By Jingcheng, a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Master said, "When our compassion emerges, we will probably find all living beings and every person suffering. This will happen." ("Lecture Seven" of Zhuan Falun) Over my 10 years of cultivation, I have truly experienced the feeling of having my compassion come forth.

Since the persecution of Dafa started, many have been deceived by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, so they have come to misunderstand and hate Dafa. Those who hate Dafa will all be dragged into hell by the evil CCP. This is the risk that sentient beings face. If our compassion has been cultivated, would we do nothing when we see that these deceived beings are to be eliminated? Wouldn't we naturally want to do something to save them? With "truth-clarification" and the exposure of the lies, people will learn the truth and realize that they have been deceived, and they will know that Dafa is good. They will be willing to withdraw from the CCP and in this way they can be saved.

Let me look back at my cultivation path and see how I have cultivated my compassion. First I have paid attention to studying the Fa. When I study the Fa, I do not stress speed. When reading a paragraph of the Fa, if I feel that the Fa has not penetrated into my mind, I will read that paragraph several more times. Only through studying the Fa with a clean and calm mind, can one "Study the Fa and gain the Fa." ("Solid Cultivation" in Hong Yin, translation version A) Isn't it so that all those who have memorized the Fa have tasted the benefits of learning the Fa that way? It is because one's memorizing the Fa is a process whereby the Fa penetrates into this person's mind. While one keeps reciting the Fa, one will naturally gain a deeper understanding of a certain sentence of the Fa. Before one gains a new understanding of a sentence of the Fa, one is in one realm; after one has gained a new understanding of that sentence, one will be at a higher realm. This is my understanding of learning the Fa from the Fa.

So on some occasions, we may find that we cannot gain new understandings of a Fa no matter how hard we try to read the Fa. At these times, we should think it over. We, during our daily life, may have paid no attention to cultivating our xinxing. Especially during the present time when all beings need to be saved, it is a xinxing issue if we do not try to save people, as we know their lives are in danger. If we have not done anything to save them, or if we have only tried to save several of them, or if we have failed in continuously making efforts to save them, our xinxing has not improved, so the characteristic of the universe will not lift us up, and we will, of course, be unable to see the meaning of that sentence of the Fa at higher realms.

I understand that clarifying the truth and convincing people to withdraw from the evil party and its related organizations is like a final exam question that Master has given us. If one has done well in this respect, one will naturally get a high score. How one has behaved and treated others in daily life, or how one has viewed and handled the conflicts that one encounters in daily life are like midterm exam questions. The questions we encounter can help expose our attachments and they reflect our human notions. For example, I help my daughter take care of her child. One practitioner asked me, "Do you feel bothered by the need to take care of the child?" I have already eliminated the attachment of feeling bothered, but once she asked about it, I knew that she had not realized that she had that attachment. I answered, "What we are cultivating is to remove this attachment of feeling bothered." Although the practitioner who asked the question did not need to take care of children, seeing others taking care of children, she exposed this attachment of hers. If she could realize, after asking the question, that she still had something in this respect that she needed to get rid of, or if through this incident she could find the attachment she needed to get rid of, she already made an improvement in this respect. If she were indeed given a child to take care of, and if she could really achieve the state of not feeling bothered, this attachment of hers has been indeed eliminated. She did not need to take care of children, but she still felt bothered when seeing others taking care of children. Wasn't it that she needed to get rid of this attachment? There are many Dafa practitioners who help take care of children. Each family has its own specific situation. Of course, one is better off if one does not need to take care of children and can spend more time doing Dafa work. However, as one has already been doing the work of taking care of children, one can use this chance to temper oneself and eliminate this human attachment.

I will not let any of the problems that I have encountered in my daily life, big or small, go unnoticed. Once a problem comes out, I will try to find out the human notion that I have generated and then use the Fa to evaluate it. The more thoroughly I analyze the notion, the more completely this attachment will be eliminated. Later I apply this means to other situations. After saying something, I can sometimes immediately realize that I said so under the influence of my human notions. The problem can be easily handled if I am aware of the problem. It will be troublesome if I am not aware of it. In this case, when I run into the same problem again, I will still be controlled by human notions and will still talk as an everyday person.

So, fellow practitioners, we must not ignore our thoughts that come to us when we run into problems in our daily lives. If we ignore them, it is the same as our having failed to answer the various questions on our exam, that is, we have not gotten rid of the notions that should be eliminated. This shell of human notions will still partially cover our prenatal nature, and our prenatal nature or true selves will not fully manifest. When the celestial changes lead to the occurrence of certain things, we still use our human notions to view these changes, because those substances of ours have not been removed, and even worse, relapses will happen. We may even have suspicion about Dafa. Because these notions are removed in a slow fashion, our compassion will not come forth. So when sentient beings badly need to be saved, we do not have enough compassion and we cannot effectively save them. In the meantime, we have increasingly more human notions, and our righteous thoughts will not get strong. We want to negate the old forces' arrangements, but those substances are still there, so the old forces will find gaps to exploit. Just as it was said in the article, "Walk Away from the Shackles of Fear" in "Minghui Weekly", a father was told by his children that, "It is not enough to only rely on sending forth righteous thoughts, you must truly let go of the attachment." So the bottom line is that if we want to do the three things well, we have to cultivate more diligently in improving our xinxing, while elevating our understanding of the principles of the Fa.

Things that we encounter, no matter how good or bad they appear, are all good things because they help expose our various kinds of human notions. We should be aware of them, and then eliminate them. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." ("Lecture One" in Zhuan Falun) After Master removes this substance, we will have elevated on this very issue.

I believe that one's being diligent is all reflected in one's not letting any problems that one encounters, big or small, pass by, while trying one's best to do the three things. Some deep-rooted notions are very difficult to eliminate. Without a process to develop one's determination and temper one's heart, human notions are not that easy to eliminate. After human notions are eliminated layer by layer, one will be able to view things from the perspective of the Fa, one's compassion will come forth naturally, and in the end, one will be able to happily make a lot of effort in saving sentient beings with compassion.

This is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything incorrect.

Posting date: 9/18/2006
Original article date: 9/18/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/24/136305.html

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