Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- Our Understanding of Dafa Is the Most Basic Issue in Our Cultivation Practice
- Looking Inward Unconditionally
- When a Practitioner Is Interfered With by Illness Karma, What Should We Do?
- A Cultivator Has to Maintain a Good Cultivation State
- Be Confident
- Sending Righteous Thoughts without Distracting Thoughts
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the February 2012 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?
Practitioners in Hyderabad are introducing the practice and giving out fliers at the Falun Dafa stall in the month-long 72nd All India Exhibition. This is the fourth year in succession that practitioners have obtained the Free Stall and participating in the exhibition and spreading awareness among the numerous visitors to the exhibition.
Practitioners in Hyderabad introduced the practice to Hanuman Vyayama High School, and Redcross Girls High School. The Practice was introduced to Managing Director and 100 staff members of a large Jute Mill in Eluru, West Godavari district.
A practitioner from Sarnath made a presentation at the International Seminar on Physical Education, Recreation and Yogic Sciences, January 19-21, 2012 at the Benaras Hindu University. The practitioner was ably supported by two
other practitioners from Northern India. The response was very good and people from neighboring towns are very keen
on learning the exercises.
The Director of Department of State Education and Research Training and the Principal & Deputy Director of Public Instruction, Bangalore organized a pilot program on 17th and 18th January 2012 to introduce Falun Dafa to the coordinators of the government school teachers. The program was conducted by 6 practitioners at the District Institute of Education and Training, Bangalore. This was attended by 70 teachers from the rural districts of Karnataka.
Most of the participants said in their written feedback that Falun Dafa is very good for them and they will spread the practice to the schools under their jurisdiction.
Practitioners in Bangalore created an awareness of Falun Dafa at the Annual Flower show which had the theme of World Peace.
Practitioners in Bangalore introduced Falun Dafa to the IT section of a large corporate for 3 days with two hour sessions each day.
Practitioners in Pune participated at the Annual Flower Show where 25 thousand people visit every year. People started calling coordiantors to have the introduction sessions to their socities and institutes.
They also introduced the practice at 2 centers of Dignity Foundation.
Practitioners in Mumbai introduced Falun Dafa to yet another centre of the Dignity Foundation.
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- 3. Our Understanding of Dafa Is the Most Basic Issue in Our Cultivation Practice
(Clearwisdom.net)
Our understanding of Dafa is the most basic issue in our cultivation practice. Some may think this is a repetitive topic. Through my recent experience, I personally feel that how well Dafa disciples do things, in many cases and to a large extent, depends on their understanding of Dafa.
I often wake up before the crack of dawn. Yet I have often been reluctant to leave my warm bed so early in the morning, especially in winter. I felt so comfortable in bed, and I was somehow afraid of the cold and hardship. Due to my lack of self-discipline, often I'd go back to sleep and let this precious exercise time slip away. After I advanced in my understanding of Dafa, I came to see the importance of early morning exercises and raised the bar for myself. As a result, I no longer oversleep.
Dafa has made me realize the many attachments I have. However when I try to let go of them, it seems very difficult. Why is it that I could identify my own attachments but fail to remove them during cultivation? I was frustrated.
It seemed my heart contained two types of understanding--one based on the Fa, and the other based on human notions. Unfortunately whenever issues occur, my heart defaults to the latter. This is a manifestation of not studying the Fa well and not cultivating myself well.
If we follow the human notions, our attachments will be viewed as something good, which makes it hard to let them go.
If, however, we treat the issues we encounter according to our understanding of the Fa, we can care less about them and be less attached. I believe our cultivation process is essentially a process of constantly replacing our human notions with our understanding of the Fa. Before, when I studied the Fa, I was able to maintain my good mind-set and my understanding was righteous. However, oftentimes, I tend to use the human notions to deal with things. I've enlightened that this was the fundamental reason why I improved at such a slow pace. If we all form the habit of seeing all things with the understanding of the Fa, we might have less difficulty and fewer pitfalls throughout our cultivation journey.
Master said,
"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" ("Cautionary Advice" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
In the past I found myself unable to comprehend the meaning of the above words. Now I've come to realize that an individual cannot be enlightened to the understanding of the Fa at a certain level if the person's cultivation doesn't reach that level. In other words, if we understand the Fa at a certain level, it means that we have already reached that level, and we are able to communicate with the Fa at that level. The power of the Fa at that level will then manifest in our lives. As our bodies are still in the human world, thus the reappearance of the mighty Fa at that level will manifest through our deeds and words. This is just my limited understanding. Of course, there are more profound meanings behind the same sentence of Master's words.
Although we are at the final stage of Fa-rectification, our understandings of Master, of Dafa, of Fa-rectification, and of "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples" still remain the fundamental issues in our cultivation practice.
For those who do not cultivate diligently, those who are less interested in participating in Fa-rectification activities, the problem lies in their lack of understanding of Dafa, of Fa-rectification and of the historic mission Dafa disciples shoulder. This is why I believe it's critical to reiterate the importance of our fundamental understanding of Dafa.
I hope fellow practitioners will find my little understanding helpful. Let us all assist Master well in rectifying the Fa. Let us be worthy of the sacred mission history has bestowed upon us, the expectation and hopes sentient beings have long set on us, and the greatest glory of all as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples.
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- 4. Looking Inward Unconditionally
By a practitioner in Changchun City, Jilin Province
(Clearwisdom.net)
Nowadays when there are conflicts between practitioners, everyone knows that they should look inwards to find their own problems. In the vast majority of cases, we are able to calm down, think about the Fa and make a great effort to restrain ourselves and look inward for attachments. For example, I have found that indeed I had many attachments and human notions. The root of these attachments is selfishness. It is like the root of a tree. The bigger attachments are like tree trunks and large branches, and the smaller attachments are like smaller branches and leaves. Once I find the root and pull it out, all the attachments arising from it will lose their footing.
However, I found that during the process of looking inward, another substance was created. After I looked inward, a notion would surface, "As long as I look inward, the other party will improve." In the beginning, I did not realize that this was actually an attachment of pursuit. Looking inward is unconditional, not for the purpose of making the other party improve. As a practitioner, whenever we encounter any problems, looking inward should be a natural course of action. If after we looked inward, we assume that the problem will go away, the same problem might very well come back stronger than ever. I had unknowingly added a condition to looking inward, that the other party would improve. Was I cultivating for the other practitioner's sake? Was I cultivating in order to have the other practitioner improve? I re-read Teacher's lecture "To the European Fa Conference", and Teacher's every word prodded me and pointed directly to my heart. I felt so ashamed.
As such, we should no longer be attached to the behavior of fellow practitioners. We should become more tolerant and accommodating, and look inward and cultivate ourselves unconditionally. Meanwhile, we should fully cooperate with fellow practitioners. As long as other practitioners' suggestions are in conformity with the Fa and will be beneficial to our efforts to save sentient beings, we should be fully cooperative. We should not be concerned with the behavior, attitude and cultivation status of the practitioner who proposed the idea, nor should we take notice of how this person is and how that person behaves. It is not like, "As long as I look inward, the other party is bound to improve", but rather, we should handle ourselves as true practitioners and do everything according to the Fa. We should focus on how to assist Teacher in Fa-rectification and in saving sentient beings. As long as we do that, everything will change naturally. When we are able to let go of the attachment to self, everything becomes easy and smooth.
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- 5. When a Practitioner Is Interfered With by Illness Karma, What Should We Do?
By a practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
I heard that fellow practitioner A was sent to the hospital by her family because of a stroke. My first reaction was, “How come? She has such strong righteous thoughts. Why was she interfered with by illness karma?” With these questions in my mind, I talked to practitioner B, who told me, “Although it happened to her, every practitioner who has had contact with her should look inside and think about why our study group has such a loophole. When a practitioner is persecuted by the evil forces with illness karma, we should look inward and see if we have the attachment of envying practitioner A, the attachment of relying on practitioner A, or other attachments. Why did this happen at this crucial moment of saving sentient beings? How big of an impact does this have on saving more people, especially her relatives and friends?” The words of practitioner B cooled me down and made me think about my attachments. I did not consider that my attachments of envying and relying on practitioner A could cause illness karma. When I initially heard about practitioner A being sent to the hospital, wasn't my first reaction a manifestation of my envying her? Starting from there, I came to think about other practitioners with a similar mindset. Practitioner A previously escaped from detention due to her righteous thoughts. She was warm-hearted and willing to help practitioners in all kinds of matters. She would have practitioners stay at her home all the time. She had a very clear understanding about illness karma. When a practitioner had illness karma, she would go to share her understanding and help that practitioner correct any misunderstanding of the Fa. Gradually over the past few years, fellow practitioners became very much dependent on her. Therefore, more and more attachments were focused on her and all the evil in other dimensions was watching each and every thought of practitioners. Under certain circumstances, the evil brought about the persecution of her for the purpose of getting rid of the attachments of the practitioners around her. This caused irreparable damage to the cause of saving people. I had read related articles sharing an understanding in this aspect of cultivation in the past, however I had never put myself in that context and paid adequate attention. Now it has actually happened to me and the practitioners around me. We all feel regretful that our attachments have given the evil an excuse to persecute our fellow practitioner. Our attachments brought about more difficulties for saving sentient beings. It is a life and death lesson for us all to learn. In painfully looking for attachments in retrospect, I found the following attachments: 1. Facing difficulties in our cultivation, we always look for answers and advice from other practitioners, especially those that we think are in a good cultivation state and have a clear understanding of the Fa. Instead of studying the Fa in a down-to-earth manner and looking for answers in the Fa, we always just consult other practitioners. This is a typical mistake, namely learning from a person instead of the Fa. Of course, this does not include normal experience sharing without attachments. 2. In our Fa study group, we would have a sense of loss if few people showed up, thinking, “What is the point of coming to the group study? It is no better than just staying home and studying by myself.” Fa study is not a superficial process, nor can it be done by following the crowd. No matter who comes and who doesn't, we should consciously maintain our group study. Even if there are only two people, we should keep up the Fa study with all our heart and mind. 3. I also found the attachment of fearing that practitioners might lose face. In our daily interaction with practitioners, we know pretty clearly what kinds of attachments each of us has. Sometimes when we point them out to other practitioners, they do not accept our words calmly. And sometimes they even try to cover up the attachments. Gradually, we end up accepting the situation passively and do not point out the attachments anymore, leaving it all to the practitioner him/herself. For instance, some practitioners dozed off while sending forth righteous thoughts and thus their hands fell flat. When other practitioners pointed it out, some practitioners did not look inside for improvement, but instead covered it up by finding excuses. 4. The pursuit of comfort and ease is very common among practitioners. When facing a certain difficulty, one will first wonder if there is a shortcut to bypass it or make it easier. Sometimes one will even take risks to get around difficulties. For example, it is risky to make phone calls from one cell phone to another cell phone. Also, it is risky to carry a cell phone while doing work just for the convenience of communicating with family. Some practitioners don't pay attention to safety concerning the use of cell phones and it poses a big risk for the whole group's truth clarification work. The attachment to comfort and ease is manifested in various aspects and should have practitioners' full attention. Also, the issue of cultivating speech is important. When fellow practitioners are suffering from illness karma, it often has to do with the practitioners around them. When we see their attachments in our daily contact, what should we do? If we can act according to the Fa and point out their attachments with a benevolent heart, the evil won't have any loophole to find, we will walk our righteous path, and our fellow practitioners won't be persecuted and interfered with by the evil. If we try to find fault with the practitioner who is having illness karma, we are actually on the side of the evil and sending forth righteous thoughts won't work, because we have accepted the evil persecution of our fellow practitioner. Teacher told us to look inside and cultivate ourselves. We should all follow this principle strictly, looking inside for our own attachments instead of doing things superficially. Only through cultivating ourselves can we form a solid whole body and a true cultivation environment, thereby reducing the evil interference—all of this comes from the Fa. So we must be clear on this: only studying the Fa can keep us improving ourselves and maturing in our cultivation.
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- 6. A Cultivator Has to Maintain a Good Cultivation State
By a Falun Gong practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
These words are often used by fellow practitioners, "My 'cultivation state' is not good." This sentence is often heard when one of the following conditions occurs to a practitioner, such as their physical condition is not good, their Dafa projects are not going smoothly, or after being released from prison or forced labor camp. The real meaning of the sentence is more like, "I want to stay away from other practitioners, and don't want to perform the same work that I did before." Here, I would like to share my understandings of these words. Please kindly point out any mistakes.
First of all, the cultivation state of a practitioner is adjustable. We should never be controlled by the "bad cultivation state," or "bad conditions."
The so-called "cultivation state" is the mental and physical situation of a person. For a cultivator, the "cultivation state" is the current mental and physical state of a practitioner during the cultivation process. It's unavoidable to have some depressed times in our cultivation, such as physically not feeling well, or having no reasonable explanations for doubts or a depressed mood. However, at such moments, we should actively control our state instead of being controlled by "a bad cultivation state."
Master mentioned in the article, "Be Vigilant"
"Cultivation is about removing human thinking and attachments."
If we really search inward, we can always find the reasons for "not feeling comfortable," "doubts," or "feeling depressed." Of course, the reasons must rooted in some hidden human notions, and, the corresponding malicious materials must exist in other dimensions. In order to avoid the control of the "conditions," we should eliminate the malicious materials with our righteous thoughts and destroy the foundation of the bad "conditions." Then, we have to be steadfast in studying the , eliminate human attachments, adjust our mindsets, and be determined about our righteous thoughts. When we do this, our cultivation state will again improve.
Secondly, we have to reject the arrangements of the old forces and actively refuse the bad "conditions."
The practitioners who tell others that their current conditions are not good seem to have the mindset, "I am pushed into this situation. I can do nothing except for wait for someone to alter my conditions." Only the old forces would force bad "conditions" onto us. Master told us that the old forces arranged every Dafa disciple's life in detail. They will take advantage of any attachment that we have. In order to destroy a practitioner, they test us with "discomfort," "doubt," and "depression." If we cannot recognize their intention and reject their arrangements, we will be guided by the old forces and deviate from the right cultivation path. Therefore, we have to be firm and determined to reject the arrangements of the old forces with righteous thoughts.
An article on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website tells a story about a practitioner. When she showed sickness symptoms, she was forced to go to a hospital by her family. When she heard that she had stomach cancer, she walked out of the hospital and said calmly, "Impossible. A Dafa disciple will not have a disease." On the way back to her home, she felt very uncomfortable. However, her righteous thought about "no disease for a Dafa disciple" never changed. As soon as she stepped into her home, she vomited a lot a foul substances. From that time onward, she regained her health and her "cancer" disappeared. Because she firmly rejected the arrangement of the old forces, the old forces could do nothing to her. Therefore, the sick "condition" could not last without any reason.
Finally, the Fa-rectification process is really fast. There is no time for us to be in a bad cultivation state.
Anyone of us could be in some bad "condition" sometimes. However, we should never passively wait for it to pass. Instead, we need to adjust our cultivation conditions immediately to match the requirement of Fa-rectification. It's useless to wait for Master to eliminate the sickness karma for us and give us a good "condition." If we do not cultivate ourselves, the good "conditions" will never come.
Fellow practitioners, we have suffered a lot in the past 10 years. We should be mature now. In order to see our maturity, Master has been waiting for a long time and has done so much for us. Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, the time is extremely precious now. The Fa-rectification process and the expectations of Master require us to stay in a good cultivation state. Let us be buoyed up, follow the Fa-rectification process, and fulfill our sacred mission.
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- 7. Be Confident
By Yu Wenjing, a Dafa practitioner from Changchun
(Clearwisdom.net)
For an everyday person, confidence is very important. It is even more so for a cultivator. Lack of confidence serves no advantage. The essence of a practitioner's confidence lies in the firm belief in Master and Dafa.
I have noticed that some practitioners show a clear lack of confidence. They say such things as, "I am not very diligent in cultivation; I have not done the three things well; I am probably not a cultivator anymore; I am probably truly sick this time; Master is probably not going to take care of me anymore; I have to go to the hospital and take medicine."
We know from the Fa that matter and mind are one thing and cultivation relies on steadfast belief. One's thoughts are critical. Although you may not have been diligent and you have not done much of the three things, one thing you have to be absolutely clear about is this: "I am a cultivator and this is not an illness!" Then, sickness symptoms will truly not be an illness. This is a cultivator's thought, which other people do not have. One who holds such a thought is above a human. Can you still call it illness? Will Master not take care of genuine disciples?
You should think this way: "Although I have not been diligent, I am still a cultivator. It is not an illness but a test for me. I have recognized and seen through it. It is not an illness, so why do I need medication?" What are righteous thoughts? This is a righteous thought. This is righteous enlightenment. Completely let go of your attachments, unmoved by anything. Then see what happens - absolutely nothing.
Some fellow practitioners also think, "I am not cultivating very well; I do not act like a cultivator; I probably will not succeed in cultivation; I am not cultivating anymore." Thus, he gives up.
In this enormous maze, you have persisted 'till today under the huge interference and obstruction of colossal factors of the universe. You have come a long way on the path of cultivation. You have done so much of what a Dafa practitioner should do. You have let go of so many attachments. How is it that you do not have the confidence to keep on cultivating?
Even with your wildest thoughts, can you really imagine how enormous Master's compassion is? Do you truly understand the "Buddha's Infinite Grace"? What do you know about cultivation? Do you know what it takes to succeed in cultivation? One should believe in Master and Dafa under any circumstances! As long as Fa-rectification is not over, Master still provides opportunities, even to the spies and those practitioners who made grave mistakes. Why is it that you do not cherish the opportunities and take care of yourself? Why not have faith in Master and Dafa, believe in yourself and steadfastly cultivate yourself until the end.
Still there are some practitioners who have no confidence in sending forth righteous thoughts: "You have cultivated well and your righteous thoughts are powerful and effective; I have not cultivated well and my righteous thoughts are not powerful and have no impact, so I will not do it anymore and I will leave it to you."
When one cultivates in Dafa, one can elevate oneself very fast and to extremely high levels. One possesses many diverse abilities. Now that you have cultivated for so long, you probably have reached a very high level. Furthermore, your gong is not taken down prior to complete enlightenment. What kind of dark minions or wicked deities cannot be eliminated? It is all quite easy to eliminate them. Why do you not have confidence in yourself?
As a practitioner, one should remember what is the most fundamental: I will persist until the end and will not give up halfway. All that interferes in my doing the three things are demons. All that distracts my persistence to the end are interferences. All that makes me waver in cultivation are bad things. I will keep on cultivating even if I have not cultivated well. This is righteous enlightenment; this is righteous belief; this is righteous thought. All that disturbs your confidence is not you. Never regard it as yourself. It is there to destroy you.
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- 8. Sending Righteous Thoughts without Distracting Thoughts
By Jinlian, a practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
Sending forth righteous thoughts had become a daily routine for me, however I often thought about when the time would be up. My hands were often not in the upright position and my fingers sometimes touched one another while in the lotus position. Practitioners around me experienced the same problem. At times I fell asleep while sending righteous thoughts. I knew that there was a problem, but didn't take it seriously. I never sent righteous thoughts outside of the four global times, and neglected the importance of it.
One time Teacher reminded me through a young practitioner's dream. The practitioner told me, "I dreamed about Teacher taking me to eliminate the evils. Teacher had a sword and so did I. Unlike Teacher, I often dropped my sword." Without looking within, I criticized the practitioner, "You frequently skip sending righteous thought, and when you do, you aren't focused. That's why you always drop your sword."
Our local area experienced a serious problem because we didn't realize the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. When a practitioner was arrested, we awakened and looked within. We knew that we had insufficient righteous thoughts and the evils had exploited our gaps. We subsequently started sending righteous thoughts every hour on the hour. In the beginning, our hands were still falling down, and interference overwhelmed our minds. When we finally woke up to the truth, we strove to correct our problems and fought the disorderly thoughts.
Several days later, I could feel the powerful energy while sending forth righteous thoughts. My mind was clear and my hands were upright.
I would like to remind fellow practitioners that we should pay attention to sending forth righteous thoughts, and eliminate distractions, so as not to let the swords drop from our hands. This is the only way that we can eradicate the evil with Teacher. This is especially important when eliminating the old forces. The more we send forth righteous thoughts, and the purer our righteous thoughts are, the sooner the persecution will end.
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