Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- Why is Falun Dafa a Science of Mind and Body?
- A New Understanding about Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
- Send Forth Righteous Thoughts with a Clear Mind
- Looking Within is the Key to Letting Go of Sentimentality
- Gaining Better Understanding of Fa Principles
- Looking Inward, Starting With the Cultivation of Speech
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the March 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 introduced the practice and giving out fliers at the Falun Dafa stall in the month-long 72nd All India Exhibition. which concluded this month.
Practitioners in Hyderabad also introduced the practice to Nampally Vyayama High School where there are 700 students. A practitioner from Iran who was in Hyderabad also participated in the various activities.
Practitioners in Delhi had booked a stall in the Annual Book Fair organized by the National Book Trust from 25 February. A lot of people showed interest in learning the exercises and large quantities of flyers were distributed.
Practitioners in Bangalore continued to introduce Falun Dafa to the IT section of a large corporate for their different offices.
Practitioners in Pune introduced the practice to some Housing Societies where people had invited them after getting to know about Falun Dafa at the Annual Flower Show.
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- 3. Why is Falun Dafa a Science of Mind and Body?
By Dr Genin, Ph.D.
(PureInsight.org)
I’m a junior scientist who graduated in human genetics and is specializing in neurobiology. My thesis was about the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory, and I’m now working as a researcher on an EEC-sponsored program in Paris.
Being a junior scientist, I will just respectfully present my experience with Falun Dafa, try to let you know how it objectively approaches the truth, and why, as a young atheistic person and an everlasting skeptic, I have found deep rationality and truth in this teaching.
Let me introduce my background first. I was educated in an atheistic family, and concluded early on that man creates the idea of god and other superstitious notions because life is boring and he is afraid of dying. Like many, I was driven into science by a strong will to understand things like the mechanisms of life, human behavior, and conscience. Philosophy looked interesting but did not give any concrete insight into objectivity, that “realness” that a scientific experiment can give. With science, it turned out that one could attain the truth, find answers or at least clues as to where we come from, why we exist and where we are going. Why this way and not another, why sickness and suffering, love, hate, cruelty.
I turned to neurobiology, and discovered the fascinating world of our brains – billions of cells acting mainly through their interconnections, creating harmony and efficiency through an apparent chaos of overlapping electrical signals and focal chemical secretions. Matter and thought united in this special place, in the most complex system of our body. But, most importantly, during my years in College I learned the scientific method and the concepts of objective investigation.
Science, my teachers said, should never be dogmatic. Every scientist has the duty to criticize and have doubts about every single scientific model. The history of science is one of models everyone agrees to be the best description of the truth that are suddenly wiped out by new discoveries. Then new concepts emerge, opening a world of new discoveries. So a valuable a priori in coming to terms with any scientific subject is to consider that what is unknown to us is almost everything, and what we know is a tiny little bit through which we try to understand things. To illustrate the fact that our science is by definition impermanent, we just have to remember the time when quantum theory was introduced in the world of physics. It was an earthquake. Physicists believed they understood and had put into equations all the physical laws when suddenly it appeared that, in fact, they knew only a very limited part of it. Another earthquake is currently taking place, from what I have read, in the field of astrophysics. The most recent astronomical measurements could completely change our view of the universe because they are far from fitting our current models of cosmic evolution.
I was deeply impressed by this notion of an ever-changing science, and understood that scientific models should be considered tools rather than unchangeable truths. When I encountered Falun Dafa, I was still a Ph.D. student. Walking in a park one morning, I saw some people meditating. Since it looked nice, I thought it would be fun to try it.
That was the beginning of what one could call a scientific experiment. While practicing, I felt strange sensations in my palms that my knowledge of nervous system failed to explain. Then appeared a sudden heat in the belly. I was surprised and decided this was an interesting field to explore. Along with the practice sessions came various fine and complicated sensations in the body. I asked for a book explaining the practice method and found these sensations to be accurately described. As I later read the book Zhuan Falun for the first time, it seemed like a fairy tale from ancient China. I found it quite funny at first but also quite good, because it stressed the importance of morality and selflessness. In the end, I came up with the thought that this book could actually be considered to be a research paper claming some striking results, with a “materials and methods” part. In the research community, when a result seems strange or exceptional, the first thing people do is to try to replicate the experiment, to see whether it works or not. Therefore, I did that.
The biggest difference from the science I was used to was that there was no microscope needed, no radioactivity, no brain slices and no PCR technique. My own body was the tool of research, and the book Zhuan Falun was, to put it very, very schematically, the protocol. I must say this is a very intricate and refined protocol, and if any step is not done well, you may not get the expected result. But scientists know that in research we are used to failing 99 times in 100 before we find the optimal conditions.
It may sound strange to take what looks to be no more than a spiritual book as a scientific protocol, and this is not the kind of result one may hope to get published. But science, my teachers said, is just a question of being objective and having carefully controlled experiments. Then it is science, whatever the material used or the field of research is. I was driven to this first-hand approach to Falun Dafa by the different changes I could feel happening in my body. I started to keep a notebook of these things from the beginning, so as to ascertain this was not psychosomatic or illusory. I must insist that, at the same time as I was sufficiently open-minded to say “let’s try”, I was also quite skeptical and very much willing to walk only on firm and trustworthy ground.
I was particularly driven to see Falun Dafa as a science, not preaching or idealism, by a few concrete experiences, of which I will describe but a minor one. At the very beginning, one day as I was practicing with my eyes closed, I could see a black disk very neatly staying virtually in the middle of my brow. At that time I had not read the book Zhuan Falun. I was astonished to later see this phenomenon described in it as an indication of the opening of what is called “celestial eye”. In science, we would call this a “blind” experiment in which you don’t know what you are supposed to observe and you even don’t know if something is to be observed. Yet, if you do observe it, you then know this is not due to subjective factors, and not due to you own will to see this thing. Back then, I was thinking the book was a nice fairy tale, but the content was objective truth. So I had to reconsider my initial thinking.
That is about all I can report in terms of superficial manifestations. The book Zhuan Falun explains that the criterion of Zhen Shan Ren (truthfulness-compassion-forbearance) is a universal law, providing guidance for the sublimation of one’s mind and body, and exerting a restricting effect on what is opposed to it. This looks like preaching morality, but it is in fact expounding on the fundamental physical laws of our universe. Like the phenomena we call “gravity” and “magnetism”. Whether one acknowledges the restrictive effects of these or not, if one jumps off from the top of a building or spreads iron filings over a magnet, one will certainly observe their effects. And yet we cannot see them, nor directly perceive their true natures. This is the same idea.
I remember an article in the journal Nature. You may all know this is a top-ranking scientific journal. The title was: “Many paths to enlightenment –modern physics bears the imprint of Western and Asian philosophy.” That article explained that such great physicists as Einstein and Schrödinger were influenced by Buddhist ideas when they thought of their theories, and that quantum physics bears some imprint of Buddhism. The article finished by saying: “Einstein… emphasized the need for an interest in the theory of knowledge. This need is all the greater when a radical reorientation in thinking is required. In such instances, the teachings of other civilizations could provide a useful nudge to the scientific imaginations.” Thinking of this from another angle, isn’t it striking that someone like Buddha Sakyamuni, the one we know as the historical Buddha, taught concepts that are so close to our current view of the universe? He introduced the idea of huge numbers of planets with living beings on them, and the concepts of a gigantic microcosm and a gigantic macrocosm. Isn’t it striking that, in that remote age, a man who did not attend any university courses could attain that kind of wisdom? Does it mean that the ways to wisdom and knowledge are more than one? Of course, this was not said to talk about Buddhism, but just to give an example. I also recently read a “high interest” Nature paper on an emerging theory in physics that is having a great impact in the research community, although I do not fully understand it. Physicists make models of the universe based on the measurements they make of stars and son on. The best model is considered to be the one explaining the greater number of measurements. These scientists explained one aspect of our universe, namely, the apparent global weakness of gravity relatively to the other forces, with a single very simple hypothesis: the existence of other dimensions, other time-spaces of material existence. Time-spaces existing at the same place and the same time as ours, in which the “lacking” gravity would be. Whether this model proves to be valuable or not remains to be determined. At least, everyone in the field acknowledges it to be perfectly coherent. Isn’t this scientific? Yet, with our thinking methods and view of a tri-dimensional space, we cannot fathom it. That is, we may need to adapt our thinking, change our concepts if we want to keep up with science’s progress.
It was not for no reason that I read this paper. When I saw the title, I was struck by the similarity with what is written in Zhuan Falun concerning other time-spaces. More recently, I had the same kind of shock. Teacher Li Hongzhi said that matter pervades everything and does not become extinct. A few years ago, he explained that even a vacuum, what is said to be a state of no matter, is matter. And he added: “scientists will come to recognize this in the future”. Recently, a review paper came out on the properties of vacuum states. This review stated that the vacuum state was still a kind of material existence: infra waves can be measured in it, and exert a strong effect on external matter. It also said, when “matter” is absent, there may be a kind of “supra-matter” still existing at the so-called “empty” place.
Now I understand that Zhen-Shan-Ren is also a law, a physical, moral, spiritual law that is acting on all of us. Why? Here it may sound like belief, or theory, but maybe you can view it as a physical force. Teacher Li Hongzhi gave an example about one effect of Zhen-Shan-Ren: “For example, if a bottle filled with dirty things is sealed tightly and thrown into water, it will sink all the way to the bottom. You pour out some of its dirty contents. The more you empty the bottle, the higher it will float in the water. If it is emptied entirely, it will float on the surface completely. In the course of our cultivation practice, you must clean out various bad things in your body so that you can move up. This characteristic of the universe exactly plays this role.” (Chapter One, Zhuan Falun)
What way is there to test this hypothesis? One could be to try to get assimilated to this characteristic, and make a comparison with some control states – before trying to be assimilated or times when unwillingly behaving in the opposite way. In this domain that is an incredibly vast and unexplored domain, our current science does not yet have any theory to approach it, maybe because we are at the time of the opening of this field. Like the leader scientists in history, we should first observe quietly, try to get a full picture, and then draw conclusions, make it fit with current theories if possible, create new theories if not.
In my view, the understanding of Zhen-Shan-Ren as having objective existence will open new fields of learning as well as a new culture. Yet the most fundamental need for this is that we can really come to view this without preconceptions. This scientific approach is not one that can match our current ones, because this is a different approach that takes a different road. It looks maybe more like the ancient Chinese science. The ancient Chinese considered all matter as having elements of metal, earth, water, fire, and wood. This sounds strange, especially if you think of “wood”. Is our human body made of wood? Of course not. Yet, what they meant by this was different, and more like talking about the internal characteristics of objects. That is, this science is based on studying the internal first, while ours is to study the appearance first.
Today I’m glad to share with you my feeling that Falun Dafa is a real science, a deep and profound science, and I can tell you that it is concrete, objective experimentation that brings me to this conclusion. Yet I have no statistics, tables and figures to illustrate this. I can only say this conclusion can be verified by anyone who closely follows the same “protocol”, with a peaceful mind to steadfastly explore this huge field. Some speakers today will give deeper insights into this, because they have greater achievements in science. As I said, I’m just a junior scientist and was pleased to share some views with you.
Thank You.
References.
1- Zhuan Falun, Universe Publishing House, New York
2-Goonatilake, S. Nature vol 405, p399 (May, 2000) Many paths to enlightenment –modern physics bear the imprint of western and asian philosophy
3- Nature, September 2001
4- Science and Avenir (French) December 2001
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- 4. A New Understanding about Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
By Wen Hua
(PureInsight.org)
The article, “Reflections on Cultivation during the Fa Rectification Period,” by a Mainland China Dafa practitioner, published on 25 May 2002, on Minghui website, greatly inspired me. This fellow practitioner realized that it was indeed the 'Fa that Rectified the Cosmos' and it was the 'Fa that Rectified Heaven and Earth.' The Fa is not only the manifestation of one’s cultivation level, but also a collective representation of the power of a practitioner and all rectified sentient beings in his corresponding realm. In addition, when our minds are pure enough to reach the standards of our realm, the Fa will carry Teacher’s mighty virtue and the omnipotence of the Fa.
I used to silently recite Teacher’s verses and imagine that I am like a god that is as tall as the heavens and incomparably noble and with an enormous body. Then, I would think in my mind: 'Eradicate all evil that damages Dafa, encompassing it all and leaving out none.' I would continue to silently chant Teacher’s verses. Sometimes, I felt that my body would shine with boundless radiance toward the evil and I would eliminate the evil with this radiance. I believed that my state for sending righteous thoughts was adequate until my trip to Germany. I realized there that my gong potency was not strong enough. I felt I easily exhausted my gong like those Qigong masters who did guanding. In the end, I realized that sending forth righteous thoughts was not the work of an individual. I should connect myself with all the righteous elements of the universe and with our Teacher to eliminate the evil collectively.
The fellow practitioner who wrote the article I mentioned above believed that the total number of beings would remain the same even with the elimination of the evil ones. The reason being that each time we eliminated an evil being a new life will be born in the new cosmos. Prior to reading the article, I did not quite understand the purpose of sending compassion with the use of the Lotus Palm to eliminate the evil. I now understand, we are not only eliminating the evil, but also creating new lives when we hold up our hand in a vertical palm position. Indeed, we are creating a new future with Teacher. Now, I feel completely different when I send righteous thoughts as I can sense my own benevolence.
With this new insight, I began to increase the frequency of sending forth righteous thoughts. Previously, I had tried my best to send righteous thoughts at the top of every hour. Now, I have a different idea. Perhaps we can collectively extend the time of sending forth righteous thoughts, especially when we are off work. We can extend the time to twenty minutes or half an hour. By doing so we might enhance our compassion.
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- 5. Send Forth Righteous Thoughts with a Clear Mind
By a practitioner in China
(PureInsight.org)
Today I discussed with a fellow practitioner about sending forth righteous thoughts. Regarding her physical condition, she said, “I have benevolently resolved those that should be benevolently resolved. I have also eliminated those that should be eliminated. But the situation still did not improve and I do not know what to do.” This practitioner started to practice Dafa in 1996 and she has been determined in cultivation. However, she coughs every winter and sometimes the coughing is so severe that it lasts the whole night. She tried to improve the situation, but there was no breakthrough. She was puzzled and did not know what to do. When other practitioners reminded her to look within, she always said she had poor enlightenment quality. As time continued, we tended to accept it and were not worried about it anymore.
Then, I thought of something and asked her, “In your mind, are you clear why you wanted to benevolently resolve them, and why you wanted to eliminate them?” She thought a while and said, “Not really. I just have been doing that.” Her words surprised me. When someone is sending forth righteous thoughts, if that person does not really understand what he or she is doing, what kind of effect will it have? When thinking about this further, I realized there were many situations like this. For example, even including myself, are there times that we just do things following others without thinking about it deeply? Very often, we simply took things for granted and did not make judgments according to the Fa. This is indeed serious.
We need to cultivate with a clear mind and with rationality, and we also need to do so when sending forth righteous thoughts. This requires us to have a good understanding of the Fa. For example, we should be clear why we need to send forth righteous thoughts and how to send forth righteous thoughts. Similarly, on the issue of benevolently resolving things, we also need to know why and how to do it. At my level, my understanding of a benevolent resolution for sentient beings is as following: First, it is the Fa that Master told us, which reflects his boundless compassion and utmost wisdom. Secondly, it is a tool that Master has given us to save sentient beings and establish mighty virtue. Thirdly, we should be aware that the elements that need to be benevolently resolved come from karma we created in previous lives, and it is only possible to do this because we are Dafa disciples with a sacred mission that is beyond personal cultivation. Therefore, we have to do it out of a sincere heart that truly wants to remedy our wrongdoings and, by stepping further, to save those beings.
Above are my personal understandings at my level. Please point out anything inappropriate.
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- 6. Looking Within is the Key to Letting Go of Sentimentality
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Liaoning Province
(Clearwisdom.net)
I have been practicing Falun Dafa since 1998. I would like to share my experience with Teacher and fellow practitioners.
Since my son was very young, I have often taken him with me to exercise and study with other practitioners. One day my son told me that he did not want to work anymore because it was too tiring living that way. He became violent and got into fights. I had not a clue how to deal with him. His mental state then became abnormal. I could not handle his behavior at all. My relatives arrived to talk with him but nothing worked. This caused me great sorrow and pain because I had devoted so much of myself to him and he did not care and constantly talked back at me. Some people told me that my son was really behaving strangely and that I should have someone look at him to see if he was possessed.
I was desperate and wanted to do what was suggested to me. However, I knew a practitioner should not hold such a perception. I talked to a new practitioner and asked him his opinion. He said, "Certain people have many forms of spirit and animal possession. You would ruin your son if you appropriated him with those disciples." He also told me that nothing happens accidentally in our practice and to look within. "Your son will eliminate an attachment of yours. You must identify this attachment that is hindering you from practicing and eliminate it."
The practitioner reminded me that I was holding on to sentimentality for my son. I then remembered what Teacher said,
"Cultivation is something you do right in the thick of tribulations. They'll test whether you can sever your emotions and desires, and they'll see if you can take them lightly. If you're attached to those things you won't be able to finish your cultivation." ("The Fourth Talk" in )
I realized that what my son did to me was to tell me not to hold on to my feelings for him. I worried that he'd feel cold in the winter, and very hot in summer, or feel tired at work... My thoughts were completely focused on him. When my son was unhappy, I tried to see what was happening to him instead of looking within myself based on the teachings. I knew that if I did not eliminate my attachments of sentimentality, my son would not change.
I tried to follow the Fa principles to let go of my attachments to my son. I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind me and my son. That day when I went home, my son had changed. He was as obedient and as sensible as he used to be and he went back to work.
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- 7. Gaining Better Understanding of Fa Principles
By a practitioner in Changchun City, Jilin Province, China
(Clearwisdom.net)
Shortly before the 2010 Chinese New Year, a
practitioner with whom I have not been on speaking terms for years
warned me that two male spies were watching me and that they were
close by. I realized that it was not an accident that I heard this.
I reminded myself to look within and find where I was lacking in
doing the and the shortcomings that affected my
.
I asked myself, did I study the with a calm mind? Was I
diligent in my Fa study? Did I assimilate to the Fa? I realized
that I had fallen short when it came to studying the Fa well. If I
didn't study the Fa well, my introspection and xinxing cultivation
would have fallen short. For a long time, I had held certain
notions about this practitioner, which kept us from cooperating
well. Although I had been looking inward, I couldn't resolve the
matter. Besides having a lot of attachments, including
competitiveness, jealousy and self-importance, I feared rejection
from this practitioner and held certain notions about her. I
thought that as long as I looked inside, she would change. But when
we still had our differences I knew that I hadn't found the
fundamental cause of the problem that existed between us. Then, I
realized that I still held fear in my mind. I was afraid of being
persecuted and destroyed by the evil. The situation continued for
years, and interfered with our work to validate the Fa and saving
sentient beings.
I asked myself, why did such interference continue? Teacher
said,
"For a long period of time the sentient beings in Dafa,
especially the disciples, have had a misunderstanding of the Fa at
various levels regarding xinxing improvement. 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. When a tribulation arrives, if you, a
disciple, can truly maintain an unshakable calm or be determined to
meet different requirements at different levels, this should be
sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and
if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it
must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots
caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an
ordinary human. So why doesn’t the side of you that is your
original nature rectify the Fa?" ("Expounding on the Fa" in
Essentials for Further Advancement)
Thus, I sent out powerful thoughts: "If I have any loopholes, I
will rectify myself in Dafa. Master arranged my cultivation path
and the old forces have no right to interfere. I am here to assist
my Teacher to save the beings and fulfil my mission. Teacher
doesn't acknowledge the persecution, nor will I acknowledge it." I
felt that I had the ability to destroy all evil in the cosmos,
completely clear out the evil matter that I had hidden deep in my
heart and disintegrate the path arranged by the old forces. I felt
that I had passed this test.
Then, I realized that since I'd not studied the Fa diligently
and send forth righteous thoughts, my righteous thoughts were
rather weak. Thus, my heart was not pure when doing Dafa work. I
was too focused on doing things. This was the loophole that I
needed to eliminate. To be responsible to the Fa, fellow
practitioners and myself, I should pay more attention to safety
issues. And yet, we cannot stop Dafa work even for a day.
I also became aware that this practitioner had been persecuted.
So, I sent righteous thoughts to strengthen her main consciousness
and clear out her field. At the same time, we agreed during group
study to negate the arrangements made by the old forces. We should
completely disintegrate the black hands, rotten minions, the
communist evil and the elements that separated practitioners. After
I realize that, I felt just as Master said,
“The heavens clear,
the cosmic body transparent,
the universe rectified,
With the ultimate catastrophe now past,
lucent is the whole Cosmos.”
(“After the Catastrophe” in Hong Yin)
During the Chinese New Year holidays, I read all of Teacher's
lectures and at every hour on the hour I sent righteous thoughts.
How can I describe my feelings after I read them all? My original
nature awakened. Just as what Teacher said,
“The vastness of the universe and the enormity of the cosmic
bodies can never be understood by humans through exploration; the
minuteness of matter can never be detected by humans. The human
body is so mysterious that it is beyond human knowledge, which can
merely scratch the surface. Life is so abundant and complex that it
will forever remain an eternal enigma to mankind. (“Firmament” in
Essentials for Further Advancement)
During those days I felt great happiness, was all smiles and was
grateful. I had tears in my eyes when I was reading the Fa and when
I listened to Dafa songs. I offered incense to Teacher and told
Teacher in my heart that I regretted not having done well in the
past.
I felt that I reached a point that was above all. “The Fa can
break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can
shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.”
(“Drive out Interference” in Essentials for Further Advancement
II)
We should listen to what Teacher has been telling us over and
over again: study the Fa well, look inside and help people
understand the truth about Falun Gong.
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- 8. Looking Inward, Starting With the Cultivation of Speech
By a practitioner from Henan Province, China
(Clearwisdom.net)
I recently participated in a group Fa-study, where we read Lecture Eight of . It was my turn to read, and we were approaching the end of the lecture. I had been thinking about cultivation of speech, and my turn to read had come up at the last paragraph in the section “Cultivation of Speech.” When I was reading, I missed two characters that mean “us.” I realized that I should cultivate my speech well. Whenever I went to coordinate something with fellow practitioners, they often pointed out flaws of others and mentioned that we should cultivate speech. Each time, I forgot to think from the perspective of the and followed others in talking behind people's backs. Later I would realize what I had done and regret it. Yesterday a practitioner mentioned cultivation of speech again. I thought about why I still could not follow Master's requirements. I felt that my reasons were as follows: I had prejudice toward others, and others' behavior was not in line with my standards. So, I was always measuring other practitioners with the Fa and looking outward. When I shared my thoughts with practitioners, I was happy if they agreed with me. If not, I argued and even used the Fa to support my arguments. Thinking about this, I felt that I wasn't behaving like a practitioner and felt very disappointed. Among ordinary people, in the household, or between brothers and sisters, I also liked to talk about others. At home, I talked about old affairs all the time. It seemed that without this, we had nothing to talk about. After some time, some bad substances were added into my dimension, and I forgot to cultivate my speech among practitioners, which formed gaps and affected others. I knew that I should correct myself when there are conflicts, but I forgot about it when the actual situation arose. Sometimes I didn't forget, but felt like a substance was making me speak when hearing others' gossip. After I spoke out, I felt regret. I accidentally bit myself twice while having a meal, which made me realize that my shortcomings in cultivating speech may be very serious. For a long time, I liked hearing pleasant things, showed off, was attached to saving face, and indulged in selfishness. I knew that I should look inward when problems arise. When I did so, I found many attachments, but I didn't dig them out and remove them. I just changed superficially, but not in my mind. I also started to neglect safety. In the Fa-study group, we all knew each other well. I had a habit of looking at others' attachments during Fa-study, instead of looking inward on the same issue. When practitioners pointed out my problem, I felt unhappy. Master said, “That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank.” ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference") When I first obtained the Fa, I always followed Master's Fa in speaking and was strict with myself in every sense, but I became more cunning over these years in the ordinary world. Cultivation has its own standards, and I was just deceiving myself. When reading practitioners' articles on Clearwisdom, I felt ashamed. These practitioners exhibited such diligence and steadfastness. Considering Master's compassionate salvation and teachings, I feel regretful for my shortcomings.
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