PureInsight | October 26, 2015
[PureInsight.org] For some time I have been feeling Dafa disciples working in the media, haven’t been meeting the requirements Master has set for us in the Fa. I started to feel helpless, given our current situation, with the lack of funding and I was at a complete loss on how we could break through. Each and every one of us would need to make huge strides in our own cultivation. Because of these feelings, I started to become discouraged at work and felt that overall we are letting Master down.
After reflecting on my thoughts and my own cultivation, I realized I was also failing to meet Master’s standard and that I had some deep rooted attachments I needed to get over. I realized I was waiting for everyone else to break through so that I could truly start cultivating myself as well. Seeing how wrong my thinking was and how I couldn’t wait for others so I could cultivate, I realized I just needed to focus on my own personal cultivation and start by becoming more diligent with doing the exercises, eliminating my deep rooted attachments, and being more focussed during Fa Zhen Nian.
One night, I was reading Master’s Fa Teaching Giving at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference. Master says, “As long as a Dafa disciple has sufficient righteous thoughts–I’ll put it this way–if a Dafa Disciple’s righteous thoughts are sufficient, you can break through the situation.”
After reading this, I started to feel ashamed and began to cry. I had an understanding that I never saw before, that as long as we have the wish to overcome our deep rooted attachments and as long as we have enough righteous thoughts to overcome them, Master can help us. I felt Master’s deep compassion and became determined to overcome my attachments.
Then another of Master’s teachings came to me at Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day Given at the 2014 New York Fa Conference, “Dafa disciples are Dafa disciples, after all. Just get down to it and do a good job at what you are supposed to do, and as you gain more experience you will be able to succeed. With things that require a high level of skill, just master the skills and you’re all set. With certain things, you may not need that kind of study. Actually, with whatever Dafa disciples do, if you put a bit of heart into it you’ll get twice the results with half the effort. If you ask me, it’s a question of heart.”
I soon started to develop the heart to help my fellow cultivators in the media and asked Master to help me find a way to become more diligent and meet the standard of a Fa-Rectification Dafa Disciple.
For my whole cultivation since 2006, I have only managed to complete the one hour sitting meditation just a dozen or so times. I am always in a tremendous amount of pain and haven’t been able to endure it. I also haven’t been constant throughout my entire cultivation. In the past few months, I had a major breakthrough and have been doing the exercises almost every day and doing the one hour sitting consistently which has transformed my cultivation.
I believe because I had this wish to help everyone in our media, Master pushed me in my personal cultivation to overcome my attachment to the fear of pain during the sitting meditation. Almost every time I sit in meditation I reach the state of ‘ding’ right away and Master starts to show me many scenes in which I understand these are not just for me, but they need to be shared.
At one point I started to cry and asked Master why I was the one seeing things and have to share it with other, because anything related to the celestial eye can bring about many attachments in me and also in others who may want to hear things. I asked why it seems I am one of the few who it is given to and why not to another cultivator instead. Master told me that this was simply my cultivation path that was arranged for me and when I see things take it lightly without getting excited or moved by it.
N.B. All of which I am going to share is simply my understanding of what I have seen in other dimensions and I just want to remind everyone that it is not Fa. I believe that Master has only allowed me to see these things to help us all improve and to help our situation in our media work, otherwise I wouldn’t need to see any of it. This is also a continuous journey in which each week I seem to see different things as well to have new enlightenments along the way.
Part 1: The Museum of the Future
The first thing I saw since becoming more diligent in my cultivation was the future after Fa-Rectification. First, I saw Master sitting on a giant throne with light radiating from Him. I looked in awe, but when I turned around I saw all the beings that had been saved after the completion of Fa-Rectification looking up at me. Some had tears in their eyes and all of them looked at me the same way as all of us disciples look at our Master.
I turned around and said to Master, “Why are they feeling this way towards me, shouldn’t they be feeling this way towards You, You are the one who actually saved them?”
Master looked at me and said, “I saved all of you [Dafa Disciples], you are the ones who saved all of them.”
I then saw a giant museum that they built and I could see statues of disciples and then I saw a very large room in the museum. When I looked closer inside I saw hung on the walls was every single newspaper the English Epoch Times ever made. Not just the cover but the entire paper. All of them were staring at the newspapers as if it were the greatest pieces of art they had ever seen.
Immediately, I started to think about all the headline errors, all the grammar mistakes and bad photos. I realized to them mistakes didn't matter. They were looking at the process we went through to save them. And for that their gratitude was something that nothing can compare.
I also saw at that point, no other media mattered and Epoch Times had thousands of people working which was the biggest and largest media in the world. This was just one room out of many in the museum, but I wasn’t shown what was in the other rooms.
This made me think of what Master said from Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference, “I have told the media companies’ coordinators that you will for sure become the largest global media companies in the future. You have a tremendous responsibility to run these media companies well. The things that Dafa disciples do will be passed down to human society in the future, and so too will your media companies be passed down and become primary media companies in this world. Think about it, when humankind realizes that you are saving them, how will they regard these projects that Dafa disciples are working on? They will bestow them with tremendous honor.”
Part 2: Having the Heart We Once Had
Recently, while doing the wheel holding standing exercise, I saw myself in many other dimensions at the same time also performing the exercises as well. It looked like what happens when you place two mirrors in front of each other. I couldn’t see an end it from either direction, but my main soul was at the center of it.
Then I saw myself growing in height. I passed the solar system and then this layer of universe, then passed the second, third and so on till I was a gigantic being and the universe in which Earth was inside of was just a tiny cell in my body. I looked out and could see all kinds of worlds and universes all around me. Then I saw huge massive wings grow out from my back and expand outward. They were so massive that I couldn’t see the end of them.
At that moment, a strong thought developed in my heart, I thought to myself, “I wish to save all the sentient beings in the cosmos.” At this thought I felt the entire colossal firmament shake. Suddenly, trillions of beings all came to me and said, “Since you have this thought, we can clear any path and help you with anything.”
At this point, I could feel my mind expand and some of the thoughts of cultivators working in the media. I saw that some cultivators were not putting their whole hearts into their work and were thinking to themselves, “As long as I show up to work and do my job I am contributing to Dafa and have nothing to worry about.”
I saw how the old forces saw this thought and said to themselves, “Since they have the attachment of feeling secure and having complacency, let’s cause them to become insecure in their work in the media.” This then created a situation where we started to lose money as a company and which in turn started to make some people question whether or not this was a project where they would want put all their efforts into.
Master says in the Fa Teaching Giving at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference, “Dafa disciples, the easier your environment becomes, the more you should pay attention to your own cultivation. That’s because it will be easier for those attachments of yours that you cannot detect to act up, and you are more likely to let your attachments grow. You must be sure to keep up your guard. No matter what the situation, you must be mindful of cultivating yourself. If you can keep going with that same heart you had at the beginning all the way to the end, you will undoubtedly succeed.”
Part 3: The River Made of Gold Coins
A week later while I was in mediation, Master showed me another scene. I saw a massive river that was made of gold coins. The river was as far as I could see and very wide and deep. I realized that this was the money that Master arranged for us in the media to have.
Then I saw a massive dam that blocked the coins from falling to where the cultivators working in the media were down below. I saw a few of the old force beings sitting on top of the dam laughing at the cultivators below. I asked them why they were blocking all the money that Master arranged for us to have in the media. Looking at me they said, “Look at all of you down there,” as one of them took just a small handful of coins and threw it down below. I then saw some practitioners feeling complacent about being paid, I saw others being competitive and fighting over the money, and I saw jealousy arise in others when someone got the money and they had not.
The old forces looked at me and said, “See how you all act, how could we possibly give you all this money. They haven’t been listening to what your Master says and they still have jealousy, competitiveness, and complacency which your Master has asked you time and time again to give up. As a whole you have not met the standard, so how could we possibly give this money to you. If you meet our standard then this money will be yours.”
I didn’t know what to say to them. I felt like I should destroy them, but I realized that it wouldn’t serve a point. More would replace them and in reality they wanted us to save them but they were going by their rules in how they wanted to be saved.
I thought of Master’s words in the Fa Teaching Giving at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference, “Dafa disciples absolutely cannot fall short of the standard. When you are about to pass a test, when you’ve almost gotten through it, but there’s one attachment that you haven’t removed, then it will prevent you from meeting the standard and passing the test. If you cultivate well, you will be able to pass it, right? But you simply cannot pass it and so you remain there. That thing may not be something big, though—that attachment is not big, it’s quite small. But because you just cannot perceive it, you are unable to pass the test and you keep staying at the same spot.”
Part 4: The Haunted Hotel
While I was doing the sitting meditation, one night Master showed me another scene in which at first I started to feel very confused about. I saw a very dark and what seemed to be a haunted hotel. I could see the outside of it and suddenly I found myself on the inside. I was really confused why I was seeing this and realized there were no windows inside and just rooms with random doors.
I opened a door only to be in another room with the door shutting behind me that I couldn’t open again. I was disoriented and thought maybe all of this was a mistake–that I wasn’t actually seeing this and using my mind-intent instead, though when I questioned why I would picture myself in this horrible place, I didn’t have an answer. I then opened a closet door and suddenly, thousands of spiders fell out. I freaked out and asking for Master’s help I said in my mind, “I am a Dafa Disciple here to save sentient beings, why am I in this horrible place?”
Suddenly, I was removed from there and I was floating to the sky in which I saw Master above me with a gentle smile on his face and brilliant light radiating from Him. I saw many heavenly beauties flying around with some sitting and talking as well. Some looked at me and smiled at each other. They didn’t think anything of it, almost like I just belonged there. I was able to look down and below I saw the haunted hotel and started to feel confused again. I didn’t understand what was happening.
I wanted to stay with Master but I knew that I couldn’t. It wasn’t my place at the moment, since I knew I could leave whenever I wanted to. I decided to descend to find out what that dark place was. So I jumped down and entered the hotel once more.
This time I could hear people screaming through the walls but when I opened a door that door would disappear and I would enter a new room again with no windows or without much light. I kept going in room after room and had no idea where I was going. It was like a dark giant maze. Finally, I opened a door and saw flames below, and thought, “Okay, this must be hell.”
At that moment I decided to leave and again I was with Master in the heavenly world, and, once again I could see the hotel below. At this point I got so confused I didn’t know what to think. I was wondering if a demon was messing with me or if something else was going on. However, since I was unable to enlighten to what Master was trying to show me, all of a sudden my thoughts became crystal clear, as if Master pushed away every thought I had and with a loud booming voice I heard Master’s words very clearly come through.
From Lecture Nine: A Clear and Clean Mind in Zhuan Falun, Master says, “‘When I come to this ordinary human society, it’s just like checking into a hotel for a few days. Then I leave in a hurry.’ Some people are just obsessed with this place and have forgotten their own homes.”
I suddenly realized that this hotel was Earth which was one giant dark maze in which humans are lost. I also realized that the spiders I saw were all human attachments that we hold on to and that when humans follow their attachments it will eventually lead them to hell.
After sharing this with a Chinese cultivator, who mentioned that in Chinese the word “Attachment: 執著” (Zhízhuó) sounds very similar to the word “Spider: 蜘蛛” (Zhīzhū) homophonically.
Part 5: Master’s Gift to Me
Right after the vision of the hotel ended, I asked Master again why I have to be the one who is seeing everything. I asked him since everything is in the Fa, why do I need to share with everyone. I just want people to listen to the Fa and not me. But Master again told me that this was my path.
Then Master said to me there was one more thing he wanted to show me. I just said, “Ok,” very nonchalantly and suddenly I saw an image of my grandmother in front of me.
To give a brief background before I obtained the Fa, I witnessed my grandmother passing away in front of me. I saw a light shine down on her and her spirit rise up in the light. At that moment instead of feeling sad, an overwhelming sense of pure joy came over me as I realized she was showing me what she was feeling.
She was one of the most caring and loving people I ever knew in my life. After I started to practice in the very beginning–when I was still questioning the Fa– she came to me in a dream and I knew she was telling me that what I was doing was a good thing.
Once I fully became a practitioner and enlightened to who I was and who Master was, she would then start to show up in my dreams if I wasn't doing well in my cultivation. She would just give me a look and I knew it meant that I needed to be more diligent in my cultivation.
Later I started to feel so sad because I was never able to tell her about Dafa or I wasn't able to take her to see Shen Yun before she died. I cried sometimes over the fact that she never got a chance to see or hear Master’s Fa in person.
Coming back to now, as I was seeing my grandmother in front me she was smiling brightly but it was more like seeing an image of the past. I then saw her descend down to Earth and enter our world and reincarnate into a little girl. The scene zoomed out a bit and then I saw a practitioner couple that I knew holding a tiny little girl who was my grandmother.
I started to cry and was so thankful to Master, no words could express. I was so happy that she will be able to hear Master’s words as a human being, to see Shen Yun, and get to become a Dafa Disciple. But most of all, I had so much gratitude towards Master for showing me this scene, no words could explain, tears just rolled down my face. I thanked Master over and over for everything he had done and created for us.
I have since met with the practitioner family and without a doubt we all know it is truly my grandmother who is now their child.
Part 6: The Forsaken Ones in the Post Fa-Rectification
One time while meditating I saw one of my Fa-guardians who told me to follow him down into a lower level dimension. I saw it was the future after Fa-Rectification and how beings that were weeded out were in a scorched and desolate place. There was no sun or moon in the sky and the air and the sky was a crimson color filled with smoke and ash which covered the whole area of where I was. There where thousands of beings all scattered about who I thought were dead, but when I looked closely I realized that almost all of them were alive, but barely.
The humans that were left there were all deformed and mutilated, with some having one large arm or small limbs and a big head with many missing much of their skin from being scorched or scraped off. None of them could move save for only one arm in which they would try to crawl moving much slower than a snail. All were moaning softly and in excruciating pain with such despair in their hearts that it would even scare a demon away. All of them wished for death but at the same time were completely terrified because each knew what awaited them after death was even worse than where they were now.
I asked my Fa-guardian if there is still time to save them. He said, “As long as Master’s Fa-Rectification hasn’t arrived it is never too late, however, there will always be some that cannot be saved.”
I looked again at the scene before me and with a low and heavy heart I asked if we could leave this desolate and forsaken place. He then took me back up as I reflected on the seriousness of the situation.
Part 7: Are We Truly Helping Master in Rectifying the Fa?
One time recently while sending forth righteous thoughts I experienced a scene in which made my heart feel very heavy.
I saw our Master who was very tall observing something in the distance as a black kind of substance surrounding him and falling on to his body. He paid no attention or didn’t even bother with it, brushing it off as if whisking dirt away. However, it was painful for me to watch as this substance was trying to fall on him like ash falling to the ground after a volcanic eruption. When the scene unfolded even more, I realized that it was coming from disciples and how our human attachments were the cause of it.
I felt very sad by what I saw and then realized what Master’s attention was focused on. He seemed to have a worried look, not because of the black matter that was falling, but for disciples whose righteous thoughts were lacking and falling into an ordinary way of thinking.
I saw in the media how some practitioners were arguing with each other and that others still had very deep-rooted attachments inside that was stopping us from pushing forward as a whole since it was slowing down our efforts to save sentient beings and at the same time pushing our negative things onto Master.
I started to see everything more clearly, that if we were to take a step back and really see each other as our true selves, we would instantly stop arguing and feel ashamed and want to work together. We would see how precious the time is and how many years and lifetimes we waited to be here together with Master.
Master says in Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference in 2003, “Once you’ve reached Consummation and returned it’ll be almost impossible for you to see each other again, even if you want to. So, you should treasure this part of your karmic relationship. And what’s more, those karmic relationships of yours have been intertwined with each other, and different karmic relationships were formed over every lifetime—it hasn’t been easy. So, cooperate well when you do things. Each Dafa disciple’s thing is everybody else’s. Don’t create distance and disharmony between each other over some little, trivial thing. You can’t do that, and you should treasure all this. And also, you need to cooperate in Dafa things, and you should do a good job of cooperating.”
Lately, when I see other cultivators having a hard time or when I see an attachment come out very strongly in others, I quietly Fa Zhen Nian in my mind instead of criticizing them or getting upset with them.
For us to work together we need to put aside our emotions, our notions, and our attachments to what we want or how we think things should be and we should spend more time on how to effectively and efficiently work together. I think if all of us can do this well we will make huge breakthroughs while saving even more sentient beings and truly assisting Master in Fa-Rectification.
Part 8: The Dream of Winning a Race with Master’s Help
Recently, I had a dream where I went to photograph a race in which the top runners in the nation where competing. There was a disciple who was also competing after training for a long time for the race. I was focusing more on photographing him when he asked if I also wanted to race in the competition. I looked at him and laughed. I told him I was far too out of shape and old to run against the best in the nation. He kept persisting that I take part and told me to just have fun and not take it too seriously.
Reluctantly I agreed and as I lined up with everyone else. I shook my head and laughed and told myself, “Well, even though I know I will come in last place, I will just be happy to finish the race.”
The start gun went off and I started to run. With a huge surprise I found that I wasn’t too far behind everyone else. Laughing to myself thinking how crazy this was, I suddenly felt a strong wind behind me and I found I could run even faster. I then realized it was Master pushing me along and helping me. Soon I ran past everyone and couldn’t believe it as I kept running. I then ran past the cultivator who was leading and looked at me in disbelief. I just kept running and started to feel tired but I could see the finish line not too far away over one more hill. Feeling tired, I wanted to slow down but knowing that Master was with me was encouraging, so I decided to run a tiny bit faster and before I knew it I was the first one to cross the finishing line. I was out of breath and tired but couldn’t believe what had just happened. The other runners all started to congratulate me and were asking who I was and where I came from. I started to talk to them and then saw the disciple who also competed staring down in confusion and disbelief. I walked over to him and he said, “I don’t get it, I trained for a whole year for this and was supposed to win. I just asked you to run for fun and you won!” “Master was helping me and gave me the ability to run faster and longer,” I said. He said, “But why didn't Master do that with me, I am also his disciple I don’t get why he helped you and not me. I was supposed to win, it doesn’t make sense.”
At that point I thought that maybe Master had me win because I didn’t have an attachment to winning and also to bring out his attachments. I didn’t have the heart to say this to him though. I felt he wouldn’t listen if I did point it out and walked away as he was still shaking his head. Many famous runners passed by smiling and told me what a great run I had. I took it very lightly and at that point was so hungry told my wife I needed to eat because they wanted me to return later to receive a medal. I smiled and thought how weird that I will be photographed when I came here to photograph the winner.
Overall, my understanding of the dream is that when we can get rid of our notions, like “I am too old to learn this,” or “My skill level isn’t good enough,” or “I am the best and deserve this or that,” and when we can completely let go of our pursuit and have complete faith in Master and the Fa then anything is possible.
Part 9: Our Only Purpose is to Save Sentient Beings
Another time while I was meditating I suddenly enlightened that my entire purpose and my entire life was created solely for the purpose of saving sentient beings and if I wasn’t doing that then there is no reason to have come into existence.
Master says in the Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference, “Clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings are what you need to accomplish. There is nothing else for you to accomplish. There is nothing else in this world that you need to accomplish.”
Since Master repeats this twice it really stood out to me and I realized that if I no longer needed to save sentient beings–as if everyone already knew about Dafa and the persecution–my role on the Earth would end and I would no longer need to be here.
It made me realize that anything I do in my life that isn’t for saving beings and if I were to do a line of work that was more for myself, then I would be failing in my vow I made before I came to assist Master. I came into being only to assist Master, nothing else matters.
Part 10: With Faith in Master and Truly Letting Go of Attachments, Anything Can Happen
I recently had an experience where I was asked to look for photos for an unpublished article that was written by another edition outside of New York. After looking at the article I realized it was too specific to use just a stock photo so I reached out to the organization to ask for photos.
They got back to me almost immediately and wanted to know what the general tone was for the article. I explained that for our New York readers we were going to modify it a bit. After I told the editor I reached out for help, the practitioner gave me questions to ask as well.
I wrote back and they said they will reply within a few days with the answers. The next day I got an email from them saying they saw a published article on our site that seemed to be the one I was talking about with a stock image without the quotes I sent.
At this point I felt upset and embarrassed and didn’t know how to respond. On our end I thought we appeared as an amateur media entity that didn’t know how to coordinate. I was upset at the writer and editor and somewhat at myself for complete lack of communication. I wished I didn’t get involved and only requested photos.
I thought since the article didn’t have any quotes from the organization at all, I would help out. I sent a short email to the editor and writer and being clueless how to respond, I soon left the office to go on a shoot and started to reflect on why I was so upset, and what my attachments were. I decided I needed to get over this and not be upset because in the end it will make it even worse.
I started to reflect on Master’s Fa in Zhuan Falun in Lecture Four, “During the process of transforming karma, to keep yourself under control— unlike an everyday person who would mess things up—you should always maintain a heart of benevolence and a mind of kindness. If you suddenly bump into a problem, you will be able to take care of it properly. When you always maintain a heart of benevolence and compassion, you will have time or room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly. If you always think about competing with others and fighting back and forth, I would say that you will start a fight with others whenever there is a problem—this is guaranteed. Thus, when you encounter a conflict, I would say that it is to transform your black substance into the white substance, de.”
I then completely looked inside on this matter and by the time I got back to the office, I read the email from the editor and realized that as long as I don’t have any attachments, Master will arrange it so it will all work out. I sent the organization the email and within an hour got a response in which they said they completely understood and it was no longer an issue. They said they will get back to me with everything as soon as possible.
After this situation, I realized again that everything we do all revolves around our attachments. If we don’t get emotional over things then Master will always do what is best for everyone. If we do then it is just our human sides acting and neither Master nor the Righteous Gods will be able to help us in solving problems as they arise.
All of these have been possible because of a breakthrough in my cultivation. Throughout the days I have been able to focus more, seem to see more clearly how something I am working on should look, or how a photo should be, also I have felt a lot more calm and patient throughout the days along with being able to focus more on Fa Study.
There are still many things I need to improve on but I realize now there really isn’t that much time left.
This is only my understanding of what I have seen and the scenes related to the future, or of Master. I ask others to take it lightly, anything could change or something could appear as hints for us. I realize all of what I am seeing would be equivalent to just seeing one star in the immense universe in which we exist which doesn’t even include the limitless dimensions that exist.
