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Surface Form and the Heart (III) Written by a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to join the discussion of Form and Heart
and how the two complete each other in harmony.
The previous two parts of this series considered looking at the heart rather
than the form when addressing the relationship between the two. However, our
path is narrow. We still need to balance other aspects between the form and
heart before we can walk along a righteous path without deviation. Master says,
"I don't emphasize any specific approach; I use various means to expose
your deeply-concealed attachments and get rid of them."
(Essentials for further advancement, Digging Out the Roots)
From Master's words I understand that Master doesn't care about the form. On
the other hand, Master is fully utilizing the various forms and ways in the
human world. Therefore, we shouldn't get too attached to form. Meanwhile, we
ought to make good use of ample resources and forms created by Dafa for the
human world to validate Dafa, save sentient beings, and harmonize Dafa
manifested on this level of human beings.
The Great Way has no form. Dafa does not have regulations or fetters, nor
does Dafa place too much weight on form. Dafa puts emphasis upon upgrading one's
level and exposing one's attachments directly. If one's heart is not upgraded to
high levels, the regulations and fetters merely exist in name. The greater the
way, the fewer fetters there are, even to the point of there being no fetters.
The heart is valued more than the surface manifestation. Hence, one is more able
to grasp the truth instead of getting confused. Without the restraint of forms,
one's character improves quickly.
"The closer the worldly side paths get to the fringes, the more
requirements there are. Their devotional methods are complicated, and they
can't grasp the essence of cultivation. When a person cultivates he
concentrates on cultivating his character. But they don't realize that--they
think hardship is enough for cultivation. So after a long period of time,
after cultivating for hundreds of years or even, say, 1,000 years, they only
develop a little bit of gong." (Zhuan Falun)
Along with the upgrading of one's realm, one might be able to experience the
wonder of formlessness. The more one reaches to the state of formlessness, the
better he can make use of all sorts of forms, sticking to the true nature of the
matter and utilizing all different forms at will without any restraint.
For example, I used to be held back by human notions when clarifying the
truth. However, as long as our hearts are improving and expanding, the
regulations and human notions will be broken. As we strengthen our righteous
thoughts to be benevolent to sentient beings and responsible to Dafa, we will be
able to create many good forms to validate Dafa. When clarifying the truth, we
have to balance different aspects of matter. For example, we must get rid of the
attachment of fear. On the other hand, we still need to be cautious rather than
assume everything was assured. We should keep a good state of mind, but also
take into consideration the state of mind of the people to whom we are
clarifying the truth.
Of course, right now we are limited by many imperfect conditions. Sometimes
when we had just come up with a good idea, the police would knock at the door,
or conditions suddenly changed and we couldn't obtain truth-clarifying materials
due to interference. Hence, the idea was turned around improperly. Sometimes I
wanted to clarify the truth under extremely severe circumstances, but found it
really hard to get a proper way to do so.
Along with studying the Fa, I have a stronger and stronger mind of
benevolence and a heart to validate the Fa. I have righteous thoughts with
respect to other issues as well. I am able to make my way out even if there does
not seem to be a way out.
Therefore, along with the upgrading of my heart, I keep on looking for new
ways and proper forms to clarify the truth according to the changing
environment. No matter how hard it is, we ought to create conditions and ways to
give people opportunities to be saved.
Sometimes, I found a good way to clarify the truth, but I hesitated, worrying
that other practitioners might not understand. Actually it was because I didn't
really break away from my human notions. When studying the Fa, I came to the
understanding that if Jigong focused more on form than the heart, he might have
been restrained by the rule of abstaining from meat and would have starved to
death. With his heart not attached to eating meat, he could break the rule under
specific circumstances. If Shakyamuni was attached to form, he might be
restrained by the rule of no killing and so he wouldn't have had the bathtub
cleaned to take a bath. We don't regard the form as important. Instead, we look
at his heart when he asked his disciple to clean the bathtub. He didn't mean to
kill the bugs in the bathtub. He only wanted his disciple to understand that
human beings have their living environment in this world so as to make his
disciple better enlightened to the issue of no killing.
Saving the sentient beings is urgent. While balancing the relationship of all
different aspects of matter, we shall break away from the restraint of surface
form and focus on the actual effect. As I mentioned in my previous
experience-sharing article, ample resources and forms are created for the
spreading of Dafa.
"Everything through the ages has happened for the Fa."
(Just a Play)
Let us make full use of those forms to validate Dafa and save sentient
beings. "Using at Will," we shall use any proper way and form. That's also how
Dafa disciples harmonize Dafa manifested at the level of human being.
Let us clarify the truth in tens of thousands of forms, not just stick to
one. Let the truth prevail in all forms and the lies be completely exposed.
These comments are just for your reference. Please kindly point out anything
that is incorrect. For Parts I and II, please see Posting date: 6/10/2003
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