By a Falun Gong practitioner in Liaoning Province

(Clearwisdom.net) I am 28 years old and obtained Dafa in December 2004. My recent experience tells me that we should not only learn the Fa, but also "obtain the Fa." We should concentrate when learning the Fa. Master said:

"When one chants the Buddha's name, one must do it single-mindedly with nothing else in mind until other portions of the brain become numb and one becomes unaware of anything, with one thought replacing thousands of others, or until each word of 'Buddha Amitabha' shows up before one's eyes." (Zhuan Falun)

What I learned first was Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa. While I was just beginning to make contact with these profound words, I was full of curiosity and I liked to read the parts I thought were interesting. For example, about the giants, dwarfs, and medium-sized people; how the gods exist in heaven; and the origins of human beings in history. I always picked out a paragraph and read it and felt that I'd learned the Fa well and that I was better than others .

You may have already figured out that the attachment that I brought with me when entering Dafa was also my fundamental attachment; that is, I came to satisfy my curiosity. Just as Master said in "Determination" in Essentials for Further Advancement:

"If you take up this path out of some interest, your mind will definitely not be firm and you will definitely forget the fundamentals while living in human society. If you don't firmly hold to your faith you will gain nothing in this life. No one knows when there will be another chance. It's very hard!"

This fundamental attachment always stood in my way on the path of cultivation over the past three years, making my cultivation an off and on thing. Sometimes I was confused. Why did my thoughts, which would like to melt into the Fa when diligent, disappear without a trace once I made contact with ordinary society? When I got together with people, I felt that I was bogged down. At the beginning, I struggled and would want to jump back into Dafa, but I couldn't. Sometimes when learning Dafa, I was reluctant and thought of playing interesting computer games, going shopping, etc. As a result, I studied Dafa less and less and finally became numb and indulged myself in other activities and could not remember to study the Fa. But Master didn't give up on me and reminded me many times through articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. I saw my status clearly and could see the difference between myself and others. I then suddenly awoke and felt regret for wasting time.

Here I would like to tell non-diligent practitioners that you should read the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. When we look at how diligent practitioners cultivate, we can then find our own shortcomings and gaps. Otherwise you will think that you are cultivating very well--just like a flower--compared with non-practitioners.

Usually new practitioners can easily develop other attachments. They think, "I obtained Dafa late. Can I reach consummation when the Fa-Rectification of The Human Realm comes? Am I a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period?" This attachment blocked me for a long time. I thought at that time that I was surely not a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period and must belong to the next group of practitioners, so I could move on slowly and not hurry. I set a criteria lower than my fellow practitioners--when they sent forth righteous thoughts, I could send less because I was different from them. When they clarified the truth to save sentient beings, I could do less because I did not have that much responsibility. For a long time I felt that I could not melt into Dafa. I felt like I was justing "auditing the class" and not a formal student. Actually, it was my post-natal attachments that blocked me. I evaluated whether somebody fulfilled the requirements of a Dafa disciple by how long they had been a practitioner, not by their xinxing and the standards of Dafa. It was surely my post-natal notions that assigned priority based on seniority, an idea formed in ordinary society. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "All practitioners are disciples, no matter when they began the practice." Now that Master admits that I am a disciple, why don't I myself it believe? Why don't I do things that Dafa disciples should do? Another thing: new practitioners tend to have attachments to time. I remember a relevant part of the Fa Master taught, and my understanding is that, as long as you are allowed to obtain the Fa now, you are given enough time to reach consummation. But it is only enough time to reach consummation if you are diligent and not enough if you are not diligent. I hope that this experience helps new practitioners.

Posting date: 4/5/2008
Original article date: 4/5/2008
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/3/10/174032.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version