PureInsight | February 14, 2011
[PureInsight.org]
1. Studying the Fa
I often could not concentrate when studying the Fa in the past. Realizing that this was not acceptable, I tried to force myself to concentrate during Fa study so I could remember every sentence that I read. However, it still didn’t work due to strong interfere from my thought karma. Although I was studying the Fa every day, I felt there was something between me and the Fa that prevented me from becoming fully assimilated to the Fa.
After experiencing some xinxing tests recently, I suddenly had new understandings on the terms “Fa study” and “Dafa disciple” when sitting down to study the Fa one evening. Right at the moment of opening Zhuan Falun, I immediately realized that Fa study and xinxing improvement are the core parts of our existence as Dafa disciples. Since we came here for Fa-rectification period cultivation, we should consider Fa study as natural as breathing or having a meal. Because we are beings that are immersed in the Fa, we should remain steadfast with a pure mind when studying the Fa—that is, nothing should interfere with this. With that thought, I felt myself dissolved in the Fa, peacefully and safely, with no interference. Looking back at my Fa study in the past, I was paying too much attention to the formality of fulfilling Fa study as a task. Without really placing myself in the Fa, I considered myself as a practitioner only when encountering problems but not during daily life. Therefore, I was cultivating passively. In fact, a genuine practitioner is able to treat everything with righteous thoughts and handle everything in daily life as a practitioner. Whether one can do it this way is actually the difference between an ordinary person and a god.
2. Letting Go of Oneself and Cooperating Well with Others
Master has told us many times, especially in two recent articles, to let go of ourselves and to cooperate well with each other. In the past, although I knew this was important, my understanding of it was on the surface level. It was only recently that I realized there was deeper meaning in it.
For a long time, I often despised the everyday people around me, thinking of them as being too selfish and deceitful. Therefore, while looking down upon them, I considered myself, a Dafa practitioner, as superior to them. For example, my boss sometimes lied to customers in order to gain more profits or in order to reduce costs. For instance, he often collects rain water and uses it as tap water, as the water meter does not run up in that case. All these actions are dishonest! While I was despising these behaviors, I often handled my boss's requests half-heartedly, sometimes even thinking that he—an ordinary person—wasn’t qualified to instruct me.
One day, when thinking of the cooperation that Master spoke of in the Fa, I was wondering how I could achieve that because I seldom had collaborative projects with other practitioners. Then, I saw that, when my boss was working with customers, my coworkers provided help to me on the side attentively and without complaints. I was touched by this. Wasn't my coworkers' diligence, sense of responsibility, and unconditional assistance a form of cooperating well? I realized that cultivation can be manifested in all aspects of one's daily life, while in the past, I was actually blocking my own path with human notions. Even everyday people are so conscientious with their work and don’t complain. Why can’t I—a practitioner—do it? Thinking of that made me ashamed of myself. From that realization, I also found many strong attachments of mine: being opinionated, jealousy, laziness, and being irresponsible. I tended to judge things using the concepts of good and bad formed by my own notions, rather than based on the Fa. In addition, I found myself lacking compassion and unable to cherish others with forbearance. All these are related to my selfishness; that is, I paid too much attention to my own feelings and I was thus misled by the concepts of good and bad in everyday society. In “Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” Master talked about “the appearance stems from the mind.” And in Essentials for Further Advancement, there is an article titled “Pacify the External by Cultivating the Internal.” Why are we always focusing on how others behave? After all, cultivation is a process of cultivating ourselves. When we are doing well, all the incorrect states we have will be diminished. In Zhuan Falun, Master said, “The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities.” Also, in “Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference,” Master said, “You still have attachments that have yet to be removed, only you, as a cultivator, are a good person and your plane is higher. If you didn’t have conflicts with the management, attachments that lead you to fight with them for the lead role, or instances of bad cooperation, and you truly all manage to look within, and search inside yourselves, then indeed you will have an approach to management better than that of ordinary media, and your productivity will be outstanding. However, you are not able to achieve that right now, and that is caused precisely by those human attachments of yours. Your productivity has proved to be low, instead.” I felt this paragraph was talking about me. A Dafa practitioner should do well with whatever he or she is doing, and do it responsibly and attentively. The fact that others are not doing well should not be an excuse for us to slack off. From this, I also realized that we practitioners should not only let go of self and cooperate well with other practitioners, we should also do well when collaborating with everyday people either at work or in daily life.
3. Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
Recently I read an experience-sharing article in which practitioners suggested we work together to send forth righteous thoughts for detained practitioners. By eliminating the evil that persecutes them, we can help these practitioners to regain freedom and return to the Fa-rectification. I thought this was a good idea. Since then, whenever there is a break at work, I send forth righteous thoughts to support detained practitioners as well the Shen Yun Performing Arts world tour. I think this will be a long-term project for me. In the past, I had strong attachments of pursuit and was always eager to see results when doing something. Plus, I sometimes stopped in the middle of a project when there were no immediate results. This time, after letting go of all my attachments and human notions, I continued working on it to the end without pursuing any result. I also realized that sending forth righteous to help others is also a process of us improving ourselves.
Recently, local practitioners also started a relay to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that persecutes Dafa in my area. I also joined this effort and will do it well.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2011/1/17/71100.html
