(Clearwisdom.net) I read fellow practitioners’ sharing articles quite often, and also study the Fa and share my understandings with local practitioners. Many Dafa practitioners’ righteous deeds and experiences in xinxing cultivation have given me enlightenment and encouragement, and helped me to become more diligent. My mind was often elevated after reading the articles; I was moved to tears as my mind and body were obviously purified. This is how I felt in terms of reading the majority of practitioners’ articles. However, there were a few articles in which made me feel regret. From my current level of understanding, the main reason is because they don’t look inward deeply or carefully enough, and their thoughts about looking within weren’t clear either. From a certain perspective, the priority of cultivation is to elevate our xinxing. Looking within is a way to elevate xinxing directly, and is a precious Fa instrument given to us by Teacher, so it is of vital importance. I would here like to summarize what I currently see and hear.
You Will Not Affect the Roots of Your Notions Without Looking Inward Deeply
Some practitioners look inward and find lots of attachments, such as sentimentality, selfishness, fear, not allowing people to criticize, etc. Some practitioners can find ten or more attachments and recite a long list. However, several days later, the same attachments resurface, and they are unable to pass the test. My understanding is that if we can look within more deeply, then we might be able to find the root of the problem. Just like digging a well, we will only see some wet soil when we dig with one spade; we might see some a little more when we dig with two spades, yet when we dig with three or four spades, we find the source of the water. Some fellow practitioners just dig with one or two spades, and don’t get deep enough. It appears that they are good at looking within and are very diligent in doing so, but they‘re unable to dig out the roots, nor reach the root problem in order to eliminate the notions.
Teacher said:
“In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance.”
(Lunyu in Zhuan Falun)
Teacher also said:
“Then by contrast, in what way are Chinese people different? When you tell them the reason why, they’re still thinking, “Oh, that’s right, but why the why, then?” When you then tell them why the why, they’re still thinking, “Oh, then why the why of the why?” So you need to clear things up for them all the way to the end before you can completely open their minds.”
(“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland”)
Therefore, we know that when Chinese practitioners look within, we should learn how to look more deeply. For example, when we recognize that we’re experiencing sentimentality, we should go a step further and ask: “Why do I feel sentimentality towards him? Which part of him made me feel this sentimentality?” Go a step further to: “Why am I touched in this respect”, until you arrive at the root and eliminate it. Of course, Teacher said: “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (from Zhuan Falun). Teacher will eliminate the substance once you find the roots of the notion, and on our side, we immediately feel lighter and brighter -- even our physical bodies may experience the beautiful feeling of vibration. Of course, this is only one example. The actual situation can be totally different.
Confusing Bad Thoughts with Thought Karma, Not Differentiating Them, Only Suppressing Them
Some fellow practitioners always say the word “mie” (eliminate), no matter what kind of bad thoughts surface, and just send righteous thoughts whenever they’re not feeling well. Of course, I’m not saying that this is absolutely wrong, and this works in an emergency. In most cases however, we should first look inward, as this is an opportunity to elevate ourselves. When we eliminate the attachments and notions, we’ll be more pure in our actions, have a better cultivation state that conforms to the Fa, and be very smooth in doing everything. Even when thought karma surfaces and we eliminate it right away, we still need to look within.
When some fellow practitioners didn’t feel well, felt sick, or something else happened, they all believed that this was due to interference by the old forces that was trying to stop them from saving sentient beings. They continued to do things, or go out to persuade sentient beings to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Some felt better and the symptoms disappeared, so they believed that they’d done the right thing, and denied the old forces’ arrangements. Sometimes, I was worried for these fellow practitioners, since cultivation has no formulas. We can’t continue like this forever. It is possible that they just postponed the tribulations or had them transferred, but didn’t get rid of it in the real sense. These same problems or other troubles might still occur. Haven’t some fellow practitioners who were determined to do certain things died of sickness karma or met with other tribulations? This didn’t actually deny the old forces’ arrangements. When tribulations accumulate, they become difficult to pass and might cause a life-threatening test.
The old forces are not as strong as they look. Teacher utilizes them to help us eliminate our human attachments. I realized that breaking down the notions arranged by the old forces, is also breaking down the arrangements made by them. Teacher reminds us “Remove your human thoughts and evil will naturally die out” (“Don’t Be Sad” from Hong Yin Volume II, Version A). Master keeps asking us to let go of our human attachments, which is equivalent to denying the old forces’ arrangements, going beyond and breaking apart all the tribulations. However, the old forces have arranged many tests and tribulations that don’t conform to the requirements of the Fa rectification. We may not have a deep understanding of the Fa at the very beginning, and we have passed through much suffering. Now we should become clear-minded. Besides having determination, we should eliminate our human attachments in the real sense, and this is the priority. It is admirable that we can cultivate with righteous thoughts and actions, but it would be better if we went beyond the tribulations and cultivated without them.
Fear of Human Attachments, Not Daring to Dig Deeper, Using the Fa to Cover Up Fear
Besides me, there are fellow practitioners who immediately recite a passage of the Fa whenever some thoughts come up, in order to suppress them. When they come across external interference, they act the same way, fearing that their determination to follow the Fa will be influenced. They don’t dare tell others about these thoughts, and don’t think further about it (although it might be subconscious, so we have to dig deeper into our minds). We should say that it is right for fellow practitioners to be determined to the very end in cultivating Dafa, but if they’re already so determined, why are there still bad thoughts or interference? There must be some deeply hidden attachment. You shouldn’t be afraid at this moment; you should just dig into the same line of thoughts to see exactly what the problem is.
Some practitioners have too much fear of attachments, and just use the Fa to cover it up, calming down at the surface level. For example, fear of not studying the Fa enough, not doing enough of the three things, not conforming to the Fa standard, and not being able to compensate for losses. Superficially, the practitioners looked like they were keeping up with doing things well and not lagging behind with anything. Others saw some fellow practitioners working on projects, then immediately worked on them as well. When they saw others reciting the Fa, they would also recite the Fa; when they saw others writing out the Fa, they did the same. They did whatever projects the others were doing.
Perhaps I’ve discussed this in too much detail, but some fellow practitioners might not have actually thought about the actual effect of their actions, and their own abilities. When they recited the Fa, or when they did pretty well in clarifying the truth, they still stumbled. I guessed that this was because they were afraid that other people might comment that they weren’t diligent enough, so they just joined the projects. Others might still think that Teacher is right beside them, and knows what they’re doing, so why do more and better? In fact, Teacher sees only our hearts; what makes Him happy is that we cultivate away all our attachments, leaving no loopholes. When we do the three things, we should still do them with “non-action”. Teacher said “A focus on charitable works is still action, Remove all attachments for true non-action.” (“Non-action” from Hong Yin)
Most of these practitioners can’t see the inner meaning of the Fa, perhaps due to their deeply hidden notions. They make judgments as to whether they should do a certain thing from the perspective of being right or wrong. Of course, it is right to do the three things requested by Teacher -- they devote all their time to this. In fact, sometimes they can only see whether something is right or wrong from the superficial level. These practitioners often learn from a certain person instead of from the Fa, and develop an attachment of doing things. Some practitioners experience conflicts and are tired both physically and mentally. At this moment, the best thing to do is to calm down and look within. Teacher mentions in Zhuan Falun, the example of extracting teeth using Chinese medicine versus western medicine techniques, telling us that we shouldn’t look only at the superficial tools, but instead at the actual effect. Shouldn’t we enlighten carefully to this?
Studying the Fa Well Should be Harmonized with Looking Inward
Teacher said,
“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” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
If we can study the Fa calmly, identifying and enlightening to the Fa principles, many of the deeply hidden microscopic notions will be eliminated. Whenever we come across conflicts, we should be sure to look within. When we eliminate all the deeply hidden notions, they won’t interfere with us, and the Fa principles will become more evident and stronger. Later, we might be able to develop the process of looking within, and will then understand the higher, inner meaning of looking within. Once when I was calmly studying the Fa, all the words I read became Falun. After I read all the superficial words, they all turned into the microscopic level form, showing me all the microscopic principles. This repeated numerous times within a short period. I knew that this was the magic exhibition of the boundless Dafa. I didn’t recite the Fa, but could see that I’d already learned to recite the Fa in other dimensions. I knew that I was sitting in a large time field while studying the Fa.
Later, my understanding of being a senior or a new practitioner also changed. Some senior practitioners study the Fa in this human time field; each study period counts as one time. Other practitioners study the Fa in other dimensions; one Fa study period can be as good as several times. In comparison, the other senior practitioners can’t be counted as “senior”, since they don’t even know how to cultivate. Some fellow practitioners are sometimes good in their state of cultivation and sometimes have a bad cultivation state. They don’t even know whether they’re cultivating well or not; they have conflicts of mind and are unsure; they lose their own sense of judgment and clear-mindedness. This is because their notions control their main consciousness; they should quickly identify their own notions and eliminate them, since these might be their fundamental attachments! I believe that whether you’re young or senior practitioners, you should learn how to truly look within and be a truly diligent practitioner.
Although I’ve expressed many things and have seen fellow practitioners’ shortcomings, I understand that every fellow practitioner is great. Whoever has continued to walk the path in Dafa today has unlimited mighty virtue. This isn’t just how well we cultivate; it is more because we meet Teacher and Dafa. The Buddha Fa is boundless, and Teacher will surely allow us to cultivate to consummation. The only thing is that, we shouldn’t have Teacher worry so much about us, since He made so many efforts for us, and almost sacrifices everything for us.
My level is limited, please point out anything inappropriate. Thanks to our great Teacher and thanks to every great fellow practitioner!