PureInsight | September 30, 2002
My Story
Since I obtained the Fa, I have been reading "Lunyu" mechanically. I have heard from a practitioner that when he was in prison, he would recite "Lunyu" dozens of times every night. Afterwards, he felt that his heart became brightly lit. Whenever I had a break while participating in Dafa activities, I would often recite "Lunyu in a low voice to myself. But it was similar to what Confucius said, "Reading without thinking is like doing nothing." I was reciting "Lunyu", but I still didn't understand why everything in Zhuan Falun is contained in "Lunyu".
We often cite the first paragraph of "Lunyu": "In order to explore this domain, people must fundamentally change their conventional human notions." We often cite the second paragraph as well. But many of us believe that the rest of the statements are for those who do not believe in Dafa. I have built my belief in Dafa, and I have started to cultivate in Dafa, but I still do not quite understand the general idea of the other paragraphs.
The care that Teacher takes over each disciples manifests in the smallest details. Recently he finally let me understand the profound inner meaning of "Lunyu". And at the same time, he made me understand the case I witnessed three months ago about a practitioner's undergoing losses while being very aware of the situation.
Not long after I obtained the Fa, perhaps in order for me to catch up with other practitioners as soon as possible and to participate in the Fa-rectification as early as possible, Teacher arranged for me to work in a company where there were other practitioners. In addition, soon after, Teacher arranged for me to transfer to a department where a practitioner worked. At this time I had a very big xinxing test. In the new department there was an elderly American co-worker who was very selfish. He would come in late and leave early, and yet he would complain and ask others to come in early to finish the jobs. He was very slow in learning new technologies and his mood was erratic. Often he was impolite to some co-workers. All the co-workers were trying their best to maintain the resemblance of peace. At the time I thought I should do the same, as my xinxing level felt it was good to maintain the superficial peace.
Then I witnessed the performance of the practitioner in the department, and I realized that there are "persons beyond persons" and "skies beyond our skies." I sat right behind the practitioner, which allowed for me to see and hear all the communications between him and others. This practitioner is a superior graduate of Qinghua University (one of the best Universities in China), and he is very smart and capable. He is a technical expert, yet he always speaks in a soft voice with a kind smile on his face, and the aged co-worker's taunting never bothered him. Moreover, he has written detailed instructions, more detailed than others, hoping it would be helpful to the aged co-worker. He did all these good things without expecting anything in return. In private, he spoke with the manager about trying to get the aged co-worker a looser evaluation, or better technical training, because it's not easy for any of the aged co-workers to keep up with the new techniques. Even so, the aged co-worker continued to say bad things about him. No matter how this practitioner was treated, he was always kind to others. He is a good example of a practitioner who understands how to give up self interest.
I could not understand this. I asked him many times "That person is so bad, how can you treat him so well?" He enlightened me with Fa principles, and shared with me many beneficial ideas. For example, everything that happens during cultivation is good. He also explained that it is not right for a practitioner not to willingly endure things. But in my heart I still felt confused, and I wondered, "How can you treat him so well? Not to mention, when you treat him well, he still bullies you! How silly you are. It would be better if you stayed away from him. How can you request benefits for him in front of the manager?"
It has been three months now, and I suddenly understand what Teacher said in "Lunyu": "It is the nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, expressed in different ways at different levels. ..." Then the truth, compassion, and tolerance that the practitioner has displayed to the aged coworker are a kind of "specific phenomena of the Buddha Fa". While I am the kind of person depicted in the last two paragraphs in "Lunyu": "Some people do not even dare to face up to, approach, or acknowledge the facts of phenomena that objectively exist …" "As for phenomena that are intangible and invisible, but objectively existing and reflected into our physical world as real manifestations, they are avoided and treated as inexplicable phenomena." I indeed didn't dare to face up to the facts, and I treated the truth, compassion and tolerance the practitioner was displaying as inexplicable phenomena.
In the past, when I read the last two paragraphs of "Lunyu", I would always think that they applied only in the "scientific" and "material" level of everyday people. So I believed that these two paragraphs were for the scientific personnel among everyday people. Actually my understanding was still at the level of everyday people. Isn't the knowledge of everyday people just the accumulation of experiences? I used my past experience to decide the aged coworker shouldn't be treated well, and at the same time I would think the practitioner was a "fool". As for the material aspect, Teacher has said very clearly: "Matter and mind are one thing"; "…a thought generated by the human brain is a substance."(Zhuan Falun Lecture One: Why Doesn't Your Cultivation Energy Increase When You Do Cultivation?). "The guiding principles of today's human science confine its development and research to this physical world." Which is also not like what I had imagined, that it was for the scientific personnel. Instead, it is for all people who are confined by the guiding principles of today's human science and crawling within the boundaries set by their own ignorance, like me.
I really am so ashamed! Before I obtained the Fa, I had bragged openly that I would only believe what is visible and tangible. To enlighten a student like me who has such poor enlightenment quality, Teacher had to specifically arrange for me to sit right behind the practitioner, to let me witness the specific example of cultivation practice in the Buddha Fa.
Our personal cultivation practice and understandings of the Fa will absolutely and directly affect the Fa-rectification work. When I saw my shortcomings in understanding "Lunyu", I did a careful evaluation of my attitude toward Fa-rectification work, and I found the same problem. I'll give a recent example.
After my Icelandic visa was refused, I immediately concluded, from a scientific or experiential view, I can't make it. And I didn't try hard to clarify the truth to the embassy either because I didn't think it would change their decision. Actually, the Danish Embassy rejected my application for a visa to Iceland because the Icelandic Department of Justice asked them to. When I read that the Icelandic Embassy had held the passport of a professor in New York State and he was able to get it back after the local newspaper published a story on his case, I again drew a conclusion from the scientific or experiential view that he got it back because the newspaper had publicized his case. So I decided there was hope and went back to the local Danish Embassy to try again. When I heard that practitioners in Boston had boarded the plane to Iceland, and it seemed to be because they had a lawyer with them, then I drew a conclusion again from the scientific or experiential angle, that if we bring a lawyer with us, surely we will be able to board the plane. When we failed again, I reasoned that the place where we were was "especially" evil, and therefore practitioners at our location couldn't board the plane, while the Icelandic Air's manager in New York was "especially" good and the manager in Boston was "especially" afraid of being sued, and therefore the practitioners in both those cities were allowed to board the planes.
Teacher has said, "The guiding principles of today's human science confines it's development and research to this physical world, as a subject will not be studied until it is acknowledged….", "Stubborn people have, on unsubstantiated grounds, entrenched themselves in their argument that these are just 'natural' phenomena." Didn't I display this state of humanness, which Teacher has addressed here? If the environment of our place was "especially" evil, the environment of the author of "Through Hardships the Body of Gold Is Tempered" in Denmark was even worse. For them, it was the ambassador of Iceland who went to the airport in person to try to stop them from boarding the plane. If viewed only from a "scientific" angle, with the ambassador trying to stop them in person, one would never board the plane. But it turned out that the whole party of six Canadian practitioners boarded the plane. [1]
When I first read the article "Through Hardships the Body of Gold Is Tempered," deep in my heart I felt confused, and treated it as a special case, an exception. In other words, I still treated it as "inexplicable phenomena".
To be honest, when I heard the miraculous success stories of the practitioners in making the trip to Iceland, because it was visible in our physical world, then I came to believe that the Buddha Fa is indeed omnipotent. However, as for the Icelandic Prime Minister's prohibition of Falun Gong practitioners' entering the country, I thought, throughout history there has never been a premier who withdrew his order and the Iceland Prime Minster would not do that either. Isn't this also an idea formed by human science and made of accumulated experiences?
Some practitioners feel that a lot of news about the trip to Iceland was all demonic illusions. I also think this. But the fundamental reason that they could turn into demonic illusions is because my ideas are formed by the guiding principles of human science.
It is just like what Teacher has said, "The guiding principles of today's human science confine its development and research to this physical world, as a subject will not be studied until it is acknowledged." After my visa was refused, I wasn't active enough in truth clarifying to the employees at the embassy. The fundamental reason is that deep in my heart, my understanding of the Buddha Fa is still confined at the human material level, and didn't believe that Dafa is an extraordinary science. Because our Fa-rectification is taking effect in other dimensions and if I could "change my rigid mindset", I think I could clarify the truth to the employees in the embassy much better, as opposed to focusing only on getting the visa. Even though the effects of Fa-rectification might not be visible or tangible in our dimension, they absolutely exist objectively. Truth-clarifying absolutely takes effect, it's just a matter of if I am willing or not to "change my conventional ideas when thinking".
Above is my new understanding of "The specific phenomena of the Buddha Fa". I hope it can be helpful to those practitioners who have had similar situations, so we can further advance and improve together.
[1] Pureinsight.net, "Through Hardships the Body of Gold Is Tempered"
http://www.pureinsight.org/sci/sci/eng/newscontent.asp?ID=14985 "
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/10/16877.html
