(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in China in 1998. I then went overseas and continued practicing. I have followed Master in the Fa-rectification for more than 27 years. I am very lucky that I work for a website launched by Falun Dafa practitioners. We work together to expose the persecution, eliminate the evil factors, improve our xinxing, and validate Falun Dafa. I have realized that only by studying the Fa well and purifying myself through cultivation can I do this job well and keep up with the Fa rectification process. I’d like to share some of my recent experiences.
Sending forth righteous thoughts is one of the three things Falun Dafa practitioners should do. Master has emphasized the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts multiple times. I followed the request of our project coordinator to send forth righteous thoughts for our colleagues.
I sent forth righteous thoughts for the security of the website for 30 minutes every night for a period of time. Because we are one body, I also sent forth righteous thoughts for the team working on the website, to dispel and eliminate the elements of evil spirits and rotten demons that were interfering with the site.
I was able to enter tranquility when I sat down to send forth righteous thoughts, and the energy was strong. I felt that I had done the right thing and that Master was strengthening me. I realized that sending forth righteous thoughts for the website was essential.
After a while, I started sending forth righteous thoughts all afternoon every day, no matter how busy I was. I became clear-headed after I finished sending righteous thoughts, and it didn’t delay my work.
I realized through cultivation that the reason practitioners sometimes became agitated by conflicts and felt discouraged, or that things were difficult, was because there was element of emotion within them. They didn’t dissolve their human notions from the Fa’s perspective to an adequate degree. I understood that when hardship fell upon me, I wouldn’t feel light-hearted, and would think of ways to resolve the conflict, because I wanted things to be easy and comfortable. I knew it was difficult to eliminate emotion, not be moved, and to assimilate myself to the Fa, but as a practitioner, I really wanted to let go of emotion.
I pondered how I could let go of emotion. I needed to put cultivation and the Fa first. I shouldn’t be moved. When I had conflicts with my husband, I reminded myself not to be moved or get mired in emotion, and that nothing else truly mattered. But I didn’t always do well or wasn’t always in line with the Fa.
I was assigned to edit two experience sharing articles several days later. The practitioners who authored the articles appeared to have cultivated well in general. They were diligent in cultivation and did the three things well. But they were attached to emotion. I edited the two articles but still felt that there was strong sentiment between the lines, such as when describing the wife passing away, the author himself becoming old, and them supporting each other through thick and thin for decades.
Master said:
“Recently I read a few articles written by practitioners, and one was by somebody who’s homeless and wandering about. He was talking about how his wife is a Dafa disciple and how wonderful she is, but in those words I saw his emotions. And there was another person who talked about how wonderful her husband was, and I saw emotion there, too. I’m not saying that you did something wrong. Some ordinary people read those articles, too, and during Fa-rectification they’re effective when ordinary people read them, so I can’t say that that’s not good. In fact, that’s just caused by that little bit of human stuff you still have.
But I think that as cultivators you shouldn’t be affected like that by emotion.” (“Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003”)
From the Fa, I realized that the practitioners had yet to cultivate away those emotions, which were displayed between the lines, and if I were to post the articles without further editing, they may not be beneficial to the readers. I needed to edit the articles further to save the good parts that described where the practitioners had cultivated diligently and passed tests well, and shorten the parts that had strong emotion. I didn’t have time that day, and I delayed publishing the articles. I spent a lot of time editing the articles that night.
I edited another article a week later. The practitioner wrote about how good her husband, a non-practitioner, was, how he had suffered when she was persecuted and he had contracted cancer, and how she hoped that he would start practicing Falun Dafa. She even told relatives that if he practiced Falun Dafa he would recover from cancer. But he didn’t recover, and this caused negative reactions among their relatives. I saw that there were issues with the practitioner’s starting point of saving her husband, though she did well in the end by helping her husband listen to Master’s Fa, and she fulfilled her responsibility and followed the course of nature.
I wondered why I could see the strong emotion between the lines of these practitioners’ articles. I only had the thought of letting go of emotion and made some effort in this regard. Master helped reduce my karma and the material existence of emotion for me.
I had previously been led along by practitioners’ emotion, and felt sympathetic with them. I actually edited one of the articles several months ago, but I didn’t see the strong emotion between the lines. When I let go of emotion, I could see the strong emotion between the lines when I edited it again. I must have made some improvement in this regard.
Thank you, Master, for helping me improve in this respect. When I let go of emotion, I found that my husband became more stable and calmer. I will continue improving myself.
After I wrote the above paragraphs, the next day I edited an article about emotion which alerted me, and one day later I edited another article about emotion. Master had presented these articles to me to help me realize how emotion demonstrated itself. In the fourth article, the practitioner was wrapped in emotion, then tried to get rid of emotion through memorizing the Fa. The practitioner was finally able to eliminate all the interference, and had righteous thoughts and actions. This encouraged me and reminded me to utilize this period of time to cultivate myself, find my true self, and jump out of emotion.
Master said:
“As long as you exist in this social environment of ordinary people, whether you’re a human, a rock, a plant, or an animal, you’re all immersed in emotion, and even the gaps between particles are immersed in emotion.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)
“That’s because emotion is a human thing—it’s a necessary element of the living environment provided to human beings, but it’s not for gods. As cultivators, you have to rise above it, and cultivate away the attachments that result from love and emotion. That’s the relationship among these things.” (Teachings at the Conference in the Eastern U.S.)
My understanding of “cultivate away the attachments that result from love and emotion” was that I shouldn’t let emotion play a role, and I would then become rational. When I gradually let go of emotion, I would develop compassion and could then validate the Fa better.
Many practitioners pay attention to their fundamental attachments. There has been a lot of sharing in this regard. As I understand it, there are various fundamental attachments in various periods of personal cultivation. Master has arranged a path for us to reach the goal of cultivation. In different periods of cultivation, different tests, hardships, and human attachments will display themselves. As long as we look inward and cultivate ourselves solidly, we will elevate ourselves step by step and complete our cultivation journeys step by step.
I have spent almost all my time on work, cultivation, and projects to validate the Fa. I didn’t have a habit of watching news, spent little time watching it, and never followed the news. Even after Gan Jing World was launched, I watched the videos on the platform only occasionally, but I did also gain some insights when I watched the videos. I still thought that I should spend my spare time studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, which I believe are the most meaningful things for practitioners.
I spent my spare time watching Master’s lecture videos and reading Master’s other lectures. I read one or two articles from Essentials for Further Advancement every night before I went to bed. I gained a better understanding of the articles each time and saw a deeper meaning of the article that I had not been aware of previously. I became aware of my human notions and tried to get rid of them. I also had a further understanding of the nature of cultivation and believed in the Fa more firmly. This process was very precious.
After the new U.S. president formed his cabinet, I became more and more interested in the news and used the time I had previously used to study the Fa to watch news on Gan Jing World on my iPad. I kept up to date with the news and started to pursue such knowledge, which I hadn’t done previously. The ideas were more in line with my ideas of how to behave in this human world. My family members know little about the American system of government and its traditions, and this became my excuse to talk to them about the current affairs of the U.S. cabinet. I said to myself that I should continue watching the news so that I can talk to my family members about Western values and reduce the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on them.
I watched or listened to the news almost every day after the Iran war started, and discussed it with my husband. But I told myself in my heart that this was not something that a practitioner should put her heart into, that Dafa controls everything and everything has causal relationships. I shouldn’t be moved and should study the Fa well, do the three things well, and keep a calm heart so that I will know what Master has arranged for me.
Several days ago, I started to study one article from Essentials for Further Advancement again before I went to bed. When I finished reading the article “What is Emptiness?” I was in the same state as when I had previously read the book. I read the article and every word entered my heart. After I lay down in bed, I recited the article twice. I realized that Master was giving me a hint that a cultivator shouldn’t be bothered by worldly affairs, and that only by eliminating the human attachments to emotion and desires can one achieve genuine “emptiness.” I had been trying to let go of emotion. I realized that I had some attachments that had drawn me in, attracted me, and made me feel interested in watching videos about current events.
One day when I started to talk to my husband about the strategies of the Iran War, I bit my tongue. I realized that I shouldn’t be so interested in worldly affairs.
Master said:
“...or those discussions on some social issues that one is excited about. I hold that these are all attachments of everyday people.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
If these social issues stayed in my mind, I would be attached to them. I stopped the discussion with my husband.
During that period, I read Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume IV to Volume IX. I often read similar sentences to the effect that Master controls everything and that Master has the final say for the future’s needs.
Late one Saturday night after I finished my work with the Dafa project, I clicked the Gan World icon and watched some practitioners’ channels that I liked. I didn’t have much knowledge about world affairs, and I admired the practitioners’ analysis of Chinese history, Western civilization, human nature, human rights, and the effects on everyday people. I gained much knowledge. I watched the programs until 1 a.m.
I opened the book Essentials for Further Advancement before I went to bed. The article “What is Wisdom?” was before my eyes. I read the article word by word and realized a whole new meaning. I suddenly understood what wisdom was, and why I liked to watch those videos and discuss things with my husband, and had wasted that time I should have used to study the Fa. I realized that I was attracted by the wise people in everyday society. I also wanted to show off my capabilities of seeing through things and people. Because I practice Falun Dafa and Master gave me capabilities, it was not difficult for me to see through all the things. I liked to show off in front of my husband and make him speechless. This was what I wanted, and I felt it was meaningful.
On my way to the practice site the next morning, I understood more principles. I had admired smart people and people who were successful since my childhood. I liked to make friends with them. I loosened my righteous thoughts and developed human notions.
In the deep corners of my heart, I know that only Master can explain everything in this cosmos, and only Zhuan Falun clearly tells us the Fa principles of the universe of higher levels. How was it possible that human wisdom could distract me?
As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I must try my best to study the Fa well and do the Dafa project well, and I should put my heart into these things. I only need to know what Master wants me to do. The war is not my work. This is a worldly affair, and is arranged by gods. I had learned some news and this had helped me clarify the truth to people. I shouldn’t become attached to it. I should only enlighten from the Fa and cultivate myself in the Fa. And then I will know how to assist Master in rectifying the Fa in the Fa-rectification period.
I must let go of my human attachments, including attachments to fame, personal interest, and emotion, and let go of my admiration for the knowledgeable people in this world. I should see incidents that have happened in this world from the Fa’s perspective. I should assimilate to the Fa. This is what my life wants and what I should pay attention to in my cultivation.
Master said:
“My disciples, you must remember that we’re doing true cultivation practice! We should abandon those ordinary human concerns for reputation, profit, and emotion. Do the conditions of a social system have anything to do with your cultivation practice? You can only reach Consummation after you have abandoned all of your attachments and none of them remain. Other than doing a good job with his work, a cultivator will not be interested in politics or political power of any sort; failing this, he absolutely isn’t my disciple.” (“Cultivation Practice is Not Political,” Essentials for Further Adancement)
Above are some of my experiences at work and in my cultivation. Please kindly point out anything that has room for improvement.