By a practitioner in Austria

(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share some of my personal understandings with everyone. Though I began to feel something about this quite some time ago, it wasn't until lately that I started to understand this issue more clearly. In today's society, people promote rational thinking. That is to say that our thinking should be logical. Originally, this was good for humanity. For example, if we want to achieve something, we must first find out the general situation, and analyze the possibility of its being implemented, then find the most suitable way to deal with the situation. This process seems quite logical. I, however, was not certain about this all along. I thought that if people are too accustomed to this conventional thinking, wouldn't they weaken their instincts and gradually find it harder to solve matters following their hearts and natural instincts. If one seals off one's natural instincts, how could that person still cultivate?

I graduated from university just before I started cultivation. I studied in a technical specialty of everyday society, so what I studied every day was to find the best way, using technical knowledge and logical thinking, to solve problems and reach conclusions. The so-called logical thinking is to repeatedly use fixed data, for example, a formula, under a basic presumed condition, to generate a new understanding. This is a way the scientific field attempted to establish theories of natural phenomena in the early years. Now, as cultivators, we have realized that in comparison with religious belief, this modern science is taking a totally different path.

After I started cultivation, I maintained my contacts with people from scientific and technological circles. I often thought to myself with sadness: "It is so difficult to talk about the significance of cultivation to these people who value 'formula thinking' so much." I tried with pursuit to get those in the scientific and technological fields to take notice of strange phenomena that could not be explained by logic. I thought that they should be moved by these widely recognized phenomena and think carefully about it. But what I could see from colleagues was only their opposing opinions and resistance.

As I just said, I often felt sad when I tried to find a way to start this kind of conversation. But I didn't realize that I actually had a quite strong attachment to conventional thinking. For example, I myself had used human logic to help me to believe in Dafa. I have been collecting materials about research achievements in frontier science, and have been to the exhibition of research achievements in frontier science. Apart from that, I have also found materials about discoveries that today's modern science could not explain, which Master speaks about in Zhuan Falun. At that time, I treated these discoveries with strong human attachments, though I didn't get overly excited about it. /For example, I browsed the Internet to search for information on the large-scale nuclear reactor in the Gabon Republic. But soon I realized that this discovery could not change the conventional thinking in ordinary society either. Finally, I only found an attempted explanation on the Internet, and this explanation only said that the nuclear reactor was naturally formed by geological change of the rock stratum, but didn't mention anything about the scale and the remote time when it was used. After this experience, I was not sure about how everyday people could understand Dafa. I have always had this understanding -- that is, to judge things with logical inference.

But when I read Zhuan Falun once again, I finally realized something. And it changed my original thinking. Master said,

"How can it be allowed for everybody to fly in the air? Will that be an ordinary human society? This is one primary aspect. From another perspective, human beings do not live among everyday people to be human, but to return to their original, true selves. So there is an issue of being enlightened to it. If one sees that many people can indeed levitate, one will also want to practice cultivation, and there will not be the issue of enlightening. Therefore, if you can levitate through cultivation, you should not casually show it to others or demonstrate it to others, as they also need to practice cultivation." (Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation)

Now I understand that it will absolutely get nowhere to judge the extraordinary effects of Falun Dafa with the logical thinking of everyday people, because otherwise there will be no enlightenment. Thus I stopped looking for scientific proof for the existence of the discoveries in frontier science. On the contrary, it partly reflected my own attachment to science and my need to seek out logical explanations.

I would like to go over Master's lecture that was given in Sydney in 1996:

"The way modern empirical science develops now is very clumsy and slow. It is really like a blind person groping an elephant. It cannot recognize the existing form of matter in the entire universe and cannot recognize the existence of the characteristics of the universe. Accordingly, if it touches a bit of something, it will take it as the whole. It has only touched the leg of the elephant and claims, "Oh, science is like this. This is the science that really understands life and matter." It cannot see what this entire elephant is like. Thus, it cannot understand that the universe is made of countless and different time-spaces, nor can it understand other dimensions and the existence of other forms of lives as well as matter. As a result, these will all be called superstitions by those simple-minded and stubborn people. This is the most critical reason why our human morality is declining. Many people will then wave the stick of science to strike at the most ancient and the most fundamental virtue of man. It is really dangerous! If people do not have De, gods will no longer consider them human beings. If heaven no longer sees people as human beings, they will be eliminated and start all over again." (Lecture in Sydney, 1996) [Editor's note: De means "virtue" in Chinese]

I have had this understanding for some time now. But some of my experiences in Berlin, where I helped to promote the Chinese New Year Spectacular, deepened my understanding of this issue. I planned to stay in Berlin to help for a day. I left for Berlin with three fellow practitioners on the morning of the final performance day. Among them, one was wearing a traditional Chinese costume.

After searching for some time, we found a good spot to promote the Spectacular in front of a bridge. Three of us started to give out pamphlets about the Spectacular to passersby, and told them that the performance that night was the final show in Berlin. In the beginning I only introduced the Spectacular to a few passersby as I didn't know many details about it. I looked around to see how fellow practitioners were doing it. When I saw how the practitioner in traditional Chinese costume was giving out pamphlets, I was deeply shaken. She does not understand a word of German, yet was giving out a lot more pamphlets than me. I understood instantly it was not the Chinese costume that made the difference. She smiled at every person passing her and introduced the Spectacular to them with limited short phrases in German, and sometimes added more information in English. I was truly moved by her righteous thoughts and her pure heart.

Instead, I was often puzzled by various thoughts of mine, and was trying to judge whether someone would accept the pamphlets according to the impression they gave me. The Chinese practitioner knew what I was thinking. She told me to treat giving out pamphlets as a most righteous thing. That touched me deeply. So we decided that both of us would continue to give out pamphlets and the other practitioner would send righteous thoughts to support us. I felt the sudden change in me. I stood there firmly, not neglecting any person passing us. It was much easier to give out the pamphlets compared to before. I also was able to introduce the Spectacular to people with a positive and happy attitude.

We stayed there until a few hours before the performance began. This practitioner's calm and righteous manner made me realize its significance. With her actions, she showed me that when it comes to saving sentient beings, having firm righteous thoughts in one's heart is far more important than any so-called rational thinking. Through this, I saw clearly that in the past I didn't want to accept fellow practitioners' opinions because I always thought that I had the well-trained ability of logical thinking. I had a notion that I could do better than others. I am very fortunate to learn this understanding from my fellow practitioner -- that is, as a cultivator it is more important to keep a pure and clean mind, and then we will be able to take the responsibility for Dafa work. This is the only way we can stay firm when challenged by our notions and attachments. My experiences told me that if we cannot keep a pure and clean mind, we will soon face obstacles and difficulties. Without a righteous heart, all logic and plans are useless.

Thank you Master for helping me realize my attachment.

Posting date: 6/11/2007
Original article date: 6/11/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/26/155675.html

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