PureInsight | July 2, 2001
Master told us that: “Qigong practice requires one to value de. In doing the exercises, if you do not think about good things, at least you should not think about bad things. It is best if you do not think about anything. This is because during low-level qigong practice, a foundation must be laid. This foundation will play a critical role, for human mind activities have quite a part to play. Think about it, everyone: What are you adding to your gong? How can what you are practicing be good? How can it not be black?”(ZHUAN FALUN, Lecture 5 “Practicing Evil Cultivation”)
In the course of my cultivation, I have come across two things that have helped me a lot in understanding the above paragraph. One is about making Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). My mother likes to make Jiaozi for us, and her Jiaozi are very delicious. One day because of a trivial matter, she quarrelled with my father. Without any resolution of the issue, she began to make Jiaozi angrily. It turned out the Jiaozi made that day tasted so bad that some of my family members even had loose bowels due to this. At that time I realized that it must have been caused by mother who brought karma into the Jiaozi while making them with so much anger. So I told mom about this, and she agreed with me. From then on she never makes Jiaozi while she is angry.
Another case is from a movie. It is said that the film is based on a true story. In the story, a rich woman married a poor but good man. The rich woman was very kind and gentle. They had a happy life. The husband knew a secret wine recipe that could cure many illnesses. He did not marry the rich woman for her money but continued making cheap wine for poor people to cure their illness. Before long, unfortunately, he was seriously injured when he went to mountains to gather herbs. Before he died, he gave the secret recipe to his wife. She continued her husband’s tradition and began to make wine. The price was very low but, because of the effectiveness of the wine, a lot of people bought it, and so the rich woman became richer and richer. This made many people very jealous. Then a rich businessman bribed one of her workers and got the secret recipe. The bribed worker had learned many of the techniques for making wine and joined the businessman’s brewery. The two of them wanted to compete with the rich woman.
But no matter how the businessman tried to improve his method, his wine was not as good as hers. What’s more, there was a strange smell in his wine. People seldom bought his it. They lost money in their business. The worker became very angry and went to question the rich woman. He asked why she cheated him with a fake recipe. The rich woman told him to come to her courtyard the next day and she would tell him the true story. The next day the worker came to the courtyard and found there was a piece of stone there on which there were many characters. The rich woman just stood in front of the stone with many female workers. The rich woman asked the worker: “ Can you see any difference between the recipe on the stone and the one you got?” The worker checked it carefully and found that they were the same. Then the rich woman said: “ In fact there is another secret recipe: that is ‘making wine is like managing oneself’, with a kind and honest heart, one can make good wine. If your mind is not righteous, how can you make good wine? I will reveal the secret recipe to the public, and hope more people can make good wine and benefit from it.” Then, she went to another place to make the wine, in hopes that her husband’s wine would benefit more people.
About ancient Chinese culture, Master Li has said that: “At that time, when students went to school, they practiced sitting in meditation and emphasized good posture. When they picked up their brush-pens, they would regulate their breathing and qi. All professions believed in emptying the mind and regulating the breathing, as this was the state throughout society.” (ZHUAN FALUN, Lecture 7) So I realize that one’s Xinxing plays a key role in the outcome of what one is doing. If we want to do anything well, we really should purify our hearts and keep our minds righteous first.
