(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners! I have summarized some of my cultivation experiences and would like to share them with fellow practitioners.
Fa Study
When I study the Fa, whether it’s Zhuan Falun or any of Master's lectures, I often experience a sudden enlightenment and a heat wave inside my body. However, my human side may not be clear about the exact understanding I came across. When I study the Fa, every cell in my body is very excited. While reading, I can feel a warm energy flowing inside my chest; afterward my chest is filled with warmth. Some words and sentences frequently appear totally new to me, and some words stand out. A while ago, after I studied Master’s lecture, “The Ultimate Objective of Clarifying the Truth,” I started intensively cleansing myself of atheist and Communist Party culture influences.
Sometimes when I study the Fa, I am given hints on the attachment I need to let go of and that particular attachment immediately goes up in flames. One night I was helping with the newspaper and after I sent out the article, I had some spare time. I decided to study the Fa, so I read Master’s new lecture “The Ultimate Objective of Clarifying the Truth.” When I read it the second time, it hit me that I have a deeply hidden attachment, namely “wanting acknowledgment from others.” This attachment was hidden very well, and I almost confused it with my own personality. When I recognized it, I suddenly understood that in everyday life or when I do things to validate the Fa, my motive often stems from this attachment. As soon as I came to this realization, I could sense this attachment being ejected from my body and going up in flames. At the same time, I felt that my bodies in other dimensions were rapidly expanding into the universe and growing far and wide.
As long as I remain calm while studying the Fa, I can see the Fa’s principles and can feel that Dafa is changing me. When I run into problems, I will be able to think of Master and remember the Fa, I can gradually look within and appreciate the wonderful feeling of improving my xinxing, and truly experience “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Zhuan Falun)
Fa study is a cultivator’s primary responsibility and is unconditional and without pursuit. Master’s Fa is given to our true selves but not to our attachments, notions, or the selfish “me.” Only when we continuously let go of our attachments, notions, and self, and truly study the Fa, will the Fa's principles be revealed to us. If we cannot see any Fa principles when studying, we must have a problem somewhere. When we are driven by our attachments and want to get something from Dafa, the Fa's principles will not be revealed to us.
Our cultivation and Fa study is not for ourselves. When the Fa unfolds a certain level's principles to us, the corresponding sentient beings in that level will be saved by Dafa. Sometimes when I study the Fa, the Fa's principles will manifest and I will know how to do things to validate the Fa. For example, when I sell Shen Yun tickets, the Fa principles will guide me on how to sell the tickets. When I work as a reporter covering Shen Yun, when I study the Fa I understand how to cover Shen Yun. In everyday Fa study, the Fa naturally gives me hints on my attachments and I naturally understand things I didn’t understand before.
Cultivating Oneself Well and the Mighty Power of the Fa Will Manifest
My third eye (Tianmu) is not open. But whenever I look within, miraculous things happen. The moment I identify my attachment, the Fa will display the manifestation of the attachment at a certain level. When I send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the attachment, I can see it being eliminated.
For example, the attachment of comfort in one dimension is a pile of worms: some are black, some white. I suddenly understood why in Chinese people say “lazy worms.” Laziness is indeed a pile of worms. The attachment of fear in one dimension is rats. The place they live in is very dark. Not letting go of fear is just like living in dark shadow. Lust is as filthy as manure. To live with lust is like living in manure. The attachment to self is much bigger than ordinary attachments and is a black substance that dusts the entire cosmos and is the source of all attachments. This selfish substance is very stubborn. When I first began to eliminate it, I could only knock down a corner. The rest covers the cosmos like black asphalt. This is what I see at my level.
Once I went to sell Shen Yun tickets, and I stood in front of our display trying to find people to talk to. The other two practitioners who were part of the team loved sharing and stood behind talking. I was not happy. I thought, “I’m working so hard—why do you have so much to talk about?” Once I became unhappy, I knew I had a problem. I started to search within and identify why I was unhappy. When I searched deep inside myself, gradually I found and saw a dark being inside my body. When I’m doing things to validate the Fa, this being also gets involved. But it is selfish and not the true me. It got upset when it felt that the practitioners’ sharing affected it. Having found this false “me,” I started to suppress it and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it. When I talked to people to introduce Shen Yun again, the practitioners stopped talking and were obviously sending forth righteous thoughts. I felt so ashamed. This dark, false me had been hidden in me for so long. If fellow practitioners' talking had not disturbed it and helped me to identify it, it might have continued to affect me for a long time. How could I validate the Fa like that? It took me a week to completely eliminate it.
One day when I was at work and not very busy, I decided to check my emails. I saw practitioners were discussing an issue on the Internet. One practitioner had written a long sharing. Even though I read it from beginning to end, I still didn’t understand what it was about. I got impatient and thought: “What are you talking about? I spent a lot of time and still didn’t understand what was being said.” Then I asked myself: “Why do I get impatient? Was it the other practitioner’s fault or was there something wrong with me?” I started to look within. I was fortunate, because at that time when I studied the Fa I had enlightened that I needed to get rid of my self-centered pattern of thinking. When I asked myself if this was related, I suddenly understood that I needed to be compassionate when I evaluated situations. As soon as I came to this realization, I felt a sense of relief, as if a burden had been lifted. Immediately, I saw my heart’s capacity and my body in other dimensions very quickly expanding and dashing through to a huge distance in the universe.
It’s now my habit that whenever I run into a situation and my heart is moved or when I feel uneasy, I look within myself and I no longer look outward. Whatever I run into, I search inside myself to see where I was wrong and use the Fa to evaluate myself and to see where I have some hidden attachments. I no longer judge what’s right and wrong based on superficial appearances.
I experienced the wonderfulness of looking within and gradually understood what it means to cultivate the inside and pacify the outside. Everything in the human world is an illusion. When our hearts change, the outside world will change. A selfless cultivator only uses Dafa to evaluate himself. If everyone could do this, our environment would change.
Righteous Thoughts
Once I increased the intensity of my sending forth righteous thoughts to cleanse myself, suddenly, I split open a mixed attachment. It contains fear, attachment to comfort, and lust, and these three attachments were wrapped up and held together by a layer of skin.
As soon as I split them open, I eliminated them one by one. After I cleaned out one layer, I saw there was a black dot in front of me. I used righteous thoughts to dash forward and entered it. Once I entered, I saw that dimension was another place filled with filthy stuff related to those attachments. Although lust is very dirty, it's superficial. They were quickly eliminated after a few levels of dimensions. Fear and attachment to comfort are much more microcosmic and fill up more dimensions. The dimensions filled with fear are extremely dark and a bunch of rats live there. The dimension occupied by attachment to comfort is filled with black and white worms that made me very lazy and want to enjoy a worldly good life. The dimension occupied by lust is filled with manure and maggots and is extremely filthy. I spent a whole day cleaning these things out, dimension by dimension. I was ashamed when I realized that so many of my dimensions were covered by these filthy substances and that I still carried them, was interfered with by them, and yet felt good about myself. I truly understood that if we don’t cultivate ourselves well, we cannot validate the Fa and save people.
I work at an airline and I take care of distributing The Epoch Times there. When I first started, I noticed that not many papers were taken, and some boxes were barely touched. Other newspapers had been put in our boxes, and they looked very messy. I thought: “Who opened this site? Not many people read our paper, so why do I spend so much effort on it? Let me talk to the coordinator to reduce a few boxes. I think one will be enough.”
Afterward, I started to think: “Is it that the newspaper is not good, or that the distribution box is not good, or is it me who has the problem?” I realized that the problem was that I didn’t take my job very seriously. Every time I distributed the paper, I just placed the papers there as though I was completing a task. How could I save the beings there if I behaved so recklessly? I started to eliminate the thoughts that complained about the paper and the paper distribution boxes and started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the factors that prevented people from reading the paper. The results were remarkable. Shortly afterward, the papers were all gone. Some boxes that were rarely touched are now always emptied. Now I have increased my distribution volume by one more stack of newspapers.
I can clearly feel that as I improve in Dafa, the power of my righteous thoughts is also stronger and stronger. Recently when I send forth righteous thoughts, I feel as if I’m sitting in a vast universe, and my righteous thoughts are endless and boundless.
If We Cultivate Ourselves Well, the Power of the Fa Will Manifest
I was a reporter during Shen Yun performances. When I interviewed an audience member during the first show's intermission, he said something negative, and I immediately knew that I must have some problems. So when the second half began, I quietly looked within. I noticed that my entire being was very numb and I didn’t quite get the performance. I knew I was being taken advantage of by evil factors, so I examined my attachments one by one to see which one was interfering. I had just eliminated several attachments earlier that day and I sent forth righteous thoughts to clear them out again. Afterward, I decided that I wouldn’t pay attention to them anymore. I told myself: “I’m a Dafa disciple. I’ll just do things according to Master’s requirements. I want to fulfill my responsibility as a Dafa disciple. I must humbly fulfill my responsibility according to Master’s arrangements.”
After the performance, I stood by the door. The first person I approached was an audience member I wanted to interview, and so was the second person I approached. Then I saw a few Chinese students nearby. Just as I decided to interview them, a man came over and said I had just interviewed his friend and he asked when he could read our paper. When I asked if he wanted to be interviewed, he was pleased and got ready for the interview. I found that he was also someone I wanted to interview. After I finished interviewing him, I turned around to look for the Chinese students, but I saw that they had left. When I turned back again, I saw them coming out of the washroom and were just about to pass by me. So I basically did not have to move from my spot, and I was able to interview people one after another. The last Chinese student I interviewed was very excited. She said she cried from the beginning of the show. She could feel the purity and the energy of the performance and her words were very touching.
The third day of the Shen Yun performances, my lips became very dry and it hurt whenever I tried to open my mouth. I realized this was interference trying to stop me from doing interviews. I started to look within and send forth righteous thoughts. I felt a big difference when I sent forth righteous thoughts with the Shen Yun reporters’ team, as if I was placed in a vast universe. I understood that I’m only a particle within this boundless Dafa body and only when the particles are organized well will they display Dafa’s mighty power. I immediately let go of the attachment to “I’m a reporter.” The result was that the interviews went extremely well that day. I interviewed a total of 7 people and they all had been touched by the show. Writing the reports was also easy. I felt that I was as clear as the air and there were no obstructions. Anything I wanted to write, I was able to write very quickly without much effort.
One time when I went to sell Shen Yun tickets, I got up late and left only after doing the exercises. Nevertheless I wasn’t in a very good state and I was muddle-headed. After I arrived at the shopping mall and installed the equipment, I discovered the credit card machine wasn’t working. I tried to open it a few times but failed. Another practitioner was supposed to come, but he did not show up. I knew I had a problem. So I looked inward to see where I might have loopholes. I saw my attachment of dependency, something in the shape of a large dark-blue rock in northern China. My attachment was a mixture of dependency and laziness. After I found the attachment, I started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it.
I told myself, “I can sell tickets even if I’m alone, and I won’t miss a single person. Master has arranged for people to come and buy tickets here today and I want to bring them all to the theater to see the show.” I totally ignored the credit card machine and stopped thinking about when the other practitioner would come. I started to talk to people about Shen Yun while sending forth righteous thoughts. It was very easy: people came one after another. I found a stream of compassionate energy coming out of my heart and fill the surrounding area. When I was talking to people about Shen Yun, this energy automatically flew to that person. It was very natural and easy for me to talk to people, and their response was also very good. I forgot about myself and only remembered that Master arranged for me to sell tickets there and I wanted to bring all those predestined people to the theater.
When I sell tickets, I usually send forth righteous thoughts all the time, recite the Fa, or look within. Oftentimes, as soon as I identify my attachment and eliminate it, I can sell tickets right away.
When we do Dafa projects, should we use human methods and contemplate the work using human notions? Or should we cultivate ourselves while doing the work, look within, give up our human notions, use a cultivator’s righteous thoughts, and remember our responsibility to save sentient beings to guide us? Whether or not we cultivate ourselves well and humbly follow Master’s plan, give up the attachment to self, and give up our attachments and human notions will bring about different results. When our thoughts and mindset conform to the Fa’s requirements, the power of the Fa will manifest. Our wisdom and ability given by Dafa will transform any pressure or difficulty into opportunities for us to save sentient beings.
Always Be Grateful to Master
Being grateful to Master is my biggest cultivation experience. Everything comes from Master and all glory should be attributed to Dafa. Forever remembering Master’s mercy in recreating us is a righteous thought. The true me starts to wake up while being buried in notions and attachments. The true self is immensely humble, immensely grateful, and determined in front of Dafa.
I feel a sense of happiness while being cleansed by Dafa on my journey to reach selflessness. “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” Everything is a true manifestation of Master using his enormous Fa power to do Fa-rectification and salvation.
Once while driving to sell tickets, I started to recite the Fa. Tears welled up in my eyes when I recited Master’s “Stirred by Reflection:” “After the adamantine will is fully tempered, True thoughts dissolve all, The whole sky is clear.” I understood what happiness is. For me to be personally taken care of by Master during Fa-rectification is the perpetual honor and happiness of a living being. I cried tears of joy and gratitude all the way there.
A being reincarnating in the mortal world for tens of thousands of years, filled with karma, is cleansed by Master, a lost being who forgot her mission is awakened by Master, a selfish being is purified by Dafa. Master has given us the best of everything, yet He doesn’t want anything in return. How can I return Master’s mercy? Let me turn my endless gratitude into a determined heart and let go of all attachments.
Category: Improving Oneself
