Thoughts on Elderly Practitioners Practicing the Exercises

(Minghui.org) I’ve noticed on the Minghui website that many elderly practitioners are experiencing severe illness karma and some have passed away. There might be reasons I’m not aware of, but I would like to share my thoughts, purely from the perspective of practicing the exercises.

It’s not uncommon that some elderly practitioners are showing signs of aging, such as declining hearing and vision, and a bent back. A number of them accept these as natural phenomena and do not associate them with the issue of body transformation. Some believed they have not missed a single practice session, have overcome the difficulty of getting up in the middle of the night, and have met the requirement of doing the exercises for two and a half hours (according to the updated exercise music published in 2018). 

This kind of rigid thinking hinders elderly practitioners from understanding the issues of body condition from a cultivation standpoint. As a result, before experiencing severe illness karma or passing away, some of them did not consider increasing the time and intensity of their practicing the exercises. This does not exclude looking within and doing the three things well, which should be carried out simultaneously; there are plenty of well-articulated sharing articles on these topics posted on the Minghui website. Here, I just want to focus on practicing the exercises.

I’m 75 years old. I usually do the sitting meditation for two hours. When I turned 70, I extended the second exercise (Standing Stance) to two hours a day. As a result, my body underwent unexpected changes. The illness karma that had plagued me for a long time, such as coughing and colds occurring periodically, disappeared. My body became noticeably stronger; I was able to withstand changes in temperature and although I slept less, my mind became clearer, and I did not feel sleepy.

This year, I’ve added half an hour to each of the third and fourth exercises (i.e., practicing them three times). The changes in my body are very noticeable, and I feel as light as a feather!

Since my daytime schedule is filled with doing the three things and managing household chores, I can only find more time to practice the exercises by cutting into my sleep time at night. When there’s not enough time to practice in the morning, I adjust my schedule to start practicing at 9:15 p.m. I do the sitting meditation for two hours first and then practice the first and third exercises (doing the third three times) until midnight. After sending righteous thoughts at midnight, I practice the fourth exercise for half an hour (i.e., play the music over three times), then do the second exercise for two hours. By then, it is 3 a.m. 

I then sleep roughly for two and a half hours and get up at 5:30 a.m. to send righteous thoughts for one hour. After finishing sending righteous thoughts at 6:30 a.m., I sleep for a short while. Despite getting little sleep at night, I do not feel tired and remain very energetic throughout the day.

After doing the second exercise for two hours daily for a period of time, I had a clear dream one night: I suddenly saw one of my feet opening up like the lid of a box and, inside, the box was filled with dead flesh-eating larvae. They looked like the larvae of longhorned beetles that gnaw on wood, about the size of silkworms. They were soft and piled up together. I quickly reached in to grab them, pulling out three handfuls. 

I then saw the bottom of my other foot opening up as well, and it was filled with snakes. Most of them were dead and piled together, but a few were still moving. They were about the size of eels. I hurried to grab them, pulling out three handfuls before suddenly waking up. In the dream, I was clearly aware that these were expelled from my body after about two years of intensified practice of the second exercise. Because I stood for a long time doing the exercise, everything had been driven down to the soles of my feet. Imagine if they were still alive in my body, being used by the old forces to create tribulations; wouldn’t this manifest as severe illness karma?

Master said:

“There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your thoughts undergo even a little deviation, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over. You will have such a restriction until you reach Beyond-Triple-World-Fa cultivation. After that, one will be in another state.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

Elderly practitioners indeed face the issue of surpassing their predestined, original lifetime. Some might think, “Master has elevated us to a state beyond the Three Realms, so this issue doesn’t exist.” My understanding is this: Indeed, Master has elevated us to that state, but you need to ask yourself honestly, “Am I currently at the entry-level Fruition Status of Arhatship? Would I face every tribulation in good spirits and without any concern?” 

This is the very first stage of being beyond the Three Realms. If you cannot achieve it, you will still fall under the constraints of worldly laws. You need to remind yourself “ ... the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your thoughts undergo even a little deviation, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

This passage emphasizes how crucial it is to practice the exercises diligently and maintain righteous thoughts for reaching an extended life. In my understanding, elderly practitioners need to add more time to their exercise practice. The signs of aging are already an alarm indicating an inadequate transformation of the body. It’s urgent to proactively extend the practice time to improve the body. It is also essential to ensure the correct posture in practicing the exercises. When doing the sitting meditation, keep your back straight; do not let your body bend or your mind become drowsy, as that would diminish the effectiveness of the exercise.

Since I started practicing cultivation in 1996, I’ve never experienced severe illness karma. My experience is that if elderly practitioners could increase the time they do the exercises, it would significantly improve the transformation of their bodies.

Master has endured so much to save us and has borne a great deal on our behalf. For those practitioners who were able to go through the test of illness karma, it’s actually Master who suffered for us. If we could endure a bit more hardship ourselves and resolve these issues, it would be wonderful for Master to worry less about us. It’s not a difficult task for us to find more time to practice the exercises by reducing some sleeping time. You will discover that once you made it, it’s truly like finding a bright new world after passing through a dark valley!

We must seize the time to do well in the things we are able to do. For the things we’re currently unable to do well or unable to accomplish, we should be aware that is the area where we need to make an effort, and that is exactly because many attachments need to be eliminated are obstructing us. We must make good use of our time to remove them and live up to Master’s compassionate salvation!

Please point it out if you see anything inappropriate in my sharing.