(Clearwisdom.net) For a long time I have been bothered by not being able to get up early to do the exercises. I have tried several methods to wake myself. I even put four alarm clocks in different locations, such as the living room and the bedroom windowsill, so that when they go off, I have to get up in order to turn them off.
In the first few days, I managed to get up to do the exercises. But I couldn't seem to keep it going. Especially when there was more housework to do at home, I just couldn't get up. Eventually, I wouldn't even hear the alarm. When I woke up after having missed the alarm, I would see that the alarm clock was beside me, but I couldn't recall how I had grabbed it and turned it off.
Looking within, I knew this situation was due to not having enough righteous thoughts and not being persistent enough. As a result, when the alarm went off, I would be half-awake and just turn it off. I would feel dizzy and thought this was because I got up too quickly, since before practicing Falun Gong I used to feel dizzy when I stood up suddenly. My old notions had created this illusion. I would have to sit down to wait until the dizziness passed, but then just went back to sleep. I was in this situation for a long, long time. Even if I didn't fall asleep, I tended to nod off when doing the sitting exercise. Sometimes I would even lie down to sleep during the exercises.
Every night I said to myself that I must get up the next day. But I still struggled in my thinking, even if I did manage to get up the next morning. I always had many excuses for me to keep sleeping. For example, I worried whether I would be sleepy at work, or if the weather would be too cold or too hot. If I continued doing the exercises for a few days, I noticed a big change in my skin: it became delicate and glowed. People would compliment me, "How come you've been looking so beautiful lately? Your skin looks so good." Then my attachments to showing off and being overjoyed would come out unconsciously.
After reading Teacher's new article, I realized that I shouldn't continue like this. I knew I must break through. I asked Teacher for help. When I sat in meditation, Teacher's Fa came into my head,
"In the past, ancient people did things very quickly. They could walk a hundred li in a day, and horses could travel one thousand li. They didn't lie. Their thoughts were relatively simple and focused. They would follow one path when doing something and give their all to do it well. They meant what they said. If they promised something they would fulfill it for sure. That's how human beings should be." ("Teaching the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun")
Then I suddenly understood. I realized that when I went back to sleep after getting up, it was because my thoughts were impure and thus gave the thought karma an excuse to take advantage of it. In ancient times, people had pure thoughts. When they were walking, they only thought of walking and nothing else. When their energies were focused, they could walk a hundred li (1 li = 500 meters) in a day. Today, people can't do this anymore because, though their feet are walking, their minds are wandering. They keep thinking of other things and forget about walking. Their energies are then wasted on things that they are not supposed to do.
If I want to do the morning exercises, I should think only of doing the morning exercises. Having that thought is enough. As far as my thought karma, such as whether I would be sleepy at work or what would happen after I did the exercises or how significant the loss would be if I didn't do the exercises, they reflected my selfishness and were a deviation from the Fa. That was lack of complete faith in Dafa. Teacher said, "practicing cultivation is the best form of rest" and "You can obtain the kind of rest that can't be obtained through sleeping." ("Lecture at the First Conference in North America"). Transforming one's body is the natural result of doing the exercises, so we don't need to think about it. The most important thing is just to be able to do it. It is meaningless if I don't do them. If I keep thinking about it, I am pursuing it. I then invite the demon of pursuit, which makes me lose the spirit of the exercises and wastes precious time. That's because, when I woke up, my thoughts were not on doing the exercises, but rather worrying about what I would gain or lose. That lessened my determination to do the exercises, and encouraged my laziness. This one impure thought caused me to keep failing and not be diligent for a long time.
After I realized this, I told myself that I had to do well. Before I went to bed, I said to myself, "When the alarm sounds, I should get up immediately. Only think of doing the exercises and nothing else. Don't have any other thoughts." When the alarm went off, I opened my eyes and didn't feel sleepy at all. I was very alert. The problem that had bothered me for several years was broken through quite simply. Actually, it was because I used to have too many thoughts and made a simple issue complicated. I created a demon to trap me all on my own.
Now I realize that my problem was not having pure thoughts when doing things and having too many thoughts for myself. When doing the three things, each and every thought should be free from human attachment. The more pure the thought is, the less the interference will be. When we have only righteous thoughts and nothing else, no evil factor can stop us.
October 7, 2010
