Cultivate Our Minds While Practicing the Exercises

(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. I thought of a problem while I was practicing the exercises today, which I found to be rather serious.

I remember when I first started practicing the Falun Gong exercises, I focused very well on the exercise music and Teacher's verbal instructions accompanying the music. In other words, my main consciousness always predominated.

After so many years, it seems as though I no longer focus when I practice the exercises. At times I am not even following Teacher's instructions. For example, when Teacher says to raise both arms during the third exercise, I sometimes find myself raising the wrong arm, which means I practiced either more than or less than nine times before Teacher says to raise both arms up. This goes to show I haven't been focused when I practice the exercises.

Today while my wife and I were practicing the fourth exercise, I found my wife losing her concentration because she was exercising at a higher speed than Teacher's verbal instruction. When I told her she was too fast, she admitted that she had lost her concentration.

Come to think of it, I had been practicing the exercises badly. I often fail to enter tranquility when I practice the exercises. Why? I think it's because I fail to cultivate myself and, instead, I allow my secular thoughts and attachments to run wild. Although I was thinking about clarifying the truth, it is not a reason to not enter tranquility when doing the exercises as I should have.

I adjusted my mentality and found my main consciousness taking the reins of my mind. When I practiced the second exercise again, I listened to every note in the exercise music at first. However, after 20 minutes, I was distracted by my thoughts and lost my concentration again.

In hindsight, I had lost concentration and failed to enter tranquility for a long time. This is a very serious problem. By sharing my problem, I hope to expose and eliminate the evil elements that have been disturbing me. May this also be a kind reminder to those fellow practitioners sharing the same problem to reinforce their main consciousness and cultivate their mind so as to enter tranquility when practicing the exercises.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/3/169535.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version