My Recent Experiences Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts

Greetings, Venerable Master! Greetings, my fellow practitioners!

I am a practitioner from Indiana. I attained Dafa over the Internet in 1996 when I was a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago. Because of some of my own attachments that I was reluctant to get rid of, I didn't start cultivation until early July 1999. Today I would like to report to everyone my recent experiences sending forth righteous thoughts.

For quite a period of time, I was oftentimes unable to concentrate my mind during sending forth righteous thoughts. My mind would wander about. Sometimes half of the time my mind was distracted, and when I realized it, the time for sending forth righteous thoughts was almost over. My only solution was to pull back my wandering thoughts to concentration when I realized it. I thought that by doing this, in the course of my cultivation my mind would gradually calm down in sending forth righteous thoughts. Yet in fact, the situation didn't seem to improve much as time passes by.

During this past April, when Dafa disciples around the world were sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors in other dimensions that control the head of evil in the human world, I truly realized from the standpoint of Fa that this was really an extremely critical task in the Fa-rectification. It was something about whether billions of sentient beings could be saved. Therefore each time when I sent forth righteous thoughts, I would wholeheartedly remind myself, "I must send forth the purest righteous thoughts, I would rather pay for any price for this purpose." As a result, I really calmed down during sending forth righteous thoughts. Yet on the other hand, I also felt exhausted afterwards. Through Fa study, I enlightened to another principle. Actually, cultivation of Dafa disciples' has progressed to this stage, it should be no problem for us to really calm down for 5 minutes. I recalled that about two or three months after I started cultivation, I once reached very calm status during meditation. I was at the state of no feeling of feet and hands, very comfortable. Then why is it so difficult to calm down for just 5 minutes for us now? In fact it was interference from the evils. It was just that I was unable to enlighten to this. After realizing this, I didn't feel exhausted anymore. The Teacher says: "Our cultivation practice is based upon the principles of the universe's evolution, and it is guided by the standard of the universe's highest characteristic, Zhen-Shan-Ren. We cultivate something so enormous that it equates to cultivating the universe." "I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." (Zhuan Falun) Therefore, any old force that attempts to interfere with Fa-rectification, no matter how high level they come from, as long as we anchor ourselves at the standpoint of the fundamental Universal Fa, we are indestructible and diamond solid. No one can harm us.

At this moment, as I study "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.", when I read these words, "As you know, the persecution that Dafa disciples in Mainland China suffer is quite severe, so each student has to truly, clearly realize what his responsibility is, and when he sends forth righteous thoughts he has to be able to truly calm his mind and truly produce the effect of righteous thoughts. So this is something extremely critical, extremely important. Then if every student is able to do that, I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again--that's how important this is." I was shocked. Isn't this criticizing me? Each time when I read these words before, I felt that the Teacher was criticizing other practitioners: well, I paid enough attention to sending forth righteous thoughts. You see, every day when it's time to send forth righteous thoughts, I stop right away from what I am doing and send forth righteous thoughts. I don't miss a single time of sending forth righteous thoughts. On the weekends, when it's time to send forth righteous thoughts with practitioners around the world, each time I attend the local group to do it. Besides, once I realize my mind is distracted during sending forth righteous thoughts, I pull it back right away and concentrate again on sending forth righteous thoughts. I have done my best. However, in reality, these are superficial. I didn't actually realize from the perspective of Fa and out of the bottom of my heart the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. Otherwise, how come that I had been staying in one level for a long time without improvement? How come that I was satisfied with "I've done my best" and didn't actively make a breakthrough? The Teacher says: "Whenever there is interference of one kind or another in qigong practice, you should look for reasons within yourself and determine what you still have not let go." When I look inward myself, I found that I still had the mentality of complacency: I had felt that I was doing pretty well in Fa study and my enlightenment quality is good. Sometimes I enlightened to some principles even before the Teacher lectured on them. I felt complacent about this, etc. This attachment seriously hinders me from looking inward myself for things to be improved after studying the Teacher's Fa. Therefore, on the issue of sending forth righteous thoughts, even after the Teacher pointed out directly my shortcoming, I still believed the Teacher was criticizing other practitioners. Yet when I truly realized from the bottom of my heart that sending forth righteous thoughts is such a critical issue that it involves Fa-rectification on the whole scale and whether billions of sentient beings can be saved, my status changed all of a sudden. Thus I found the cause that prevented me from improving, I also enlightened to a higher level of principle.

In the ancient Greek myth, there was a giant, Antaean, who was the son of the Earth. As long as he maintained on the Earth he had matchless mighty power and was invincible. He was eventually defeated by his enemy who managed to lift him up in the air. If we as Dafa particles, at any time anchor ourselves firmly at the standpoint of the Dafa that generates everything in the Universe, we will be indestructible and diamond solid. On the other hand, the lives that deviate from Dafa are nothing compared to us, just like Antaean in the air.

"In the past it wasn't called 'sending forth righteous thoughts,' it was 'divine powers'--using divine powers, Buddha Fa's divine powers. Everyday people have referred to it as 'supernormal abilities.' So why do I call it sending forth righteous thoughts? Since you're doing Dafa cultivation, everything should be the most magnificent and the purest. None of the things we do are just about your personal cultivation. We have to also consider the Fa, and we have to consider the new beings of the future, and, at the same time, we have to consider the form of beings in the future." My understanding is that when we send forth righteous thoughts, we are not merely using the divine power that we developed through our cultivation. A Fa-rectification particle who assimilates to the characteristics of the universe actually is endowed with matchless mighty power of the entire universe at his level. He is responsible for all sentient beings in the universe.

In article "Drive Out Interference" , the Teacher says, "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." When I read these words in article "Also in a Few Words": "Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos's Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings' thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is," I felt truly that my righteous thoughts are indestructible, and really "frightens all evils". Yet all these come from a righteous belief in the Dafa.

Since April this year, I have been sending forth righteous thoughts at top of every hour each day. Except for some hours at work, when it is not convenient to do so, I keep on sending forth righteous thoughts hourly until going to bed at night. When sending forth righteous thoughts frequently, sometimes I am not sending forth my purest thoughts due to laziness. Then I will request myself to treat each sending forth righteous thoughts with a right attitude, instead of just doing it routinely to merely keep the formality. If this time I was not doing well, I would search for the cause and remedy it the next time. But when sending forth righteous thoughts for a relatively longer period, sometimes my divine side was not in strong control and the human side surfaced, e.g., laziness would take advantage of my weak divine side. For example, sometime I would use being busy for Dafa work as an excuse to skip a few hourly sending forth righteous thoughts. Other time I would be reluctant to send forth righteous thoughts wholeheartedly. I understand that in order to do it well actively, I must realize from the perspective of Fa the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts hourly.

With the publication of the Teacher's recent new articles, I understand that the Fa-rectification entered into a new, yet very special stage. The Teacher says in poem "Dafa is Good", "The sentient beings need not worry / Gods and Buddhas are already smiling"
My understanding is that it will be absolutely achieved to create a peaceful time period before the force of Fa-rectification begins weeding out unsalvageable, wicked beings on a large scale, in order to give more innocent beings the chance to hear the truth of Dafa and thus find salvation in a peaceful, just environment. However, whether this time period comes early or late, depends on how well we Dafa disciples as a whole body complete the task.

The number of Chinese people is as large as over one billion. Many of them are kings of Fa or lords from extremely high levels, who represent sentient beings of immense cosmic systems. Hence the number of sentient beings waiting be saved might be billions of billions, billions of trillions or even larger. It takes time for a person to break the poisonous deceit and thus to change his notions and to develop a right attitude toward Dafa. Consequently one minute longer or shorter this precious period comes might be critical for whether or not some people in this human world can be saved, and further it might be critical for millions of sentient being they represent. Although it does not look quite different in this dimension whether or not we Dafa disciples as one body do well in the Fa-rectification, it makes a huge difference in other dimensions as it might be a matter of life and death for many sentient beings who are waiting to be saved by us. If we do not have a strict requirement for ourselves simply because we cannot see the difference in this dimension, aren't we at the same level of everyday people who do not believe until seeing it? Therefore it is truly an extremely important task for us to do it well in sending forth righteous thoughts to create this precious time period earlier for people in China.

On the other hand, as Fa-rectification progressed to current stage, it requires that we Dafa disciples act as one body to complete the task well. For this reason, if because I was not doing well and negatively affected the entire task, even on a tiny scale, it means life and death for many, many sentient beings. That's how critical it is. How can I not do my best? The Teacher says, "Dafa disciples: the things you are faced with are magnificent, your responsibilities are major, and then there's your origin, of course--it's taking all these things into consideration that I say you're magnificent. You need to be worthy of the title 'Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple'! That's something that the cosmos won't have again. This only happens once since the beginning of time--it only happens once since the beginning of time in the cosmos. "("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston") We really should do it well!

As I understand this point from the perspective of Fa, I am able to keep highly alert, and realize it whenever I do not have a strict requirement for myself. Sometimes I thought to myself, if a person faces a critical moment that means life and death for himself, say, when he needs to walk a two-inch wide bridge which is above a deep abyss, he will maintain high concentration and alertness. Then go back to my attitude toward sending forth righteous thoughts. Simply because the life at stake is not mine, I did not do it wholeheartedly. Isn't this very selfish? So before sending forth righteous thoughts, I oftentimes remind myself, "whether a small thought of yours is pure or not could be crucial for whether many lives would be saved or not." This way I don't leave any loophole for the human side.

When teaching us the Fa about sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate evil, the Teacher said: "Another thing is that from now on at group practice or when there's another big conference like this one of ours, our students can quiet their minds for five minutes, sitting with their hands in Jieyin and thinking about eliminating the bad thoughts, karma, bad notions, and external interference in their minds." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference") In the past when I read these sentences, I didn't pay much attention to the words "at group practice or when there's another big conference like this one of ours". Later I read on Clearwisdom.net an article about a little disciple who sees in other dimension that a group sending forth righteous thoughts is much more powerful. It was at this time that I realized that the Teacher already taught us the Fa about group sending forth righteous thoughts in "Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference"! It was my human notions that prevented me from seeing the Fa. In fact what the little disciple saw was just part of the universe, while what the Teacher said was Fa and it also contains other factors that cannot be seen by us. So I tried my best to share understandings with other practitioners so that practitioners can realize its importance and get together every day when sending forth righteous thoughts.

About sending forth righteous thoughts at the Chinese Consulate, I also have some personal understandings. In other dimensions, the Consulate is a major gathering place for evil. When we send forth righteous thoughts, the evils that attempt to interfere with Fa-rectification will distribute their force among their headquarters in China, their overseas divisions (the Consulates and Embassies), and vicinity of the head of evil. If we overseas Dafa disciples can keep sending forth righteous thoughts at every overseas division of evil, they will be unable to maneuver their task force, in addition to many being eliminated directly. In the mean time, if evil can distribute their forces among their headquarters, their overseas divisions, and the vicinity of the head of evil, there must exist passageways among these places. Of course our divine power can also use these passageways to go directly to the head of evil. Then isn't this the similar effect as sending forth righteous thoughts at a close proximity?

Last weekend, when the head of evil in the human world attempted to visit Russia, at this critical moment at each Consulate there were practitioners continuously sending forth righteous thoughts. Because preparing the Fa Conference occupied the Chicago coordinating practitioners, there were no arrangements for sending forth righteous thoughts during the night. After sharing understandings with some practitioners in Indiana, I volunteered to coordinate some Indiana practitioners to come over to the Chicago Consulate for continuous intensive sending forth righteous thoughts. Some practitioners' home was 3 hour's driving distance from Chicago, the farthest practitioner was over 4 hours driving distance from Chicago. Yet many came because of realizing the importance of continuous sending forth righteous thoughts at the Consulate at the critical moment. That day some human notions surfaced sometimes, like "doing so may be misunderstood by practitioners in Chicago as I was not familiar with them." But I was able to realize these were selfish and not righteous the moment they surfaced, and then suppressed them. I am an ordinary practitioner instead of a regional assistant. However, I will try my best to do it as long as it is good for Dafa, good for sentient beings. Although in this dimension we don't see any difference between group sending forth righteous thoughts and doing it individually at one's home, we don't see any difference between sending forth righteous thoughts at the Consulates and elsewhere, neither do we see any difference between continuous sending forth righteous thoughts throughout the night and skip the night sending forth righteous thoughts , Yet in other dimension, it might be possible that our extra effort could bring the long awaiting precious peaceful time period a bit earlier for sentient beings. This, however, is a difference as huge as life and death for many living beings. Then all those excuses such as being busy with Dafa work, long distance of driving etc. count for nothing to prevent us from attending group sending forth righteous thoughts or send forth righteous thoughts at the Consulate.

Some practitioners say the current stage is like 4.25 for overseas practitioners. It is time for us to step further from humanness. I used to believe that in the past three years, I passed some major tribulations that equate the test of life and death. I should have given up everything when going back China to validate Dafa. I should have already stepped forward from humanness. In fact, for a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple, if one can put Dafa at the first place at EVERY moment, and put sentient beings at the first place EVERY moment, he truly steps forward from humanness. He is then already at the realm of "selflessness and altruism". Looking back at myself, for seemingly easy to do things like keep sending forth righteous thoughts at top of each hour, I failed to do it well, aren't the reasons behind these results of selfishness at various level? Of course, these are also factors to be rectified during Fa-rectification.

Writing this article is also a process of cultivation, a process of summarizing and improving. Some of the points that I didn't understand clearly now become clear. I still remember that once before another Fa conference, a practitioner asked me if I would like to write an experience sharing article for the conference. I replied right away without second thought, "I am too busy to do that." She then said to me, "Don't be too busy to cultivate yourself." Later on when I recalled her words, I felt what she said made sense. Yet in the end I didn't write a single word because of "too busy." This time I initially felt the time was very limited for writing up an experience sharing article, still I used such excuses as "I am too busy, a lot of important Dafa work needs to be finished. I didn't plan to contribute an article for the Conference. I later understood that there were not sufficient articles for the Conference. The Conference was still calling for papers. Each time when having a Fa Conference, every practitioner is enthusiastic in attending. While talking about contributing articles for the Conference, very few would be so enthusiastic. This Conference is a Mid-US regional conference. If we as local practitioners in Mid-US region do not write the articles, who will write the articles? How could we possibly have a Fa Conference without articles? Isn't this disrespect to Dafa and our Teacher? If everyone were like me, simply shun responsibilities to others, thinking that others will write the articles, the Fa conference would really have no enough articles. Isn't this selfish? Then I learned that a practitioner who is the major coordinator in our region and was responsible for many Dafa work would write his article. Upon hearing this, I felt embarrassed for my selfishness, and felt all my excuses of not writing an article count for nothing. At the worst, it was merely a matter of having less time for sleeping. In essence I was considering myself, seeking comfort. Later when I thought it over, I found another attachment: Before, I thought the time was too limited for writing the article. Actually this was hiding another attachment. That is, fearing not able to write a good article, with in-depth cultivation experience, one of high level. This was an attachment for fame, or show off mentality: I feel I am doing pretty well in cultivation, if I am going to write an article, it is going to be a high level one, a good one. Realizing this, immediately I put away these attachment, feeling even more that I should write this experience sharing article.