The Importance of Studying the Teachings and Looking Inward

(Minghui.org) Greetings compassionate Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!

I started practicing Falun Dafa when I was in Japan in 2000 and I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012. I work full-time at The Epoch Times, andI’d like to share some of my recent cultivation experiences.

Master published two new articles, “The Ordeals Our Spiritual Discipline Faces” and “Wake Up.” I feel that these are another warning and reminder from Master. If we aren’t strict with ourselves on the path of Fa rectification, our tribulations will be even greater in the future.

Regarding how to walk our paths well, my understanding is that we must study the Fa well and constantly be strict with ourselves according to the standards of a cultivator.

If a cultivator slacks off in cultivation, Master warns us in various ways. The warnings might be physical discomfort or karma elimination, reminders from fellow practitioners, or attacks and abuse from everyday people. The key is whether we gain insights from these situations.

Master pointed out,

“When you don’t trust one another and aren’t truthful in what you say, and no one can take any criticism or look inside, then of course things are complicated. So what kind of a media company are you? And what are you people doing? Cultivating? [You have] such strong attachments! Be it the TV station, the Epoch Times, or other media companies, from now on, change the state you are in. You are not acting like cultivators! I brought up these matters long ago. When are you going to do something about it? When are you going to do something about it? Time is running out.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference” in Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)

Although this was taught by Master ten years ago, and the tone was heavy, as time passed we seem to have forgotten what Master said. Master places great importance on the media and has given Fa teachings to the media many times, which is our honor. Every time Master taught us the Fa, he emphasized the importance of cultivation and criticized some people in the media for not paying attention to cultivation. Unfortunately, many of us took Master’s criticism and warning lightly and did not put cultivation first, and this is regrettable.

Since the 2020 election, I noticed that not only media practitioners but many other practitioners seemed to be too concerned with everyday people’s politics and right and wrong in the human world. Looking back, it was actually our attachment of self-interest at play. A person’s blessings are predetermined by heaven, and wealth comes from these blessings, not from human decisions. As society becomes increasingly worse and more chaotic, with ideological disputes, party conflicts, and struggles for interests among everyday people, these are all determined by heavenly phenomena. We can only comply with the heavenly phenomena and treat everyone with great compassion.

Pursuing Fame and Profit While Neglecting Cultivation

I started running a social media channel in 2021. After a year, in February 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, the channel’s subscriptions and views surged, and had 20,000 new subscriptions in a month. The channel quickly reached 100,000 subscriptions, and the monthly views soared to three million. I also increased the frequency of uploading videos from once or twice a week to three times a week and added English videos. My workload increased significantly, and I had to quit my editing job to focus solely on producing video programs.

I became increasingly attached to these “achievements.” To maintain high subscriptions and view counts, I constantly checked social media and various reports to find creative ideas. When I saw the videos I carefully prepared did not perform well, I was frustrated; Vice versa, when the view counts were high, I felt complacent. I constantly monitored the numbers, became anxious and disappointed, and often had inappropriate thoughts.

Since the breakout of the pandemic, many companies worked from home, and my media company also allowed us to work from home. My attachment to comfort grew, and I slacked off in Fa study and doing the exercises. Although I studied the Fa with fellow practitioners online in the morning, I often got distracted during Fa study, when I did the exercises, or sent righteous thoughts, wasting precious time. At the same time, because of some success, practitioners and ordinary friends praised me, which made me prideful. I became unkind and domineering when I spoke to colleagues, did not look within myself on issues from the perspective of cultivation, and I often complained to fellow editors.

As my cultivation slacked off and my attachment to my achievements grew, my physical condition deteriorated. My hair fell out, I had symptoms of hay fever, my eyes hurt, and my eyesight deteriorated. Since last year, my eyes often hurt, felt tired, and my vision began to decline, making it difficult to see distant objects clearly. I thought it was due to excessive computer usage and I needed a break. I used eye drops to relieve my eye fatigue, but the effect was limited, and my eyesight problem worsened.

I’ve always had good eyesight since childhood, and I could even read while lying down. But now, I couldn’t see things further away, so I got glasses that I used when I drove. However, during the eye examination, the optometrist suggested I see an eye specialist, and said I might have glaucoma. This made me nervous because a fellow practitioner in the media suffered severe vision loss due to glaucoma, and surgery did not improve the condition.

Studying the Fa Well, Rectifying Myself, and Overcoming the Illusion of Illness

My wife, a fellow practitioner, kept reminding me not to be too concerned with results, to use my phone less, and not stay up late. She also encouraged me to do the exercises and study the Fa every morning. After we talked, I calmed down and started to seriously look within to find out why these issues occurred.

I realized that my cultivation had fallen, and I was doing Fa-rectification projects with a human mindset. I couldn’t continue like this.

How can we reinforce our cultivation and reduce interference? Master emphasized the importance of studying the Fa in many lectures.

Master taught us,

“That is why Fa-study is still the most, most important thing—it is the fundamental guarantee for all that you are to do. If you cannot keep up in Fa-study, then there is no hope.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa” in Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)

I realized the importance of studying the Fa, especially group Fa study. So, I discussed with fellow practitioners in our media company whether we could resume morning group Fa study. Everyone agreed immediately. Many coworkers already felt the same and hoped to resume morning group Fa study. Thus, at the beginning of this year, we resumed morning face-to-face Fa study. Although it required overcoming laziness and attachment to comfort, everyone cherished this environment. Even some practitioners from outside of our company joined us. In the evening, practitioners added an hour of group Fa study.

Besides the morning and evening group Fa study, I also paid more attention to whether my thoughts are aligned with the Fa, catching unnoticed thoughts and eliminating human notions. I tried to correct my thoughts according to the requirements of Dafa.

My cultivation state significantly improved over the past few months, and the illusion of illness gradually dissipated. My hair grew back, I’ve become more energetic, the symptoms of allergy disappeared, my eyes hardly hurt anymore, and my eyesight stabilized.

As my cultivation state improved, I became calm about my video programs. This February, many YouTube channels saw a significant drop in subscribers, and my channel experienced a similar situation. Subscriptions decreased rather than increased, and view counts dropped sharply. This time, I didn’t feel anxious or complain; I just focused on making good videos, focusing on the process rather than being attached to the results.

By March, the situation had improved for my YouTube channel, and in April, there was rapid growth. Not only did subscriptions increase quickly, but the view count also reached nearly three million, almost matching the traffic of my channel when the Russia-Ukraine war first broke out.

These changes made me realize once again the importance of studying the Fa with a calm mind and always treating myself as a cultivator. This is also the fundamental guarantee for us to do projects well and assist Master in Fa-rectification.

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate protection. I’m grateful for Master’s grace!

If fellow practitioners see anything that is not in accordance with the Fa in my sharing, please kindly point it out!

(Presented at the 2024 San Francisco Fa Conference)