Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- Not Moving One’s Heart and Righteous Thoughts
- What is Behind the Inability to be Tolerant
- My Realization Regarding Looking Within
- Eliminate Incorrect Notions, Break Through Old Force Arrangement and Return to Our Original Nature
- Reviewing "Digging Out the Roots"
- Practitioners Must Cultivate Compassion
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the March 2009 Falun Dafa India Newsletter.
In this issue, we have 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?
In Bangalore practitioners participated in the Jain College campus Festival where at least 50 colleges participated. Practitioners from Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia had also come to take part in the event. The Highlight of the event was the performance of the waist Drum troupe . The performance drew a lot of applause and students and staff from all the colleges got to know about Dafa. Many colleges invited practitioners to introduce Dafa to their students.
In Mumbai there was another round of workshop at the Times Foundation with a bigger response. Practitioners from Malaysia and Singapore helped in teaching the exercise movements. Practitioners also visited a housing complex, a joggers’ park and a Corporate to introduce the practice.
Practitioners participated in a Seminar on Human Rights and Organ Harvesting organized by a professor of the Benaras Hindu University at Sarnath. The practitioners distributed a lot of materials, made a power point presentation and fielded questions from the participants.
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- 3. Not Moving One’s Heart and Righteous Thoughts
Mei Yu
[PureInsight.org] I came across a situation in the early days of my cultivation: During a group sharing session, one practitioner pointed out the shortcomings of another practitioner, who then instinctively defended herself with angry words. A young female practitioner sitting next to me whispered to me: “See, her heart moved.” I wasn’t aware of the deeper meaning of those words at the time. But as my cultivation progressed, those words echoed again and again in my mind.
As I made progress with my cultivation, I gradually came to see that everything we encounter is a cultivator’s xinxing test. When one’s heart moves in a conflict, he is in the wrong no matter whether he was responsible for starting the conflict in the first place. When something happens to a person that appears to be unjust according to the reasoning of ordinary people, it is actually a very good thing for a cultivator. It is because the goal of cultivation is to let go of all kinds of human sentiments and desires. In the end, one should reach the state where no matter what happens, he is able to maintain a tranquil and calm heart.
The “not moving of one’s heart” means not reacting to earthly things. It’s completely different from cold indifference and self-centeredness. After ordinary human attachments are eliminated in cultivation, the righteous thoughts of benevolence and forbearance are born in their places. Such righteous thoughts bring a lot of benefits not only to ourselves but also to other sentient beings. Ordinary human thoughts come from attachments and originate from selfishness and sense of self. Under such a mindset, it is difficult to see the essence of matters clearly, and the resulting words and actions lack rationality and wisdom. When a cultivator gradually lets go of ordinary human attachments, he is able to view things truly from the outside looking in and can see the essence of the matter with just one glance. The resulting words and actions are filled with rationality and wisdom and are void of bursts of emotion. Under such a state, what he says is much easier for others to accept.
Letting go of the attachments of an everyday person is a slow process and can only be accomplished a little at a time. No matter what we encounter, we should not just look at how they appear on the surface. We should think about the reasons why the events take place and ask ourselves the following, “In which areas should I make improvements since this event has taken place? What is the underlying attachment that makes me unable to accept it lightly? What self-serving attachment do I have that makes me unable to develop righteous thoughts of benevolence and tolerance?” If we are able to examine ourselves every single time and develop it into a habit, the progress we make in our cultivation will surely be very fast. If we get stuck at the level of the ordinary people and think we ourselves are right no matter which way we look at things, we will remain at the same level. As a result, our righteous thoughts will become weaker and weaker, and the evil will take advantage of it and cause interference. If such a situation is allowed to continue, it brings benefits neither to ourselves nor to others.
Lately, when I tried to memorize “Further Understanding” by Teacher, I realized that the process of cultivation is the process of removing our demon-nature and expanding our Buddha-nature. Strong attachments come from our demon-nature. Dealing everything with the righteous thought based on “Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance” come from our Buddha-nature. Each time, when we allow ourselves to develop the notions of everyday person, we are actually allowing our demon-nature to emerge and regrettably missing out another opportunity for cultivation. If one does not eliminate one’s demon-nature completely, it is hard to become a Buddha, let alone save sentient beings.
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- 4. What is Behind the Inability to be Tolerant
Written by a Practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher keeps telling us in recent lectures that we have to be tolerant and compassionate, but sometimes I still fail to do well. I summarized the reasons why I fail to be tolerant, and I found that when practitioners that are generally thought to cultivate well don't behave well in certain aspects (maybe it is just my subjective notion), I was not able to be genuinely tolerant to them, especially when it was related to me. Though it appeared to be nothing on the surface, my heart was indeed moved: How could I behave like that? I really should do better! Teacher said,"Some students show their attachments, but some students don't, they keep them inside and they are incredibly attached."
(Explaining the Fa During 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference) When I dig to the root, I find that this is a manifestation of my attachments of jealousy and selfishness. When I point out the problem to other practitioners, I feel I am responsible for them and trying to help, but in fact there are already too many impure things mixed into it. The attachment is so deeply hidden that I am not able to feel it from the surface if I don't dig deeply to the root. When I stick to things that I don't want to be touched upon, I react even more strongly. When I noticed this, I started to consciously eliminate it.
When some practitioners show such obvious attachments and don't pay much attention to it after I kindly point it out to them, I would think, "How can you be like that? Master Li has made it so clear, why couldn't you just follow Master's teachings?" Even my words and tone become not so polite and rather intolerant. The reason is that I always use Fa to check others, rather than to check myself. I didn't think why his attachments had been shown to me. Even if I don't have this kind of attachment, do I have other kind of attachments? When I point out other practitioners' attachments, do I really look at issues from their perspectives? Do I speak completely out of compassion and free of any personal notion? Do I use the Fa-principle that I understand at my own level to require others? Master Li said,"A God isn't affected by anything."
(Explaining the Fa During 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference) Why is my heart always moved?
In addition, every Dafa disciple cultivates under the watch and protection of Teacher's law bodies, and Teacher has said,"I have no other requirements for you. I have never said that you have to do well in such and such extent. It's always been you yourself handling things."
(Explaining the Fa During 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference) Then what reasons do I have to tell other practitioners what to do? How well have I myself done? Teacher tells us to look inside ourselves. When a problem emerges, how much effort have I spent to look inside myself? How much effort have I spent to check others? Teacher tells us to be tolerant and compassionate. How well have I followed this teaching?
After I experienced some things and fell down several times, I reflected on myself.
To be genuinely tolerant is a natural reflection of one's cultivation realm. Sometimes I didn't do well, but I knew I should act according to Master's requirements in the Fa. I have already been more and more able to see the shining aspects of every practitioner and also feel at ease with my wishes after letting go of various attachments and bad thoughts.
I am a Dafa disciple in Fa-rectification, and Teacher has told us what kind of magnificent honor this is. The important work that we are doing to offer salvation to all sentient beings and the perfection of our own paradises all have high requirements for upgrading our mind states. With the Fa, with the help of fellow practitioners' articles published on Clearwisdom and help from practitioners around me, I realize some of my own deviations and impurities and get the chance to rectify myself. Thank you!
The above are just some understandings of mine. If there is anything inappropriate, fellow practitioners please kindly point it out and rectify me.
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- 5. My Realization Regarding Looking Within
By a Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher points out in lecturing on the Fa that cultivation practice is to cultivate one's heart. When conflicts arise, one needs to look inward and constantly discard attachments. I realize that as a practitioner, looking inward for attachments is as important as our daily bread. We practitioners need to take it as something important that we must do conscientiously everyday. People in ancient times are said to check their conduct three times a day. As practitioners, we should do even more so to make it our daily assignment to look inward to see what attachments we have not yet abandoned.
For the last six months, I paid more attention to looking inward whenever I had some free time (e.g. on the way to and from work) to see if I still had attachments not yet discarded. Because I was conscious of myself looking inward everyday, during Fa study or reading articles in Clearwisdom.net, I was often being reminded of what kind of attachment I had. After I discovered the attachment and discarded it, I experienced the jubilance of the upgrading of my xinxing level, and felt so blessed to be practicing cultivation. It is exactly like what Teacher said:"Cultivation practice itself is not difficult, and neither is upgrading one's level itself difficult. It is because they cannot give up the human mind that they call it difficult." (Zhuan Falun) But half a year ago, I did not have that kind of joyful feeling because I did not actively search within myself for attachments on a daily basis. Instead I looked inward only after I encountered some conflict. It was passive, and it was challenging to let go. I experienced the meaning of"Toiling the body does not count as suffering, Cultivating the heart is most excruciating." (Hongyin) Later I realized that I should not be this passive all the time and must actively search within. After putting this into practice for half a year, the situation changed radically. There was no pain now as looking within has become part of my daily routine."For cultivators at different levels, the Fa has different requirements"
("Non-Omission") I start to realize that even though each practitioner is at a different level, the Fa requires of him to abandon all attachments at that level without omission to meet the requirements of that level. If every practitioner could meet the requirements at his level, there would be no loophole for the evil to exploit. We would be able to save the sentient beings better and fulfill the mission as Dafa disciples.
Around July 20 this year, the evil once again stepped up their persecution of Dafa practitioners. Some practitioners informed me that the evil had already been following me only that they had not yet taken any action, and that I needed to be more careful. During Fa study later, Teacher hinted to me that the evil would not come. I also realized that by having righteous thoughts and actions, abandoning the attachments, and meeting the Fa's requirement at my level, the evil would have no hole to exploit.
Fa-rectification has reached the final stage, every practitioner needs to pay attention to searching within for attachments, and see if we have "cultivated until no attachment left." If tomorrow the Fa rectifies the human world, have we met the standard for consummation? Have we saved all the sentient beings that put their hopes in us? (Even if we still have only one attachment, there will be many lives in our corresponding cosmic body that get eliminated.)
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- 6. Eliminate Incorrect Notions, Break Through Old Force Arrangement and Return to Our Original Nature
By a practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
I have been practicing Falun Dafa for more than six years. Since the beginning I have worked hard at getting rid of my attachments of lust, desire and various others. Strangely I thought that I had cultivated well and did not have these attachments any more, but recently they reappeared in my thoughts with such a vengeance that I could not maintain a calm mind during exercises, Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts. After seeking within I discovered there were several reasons for this situation and I would like to share these causes that I discovered with my fellow practitioners.
The Internal Factor and the Pretext the Old Forces Use to Persecute Us
The excuse the old forces use is that practitioners still have attachments and that every attachment is a reason for their persecution of us. Teacher said in his article "Towards Consummation," "Whatever you're attached to, they have evil ones concoct lies about that." I recognized that external factors could be utilized to trigger and expose attachments that we were not even aware of, and that these attachments could be used as pretexts by the old forces to persecute us. The most fundamental reason is that these attachments still existed within us. Most of them were not that obvious and usually did not come into view. They remained hidden in our subconsciousness. They would appear when we studied Fa, sent forth righteous thoughts and did our practice. This illustrated that we had not gotten rid of them; otherwise they would not appear nor influence us.
If you were attached to lust and desire, the old forces would make you conjure up the mental picture of the handsome man or beautiful woman in your mind. If you were attached to sentimentality, it would let you think about your parents and children. If you were attached to money, it would make you think hard on how to make more money. If you were attached to doing Dafa work superficially, then it would make you think hard how to do it. If you had fear, then it would make you think about various tortures carried out by police, brainwashing centers, labor re-education camps, etc. Many of them, though, were tribulations caused by thought karma and external interference, and were further reinforced by the bad intentions in our subconscious minds. These are all reasons behind my failure to achieve tranquility. They were also excuses the old forces used to persecute me.
Teacher said in his article "Expounding on the Fa," "Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely with your human side. Evil demons then capitalize on this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving students in long-term tribulations. As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and have prevented them from doing Fa-rectification. How can the uncultivated side restrain your main thoughts or the side that has already attained the Fa? Having humanly fostered the evil demons, you allow them to capitalize on the loopholes in the Fa." To my understanding this meant that it was futile to suppress them with our human side as that merely postponed them. Instead we must recognize them using the Fa and eradicate them from ourselves with righteous thoughts.
Seek from Within, Eliminate Incorrect Notions and the Old Forces Arrangements, and Take Every Step Well, Thereby Assisting Teacher to Rectify the Fa.
I had frequent contacts with practitioners working at material production sites. I had observed some attachments of my own, as well as of other practitioners, some of which had resulted in interference and persecution. I want to reveal them so fellow practitioners can recognize them if they have not run into them before, thus avoiding potential pitfalls. Here are few examples:
Once I shared experiences with a practitioner whom I had not seen for quite some time. I discovered that this practitioner had good understanding of the Fa, and he did well, but I thought he was very impatient and tended to be somewhat radical. I then realized that I had similar biased opinions towards other practitioners, not just him. I even had feelings of jealousy in my subconscious, and thus tended to gauge others with preconceived notions. The result of this problem was that we could not forge into a single diamond-like body of Dafa practitioners.
One practitioner was in charge of a material production site. In the beginning, he did very well. He was both capable and meticulous, but gradually he became more daring, and started focusing on only the tasks at hand and neglected to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts. It did not take long for his human sentimentality to start rearing its ugly head. He did not want to listen when other practitioners tried to talk to him and share experiences with him. Soon the evil forces exploited his omission and persecuted him.
Another practitioner was an expert in computers. He started to work with another practitioner and they started out well. They helped each other by identifying shortcomings and deficiencies in each other, and sought from within. But some of the old force's factor in their thoughts still existed, such as seeing faults in others, not kindly understanding others and accommodating others, insisting on the other person adopting his own idea instead of changing himself. The conflict grew to the point that the two of them no longer had similar approaches anymore. They could not tolerate each other and ended up parting company. It caused a negative impact on Dafa work and both of them missed an opportunity to raise their Xinxing (mind nature).
These are some of my own attachments and issues faced by other practitioners. The old evil forces exploit them to directly undermine Fa rectification. If we do not fundamentally resolve these problems then old evil forces will take advantage of any attachments and use them to persecute us. Teacher said in his article "Further Understanding," "If you are able to succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred."
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
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- 7. Reviewing "Digging Out the Roots"
By a Falun Gong practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said, "At the crucial moment when I ask you to break away from humanness, you do not follow me. Each opportunity will not occur again. Cultivation practice is a serious matter. The distance has become greater and greater. It is extremely dangerous to add anything human to cultivation practice." ("Digging Out the Roots" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
Teacher said, "Each opportunity will not occur again." But he keeps giving us less diligent disciples new opportunities to break away from humanness in order to save us. Unfortunately, we kept wasting these opportunities, so the distance between diligent disciples and us less diligent ones "has become greater and greater." Although Teacher keeps reminding us that time is especially pressing, we less diligent disciples feel that time crawls because we are reluctant to break away from humanness. Driven by our human attachments and by our lack of compassion, we even wish the Fa-rectification would enter the human realm immediately.
Now I realize I have an extremely filthy and selfish heart. I only care about my completion of cultivation practice, and do not care about the world's people. Even by the standards of a non-cultivator, I am terribly selfish.
Teacher said, "So what kind of being deserves to be a Disciple of Dafa? [...] those who only want to gain from Dafa but don't want to give for Dafa?"
("My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up'")
Isn't it obvious that I am one of the disciples that Teacher reproached in this article?
Teacher said, "Compassion comes from a person's cultivation, and it's not something that's acted out; it comes from deep inside, and it's not something done to show others." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference")
Only when we are cultivating our compassion will we truly have a peaceful mind impervious to any human thought.
Teacher said, "As long as the Fa-rectification hasn't entered the human world you still have a chance." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")
Meanwhile, we still have a chance to offer the world's people Teacher's salvation. Someday the Fa-rectification will enter the human realm. Between now and the advent of the Fa-rectification in the human realm, any of our worldly or selfish attachments will interfere with or even undermine the Fa-rectification. If we should allow ourselves to interfere with or undermine the Fa-rectification, we will create a terrible sin beyond imagination and we will have no chance of reaching Consummation.
We less diligent practitioners must not gamble with our own lives any longer. Teacher does not want to leave any practitioner behind because Teacher is compassionate. But Teacher also said, "The Fa is merciful to all beings, but at the same time it's solemn and dignified. And the Fa has standards, before sentient beings it's unchanging and unbreakable, and it's not something that can be influenced casually. I can be merciful to sentient beings, but, when a being has really violated something to that extent, the Fa is there to judge him, and any further mercy would be excessive, it would be the same as destroying itself, so beings like that are marked for elimination." ("Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
We must grasp the limited amount of time available to us to strive forward in our cultivation practice. We must save ourselves while offering Teacher's salvation to the world's people in order to live up to the magnificent title of Falun Gong practitioners in the Fa-rectification period.
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- 8. Practitioners Must Cultivate Compassion
Written by a Falun Dafa practitioner
(Clearwisdom.net) Recently I discovered that I had a long-term and very serious problem: I was not compassionate. A practitioner who is not compassionate can understand quite a few Fa-principles. I myself was just like this. A practitioner like this probably understands what compassionate actions are on very important issues, and can also give up his own attachments. In this way, he can have wisdom at a certain level, but still, he does not have a compassionate heart.
The lack of compassion with which I am familiar manifests when a practitioner does not know how to care for others, and does not cherish the lives of beings from within his heart. Righteous Fa-enlightened beings are like a deep well of compassion, nurturing all lives, encompassing and caring for all lives. However, those who understand Fa-principles but are not compassionate are not like this. They are nothing more than wise men.
Some such persons do not feel their above-mentioned shortcomings, but may feel that they have not completely gotten rid of their attachments, and that it is easy for those attachments to recur once in a while. Others may feel that they do not have the real motivation for cultivation. Actually these lives continue in cultivation for themselves, as they hope with selfish hearts to gain benefits after improving their realms. But they do not have compassion in their inner hearts. Their goals are supposedly to improve their realms and be responsible for the lives of beings, but these goals exist in name only.
These persons have a rectified brilliance that is only superficial. They keep talking about the Fa-principles in words while in their hearts they do not have compassion. Master Li has pointed out, "Those who are attached to their reputations practice an evil way, full of intention. Once they gain renown in this world, they are bound to say good but mean evil, thereby misleading the public and undermining the Fa"("Cultivators' Avoidances," Essentials for Further Advances).
Persons who lack compassion have a very serious problem cultivating Dafa, as this shows that the foundation of their lives has degenerated greatly. Even when dealing with issues of righteousness and wickedness, their minds are unmoved and they do not want to change themselves fundamentally. But for all beings who are willing to give up whatever they had before, everything will be rectified.
I will thoroughly re-mold myself, and become a being that is worthy of salvation by the righteous Fa.
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