(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, I contacted some fellow practitioners who are bothered by their karma, a single problem or persecution. Whenever their attachments lead them into a tribulation, they become quite worried, and they want to resolve these tribulations as soon as possible. Some fellow practitioners go so far as to look for practitioners who they believe study the Fa well, and ask them for help and enlightenment in finding their attachments. But because their enlightenment was not through their own efforts, they did not know how to put it into action, and they did not look inward for solutions. They again hesitated when it came to the same problem, and lost confidence in themselves. This caused them to become frustrated.
The common problems among them are that some feel sleepy when they study the Fa for a long time, and some cannot calm down and focus. Because of this, they could not enlightened from the Fa teachings on how to guide themselves in cultivation. They are viewing tribulations using their human notions. Whenever I see how poorly these fellow practitioners cultivate, I become very worried. We are a whole body, and every tribulation they encounter is a tribulation for all practitioners. Master requires practitioners to improve as a whole body. I want to share my understanding with fellow practitioners through the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. I hope it will be helpful. If there is anything that is not according to the Fa, please point it out.
Not Willing to Look Inward
The only guaranteed way to improve xinxing is to study the Fa well. Fa study is also fundamental to validating the Fa well, and enables one to view everything with wisdom and a clear mind. When you finish reading a lecture with all kinds of messy thoughts in your mind, you may not even know what you have read. Sometimes practitioners measure others when they study the Fa and find things wrong with those who made them feel sad. Instead you should measure yourself, and find your own shortcomings through the Fa. Some practitioners think that they do not cultivate diligently, their knowledge is not adequate, or their enlightenment quality is poor, and as a result they cannot enlighten when they study the Fa. It is modesty if we take our starting point as being human. If we evaluate ourselves using the Fa's standards, we may realize that the true reason for our difficulties is that we are not willing to look inward. We would rather reject the chance to constantly improve ourselves. This kind of thinking is formed from human notions, and has separated us from the Fa. In my opinion, if we study the Fa with these thoughts, we cannot enlighten to the Fa, nor can we see the force guiding us to cultivate. Throughout the book Zhuan Falun, Master emphasizes looking inward and improving xinxing. If we are not willing to look inward when we study the Fa, how can Master help us? Our purpose is to study the Fa. However, we do not enlighten from the Fa because of our human notions. What does this mean? It means we are giving up cultivation.
What scares the old forces the most is to see us look inward. When we find attachments and truly want to let go of those attachments, the old forces have to face the fact that all of their evil arrangements will be disintegrated completely. To look inward is to deny the old forces. So the old forces are eager to weaken our ability to look inward, so as to extend their evil lives.
We should take seriously our own practice and cultivate ourselves solidly. When we feel it is hard, we should ask ourselves, "Are any of my attachments in this field? Which of my human notions are exposed? I should look inward better. I should view this based on the Fa. It is me who has done something wrong. If I am wrong, I will correct it. Because I have the willingness to cultivate diligently and improve my xinxing, Master wants me to be enlightened. Not only am I willing to think about it, but also I should enlighten correctly. Please let Master strengthen me." At that time, because my heart is in accordance with the Fa, it is shining like gold. My will is to rectify myself and improve my xinxing. When we let go of all these messy thoughts, calm down to study the Fa, and when we are able to melt into the Fa, Master will help us and let us find our attachments and human notions. Then we can tell the difference between our attachments and the thoughts from our true self. We can then reject the attachments from our mind and let them go, so that these attachments can no longer affect us at all. Master will help us eliminate the material substances that makes up our attachments. Therefore, everything that puzzles us will disappear.
Let Go of Interference and Study the Fa Well
With the attachment of doing things, we cannot calm down to study the Fa. Sometimes we regard Fa study as a task, other times we are thinking about what we need to do while we are studying. Sometimes we even think, "Let me finish studying this lecture, I need to do something urgently." We don't realize that our Fa study has then been interfered with. We do not even think about letting go and eliminating this interference. It is very serious when we cannot focus on Fa study itself. Those fellow practitioners have been persecuted, and there are some who are manifesting illness karma. Why not view this from the other side? Why can we not calm down? What is the attachment that prevents me from focusing on Fa study? We should eliminate the factors that interfere with us and prevent Fa study. We should remain in a state that allows us to understand the basic meaning of the Fa. If we can melt into the Fa, we can enlighten to the mechanism of the Fa that cleanses our bodies and purifies our minds. As our minds become increasingly clear, we can find the reasons why we cannot calm down, and through this uncover more hidden attachments. They can then be eliminated, as human thoughts are not our true selves. Our true nature consists of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." It is the process of how we cultivate our xinxing and eliminate karma by rejecting, suppressing and eliminating those human notions. This is the process of improving ourselves, and there are lots of changes in our bodies.
Look For the Superficial Attachments
When some fellow practitioners meet with tribulations, they always look inward. But sometimes what they find are only the superficial attachments. It is difficult to let go. It is like using everyday people's methods to solve a tribulation. When the tribulation is calmed down for a period, a new tribulation will appear. It is like a tumor that is removed from a patient. Because the entity is still there, soon the tumor appears again somewhere else. But the entity is the basic reason why the person has the disease. So if we want to eliminate the disease completely, we should get rid of that entity. Denying the persecution involves finding your fundamental attachment that leads to persecution. If we deny the attachment and let go, the evil persecuting you will vanish automatically. So the superficial attachment is not the reason for the problem. Our past was based on selfishness. The hidden factors of every attachment is the self. If we want to be a new life in the new universe, we should let go of the factors of selfishness from our very core. We can then better assimilate to the characteristics of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," so that we can cultivate ourselves into lives that are selfless. During the conflicts and tribulations, if we can sacrifice everything and face everyday people with mercy, then the tribulations created by the evil through exploiting our human notions will disappear.
Release the Fundamental Notion of Selfishness and Study the Fa
When some fellow practitioners are in the midsts of a tribulation, they try to look inward when they study the Fa. They try to let go of their attachments, but they still find that they cannot overcome the tribulation brought about by the evil. If they try to eliminate the tribulation instead of trying to find the attachment, this is a reflection of selfishness. This is not correct--the aim of studying the Fa well is to view everything based on the Fa and rectify every single thought. The goal is not to free ourselves so we can cultivate our xinxing. Instead, it is an attitude that is responsible towards all sentient beings, everyday people and our own cultivation. It is a responsibility to let go attachments, instead of bringing any losses to the Fa, and to do this we must let go of all human notions. Selfishness should never be a factor. At the same time, we should not allow any material formed by human notions to exist in your dimensional fields. We are to purify the universe and save numerous sentient beings. Not allowing any attachment to be exploited by the old forces to persecute us is being responsible to sentient beings. Our attachments are excuses for the old forces to control the sentient beings, causing them to commit crimes towards Dafa and thus lose the chance of being saved. This is a huge responsibility, and it makes me realize how solemn and noble our cultivation is. We must fulfill our historic missions.
Clarifying the Truth Cannot Replace Cultivation
After the video "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners" was released, many fellow practitioners realized that saving sentient beings was very urgent. In some regions, they put all their efforts into truth clarification. Someone even said, "It is OK not to study the Fa, not to do exercises and not to send forth righteous thoughts. It is more important to save sentient beings." Master says that Dafa disciples should do the three things well. Some fellow practitioners only believe that one thing is important, regarding it as the only standard of cultivation, that is, clarifying the truth well and persuading more people to quit the Chinese Communist Party. This actually serves to accumulate Gong and virtue among human beings. If we do not study the Fa and do not do the exercises, that's equal to giving up practicing. That is a fact! When we give up the precious chance of following Master to consummation, even if we could go back, our world would be incomplete. The sentient beings would be eliminated because we didn't cultivate ourselves well. We would then be left with endless sorrow, and not be able to redeem such a tremendous loss.
If we can constantly look inward and form the mechanism of looking inward, and if we can cultivate diligently, Master will help us. For all of these shortcomings is the process of cultivation, yet we still have a chance to catch up. We should be worthy of Masters' boundless mercy. We should treat our cultivation very seriously, as it is not only for ourselves, but it is to save sentient beings who have placed great hope in us.
Fellow practitioners: especially those practitioners in rural areas, and those practitioners at informational materials sites, please cultivate yourselves diligently. Please pay attention to the quality of your Fa study. We must not neglect to study the Fa just because we are busy. Only solid cultivation in Dafa can ensure our consummation.
