(Minghui.org) I have often gotten into situations where I thought, “I can't do anything about it.” I thought it was natural and did not pay much attention to it.
But during the past year, I got stuck in my cultivation several times. I did not know how to continue to cultivate and was sad that I could not get over it. I even thought to myself, “I’ll just stay this way and wait for the end of Fa rectification.”
But then, recently my few remaining teeth got very loose, which forced me to look for the root cause behind it.
My Inability to Do Anything
I couldn’t do anything about losing my teeth. Over ten years ago, I was only in my 50s, but my teeth start to loosen. My gums were not in a good shape, so I thought that it was natural. Then more teeth became loose. Some I had pulled out and some fell out on their own. Now, I only have about 10 teeth left.
I had a few dreams about my teeth, where one tooth, several teeth, or even all my teeth were gone. Those dreams frustrated me, but I felt relieved when I thought about getting dentures.
When a tooth was about to fall out, I sent forth righteous thoughts and talked to it. I asked it to stay, to accompany me until consummation. But it never worked. I gave up and felt that I could not do anything about it.
The loss of a tooth could have been because of my karma or interference by the old forces. But I agreed with the arrangements in my dream, and the old forces took advantage of it.
When another practitioner had severe sickness karma, his family forced him to go to the hospital because they were not practitioners. He was tested, had a blood transfusion and IVs, and took medicine. I knew that he should not be treated like that, so I sent forth righteous thoughts, hoping that he would need less blood. But it did not happen. Although I said I negated the old forces' persecution, I could not do anything about it.
When I meditated or sent forth righteous thoughts, I sometimes felt sleepy, or I couldn’t keep my palm up in the correct position, or my mind wandered. This lasted for quite a long time. I reminded myself to stay focused again and again, but my mind would drift away shortly afterward. I felt that I could not do anything about it.
When I clarified the truth to people, I could not do anything about it when they did not agree with what I said. I had talked to some of them for years, but nothing changed. I saw no other way to make progress, and I felt I could not do anything about it.
There were more situations like that than I care to recount.
The Reasons Why I Thought, “I Can’t Do Anything about It”
One of the reasons was that I was driven by my human mindset, so I regarded many things that happened as “natural:” Ordinary people think of going to the hospital when they are sick, losing their teeth when their gums are bad, getting sleepy when short of sleep. But as a practitioner, these human notions prevent us from improving.
Another reason was that my main consciousness was not strong, and I was unable to cultivate every single thought. I know that we should cultivate our every single thought, but I only understood it superficially. When an unrighteous thought appeared, I realized that it was not in line with the Fa, but I didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t look further to find the attachment behind it and eliminate it.
The third reason was that I did not cultivate diligently. When I was held in a detention center in 2001, a practitioner in the same cell saw that I still had difficulty crossing my legs. He said, “You are not strict with yourself.”
Some ten years later, I often recalled that conversation. I knew that I often let up in my cultivation. When there were opportunities to improve, I found excuses not to do it. I was unable to bear either the physical or mental hardships, and I was unwilling to try. We all know that bearing hardship is a good thing in high level cultivation, but I always avoided it, let alone understood the truth of “Let joy be found in hardship” (“Tempering the Will” in Hong Yin)
The fourth reason was that I had the attachment of pursuit. When I felt that I could not do anything about it, it was often because I pursued the result. I wanted to see the result, the success. When the goal was not met, I felt helpless. I hoped for a miracle when another practitioner or I was dealing with sickness karma, or while I was trying to save people. In fact, it was a kind of attachment to validating myself. When I clarified the truth, I wanted to be successful so that I could gain more mighty virtue. I did not know what to do when people refused to accept the truth.
Lastly, I did not believe in Master and the Fa 100 percent. I told myself I could not do it because I did not cultivate myself well and my cultivation level was limited, and not because I did not believe in Master or the Fa. Actually, I did not believe in Master. Even though my level was limited, Master was watching me and it was up to me to do it. How much we believe in Master will determine how much can be done.
How to Break Through This Hopeless State
These reasons, which were all interrelated, were all capable of helping me to improve myself. One of the most crucial stumbling blocks in my cultivation was that I stopped when I saw a problem instead of digging further to find the root cause and improve on the Fa. My cultivation was at a superficial level.
I realized that I must think of a concrete way to improve myself whenever I found a problem, so that I could get rid of it. I knew that I should be strict with myself at all times, because that is cultivation.
We must truly believe in Master and the Fa. Master said, “When a person cultivates, the matter of insight runs throughout, start to finish, and he has to cultivate amidst delusion.”(Zhuan Falun, Volume II) Faith is precious when you are in delusion. If Master showed miracles to everyone, evil and bad people would come to cultivate. If every Falun Gong practitioner is illness-free, the puzzle is no longer there.
Master also told us:
“From another perspective, human beings do not live among everyday people for the sake of being 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 cultivate, and there will not be the issueof 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 cultivate.” (Zhuan Falun)
Because human beings live in a state of delusion, there are foolish people who will laugh at the Dao loudly when they hear about it; there are average people who will “practice it on and off” (Zhuan Falun), believe it sometimes and doubt it sometimes; and there is the diligent cultivator “who is able to see may not see clearly, for only seeing unclearly can one enlighten to the Dao.”(“Why One Cannot See” in Essentials For Further Advancement)
In order to solve the issue of “believing,” we must study the Fa more. But reading the Fa is not the same as studying the Fa. It is useless to simply complete the reading as if it were just another task. Now I read the Fa by reciting it. If I am unable to recite the whole chapter, I just recite paragraph by paragraph. I also read more articles on the Minghui website. Fellow practitioners' cultivation sharing and their firm resolve have helped me a lot. I cultivate by myself. I could not have gotten this far without the help of the Minghui website.
“Your Main Consciousness must be strong.”(“ Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun” in Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa) Master also said, “Because the more one’s Main Consciousness controls the mind, the less other lives can step in.”(Zhuan Falun), we must guard our Main Consciousness to prevent anything bad from getting in. We must seize every unrighteous thought when it appears, expel it, and negate it.
Master told us,
“Doesn’t a person’s body also consist of a part that is at various microscopic layers and that isn’t in the surface dimension? All of those can generate thoughts.”(Fa Teaching at the 2013 Western U.S. Fa Conference)
Just like peeling an onion, we should get rid of the bad thoughts in different layers of our bodies. One bad thought can appear repeatedly, so we need to eliminate it many times. It exists in different microscopic layers and we must be firm and persistent.
For example, I had an attachment to money. Since the beginning of my cultivation, I’ve been constantly involved with money issues, such as someone gave me extra change, I got a prize, someone took my money, etc. I still encounter this kind of thing even now. I know that I still have not completely gotten rid of my attachment to personal gain.
Master told us in another lectures,
“As soon as your thinking aligns with a particular type of being, it will be able to instantly exert an effect on you. Yet you won’t be aware of where your thoughts are originating from, and will still think that it is your own will.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference XI)
At the same time, the old forces also seize upon a cultivator's loopholes and push bad thoughts into his mind. We have to perceive that other lives are responsible for those thoughts and realize: “They are not mine, I don't want them, go away, they are no good.”
When we have a bad thought or when our mind drifts away when we are sending forth righteous thoughts, we should not think,”Why am I thinking this way?” or “Why can’t I concentrate?” In fact, those thoughts are not mine and I am not losing concentration. It is the low-level lives from other dimensions that are seeking to control me and suppress me.
I use a simple method to deal with this when this happens to me. I react immediately by thinking, “They are not mine, not mine. I eliminate them, eliminate them.” When I lose concentration, I immediately ask my Main Consciousness to return.
Master and other practitioners are fighting with the old forces, and Master is watching me. When we often expel the postnatal “other self” and keep doing it all the time, it will become smaller and smaller.
We must fundamentally recognize the illusion. For example, when the sickness karma comes, the old forces might test you first. Like Master said,
“Initially, the animal does not dare to possess him, and it will first give him some gong to try out. One day, the person will suddenly find himself with the gong that he has been seeking, and he can even heal illnesses. Upon seeing that it’s pretty good, the animal will use it like a prelude to a piece of music. “Since he wants it, I’ll attach to his body. That way I can give him more things and do it more easily.”” (Zhuan Falun)
When my body begins to show signs of anything wrong, I immediately negate them: “This is testing me; my single thought will produce a different result; a cultivator does not have illness; this is illusion; don't recognize it; expel it.”
Master told us that “forced persecution that's not acknowledged is a crime.”(Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival) If we waver a little bit or have a little doubt or don't expel it in time, we are showing signs of accepting it and it will really come.
We must use the Fa to guide us. If we are not strict with ourselves, we will run into more situations that we can't do anything about. Because our goal is to cultivate to become divine, we should use the Fa to measure our words and deeds. If we feel helpless, we should ask ourselves: “What would a god do or think in this instance?”
At the same time, we must look inward for our attachments. If our teeth are loose, maybe we are not doing well on cultivating our speech, or not reached the state of “the palate’s attachments severed” (“Abiding in the Dao” in Hong Yin) When people do not listen to us when we tell them the facts about Dafa, maybe we are not doing it with enough compassion. When a practitioner's sickness karma does not go away, maybe we are looking at the practitioner's attachment too much. When our hands do not stay in position when sending righteous thoughts, maybe we are not studying the Fa with enough concentration.
We must change our conventional thinking. If our thoughts remain mired in human notions, we will not become Gods. Master told us,
“I have you become a Buddha, have you cultivate, and in cultivation you must get rid of your postnatal notions and clear out the thought-karma that replaces you.”(Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Houston)
When I cleanse myself before sending forth righteous thoughts, I hold on tightly to the thought of eliminating my human thoughts. When any such thought appears, I analyze it right away to see where it came from: Is it a human notion or did it originate from low-level lives? What is the Fa's standard?
“I can't do anything about it” is itself is a human notion, and it appears because we are used to thinking with this human “impossible” notion instead of using a god's way to think. Only if we break through the human notion and think like a god can we produce miracles that are impossible for human beings. Many fellow practitioners have already created countless such miracles.
The above is the understanding at my level. Please point out anything that is not in line with the Fa.
Category: Improving Oneself
