PureInsight | July 9, 2006
[PureInsight.org] Recently,
some fellow practitioners have been going though tribulations and some
have even already passed away. Their tribulations have become a test
for all of us.
(I) Help our fellow practitioners.
Some practitioners say, "The tribulations that some fellow
practitioners have been going through are our own tribulations, because
we are actually a whole body. Therefore we all should send forth
righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil's interference and help fellow
practitioners."
Some fellow practitioners say, "If fellow practitioners have been
having tribulations for quite a long time, it is because they have not
let go of certain attachments. Therefore we need to help them improve
their understanding of the Fa so they can get rid of tribulations."
These two understandings actually look into a same issue from different
perspectives and they are not in conflict with each other.
As cultivators, we all have similar experiences. When we participate in
a project to validate the Fa, if all involved practitioners coordinate
well and other practitioners who do not participate directly keep up
righteous thoughts, the project will be able to succeed easily. On the
other hand, if fellow practitioners contradict each other, the project
will become very difficult to handle.
In mainland China, there was a practitioner who was an assistant in the
local area. All the local practitioners thought he had cultivated very
well. Some practitioners even took him as a good example. What his
fellow practitioners did actually aggravated his tribulation and so
eventually he did not pass the tribulation. Analogously, when we
all think that a fellow practitioners is holding onto his attachments
too firmly, if we all criticize him and lose confidence in him, this
practitioner's cultivation environment will become extremely tough.
Actually our mentality also plays a role. If a practitioner does not
conduct himself properly in the context of the Fa and is also
influenced passively by fellow practitioners, the old forces will
easily take advantage of his loophole. Master has instructed us in his
teachings concerning this aspect. We should cultivate ourselves better.
(II) Cultivate oneself well.
Cultivation is an extremely solemn issue.
There was an elderly practitioner in mainland China. She had overcome
lots of difficulties and continued to clarify the truth for several
years. But later on she didn't pass a test. She was an old widow.
According to the government policy, she was entitled to receive a small
monthly subsidy. But once, when she went to pick up her subsidy, she
was denied, which was also one of the ways that the evil used to
persecute her. As a result, she felt depressed for a while and
eventually passed away.
Recently, I heard a story about a fellow practitioner abroad. When she
was in charge of a project, few people participated in it, so she did
many things by herself and the whole process was quite painstaking.
When the project was finished, she thought she was exhausted and
planned to take a good rest in the following months. This thought was
utilized as a loophole by the evil. Soon this practitioner felt
uncomfortable physically. When she felt extremely sick, she strove to
participate in some Dafa projects and, immediately , her physical
condition became much better. But later on, when her physical condition
got worse again, because she was afraid that her family would
misunderstand the Fa, she agreed with her family and went to a hospital
for a check-up. In the check-up, she was found to have some physical
diseases and these diseases got more and more severe. In the end, she
did not pass the deadly test.
By talking about these two stories, I do not mean to judge how these
two practitioners cultivated themselves since the similar situations
could take place with each practitioner. But when we encounter this
kind of tribulation, how will we deal with it? If we improve our
understanding in the context of the Fa and pass the test, the
tribulation would be nothing afterwards. On the other hand, if we
cannot upgrade our understanding of the Fa, the more we worry about the
tribulation, the worse it will become and the test will turn more and
more tremendous and even become a deadly test.
It is easy to talk about this issue, but to deal with it is tightly
related to our daily cultivation in the Fa. When a practitioner
encounters this kind of issue, it also matters a lot how he looks at it
from the deep bottom of his mind.
(III) Study the Fa with a calm mind.
Recently, I attended a Fa sharing conference. Many fellow practitioners
talked about looking inward and keeping up righteous thoughts when
participating in the Fa projects. After the conference, a fellow
practitioner said that it seemed that no one had shared their
experiences in studying the Fa.
Fa study is tremendously important and can not be replaced by anything else.
I remember when I started to cultivate in Dafa, I wanted to study the
Fa all the time. When I was studying Master's teachings like "Teaching
the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun," my mind was
extremely pure and I felt Master's teaching was great. I took some time
to memorize the poems in Hong Yin
and some of Master's new articles. The great feelings I felt are hard
to describe in human language. I felt that I was immersed and tempered
in the Fa.
Soon after Master's article "Melt into the Fa," my parents living in
Mainland China first read it. They then called me and read several
passages to me on the phone, "A person is like a container, and he is
whatever he contains. All of what a person sees with the eyes and hears
with the ears are: violence, lust, power struggles in literary works,
struggles for profit in the practical world, money worship, other
manifestations of demon-nature, and so on. With his head filled with
these, this kind of person is truly a bad person, no matter what he
appears to be."
Later on, I realized how important it is to read Zhuan Falun.
I especially noticed that Master emphasized it many times in his new
articles. Some fellow practitioners suggest that we can read one
lecture of Zhuan Falun each day. For example, every first, eleventh and twenty-first day of each month, we should start to read the first lecture in Zhuan Falun.
Frankly speaking, I did not feel that the method was really good at the
beginning. But I still used this way to persist in studying the Fa
every day for several years. I actually have benefited from this way of
studying the Fa a lot. Every day, right after I get up in the early
morning, I start to read Zhuan Falun.
At this moment, I have a clear mind with few selfish thoughts.
Sometimes, when I still feel sleepy, I will stand up and study the Fa.
Sometimes when I cannot focus on studying, I will read the Fa out loud
or study the Fa character by character. Sometimes, I first calm down
myself and ask myself, "Why do I want to cultivate myself and study the
Fa? If I am aware how sacred the Fa is, how should I study the Fa at
this moment?"
I notice that there are some local practitioners who are not studying
the Fa well. In my view, if a Dafa practitioner intends to break
through the situation of not studying the Fa well, it should not be so
hard. For example, if we are aware of the importance of the Fa from the
bottom of our heart and regard studying the Fa as the most important
thing each day, if we use the time when we have a most clear mind to
study the Fa, the effect of studying the Fa must be different.
Sometimes when I am studying the Fa, as soon as I open the book, I will
be completely involved in the Fa. I will even forget the existence of
everything surrounding me. I can only feel the Fa and myself. Sometimes
when I have more and deeper understandings on a passage of the Fa, I
feel that my way of thinking is widely opened up. Sometimes, even
though I do not gain any deeper understandings on the Fa as I read it,
I do not pursue it, because I know as long as I am not sleepy and
focusing on reading the Fa, I am being assimilated by the Fa.
It is also very important to read Master's new articles. I usually
spend half of an hour in studying the new articles every night. Over
the course of sending righteous thoughts three times over two hours
every Saturday, I use the two hours to absorbedly study Master's new
teachings. My personal understanding is that through studying the new
articles, we will have deeper and clearer understandings of our mission
as Dafa disciples during the Fa-rectification period. From time to
time, I arrange my time to re-study all Master's new articles since
July 20, 1999, which I find improves my cultivation greatly. When I am
studying the new articles with a concentrated and righteous mind, I
will be enlightened with further understandings of the Fa. When I study
Zhuan Falun again, I find that many of my understandings from studying the new articles have already been taught in Zhuan Falun,
which I did not realize until I studied the new articles. Many fellow
practitioners have already realized that what Master has been teaching
us is a same great Fa. Only when we can persist in studying the Fa with
a calm mind and meanwhile do the Three Things well, can the Fa display
the extensive and profound meanings to us.
When persisting in studying the Fa with a calm mind, we will never feel
lonely, because we are assimilated by the Fa. Even though there are
many changes in our lives and human relationships are inconsistent;
even though sometimes when we are going through hardships, we have
nowhere to speak out our bitterness and even fellow practitioners can
not understand us well, we should know that all these are not important
at all. After all, our lives are being assimilated by the Fa in nature.
We are upgrading ourselves all the time and in the whole process, we
are validating the Fa.
I think if we can study the Fa better, we will find that our steadfast
faith in the Fa does not originate from fellow practitioners. Then it
will be less and less that our cultivation could be interfered with or
influenced by outside factors. Our upright faith in Dafa is naturally
growing from studying the Fa and our righteous minds could not be
shaken even a little bit.
To be continued
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/6/28/38301.html
