(Clearwisdom.net) Not too long ago, several fellow practitioners suffered severe "sickness." Other practitioners and I sent forth righteous thoughts with them and shared our understandings based on the Fa. When considering looking inward and completely denying the old forces' arrangements, the "sick" practitioners’ reactions are similar: "I looked inward, but I could not find any problem. I did not acknowledge the old forces' arrangements; I am doing the three things, but…" They seemed frustrated.

After exchanging opinions, I thought to myself,

"...when a conflict arises between two people and it’s seen by a third person, even the third person should think to himself, "Oh, a confrontation is happening between them, so why is it that I was there to see it? " ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia")

I realized that now that I had seen this issue, there must be something I need to improve on. As a matter of fact, I am also the kind of person who thinks, "I looked inward, but I could not find any problem."

I have cultivated for ten years and experienced so many tribulations. Some fellow practitioner said I had cultivated well, and I was happy to hear that. I was studying the Fa, practicing the exercises, distributing truth-clarifying materials, and setting up truth-clarification materials production sites, and though I was not as diligent as some fellow practitioners, I had stepped forward for Dafa. Thus I thought, "Shouldn't I qualify to be a 'Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple?'"

However, whenever I encounter problems, my human notions would come forth. When studying the Fa, practicing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts, I could not keep my mind clear, and often felt sleepy. Every time I looked inward, I looked from human notions, not from the Fa: "I am studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and doing the three things, how could I not improve? How could I still suffer "sickness"? How could I have so many interferences?" As a result, "I looked inward, but I could not find any problem." Yet I knew I was not in a correct situation, and felt frustrated.

Whether a person knows how to look inward, is the fundamental difference between a cultivator and an ordinary person. Master told us clearly,

"...the two reasons for not being able to increase gong. Without knowing the Fa at high levels, one cannot practice cultivation. Without cultivating one’s inner self and one’s xinxing, one cannot increase gong. These are the two reasons." ("Lecture One" in Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)

"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

If a Dafa practitioner does not do well in cultivation, it must be that he did not study the Fa well. If one does not understand the Fa, how could one look inward? I made up my mind to let go of the attachment of doing things and to calm myself down to study the Fa.

Several days ago when studying the Fa, I suddenly had a new understanding about a sentence Master told us. Master said,

"Since everything in other dimensions has life, karma is also the same. When one begins to practice cultivation in a righteous way, one must eliminate one’s karma. Eliminating karma means having karma wiped out and transformed. Of course, karma will resist, and so one will have tribulations and obstacles." ("Lecture Six" in Zhuan Falun)

Now I understand that karma has life; it will "actively" block our cultivation path, which is why it is so difficult for us to improve. Since karma and the old forces are lives, they can clearly see our attachments and shortcomings in other dimensions, they will work together to stop us from doing the three things well, and especially, stop us from studying the Fa well. This is because when a practitioner studies the Fa well, he will identify and eliminate his attachments and warped notions.

"Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master." (Zhuan Falun)

Master will also help us to eliminate these warped things. Of course karma does not want us to do that and it will do whatever it can to stop us from doing that.

In the process of coming down to the human world through different levels, we accumulated notions of each level. By the time we arrived in the human world, we had accumulated lots of warped notions and degenerate things in this long process. This is truly karma built upon karma. Our bodies and fields are full of degenerate things, creating a field of karma. There would be no hope for us to return to our true home if it were not for our Benevolent Master saving us. Now under the guidance of Dafa, we started moving up. We must fundamentally change our conventional thinking and eliminate all the warped notions and karma. This is the only way for us to improve and break through each level.

Thus, studying the Fa with a calm heart is the key; we know "how" to look inward to find problems when we understand the Fa clearly. The attachments have nowhere to hide when we measure everything against Dafa. Once I understand this, I do not feel that studying the Fa is a simple task. Rather, it is studying to assimilate to Dafa and return to my true nature; this way, I know how to look inward. Last night I felt anxious all of a sudden, yet my heart was not moved. I calmed down to examine why I felt anxious. I thought about a personal business matter in which I may lose some benefits if it is not dealt with carefully; also there were some misunderstandings among fellow practitioners. As a matter of fact, the Fa clearly told me how to deal with these situations, so why did I feel anxious? Wasn’t it because of my selfishness and attachments? These should be eliminated in my cultivation, but if I don’t truly look inward to find these attachments, they will not disappear automatically.

This morning when I did the sitting exercise, I could not calm down no matter how hard I tried. All kinds of thoughts came and went. Why? All of a sudden I realized that all the thoughts were based on the theme of "selfishness," I knew these thoughts were not truly mine since my mind could not control them. When I looked deeper, I realized that all these thoughts existed to feed my attachments. The "self" formed in the human world enjoyed these thoughts, and this gave these thoughts a reason to exist.

Since these thoughts have lives in other dimensions, they will be active. In the name of "meeting my wishes," they exist in my thoughts, interfering and trying to replace my true nature. In addition, they make all kinds of efforts to stop me from assimilating to Dafa, making me feel sleepy when studying the Fa, interfering with me when doing the exercises, etc. They even know how to coordinate with the evil persecution from outside. We must pay attention to eliminating these human thoughts while eliminating the outside evil factors.

Each Dafa practitioner’s body corresponds to a giant cosmic body. If we cultivate ourselves well and eliminate the evil factors in our own field, a large cosmic body will be clear and transparent, all lives in that cosmic body will be rectified. If we all cultivate well, the righteous factors will be very powerful.

When clarifying the truth, sometimes we lack confidence. On the surface this was because the evil Chinese Communist Party is still very reckless, many fellow practitioners have been arrested and persecuted, the media is full of evil propaganda, many people are controlled by the evil, and the righteous factors are not strong enough. As a matter of fact, if we examined ourselves carefully, we would see that the bad thoughts and degenerate notions in our minds all reflect human beings’ degeneration and warped human notions. When our righteous thoughts could not maintain control, isn’t that situation somehow similar to the reflection of the external environment?

If every cell in our body exactly reflects our own image, the surface reflection of the external situation represents some factors that are not cultivated well by every practitioner. It has been more than seven years since the persecution started, and many fellow practitioners, amongst the pressure and pain, are wishing the moment of Fa-rectification reaching the human world to come early. Actually we do not need to wish for the moment; all we need is to examine ourselves: Do we have righteous thoughts all the time on all matters, did we eliminate all the degenerate thoughts in each level, is our every single thought in accordance with the Fa? If we could all achieve all of these things, that is the moment that the Fa-rectification reaches the human world. This is my understanding of why we must look inward to cultivate.

Master said,

"Without any notion, one will resolve issues with his true good nature, benevolence controls. The more you reveal your true nature, the higher level you reach, the closer you are to your true nature." ("Buddha-nature" from Zhuan Falun II, unofficial translation)

I believe this Fa has told us the standard we must reach, and studying the Fa calmly is the only way to reach such a level. If we cannot learn the deeper meaning of the Fa at a higher level, we will not be able to cultivate to that level. Though evil factors are interfering, the reason we do not know how to look inward is because we do not understand the Fa clearly. I believe if we truly appreciate this precious cultivation opportunity and have firm faith in Master and Dafa, we will have powerful righteous thoughts to break through all obstacles, study the Fa calmly, and all the interference will be eliminated in our powerful righteous thoughts.

Karma is formed in the human level, so it cannot reach the microscopic level. As soon as a righteous thought comes from Dafa practitioners, everything can be changed. Master told us repeatedly of the importance of studying the Fa. Let us all cultivate diligently, study the Fa well and look inward to cultivate, do the three things well with pure minds and truly accomplish the mission of Dafa practitioners.

Above are my personal understandings. Please kindly point out any mistakes.