in group study, Master's fashen pointed out some things to me through other practitioners' mouths, "Study the Fa calmly, have righteous thoughts, don't think of other things, and don't care about them."

I realized that the difference between a mortal and a deity could be the difference of a single thought. The old forces have arranged every single thought of ours in our cultivation. The old forces take advantage of any of our unrighteous thoughts, as Master tells us. According to Master, we are cultivating a master soul, but the old forces took advantage of my gaps and put me to sleep.

When I calmly studied and comprehended the Fa I saw more Falun. In addition, I saw that each word in the book Zhuan Falun became Master's fashen, who were making the big hand gestures, and those hands purified bad stuff from all dimensions of mine. They were spectacularly holy and golden. With my xinxing greatly improved, my understanding of the Fa rose to a higher level. Master said,

"As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that [you] rectify everything that is not righteous." ("Dafa is Indestructible" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

If I find a distraction, I try to send righteous thought for thirty minutes, listen to a Dafa lecture for another hour, and then read the Dafa book for two hours. My mind is then much clearer. By doing this, I can double my efficiency when engaging in truth-clarification activities.

The Power of Sending Righteous Thoughts

It took me a while to understand the importance of the global effort of sending righteous thoughts at fixed times. Though Master does not encourage it, I often send righteous thoughts for at least thirty minutes, and often for an hour long, to enhance the power and eliminate the evil's distractions from other dimensions. During that period I have seen the distracting things such as microbes in all shapes and many evil beings that are half-animal and half-human in the Three Realms. When my gong was pure enough, it would chase them to disintegrate them. I also saw that Master's fashen in each dimension was purifying that dimension. When I held my hand up, I saw celestial soldiers and generals and Dafa practitioners standing on lotus flowers. They came out to fight the evil. The scene was spectacular. When I had attachments, I saw a smoky environment and the evil was laughing at me. The more righteous thoughts I had, the more power I had to eliminate the evil in other dimensions.

While holding my hands in the Lotus Palm position, I saw that substances disintegrated and returned to their respective universes. I now have more understanding of the Fa and of Master's great compassion. I understand that Master transformed the beings from the old universe to new beings in a new universe through our constantly sending righteous thoughts. But we must first keep our minds pure, so that revered Master can accomplish it thoroughly. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

On one occasion four of us missed a flight after we participated in a Shen Yun meeting after a Dafa experience sharing conference. When we arrived at the airport, we were told that all the tickets including those for other airlines were sold out for that night, except for a few first-class tickets. The first-class tickets required paying an extra $1,050 to board. I thought that money should be used to save more people, and not for airline tickets. We decided to send righteous thoughts. A half hour passed, and one airport clerk discussed our dilemma with her manager. They decided to let us board without the extra charge. All the boarding passes were printed out, except my name was missing. I immediate thought that I must have an attachment and continued to send righteous thoughts. Later we were able to find my e-ticket number and the clerk printed the boarding pass. This incident made me discover my reliance on others for all travel arrangements because of my poor English language skills.

Nevertheless, we sent righteous thoughts the whole time, once again affirming the power of righteous thoughts and of Dafa. We introduced Shen Yun to the airport clerks, who were happy and promised to see the show.

Master said,

"In order to lessen the persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples, I have asked disciples to send forth righteous thoughts to clear away the damage these beings deliberately do to the Fa-rectification, thereby lessening what Dafa disciples should not endure during the persecution and, at the same time, saving all sentient beings and consummating Dafa disciples' paradises." ("The Effect of Righteous Thoughts" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

Utilizing Our Time to Save More People

It has become my habit to use all possible time and tools (internet, phone, etc.) to explain the facts about Falun Dafa and the persecution since the beginning of the Fa-rectification. My online experience of how to get people interested in this topic amounted to sending more information to them and keeping in touch with them. Many people online were working class. I kept them interested by constantly sending them new information, which is made possible by all practitioners who work on these online materials. It also illustrates that we work as one body.

I met a journalist online from Heilongjiang Province, and I chatted with him about the current status in China. He acknowledged the serious corruption existing in China, but he still held out hope for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He stopped the conversation when I brought up the topic of withdrawing from the CCP. We kept in touch for four months, I sent him information and even chatted with him for an hour online. He later transferred to Beijing and did an interview in the countryside. He was deeply touched by the tragedies he encountered there. He told me that he donated 2,000 yuan to the local clinic after he witnessed that a wooden door was used as a delivery table for a baby. After we had that conversation, he quit the CCP.

I also made phone calls to encourage people to withdraw from the CCP with good results, but at times I was impatient when talking to people on the phone. I wanted to tell them everything in one breath, without allowing them to speak, which is actually an irresponsible behavior for a cultivator. As a result, they sometimes hung up the phone. That person may have missed a chance to be saved due to my impatience. I realized my problem after studying the Fa described below.

Master told us,

"As Dafa disciples, if right now you cannot accomplish that and lead beings to salvation, then you will have failed to fulfill the vows you once made, and will have brought calamity to the entire Fa-rectification, the universe, and sentient beings. That's why I said just now that this is something Dafa disciples must do well." ("Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference")

Later I changed my tone and patiently talked to people on the phone. My mother-in-law sat beside me and sent forth righteous thoughts. Sometimes we could convince five to eight people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, or at least we could convince two to three people to quit. In the process, I also cultivated my xinxing. With suggestions from my mother-in-law, we improved each other. We often asked people on the phone to repeat with us "Falun Gong is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is great!" I once talked to an army official on the phone. After I explained all the facts, he told me that he knew about the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and wished to quit the CCP. Another time, I talked to a person from Shenyang and explained the quitting the CCP movement. He told me that he knew about us, and he asked us to help him quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations with the name of "life saver."

I distributed The Epoch Times to local districts and stores, and I used my available time to ask people to quit the CCP. One day, after I delivered the paper, I saw a gentleman walk by with the paper in his hand. I asked him if he was a frequent reader of The Epoch Times. He said, "Yes." When I brought up the facts of the CCP corruption, he told me that he had experienced more severe corruption and that many good people ended up committing crimes. I then asked him to quit the CCP. He asked, "How should I do it?" I said, "I will help you." He replied, "Great! Please do." From this incidence, I realized that people are there and waiting for us to offer them salvation.

Another time, I went grocery shopping and chatted with a person from Sichuan Province. I asked if he had read The Epoch Times newspaper. He said, "I did." I then asked him if he had quit the CCP. He hesitated and said that the CCP did some bad things, but those had happened in the past. I told him about the evil CCP's corruption and that it has cruelly killed 80 million lives, which is more deaths than those combined from both World War I and II. I also talked about the Nine Commentaries and all the CCP's previous movements. He was eventually convinced and agreed to quit the CCP.

Along with the speeding up of Fa-rectification, the Dafa practitioners' responsibility is getting heavier. This is a great opportunity that Master has provided to us. Let us treasure every minute, improve ourselves, and upgrade our xinxing while cultivating.