A Righteous Mind…

A righteous mind, a righteous heart, righteous thought! I would like to share my understandings on these issues with my fellow Falun Dafa practitioners. Please point out any shortcomings.

From the time I was very young, I used to ask myself, “What is the meaning of life? How should we live to be in accordance with the Law of Heaven?” I could not find the answers from anyone anywhere. I was astonished that people in general did not care about these issues, which to me were of primary importance.

When I encountered Falun Dafa, I realized that it was the key. “Since everyone comes from the mother’s womb this way, nobody knows this is suffering” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture 9, “People with great inborn quality”). We came from the purest and most righteous state and fell into the filthiest state. We came down so slowly and over such a long time that we didn’t even realize it was happening. On the contrary, we accumulated warped notions lifetime after lifetime from time immemorial. “Whoever enlightens obtains.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture 8, “Who practices cultivation will attain Gong”)

Zhuan Falun truly teaches us how to return to our sacred origin, our state of complete righteousness. “What is not a right mind? It refers to a person’s inability to always treat himself as a practitioner.’ (Zhuan Falun, Lecture 6, “Your mind must be right”) As a practitioner, we should keep a righteous mind in all situations. When we came to learn Dafa “without any other pursuit” and practice it alone, following “no second cultivation way,” Master put us on the righteous track right away. These requirements are very important. Without this righteous mind from the beginning, we could not obtain this precious Fa in our heart. In everyday life, we should take our personal interests lightly so as to keep the pure heart of “a righteous gentleman” (Hong Yin, “Being a man”). When encountering tribulations and the most vicious persecution, Dafa disciples should act honourably, with righteousness: Validate Dafa, clarify the truth and offer salvation to all beings. The essence of righteousness is no leakage or non-omission in our heart. Shortage of it means still having leakage. How could we return to our purest, noblest, most righteous state with a smallest trace of leakage? Master gives us time but we must diligently improve ourselves by passing test after test. Any situation is a test and an opportunity to advance, to get rid of our warped notions. Finally, the refusal to follow plans pre-arranged by the old forces is our most definitive leap out of the human condition, i.e., returning to the state of a god, a Buddha, a fully enlightened being of another realm of mind.

The tests and opportunities we face today are crucial. Even if it takes us many days, months and infinite attempts to conquer our warped notions, we must win! Enveloped by warped notions, our speech, attitudes, attire and even our usual ways of thinking, those not under the light of Dafa, are warped and unrighteous. As soon as we open our eyes in the morning, we are bathed in it. The warped notions respond to the warped environment. There is only a little bit of us – our main conscience, our righteousness – with which we began the David and Goliath-like battle.

It is a harsh battle but it is worth it because when we encountered Master and Dafa, our most sacred being was reconnected with Dafa. “As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that you rectify everything that is not righteous.” (“Dafa is Indestructible”) During the process of cultivation, our “transformation proceeds from inside to outside.” All that should be done for us is done by Teacher, all that should be given to us is given by Teacher. All that remains for us is to develop diligence and determination to cultivate in the righteous magnificent way of Dafa.

Please let’s read together these passages of Master’s teaching: “The evil persecution at present has been imposed on Dafa and the disciples by the old forces. Isn’t everything that is done to resist the persecution the most magnificent display of Dafa disciples’ being responsible to Dafa and to themselves?”(“Path,” July 9, 2001)

“You are one body, just like Master’s gong – of course you and gong aren’t the same thing. I’m just giving an example. It’s just like my gong, which does different things at the same time – some of it is continuously charging through the immense cosmos with tremendous force into the microcosm, and toward what’s higher and broader; the force is so massive and the speed is so fast, transcending all times as it rectifies the colossal firmament. Some of it, after this charging, eliminates the sinful karma of the beings at different levels and balances all the interwoven relationships among beings at different levels. Some of it assimilates beings, and some of it is repositioning beings. It’s doing different things even at the beings’ most microscopic levels – at every level. Some of it does things in low dimensions, some of it protects the students, and some of it is clearing out the evil – every facet of my gong is doing these things. In other words, one body doesn’t necessarily do one thing. But no matter what you do, you need to be worthy of being called a Dafa disciple…. Your consummation is first and foremost.” (“Lecture on the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Conference”, July 21, 2001)

We need to believe this righteousness in our mind and heart when sending forth righteous thoughts.

“To truly enable you to practice cultivation while living in the ordinary human society, I have employed a very special method… Whereas cultivation ways of the past started from the layer of the largest molecules, progressing toward the microscopic layers to transform a person, we have taken exactly the opposite road in cultivation… In the microcosm, we are gradually transforming you from the body composed of the most microscopic particles of your life, breaking through layer by layer toward the largest molecules, namely, breaking through toward the surface of the body until reaching lastly the flesh cells composed of the layer of molecules visible to the eyes. Then, you will have achieved completion of cultivation. We have taken this path.” (“Lecture at the Conference in Europe”, May 30 & 31, 1998, in Frankfurt, Germany)