Enlightening During the Process of Eliminating the "Sleep Demons"

By a Falun Dafa Practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) I was intrigued by an article I read in the 229th issue of "Minghui Weekly," "Eliminate Demonic Nature (With Master's Comments)" in which the practitioner states:

"It is not enough to recognize that we are righteous and to separate ourselves from the evil. We must realize that evil should not exist, and we must do everything in our power to destroy the evil. When the thought karma comes, instead of simply tolerating it, knowing it not to be myself, waiting for Master to remove it as I did before, I now summon up every ounce of determination to destroy it with all of my heart, knowing it should no longer exist, and that it is a manifestation of my own demon nature to passively allow it to exist."

I would like to talk about how I eliminated the "sleep demons."

I used to feel tired sometimes when I practiced at night, so I thought I could have a good sleep and then practice the next day. But the next day I had the same problem. It showed me clearly that "sleep demons" were interfering with me. After reading a fellow practitioner's article, I realized that sleep demons exist separately from my true self. Whenever I should practice, not sleep, I would think of the comforts of sleeping, and I would indulge myself. In fact, it's the result of sleep demons' interfering. It is just like the fellow practitioner said in the article, "it is a manifestation of my own demon nature to passively allow it to exist." Every time I want to practice, the sleep demons start to interfere with my true self. Although I often insisted on practicing, I felt very tired. It shows that I did not actually eliminate the interference.

Master said in "Expounding on the Fa:"

"If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn't the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?" ("Expounding on the Fa," Essentials for Further Advances)

Once I understood this matter, when I practiced at night, I changed my mindset. I thought that sleeping comfortably is not good. "Practice, difficulties and suffering are good." I told myself that I should get rid of the idea of sleeping comfortably; otherwise, I would not sleep at all. When I focused my thoughts on this, I felt relaxed, did the exercises twice, and meditated for one hour until midnight. After sending righteous thoughts, I went to sleep. I did not feel sleepy the next day.

I realized that demons will interfere with us endlessly when we have thoughts that conform to their way of thinking. When we separate ourselves from the evil, and know that they should not exist, the environment that enables demons to interfere with us will disappear.

We should cultivate ourselves according to the Fa and always use righteous principles to cultivate. We should consider difficulties and suffering as good things, and comfort as a bad thing. Otherwise, we will feel tired when doing the things that we should do. It's because we have the attachment to comfort. If we change our mindsets and get rid of human notions, nothing will stop us. I suggest that fellow practitioners read again Master's article, "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You should Be."

June 29, 2006

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