Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- My understanding of Harmony in the family
- Eliminating Demonic Nature by Cultivating Kindness, Melting into the Fa and Being Indestructible Like Diamond
- Cultivating Oneself Well is also the Key to Saving Sentient Beings
- Sleepiness While Studying the Fa Is Interference from the Evil in Other Dimensions
- Breaking Through Individualism is also Not Acknowledging the Old Forces
- Making Improvements in Sending Righteous Thoughts
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the July 2008 Falun Dafa India Newsletter.
As we start July, the dark memories of 20 July 1999 come back to us. Let us not be despondent but look at how Master has given us the strength in the time of adversities. Master has shown us how to turn crisis into opportunity, by clarifying the truth and exposing the lies of CCP.
We should be steadfast in our path and do what Master expects us to do.
It is important for us to keep our righteous thoughts and clarify the truth to the world. Please visit this site and fill in the petition. Also join in the world wide signature collection campaign.
www.thepetitionsite.com/14/help-stop-the-killing-of-falun-gong-practitioners-in-china
Please forward it to as many people possible to create awareness.
This issue has a compilation of experience-sharing Articles gleaned from Clearwisdom that always shine through because of their insights and fine quality of sharing. It is important to read the Clearwisdom, Pureinsight and other Dafa sites. We make an effort to select Articles from the Archives which people don’t go back to and are relevant even today. Contributions are welcome from practitioners.
Heshi! Hope, you like the selection of Articles and gain some new insights!
Note: "All the contents in this newsletter - except for quotations and excerpts of writings of the founder Mr. Li Hongzhi - are only ideas and experiences of practitioners and do not represent Falun Dafa in itself."
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- 2. What’s Happening?
With the reopening of schools and colleges in Bangalore, the practitioners were busy introducing the exercises in many schools and colleges. Practitioners were also invited by many colleges which gave them an opportunity to also clarify the truth and get signatures for the petition.
Practitioners from Pune introduced Falun Dafa and the exercises to at least 50 people in a software company where one of the practitioners is a software professional.
Practitioners in Mumbai have also been invited to conduct a two day workshop with students of Mumbai University.
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- 3. My understanding of Harmony in the family
By an Indian practitioner
I am a housewife from a middle class family and my husband and I are both in the teaching profession. We have a modest income and have a five year old daughter. My husband and I have had a happy marriage and we respect each others views on most things. Even when we have disagreements, it soon gets resolved because my husband has a way of apologizing if he is wrong and that has humbled me many a time, to accept my faults too.
My husband was introduced to Dafa in the place where he teaches. He took to Dafa sincerely, doing the exercises regularly and reading the books. Soon after he started, he wanted me to take up the exercises and read the books. The books seemed difficult to read and understand and the Chinese words seemed so alien. But a veteran practitioner who visited my husband encouraged me to read the book together with her.
I liked what I read and felt in my heart that this is definitely something very righteous. Soon after I took up the practice, I found my husband got too busy with more teaching assignments and more administrative responsibilities. I got a little perturbed by these new developments and started wondering if these were tests for my husband and me. I called up the practitioner and expressed my doubts and she reassured me that whatever was happening was for the good and to keep doing the exercises and read the book.
In the meantime, my husband and I told our parents about Dafa and showed them the exercises and the books. Since our parents are conservative in their thinking, they looked at the exercises and the books with a little trepidation as something ‘foreign’ encroaching on their age-old, traditional beliefs. But our little daughter astonished them by telling them about truthfulness and kindness.
I love and respect my parents and in-laws. In fact, my in-laws tell everyone that they have found an ideal daughter-in-law in me.
After reading the Dafa books, a lot of questions popped up in my head. I was in a dilemma. I was concerned if I would create some discord with my parents and in-laws if I did not observe certain religious rituals which the family performed as a tradition. I discussed with my husband and we decided we would go through the motions of the rituals without any emotions. Then I thought to myself, “Am I being true to myself?” Is this one of my attachments being exposed?
I discussed it with the veteran practitioner and she told me, in her understanding it was all right to go through the rituals to maintain harmony in the family. She said she too had to go through the rituals for sometime before she could give up everything. She said now if she is compelled to attend any religious ceremonies in the family, in her heart she recites the Lunyu or says ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good’ or ‘Falun Dafa is good’. She also said how there were Feng Shui objects in her house and once she got a better understanding after Dafa she could remove them easily. But when some overseas practitioners suggested that she remove some icons, she did not want to upset the rest of the family elders. She reasoned that the icons that were there in their living room were more like art objects but the icons that were there in their tiny prayer room were worshipped. Her husband too was reluctant to discard the icons. He said that since they don’t worship the icons in the living room or ask for any favors it was all right to keep them. Besides, he said if he got rid of the icons, people would think he was into some kind of new-found cult! And that would be doing a disfavor to Dafa. She said as she continued her cultivation in Dafa, she felt she was guided and presented with opportunities for breakthroughs. In fact, one day her husband said they could gift all the icons in the prayer room to a nearby temple!
A couple of months back, there was a Hindu Festival where one is supposed to fast through the day and read the scriptures through the night. Since, my parents and in-laws happened to be out of town during the festival, the practitioner suggested that we read Zhuan Falun through the night. We completed most of Zhuan Falun through the night and finished it by the next afternoon. A lot of the concepts became clear to me.
I was thinking to myself, what would I do at the big festival coming up in the next few months where the entire family gets together to read the scriptures?
I am a relatively new practitioner and my understanding must be at the very rudimentary level. In my understanding, I have to maintain harmony in the family keeping in mind what Master has said in Zhuan Falun ‘ In our school of practice, those who practice cultivation among everyday people are required to practice cultivation precisely in ordinary human society, and to fit in among everyday people as much as possible.’
Teacher said,"you still have to walk the path of cultivation yourselves. To walk this path well and progress to its end--nothing is more extraordinary. I say that because during the journey you will have hardships, tests of every sort, unforeseen ordeals, and you will have unexpected interference from all kinds of attachments and emotion. The interference will come from family, society, good friends, and even fellow cultivators. And along with this there is interference from changes in the state of human society and from human notions that were formed in society. All of those things can drag you back to being like an ordinary person. But if you can break through all of it, you can advance towards godhood." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")
I feel the elders in the family practice a classical religion which Master says is also a cultivation way. Since Falun Dafa is a righteous cultivation way, I think it will clear the negative energy field around me. I will cross the bridge when I come to it and I am sure Master will guide and help me not only to make the right choice but also the right move so that there will always be harmony in the family. I won’t push the family to take up Dafa cultivation, but if they have a predestined relationship they will come to Dafa.
As a practitioner it is my duty to project the noble side of Dafa and always be at my best behavior.
At my level, this is my understanding of maintaining harmony in the family and society.
Please point out any gaps or incorrectness.
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- 4. Eliminating Demonic Nature by Cultivating Kindness, Melting into the Fa and Being Indestructible Like Diamond
By Zhang Dong
(Clearwisdom.net)
I have come to the understanding recently that along with the deepening of our cultivation, a Dafa disciple should truly become a particle in Fa-rectification, a being in the new universe created by Dafa. If we at all times check every single one of our thoughts, words and actions with a calm mind, we would find a lot of impurities and degeneration. If we do not fundamentally rectify the degeneration, it is very hard to relinquish many of our attachments, because if the root cause is not removed, the attachments can only be suppressed or partially removed one layer at a time, and they reappear at a later date when the opportunity arises. These degenerate notions severely interfere with our assimilation to the Fa.
For instance, I find deep down within myself there exists a mentality, which is manifested by being disrespectful and arrogant towards others. This mentality is entangled with unkind and intolerant demonic nature and jealousy, and it is rather difficult to eliminate. However, when we thoroughly recognize it and see through it, the elimination becomes more direct and easier. This degeneration is very bad, and it is part of the old forces. Only by respecting Master and the Fa, having a rock-solid belief in the Fa, are we able to continually see the deeper meanings of the Fa.
There are some practitioners who have not been diligent. Apart from the fact, they have not been studying the Fa well and don't have enough understanding about the Fa, there also exists a degeneration of being not serious and careless with everything. This degeneration is very harmful. Cultivation in Dafa is magnificent and is a very serious matter. Because our goal is to become a great indestructible god through cultivation, to reach our goal, we must first of all study the Fa. If we do not have god-like thoughts and we do not know what the state of a god is like, then how can we possibly become a god? If we want to become gods at various levels, then we must know the Fa principles of various levels.
We should also solidly cultivate ourselves,"Following [the Fa] in everything,
Compliance is cultivation."
("Solid Cultivation" from Hongyin, unofficial translation) Some people study the Fa quite a lot, but they do not study with their heart, and whenever they come across a problem they often think like everyday people, with everyday people's logic. In fact their study of the Fa is no more than studying the Fa as if learning some theory."If you do not change the human logic that you, as an ordinary human, have formed deep in your bones over thousands of years, you will be unable to break away from this superficial human shell and reach Consummation. You cannot always count on me to eliminate karma for you while you fail to truly progress in comprehending the Fa and rise above human understandings and notions." ("Cautionary Advice" from Essentials for Further Advancement) Cultivation is cultivating the heart, and it mainly involves the improvement of xinxing. Unless one changes from within and improves one's xinxing, nothing can be achieved.
When I saw that even practitioners who were doing well in the Fa-rectification or who could share much understanding of Fa principles were also taken advantage of by the evil, I felt unsteady in my heart. In fact, this unsteadiness is caused by human notions. "Even he had become like this, what could I become like?" Isn't this notion itself a reasoning of everyday people? Besides, how would you know how well a person is doing in cultivation? Who would have known his state of mind when he was taken advantage of by the evil? How could his state of mind be in keeping with the Fa? If it had been completely in keeping with the Fa, then how could it have been possible for the evil to take advantage of? Isn't this itself an attachment-- worrying about what would happen to me if I could not do well? Think about it, why would one not do well? How can one not do well if he or she actively looks inward and studies the Fa more and checks oneself with the Fa all the time? If one keeps worrying about oneself, then there is a problem. One should ask oneself if he or she has the indestructible righteous thoughts towards the Fa. If we want to have strong righteous thoughts, we must first of all overcome our fears and strengthen our will. Once our strong will is based on the Fa, we will have strong righteous thoughts. In the superficial human dimension we should also pay attention to the issue of security. Then the evil will have no loopholes to take advantage of.
In fact, when we are completely melted into the Fa, the evil cannot move us at all, because we are already part of the Fa and we are particles of the Fa. How can the evil possibly move the Fa? When the evil has a handle on us, it is because we have loopholes. What is difficult is that when we do not study the Fa well and do not solidly cultivate ourselves, when our thoughts and actions become deviated from the Fa, we do not even realize it, and sometimes we even unwittingly acknowledge the old forces. Isn't this giving the evil a loophole?
We will melt into the Fa eventually, because we will cultivate to become a pure particle of the Fa, not because we do not leave any loopholes for the evil to take advantage of. A god does not have everyday people's attachments, and does not have fears, partly because he does not have such things in his life, and partly because he is not in the maze, yet everyday people in the maze cannot help having attachments and fears. These are the very things we need to give up in our cultivation.
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- 5. Cultivating Oneself Well is also the Key to Saving Sentient Beings
By a Dafa practitioner in Mainland China
(Clearwisdom.net) We all know that in personal cultivation, cultivating oneself well is simply studying the Fa and cultivating the mind. But during the Fa rectification period, only through simultaneously doing the three things well can a Dafa practitioner cultivate oneself well. Of course, studying the Fa with a calm mind is the precondition of doing the three things well. So I want to talk about the significance of cultivating oneself well from the angle of studying the Fa with a calm mind. Cultivating oneself is also the key to saving sentient beings.
I experienced a period of deeply and perceptually understanding the importance of studying the Fa with a calm mind. I now share it with fellow practitioners hoping to show how closely related cultivating oneself well is to saving sentient beings.
The persecution started just after I obtained the Fa. My personal cultivation and validating the Fa were mingled together. Since the beginning of my cultivation, my primordial spirit has frequently left my body. Although the dimension that my primordial spirit initially entered was very evil, I felt that I had strength in my heart and I was guided by righteous thoughts. Although the density of evil was so high that I felt extreme mental pressure, I was determined to aggressively surpass the tribulation and overcome the difficulty. I had the courage to conquer the tribulation. Since then, I almost always broke through many kinds of tribulations in other dimensions. Although my heart trembled and it was difficult, overall I felt that the more I moved forward, the steadier my heart was, the stronger my righteous thoughts were and the less pressure I felt. At the same time, the evil dimensions and the evil in other dimensions lessened. I could distinguish more dimensions and experience more and more things.
Later, Master asked us to send forth righteous thoughts and eliminate evil with divine power. I realized only then that when my primordial spirit left my body, I actually was eliminating evil all the time. I just did not have a clear rational understanding about this. Afterwards, I wondered why my primordial spirit automatically left my body to eliminate evil almost every day when I did not know about eliminating evil and why I did not give any clear instruction to eliminate evil. I learned the reason later: every day I diligently studied the Fa with a calm mind and did actual cultivation.
Since the beginning of my cultivation, I have treated every day's Fa study with a calm mind as the key and always kept a serene mind. I strongly felt that the power and courage of my primordial spirit when it left my body and broke through the ordeals fundamentally came from my studying the Fa with a calm mind. I also intuitively felt that if I did well in studying the Fa with a calm mind every day, then automatically I had the best mentality and behavior in every day's practicing, bearing the pain in meditation, balancing the activities of ordinary life and handling relationships with family members who do not cultivate Falun Gong. It seemed very natural and could be achieved effortlessly without needing to think or arrange it.
For example, because I always studied the Fa calmly, I was in a constant state of serenity. I was barely afraid of difficulty when doing the exercises every day. From the beginning, the longest time that I could continue embracing the wheel was one hour and I could forbear the pain of meditation for one hour. Yet this was under the circumstance that I was cultivating at home after the persecution and there was no outside force to urge or supervise me. When there were conflicts with other people, I immediately looked inside. It took just a moment to overcome the uncomfortable feeling in my heart of not wanting to admit my mistake and I restored the mind of serenity right away. I did not feel uneasy, nor did I feel it was difficult. When handling everyday life routines, I did not go to the extreme either. Seeing it was the time to cook, I just cooked naturally. Seeing that the floor had become dirty, I just cleaned it naturally. Seeing dirty socks and other clothes that my family members had put on the clothes-washing platform, I washed them as needed.
Activities in everyday life are pretty commonplace. I did my best to hurry when doing these things, but I did not feel that it was wasting time to do these things and neither was my heart impatient. I did not even think about how a practitioner should do it well and so on before doing these things. I just did them naturally and did them well. I think that doing things naturally came from studying the Fa with a calm mind day after day. Precisely because of this, family members who did not cultivate did not oppose my cultivation and neither did they make any trouble for me. Even though I was later arrested, imprisoned, persecuted and became homeless because of validating the Fa and my family was often harassed and persecuted as a result, up to this day they have never complained and have continued to help me. Neighbors also treated my being persecuted with a positive attitude.
Studying the Fa with a calm mind brought out a stable and serene mind. When doing the three things with a serene mind, one's mind is pure, clear and clean. One also does not develop an attachment of a zealot. I think the reason that I could take good care of every aspect of cultivation and everyday life was because every day's Fa study with a calm mind was guaranteed. With a clear, righteous mind, a practitioner naturally does things in the direction of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, naturally knows how to do things and can easily do things very well. Now I know why my primordial spirit automatically left my body almost every day to eliminate evil when I did not know I should eliminate evil and neither did I give any clear instruction to eliminate evil. It was because I gauged well from the root of studying the Fa with a calm mind every day. It was precisely because of this stable, pure compassionate status that the cultivated divine part of my body could be mobilized and "Your enlightened, original nature will automatically know what to do" ("Expounding on the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement). So I actually already participated in eliminating evil before Master asked us to eliminate evil with righteous thoughts. "Those whose primordial spirit can leave the shell are the ones who are able to control the divine part of their body that has completed cultivation" ("Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art"). Of course, whether your celestial eye is open or not, whether your primordial spirit can leave your shell or not, as long as you always maintain righteous thoughts, you have a positive effect and can eliminate evil.
The purpose of writing this article is to once again discuss the relationship between cultivating oneself well and saving sentient beings. Not being able to cultivate ourselves well from the root will definitely affect our saving sentient beings. The last remaining degenerated factors in the universe are still interfering with the Fa rectification and saving sentient beings. I think if we pay more attention to actual cultivation and cultivate ourselves well when doing the three things, then we will quickly decompose those last remaining evil factors in the universe. With a sober mind that is not controlled by other factors, sentient beings can treat Dafa wisely and make the best choices--choose not to interfere with Fa rectification, choose being saved, and choose a wonderful future.
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- 6. Sleepiness While Studying the Fa Is Interference from the Evil in Other Dimensions
(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a practitioner who started practicing Falun Gong before the persecution began in 1999. During this period of personal cultivation, studying the Fa was almost effortless, and sleepiness was seldom a problem and easily overcome. I never fell asleep while holding the book, and having the book drop from my hand was unimaginable. However, during the past two years, I have been severely interfered with by the demon of weariness. I believe that this happened because I was not diligent, my jobs were too tiring, and I did not practice the exercises enough. But, in fact, I have just been tolerating the persecution by the old forces. It was not until I fell asleep and the book fell out of my hands that I realized how serious this situation had become, and I began to look at the situation anew.
I began to be consistent in doing the exercises every day. I then did not feel tired at work or in my other daily activities, but I still felt bone-weary when I tried to study the Fa. I felt that no matter how hard I tried, I still could not see clearly the characters in the book. One day, through the blurriness, I saw many short, thin, red lines that were thickly dotted, covering the characters. What was the matter? I suddenly became clear-headed and realized that it was the interference of the evil specter of the Communist Party. They were blocking me from studying the "Fa." I felt very relieved when I suddenly enlightened to what was really blocking me from my studying. After coming to this realization, I was no longer willing to allow this interference.
I recalled that when we had intensively sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the dark minions not long before, I was so sleepy that I dozed off while listening to the Fa during the interval between the two periods of sending forth righteous thoughts. In a trance-like state, I noticed that there appeared a layer of small, shining dots on my tape recorder. I suddenly realized that those small, shining dots were actually the dark minions. This led me to think about other interference that I had experienced. I had always thought that the interference in my Fa study was because I was not able to eliminate my attachments. As a result, I thought that in order to study the Fa well I had to eliminate my attachments, and felt that I could not cultivate well no matter how hard I tried. As a matter of fact, it was because I did not fully realize that our cultivation is no longer personal cultivation. For that reason, the evil forces can make use of the loopholes in our Fa understandings to create for us the tests and hardships that should otherwise not exist.
In general, I know that Fa rectification cultivation is not personal cultivation, but oftentimes I am interfered with again and again by small things because I do not have a clear understanding from the Fa. In fact, to passively endure adversity is to follow the path arranged by the old forces. Hence, the old forces arrange our paths according to the paths used in personal cultivation. I feel that similar situations happen to many of the practitioners around me. Facing certain tribulations that we fail to overcome, we tend to think it is because of our own attachments. Sometimes, even though we know it is interference by the evil forces, we do not fully realize it clearly in our minds, and thus we remain trapped in a hardship for a long time.
I recommend that fellow practitioners who have experienced similar problems review and study more deeply Teacher's article "Expounding on the Fa" and to generally study the Fa as much as possible, melt ourselves into the Fa rectification, and eliminate the final sources of interference.
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- 7. Breaking Through Individualism is also Not Acknowledging the Old Forces
(Clearwisdom.net) The old forces have made many, many arrangements. From everyone's individual environment, family factors, from the time of our birth through adulthood, in the formation of our temperaments, thinking, concepts, and so on, there is nothing that is not arranged by the old forces.
Their motives in so doing are, firstly, their so-called offer to let us acknowledge, in this Fa-rectification period, their arrangements and their tests, in order to "temper" us to maturity. Secondly, within this period they could make use of the special characteristics that they had arranged for us to smoothly control us to completely follow the requirements that they had taken pains to meticulously arrange at every level so as not to throw into disorder what they had arranged; thus they achieve their aims.
As Dafa practitioners, we know that we must not acknowledge anything that the old forces have arranged. We do not recognize the old forces. This must be reflected in our actions and conscious thoughts. Because the arrangements by the old forces are so meticulous, they are not easily discernible. We can therefore easily become complacent and unintentionally or unconsciously conform to the arrangements of the old forces.
All of us have our own concepts and temperaments. Only those who cultivate like us are able to alter them. Because we are immersed in the midst of humanity, if we do not study the Fa well, we can easily utilize our concepts to deal with problems and adversely affect our work in Dafa. To do well, we must overcome them and alter them.
Sometimes we hear fellow practitioners say that they like this, dislike that, or that during the day they cannot study the Fa well and must study at night; or within a certain period, they do not feel like reading the books, but only wish to listen to the audio tapes, and so forth and so on. Is this the correct way we should be thinking? Can these be arranged by the old forces?
If we are blocked and restrained to the extent that we cannot even study the Fa diligently because of our individual sentiments, concepts of goodness or evil, etc., we will no longer be able to smoothly cooperate and coordinate with fellow practitioners in our Dafa work. This is to submit to the arrangements of the old forces. Dafa practitioners must "break through individualism," break through the individualism arranged by the old forces, see through them, not acknowledge them--then we can achieve a new life within the Fa. Our every thought and consideration must come from the Fa. When doing Dafa work and in the manner we treat Fa-rectification, we must have this clear and sober understanding.
We must pay close attention to our every thought and consideration. We must be aware of breaking through the forms of base thoughts, sentiments, concepts, laziness and desire for ease and comfort and so on. It is crucial that we are not only cultivators in society, but we must have correct expressions of righteousness, as these are of utmost importance to our being clearly and consciously assimilated into the Fa, and in the validation of the Fa.
In " Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference" Teacher stated: "Speaking from another angle, my disciples, when the old forces are able to do what they want to do, isn't that because you've silently consented to what they want to do?" "Now since you're practitioners, if in this tribulation you can manage to not acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, then you've made it through. And those who haven't done well, in essence, aren't you acknowledging the old forces' arrangements? Once you acknowledge them isn't it like you're part of their group? Because you haven't done well amidst the persecution it's caused instability among the practitioners and aggravated the persecution, so aren't you, too, adding fuel to the fire and helping the evil? Negate them, completely negate everything of the old forces!"
Let us be more steadfast and wiser in the last portion in our path of Fa-rectification.
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- 8. Making Improvements in Sending Righteous Thoughts
I have been practicing cultivation with my third eye closed. Therefore, with regard to sending righteous thoughts, I can only learn how powerful it is from reading articles in the Minghui Weekly. However, when I read an article in Issue 179 of the Minghui Weekly entitled, "Have you sent righteous thoughts," I started to look within. Ever since starting to send righteous thoughts, I've been trying my best to do it. But the way I did it was to focus my attention and effort on reciting the formula. I focused my mind on how to use supernormal capabilities and the Law Wheel to eliminate the evil forces. I was very busy in my head and was exhausted. Sometimes I even uttered the word mie out loud.
Afterwards, when I studied the Fa and read Teacher's words about being surrounded by an energy field when sending righteous thoughts, I thought about the fact that it seldom happened to me. When I was not diligent, the thought of sending righteous thoughts would make me feel very tired. I always had fear when it was time to send righteous thoughts at the top of the hour. I thought about how to break through this. Later, when I sent righteous thoughts I suddenly remembered Teacher's words in "Teaching the Fa at a New York Meeting:""When you look at a matter, don't look at it while you're bogged down within it, don't evaluate the matter in isolation and within the specific matter. Jump out of it and take a careful look at it, see if it's in keeping with Zhen-Shan-Ren. How would someone who's cultivated well, or a God, a Bodhisattva handle it? Think of it this way, and as soon as the righteous thoughts emerge you'll know." (Lectures in the United States) I immediately came to an understanding. I thought, when a Buddha or a Bodhisattva eradicates evil beings, would they make a big hassle like I did. I understood that my divine side possessed great Buddha Law Divine Powers. All I needed to do was calm my mind and use my divine powers.
After that, when I again sent righteous thoughts, I was able to calm my mind every time. I felt my body being surrounded by an energy field and I no longer had any fear while sending righteous thoughts.
My level of cultivation is limited. I'm writing this out to share with fellow practitioners. I hope that this is helpful to fellow practitioners.
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