(Minghui.org) I am in my 70s, and with the protection of Master I have been on my cultivation journey for 22 years. I want to share my experiences in stepping out of humanness and assimilating to the Fa.
I had a good cultivation environment when I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. I did the exercises at the practice site, joined the Fa study group, and shared cultivation experiences with practitioners. I improved quickly in cultivation.
At that time, I suffered from a lot of sickness karma and other tribulations. I overcame one difficulty, and then faced another one. My colleagues did not understand why I encountered so many troubles with everything, from health, family to the workplace. They asked me, “You are such a good person, but why do you have to face so many health problems and other issues?”
In the beginning, although I treated the tribulations as good things for elevating my xinxing and looking within, I looked at them from the perspective of humanness.
When I discussed it with another practitioner, Master dropped hints through his words, “You have to step out of the humanness!” However, I did not understand what it meant, and how to step out of humanness. I was very busy with teaching and research work, and I did not study the Fa much. I did not know how to look inward and truly cultivate myself. I just repeatedly recited Hong Yin, even when walking.
Master said,
“Present, but the heart elsewhere—Perfectly reconciled with the world.Looking, but caring not to see—Free of delusion and doubt.Listening, but caring not to hear—A mind so hard to disturb.Eating, but caring not to taste—The palate’s attachments severed.Doing, but without pursuit—So constant, abiding in the Dao.Calm, but without strain of thought—The truly wondrous can be seen(“Abiding in the Tao,” Hong Yin)
I gradually learned to cultivate by following the requirements of the Fa. I learned how to deal with all the issues based on the Fa’s principles. I no longer pursued fame and personal gain, and took lightly all issues faced by ordinary people.
I soon found that my surroundings had changed for the better, and I had recovered from the many illnesses I had before the practice. One day I closed my eyes and thought, “Master is right beside me.” I felt the earth was gradually moving away from me and getting smaller and smaller until I couldn’t see it. All the fame and fortune I used to treasure became irrelevant. For the first time, I felt the happiness of stepping out of humanness.
Ten years ago, I suddenly had a stomach pain during a lunch break at home. The pain increased in severity, and I couldn’t sit up. I broke into cold sweats, and couldn’t open my eyes. I had no strength left and could not stand straight. The pain was so severe that I was about to fall to the ground.
I debated on what to do. At first, I held human thinking and thought, “After I fall, I will crawl to the door to find a way to open the door to call for help.” Suddenly a thought flashed through my mind, “Who am I? I am a Dafa disciple! How can I call for ordinary people’s help?” I pulled myself up and shouted, “I am a disciple of Master Li Hongzhi. All the evil spirits that dare to persecute me must disintegrate immediately!” I also recited Master’s Fa-rectification formulas, “The Fa rectifies the cosmos! The Evil is completely eliminated!”
I calmed down and looked inward. Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, the pain disappeared as if nothing had happened. I overcame a life and death tribulation in a few minutes with the change of thoughts. I thanked Master for taking away my karma and bearing the pain for me. Thank you, Master, for your protection!
Suppose I did not get rid of the human notion and did not believe in Master and Dafa at the critical moment. In that case, I may have gone to the hospital, which would bring trouble to my family and defame Dafa. Later, after my family learned about this, they all appreciated Dafa and were very supportive of my practicing Dafa.
After I turned to be the 60s, I experienced some “aging” symptoms. Apart from the teeth problems, I had numbness in my right toe, failing eyesight, and some deafness in my right ear. If I read a bit longer, my eyes would become blurry. This interfered with my Fa study, which is not a minor issue.
Whenever I had aging symptoms, I would look inward. For a while, I felt as if I was trapped in the process of aging, and controlled by a bad substance. I had one trouble after another, which directly interfered with my doing the three things.
Master said,
“Dual cultivation of nature and longevity means that while cultivating your character, you are also cultivating longevity, or in other words, you are transforming your innate body. While your body is transforming and human cells are being gradually replaced by high-energy matter, the aging process slows down. Your body will show signs of returning to youth, returning gradually and transforming gradually. When it’s finally completely replaced by high-energy matter, your body will have been entirely transformed into another kind of physical body. That kind of body, like I said, will have gone beyond the Five Elements, it won’t be within the Five Elements anymore. And your body will never degenerate.” (The Fifth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I am a cultivator, so I won’t be aging as an ordinary person, and I firmly deny everything arranged by the old forces. Because we are not under the control of the old forces, we have nothing to do with them. I only walk on my cultivation path arranged by Master. I started to treat my age as a number and let go of the notion “I will age as I get older.”
I thought, “I must treat the various abnormal symptoms with the righteous thoughts of a Dafa practitioner by looking within, removing the attachments, elevating xinxing, and sending forth righteous thoughts.” So I sent forth righteous thoughts more often and for a longer time.
One morning when I was sending righteous thoughts, I saw a few bad things in front of me. I chased them. They ran to a big square and hid in a quiet place. But, I found them and ran over to them. I pointed at them and shouted, “Eliminate.” Instantly they exploded, like a black mushroom cloud that went up in the sky.
I thought, “I have destroyed them at last.” But the cloud suddenly spread out and formed a black area as big as the sky, and I was trapped underneath it. I panicked and didn’t know what to do.
Just then, I heard a voice in the air, “Jump out!” I knew it was Master helping me. I jumped up and instantly saw a completely new world, where the sky was clear and the sun was shining. I breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, I saw a sea of flowers in front of me. It was so beautiful! I knew that Master was encouraging me, and had helped me jump out of the restraint of the old forces.
After I looked within and let go of my attachments, all those aging symptoms disappeared, and everything was back to normal. I am very energetic and busy doing the three things.
People around me said that I looked much younger than my age. My hair is dark. I have no wrinkles, my eyesight is as clear as when I was young. People often thought I was only in my 50s, which became a good topic I used for clarifying the truth and saving people. I told them that I was in my 70s and I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. Many people have witnessed the power of Falun Dafa through me.
All practitioners can make it if we can pay attention to the true cultivation and step out of humanness. However, I have noticed that many practitioners have not paid attention to removing human notions. Those practitioners who have had sickness karma for a long time should look within, and examine their cultivation state. Most of the cases resulted from attachments to fame, self-interest, human sentiment, and the pursuit of many other things in the human world.
Master said, “Fame, fortune, emotion and affection are all in vain...” (“Awaiting the Fa,” Hong Yin III)
We should let go of all attachments and human thoughts as soon as possible. Many practitioners know they should take fame, self-interest, and sentimentality lightly, but they found it hard to do so. How to remove the attachments? We should study the Fa more and study the Fa well. We should also measure every thought and act against the Fa to rectify ourselves, and walk on the cultivation path arranged by Master.
For example, after memorizing a paragraph or a section of the Fa, we should measure ourselves using the Fa principles we just learned and examined if we did not do well. Ask for Master’s help. Think less about the interference that just bothered us, and only think about the Fa. This way we can quickly step out of the human notions, and get out of tribulations.
Master said,
“If you do not change the human logic that you, as an ordinary human, have formed deep in your bones over thousands of years, you will be unable to break away from this superficial human shell and reach Consummation. You cannot always count on me to eliminate karma for you while you fail to truly progress in comprehending the Fa and rise above human understandings and notions. Your ways of thinking, your understanding, and your appreciation towards me and Dafa are the product of ordinary human thinking. But what I’m teaching you is in fact moving beyond ordinary humans to a rational, true understanding of Dafa!” (“Cautionary Advice,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I have learned that if we dissolve ourselves in the Fa, and step out of the humanness at all times, then cultivation will become easier and smoother. Then, we will do all three things better.
For example, when conflicts arose between practitioners, I no longer judged who was right or wrong. I just thought it was time to remove the sentimentality toward fellow practitioners. and I should elevate my xinxing. I told myself that the fellow practitioner became upset because my karma fell to her dimension. When I was angry, I thought the same way. I found the conflict disappeared right away if I could go beyond right or wrong.
When I had conflicts with ordinary people, I usually thought, “Everyone has different temperaments, and characteristics. So everyone has different ways and means of handling things. In addition, ordinary people have been soaked in this distorted society, so they treat everything selfishly. Since I could not control and change others’ ways of doing things, I just hold the attitude of whatever will be will be. In addition, the conflict was for me to improve my xinxing.” So I would study the Fa more instead of thinking about how to solve the problem. I faced less interference this way.
When we can study the Fa well, we can step out of the humanness, melt into the Fa, and walk the final path of our cultivation better.