PureInsight | December 5, 2005
[PureInsight.org] "Aunty Ming Zhu, You had told us that you had enlightened to many things after starting cultivation. Can you share some of them with us?"
"Actually, all cultivators have the same experience - after one starts cultivating, one will gradually understand many underlying principles of cultivation. One can also call it the heavenly secrets. It's very abstruse. Sometimes no words can explain it since it's very difficult to explain with human language. A teacher may have many disciples, hundreds of thousand, or even hundreds of millions. How can Teacher take care all of them in person? Teacher wants us to regard the Fa as Teacher. He puts all the Fa principles in Zhuan Falun and all one needs to do is study the Fa and one will get it. Moreover, Teacher uses other ways to enlighten his disciples with their cultivation problems, some by using the mouths of others, or by dreams.
Let's talk about lucid dreaming. We say it is a dream since it took place while one is asleep. Yet it's different from ordinary dreaming. This kind of dream is very lucid and one can clearly remember its content after waking up. Also, when examining it carefully, one is likely to be enlightened to some deeper meanings. I'll explain this point further with several examples from my dreams. But they are only my understanding at my current level. There are many fellow practitioners who cultivate to very high level; they just can't put what they experienced into words.
Dream One
When I first started to practice cultivation, I had a dream and I can still remember it clearly even now.
It was in the evening. Many people stood in an orderly line some distance away. They started to walk heading in the same direction. By the time I got there, all of them were gone. I felt very curious and anxious. Where had they all gone? I had this feeling that wherever they went was the place I wanted to go. I knew it was a very good place. As I stood there at loss, suddenly two young men appeared. I asked them, "Do you know where all the people have gone?"
One of them asked me: "Do you want to go also?"
"Yes, I want to go. I want to leave for there."
"I'll take you there." Said the other person.
The young man then carried me on his back and started to walk in the direction that everyone had gone. I knew the place we were going was a very good place, but the road was very difficult to walk on. It was narrow and winding. I told the young man that I'd walk by myself, but he wouldn't listen and continued to carry me on his back. We finally arrived at a big door. As soon as we got there, the door opened. The young man then put me down. I was still bare footed. We entered into a very spacious room. I found a shoe rack full of different size of shoes. I went to try them on. One young man said to me, "No need to try. There are no ready-made shoes here."
I woke up then.
Recalling this dream, I was enlightened that I started late in cultivating and many practitioners had already started their cultivation ahead of me. On the path of cultivation, it was Teacher who carries us along. As long as we have the mind to cultivate, Teacher will carry us to the end. There is no example for cultivation. Each one walks on different path. So, we must cultivate according to our own situation and there is no ready-made route for us to follow.
Dream Two
I was in a bright big hall, and it looked like a dining place. There were many people there and they all had good manners. People started to go to get food and I followed them. They were serving fried rice with pickles. The grains of rice looked very good. It was interesting to see that the fried rice was formed into a tall round column. It stood high and didn't crumble. Someone filled a bowl of rice for me. I was very happy and started to pick slices of pickle to eat. I heard someone said, "Don't just pick the pickles. Eat whatever you have."
After I woke up, I thought: Why fried rice with pickle? In Chinese, the character for "pickle" sounds like stubbornness. I remembered that my mother always told me that I was stubborn when I was little and always liked to argue. I had eaten a big piece of pickle in the dream. It seemed to indicate that I had the habit of arguing and it would need to be cultivated away. That person's words reminded me that whatever we encounter, we need to look within. Whatever problem we encounter we need to cultivate it away during cultivation. We need to follow nature and not alter our passage.
Dream Three
In this dream, I was walking in a big hall with many people. It looked like inside an airport in the US, but it was more magnificent. While I was walking, I saw inside the display window by the walk way there was a pile of school bags and items of clothing. I thought my grandson had left them there when he went out to play. I thought to myself that it didn't look good and I needed to tidy it up. So I went to pick them up. When I got out, I found the people were all gone. I followed the same direction and walked to the end. I was bewildered that there wasn't any door. Just as I was to ask someone, I found a side door suddenly. I passed the side door and walked out. There was a broad road, even wider than the one I had passed by earlier.
From this dream, I was enlightened that I need to do whatever I should be doing and not to follow others in my cultivation. I need to walk on the righteous path. The road ahead would be wider.
Dream Four
I was walking with three young men on a wide and flat road. As we continued to walk, the road all of a sudden ended with a sharp drop. Two of them fell down the steep drop off. I thought something must be wrong. How could they just fall down? I stopped and looked around. I found a very narrow suspended bridge made of wire mesh. It was wobbling and suspended above a bottomless abyss. Looking at the swaying bridge, I wasn't sure I'd be able to walk across it. I then asked a worker: "Can one walk through this bridge?" Without raising his head, he answered: "Be your own judge." I wanted to ask more questions, but found the man had disappeared.
"Be your own judge." That means I'd need to make the decision. "No matter what, I need to walk across it and I can't fall down." I thus tried to balance myself and walked sideway step by step. As I walked across it, suddenly there was a broad and flat road ahead. I turned around to look and found the suspended bridge looking very precipitous. One might fell off while being just slightly careless.
From this dream, I was enlightened that Dafa practitioners walk on a very narrow path. Only we persistently believe Teacher and Dafa, we'll be able to walk through it. Our minds need to be steady. When we encounter tribulation, we should not be discouraged and we must do thing according to the Fa. In our actual lives, we should remain pure while doing the three things that Master has asked us to do. We shouldn't compare ourselves with others. We shouldn't be attached to time. We shouldn't rush to do things. We must steadfastly walk our own path.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/10/12/34188.html
