Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- When Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts, Quality is Improvement
- How to Calm Our Minds to Read the Fa
- Let Go of Human Notions and Follow the Fa
- Calmly Look Within to Cultivate Oneself Well
- Discussing the Cultivation of Shan (Compassion)
- Some Thoughts on Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts and the Difference Between Divine And Human
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the May 2012 Falun Dafa India Newsletter.
In this issue, we have a compilation of experience-sharing Articles gleaned from Pureinsight and 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?
For 3 consecutive weeks Bangalore practitioners had truth clarification activities at the various Gopalian malls across the city.
Practitioners also organized a summer camp in Malur and introduced Dafa and taught the exercises. All the participants appreciated the practice and they would like to continue with the practice.
Practitioners from Bangalore had been to Chennai and clarified the truth at the beach and joined in the exercise practice at the beach.
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- 3. When Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts, Quality is Improvement
A Dafa Disciple
(PureInsight.org)
This morning my main consciousness flew out of my body. Different than before, I saw a bright sky with several masses of black clouds floating around. One section floated toward me; it had a white mouth, with two white eyes staring at me. I realized it was evil, so I recited Master's verse silently: "The Fa rectifies the cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated." Several bright spots showed up in front of my eyes. Afterwards the black cloud disappeared. I sent out righteous thoughts while flying, and quite a lot of the black cloud cleared away. Then a vision appeared, becoming ever wider and gradually clearer, a beautiful, golden garden. There were pavilions, terraces and towers, and there were flowers, grasses and trees, all immersed in a golden light, as soft as the rosy clouds of dawn. It was as beautiful as fairyland.
When my main consciousness left my body in the past, I only knew I was flying. I couldn't see anything because it was so dark. Now I know this had happened because the evil around me was so dense that my eyes were blocked. The reason that I could not see anything before was probably due to the fact that I didn't realize how important the quality is when sending forth righteous thoughts. The frequency was not bad at all but the state of my mind varied every time. Often I couldn't concentrate when sending righteous thoughts and my mind would drift away to something by the time we finished. I even doubted if it really worked or not. Every time when I sent forth righteous thoughts before the sitting meditation exercise, I would tell myself to get it over with as quickly as possible so I could start the exercise. I also told myself that since I do it every day and a lot of fellow practitioners are doing it with me, even if the quality is not good, both my own frequency and the total number of other practitioners would make up for it. Master said in his new article at the Fa conference in Florida, December 2001, " Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously: the evil in the dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause. So you must take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. No matter whether you think you have the ability or not, you should do it. What you eliminate from your own mind are ones which have an effect within the expanse of your own body; at the same time, you need to eliminate the external ones, which are directly related to the dimensions you're in. If you don't eliminate them, then they not only persecute you and restrain you, but also persecute other students, other Dafa disciples." When I read that, I felt extremely ashamed. I corrected my mindset right away and demanded of myself to strictly follow Master's teachings and to send forth righteous thoughts in the double lotus position, if possible. In addition, I participate in the group-effort with fellow practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts twice a day. I do it at 5 in the morning (9 PM in Beijing) to eradicate the evil in three Northeastern Chinese provinces along with Mainland Chinese practitioners. I also do it at 8 PM when all the North American practitioners join force to eliminate the evil.
After some time, when purifying my mind, if I silently recited the verse "Thinking about eliminating the bad thoughts in their minds, karma, and bad notions or external interference" ('Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference') a few times, my distracting thoughts would clear very quickly. I felt my body becoming calm and gradually unhampered, and forming the images of Buddha, Taos and deities, as illustrated in Hongyin. When I held my hand vertically in front of my chest, I could feel the power of "the heaven and the earth will be shaken if one holds his hand vertically" (from "Great Enlightened People" in Hongyin, Master's book of poetry). When I silently recited the verse "The Fa rectifies the cosmos, the Evil is completely eliminated," I could feel that beside me expanded a powerful energy force, layer by layer, which permeated softly into every level of the cosmos and rectified all the incorrect things in the universe. The evil in the places where this energy reached collapsed and dissolved.
What I saw this morning when my main consciousness left my body was a very supernatural experience. It happened because I had cleared away some of the evil beside me. From that, I realized how important the quality is when sending forth righteous thoughts. I also gained a deeper understanding to what Master said in his new Florida article, "Then if every student is able to do that, I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again."
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- 4. How to Calm Our Minds to Read the Fa
By a Falun Dafa practitioner from China
(Minghui.org)
Of the Teacher asked us to do, studying the is the most important. But whether one studies the Fa well or not, only a practitioner himself or herself can tell. The Fa-study process is also a process of cultivation. When a person cannot see Fa principals, it's important to calm the mind and look inward to see if there is anything that has not been let go or if there are any notions getting in the way of seeing the truth. Then, that will help the person to calm down and eliminate any notions while reading the Fa, and he or she will be able to concentrate. When we begin to read the Fa, we should not have the thought of rushing through the chapter for the sake of finishing it quickly. We should read it slowly, so that we can put our heart into reading it. In addition, the more we read the Fa, the more we want to read it, so we should just keep reading without any other thoughts in mind.
Whether one can study the Fa well or not also depends on one's notions. Many people have a certain level of high education and have fixed understandings about science. When they use what they have learned to measure unknown phenomena and science, this is exactly the manifestation of one's notions at play. Also, that is just the way humans think. However, for a practitioner, when one uses one's notions to judge the Fa, one cannot see the true meaning of the Fa and can even end up having biased understandings about the Fa. For example, when you read the Fa, if you pay attention to it, you'll find that every time Teacher mentions “science,” if you use your human notions to judge, you will automatically relate it to science in our human world. In addition, every time you come across this word, you will always think about it using your notions.
All notions play the same role. What has happened to many practitioners is that when they read the Fa, they feel that they don't have any new enlightenment. Even though they keep studying the Fa and are very steadfast, they always feel that they are simply reading the same thing over and over again, and this is exactly the reason. Consequently, some have even stopped reading the Fa after a while.
So how can we read the Fa without being hindered by our notions? One way is to not think about anything while we read, so that we will be able to suppress our notions. There is another way, and that is if one has the wish or thought in one's mind to not accept any human notions interfering with Fa-study and asks Teacher for help. This one thought will help. By not thinking about anything, one will achieve a good result as well.
Studying the Fa well is the key for saving sentient beings and for sending forth righteous thoughts. Sending forth powerful righteous thoughts requires energy. The dispatched energy needs to be strengthened by a person's cultivated energy. Therefore, it is also necessary to keep doing the exercises. During this great period of time in history, which will never be repeated, we should seize this opportunity to do well what we should do. Our future will be wonderful beyond description!
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- 5. Sending Righteous Thoughts Is Compassionate
A Dafa Practitioner in Canada
(PureInsight.org)
I belong to the large group of Dafa practitioners who cannot see the truth in other dimensions. So, like other practitioners, I pay a lot of attention to what happens in our dimension whenever we send righteous thoughts. Here are a few things I noticed after the sending of righteous thoughts.
1. My two grown-up sons formerly did not share my belief in Dafa, which caused me a lot of suffering because of my Qing attachment. One day, I happened to think about possible interference from other dimensions. So I began to send out, carefully and wholeheartedly, righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in the three realms. Right away, my sons became clear-minded: their attitude became more loving towards me, and we could peacefully discuss Dafa. Now my elder son and his wife have begun to practice the exercises and experience their high values. My second son does not show his understanding but recommends Dafa to his friends. On many other occasions, I have experienced that same extraordinary effect on people. I remember Master’s words: “Indestructible righteous thoughts toward the cosmos truth form benevolent Dafa disciples’s rock-solid Vajra bodies; they frighten all evil, and the light of Truth they emanate makes the unrighteous elements in all beings’ thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, how great the power is.”(from “Also in a few words,” September 8th,2001).
2. Since that time, I always send forth righteous thoughts wholeheartedly and carefully and a little bit longer than the specified time. I am thinking that I am helping to clean up the interference in all the people’s minds around me as far as possible and as thoroughly as possible.
3. On one of the photos taking during a Dafa demonstration in Montreal (Minghui.org on Sept 11th), one can see a powerful bright light pouring down on the practitioners. I have come to think that, maybe, while we are sending forth righteous thoughts, the “connection” (just my idea) with the rectifying universal Fa (or Master’s Gong – Lecture on the Fa at the Washington D.C. International Conference – July 21, 2001) is fortunately and efficiently being made. Would the Fa eventually need us to rectify our world, this “tiny speck of dust” in the very bottom of the universe? As all Dafa disciples around the world are sending the same righteous thoughts at the same time, would rays of light of all sizes spurting out from everywhere, rejoining the ever-present light of Truth in the universe to wipe out all darkness and unrighteous elements in this world? Our Master, out of his boundless compassion, has given to humankind a way to free oneself and to clean the living environment of all evil interference. This he has taught and allowed us to use during this special period of time.
Since I had these experiences and came to this understanding, I am doing it eagerly now, thinking that the human environment will soon return to its original state of purity and brightness and people all over the world would be able to live freely and happily afterwards within the Fa.
Please correct me if my understandings are not right.
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- 6. Calmly Look Within to Cultivate Oneself Well
By a Dafa practitioner in China
(Minghui.org)
After receiving the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) DVD--Mainland China edition, I immediately bought DVDs to copy them as well as print labels and package them. I was worried when I noticed some practitioners who used poor quality DVDs to make copies and packaged them sloppily or were not mindful and carelessly distributed the DVDs. In the past 10 or more days I have been thinking about this: Why are these practitioners not on the Fa and why have they not paid attention to this? During group Fa-study, I could not calm down and mentioned this whenever there was a break. As a result, I sometimes missed words when reading the Fa. When sending forth righteous thoughts together, I sometimes coughed and could not concentrate, either.
Some practitioners mentioned that my cultivation state was not right. I felt wronged: I am doing this for the Fa and for other practitioners. What I did not realize was that I was too attached to doing things. With Master and the Fa, every practitioner is cultivating in Dafa, and they will all be rectified and assimilated to the Fa. Instead of looking within, I always want to change others instead of myself. I have been working like an auditor.
One day a practitioner asked me to calm down, study the Fa well, and adjust my cultivation state. When looking back at the past two or three months, I was very attached to accomplishing more. Very often I did not have time for Fa-study until very late. By then, however, I was very sleepy and thus I could not concentrate. When my mind is not pure, I have allowed myself to be interfered with as well as interfering with other practitioners. I felt bad and decided to really look within. For such a long period of time, I had been interfered with and could not be clear-minded. Isn't this a major loophole? I calmed down to look within and no longer felt wronged. I had found that I had been attached to too many things. I used to think I had done very well in cultivation, with a good understanding of the Fa. With the attachment of showing-off, I always wanted to direct others and have been worrying about other practitioners' attachments. Seeing their behavior was not on the Fa, and I was very disturbed. When sharing with other practitioners, I often criticized others without truthfulness or compassion. In addition, I did not cultivate my speech and have spread negative words around. How can this be a genuine and diligent Dafa disciple?
Master said:
"Even now some people still can't concentrate when it comes to reading the books. Those of you who do work for Dafa, especially, shouldn't use any pretexts to conceal your not reading the books or studying the Fa. Even if you do work for me, your Master, you still need to study the Fa every day with a calm mind and cultivate yourself solidly. When your mind wanders all over the place as you read, the countless Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in the book see your laughable and pitiable mind, and see the karma in your thoughts controlling you, which is detestable. And yet you cling to delusion and fail to wake up. Some volunteers go long periods of time without reading or studying the Fa. How could they do Dafa work well? You have unwittingly incurred many losses that are hard to recover. Past lessons should have made you more mature. The only way to prevent the old, evil forces from taking advantage of the gaps in your mind is to make good use of your time to study the Fa." ("Towards Consummation" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
From now on I will calm down and truly study the Fa well. No matter under what circumstances, I will let go of attachments and look within. I will genuinely cultivate and truly improve.
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- 7. Discussing the Cultivation of Shan (Compassion)
Zhong Ming
(PureInsight.org)
Teacher said, "Shan is the manifestation of the nature of the universe at different levels and in different dimensions. It is also the fundamental nature of Great Enlightened Beings. Therefore, a cultivator must cultivate Shan and assimilate to the nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren." (From "A Brief Explanation of Shan" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
I remember that I read an experience-sharing article from Clearwisdom a few months ago that dealt with cultivating Shan (Compassion). In the article, the author said that although he knew many of the principles, he sadly realized that he was not compassionate enough. This article was tremendously shocking to me and the practitioners around me. I have often heard other practitioners say they had a similar problem.
I also found out that I lack compassion. That is why I want to explore my problems and share my discoveries with fellow practitioners.
Something happened yesterday and from it I clearly saw my problem of being not compassionate enough. Even though the incident appeared to have no relationship with Fa-rectification or clarifying the truth, it showed me my precise xinxing level at that time. Sometimes, I feel that it's the small things in life that properly expose our xinxing standard, and let us see our selfishness. And it's this selfishness that the old force uses as an excuse to further "examine" the practitioners, and a reason why this evil tribulation is still continuing.
Last night I heard that the wife of the couple that are co-renters of our apartment couldn't figure out how to get off the freeway. She called her husband for help. She was quite frightened. Her husband kept on calming her over the phone and said that he would find a car to get her, and told her not to worry and she should just sit tight and wait for him. At that moment I found out that I didn't feel anything in my heart. I was neither worried about her, nor did I think about how to help her. I was thinking, "Maybe her husband will make my husband go with him." I was not at all happy with this possibility. I felt that this is such a burden. Then I thought that their phone might not be working very well, and that they will want to use our phone instead. But, that would disturb me from going online and disturb my plans to call China for clarifying the truth. What a distraction and inconvenience! At that moment, I didn't have any compassionate thoughts. I did not think about the others at all. Although it seemed as if I treated calling China to clarify the truth as more important, I knew it was just an excuse to use Fa promoting to cover up my unwillingness to help others. When I realized that I had these uncompassionate feelings, I felt extremely bad about it. I think this is a strong hindrance that prevented me from melting into the Fa. These uncompassionate mentalities were like a dark field cutting me off from the nature of the universe.
On numerous occasions I could feel these uncompassionate and bitter feelings that the dark fields brought. For example, when practitioners see the elderly or women with children on buses, they would give up their seats for them. I would do that, too. Sometimes, I felt that the reason I did it was because I thought that I was supposed to do so. It was not from the kindness of my heart. Sometimes when riding the bus and seeing an elderly person, I silently wished that he would not come my way, so I won't have to give up my seat. Giving up my seat became an obligatory duty of some sort.
When interacting with practitioners or with ordinary people, I can feel my lack of compassion. When I am facing certain people, I can clearly sense my field of compassion, or the lack of it, towards them. Normally, when I don't like certain people, I could feel that I have no compassion toward them. It felt as if I just could not stand them and they felt the same way toward me. I think a living being is quite sensitive to other peoples' compassion or its absence. When I send coldness and hostility toward another person, how can the other party be harmonious with me? I also found out that this problem is very obvious among Chinese practitioners. A lot of practitioners dislike each other, and we behave discordantly among ourselves. But this is very rare among western practitioners. Their compassion is very obvious, and one can see it from their actions. Maybe this is why many "picky" Chinese practitioners are kind to western practitioners. It may be that their field of compassion is so strong that everyone can feel, so they respond with true kindness. This is an example of what Teacher said, "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." (From Zhuan Falun) Treating others with kindness sounds easy enough, but it is so difficult for me to do just that. I felt that my heart just couldn't emit any compassion to some individuals that I just don't like and don't appreciate. I still couldn't accept certain people even after much striving. I am not happy myself when I dislike certain people.
I will always remember a fantastic experience of last summer that let me feel the beauty of pure compassion. One night, I was returning home after a group study. Suddenly, I felt as if I had given up all my past uncompassionate thoughts. I felt as if I were a new person and had reached a fantastic level. At that moment, I felt as if I had realized the true meaning and majesty of cultivation. Before that, I always knew that Great Enlightened Beings are unselfish and consider others before themselves. I always felt that it was a state to far away for me to reach. I also felt that practitioners should be compassionate like the Great Enlightened Beings, but I couldn't genuinely feel that greatness from my heart. After that night and the few days that followed, I truly felt the greatness of unselfishness, and that I had reached that level within those few days. I thought that this is a true meaning of life, and that life is to live for others. At that time, I strongly felt I wanted to treat others well from my heart. I felt that this is the true essence of a living being. I felt that it took me three years to learn the meaning of cultivation. On those three days, I felt that I was filled with compassion and happiness. And the sitting meditation didn't hurt at all. I felt like a new person. Of course, later I regressed into my old self, but that experience was truly unforgettable.
The above is my understanding, written to share with others. Please point out my mistakes.
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- 8. Some Thoughts on Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts and the Difference Between Divine And Human
(Minghui.org)
Qiaoxi District Court in Shijiazhuang City held a session in an attempt to sentence practitioners on February 17, 2009. In order to rescue fellow practitioners, practitioner A and I left work to go there to send forth righteous thoughts. After we rode our bicycles around the court, we found a place in the south section of the court. We prepared to send forth righteous thoughts in the direction of the court.
I observed the environment around me: There was a small building behind me that had an open space and a grove on both sides and also a row of bungalow on the left. I believed there were people living in the bungalow and said, "These are residential homes so we must stand here silently and do not move to avoid people seeing us (they will feel strange)." Practitioner A looked at me and said firmly, "They cannot see us." Then she did not speak anymore. I also thought that it was right and we did not let them see us. As expected, only one person looked at us casually and other people who passed by us did not look at all.
We began to stand there to send forth righteous thoughts with a calm mind. The day was very cold, with a bone chilling wind. We stood there silently and did not move, so I gradually felt cold. I stamped my feet gently and a lot of thoughts surged. I thought: When would the session finish? Immediately, I thought that this was not right and I should not have such thoughts interfering and should concentrate on sending forth righteous thoughts. Therefore, I began to concentrate on sending forth righteous thoughts. After a while, I felt cold again. I walked several paces and tried to alleviate the chilling cold feeling. I turned right and found an old woman sitting not far away from us. I told practitioner A, "There is an old woman, maybe she is a fellow practitioner." Practitioner A acknowledged but she did not even glance at me. I resumed sending righteous thoughts at once. After a while, the woman that I assumed was a fellow practitioner came to me and said one word. I replied briefly, but practitioner A did not look at us at all and it seemed to her that nothing happened. Three hours later I felt colder and colder and felt pain in my feet. I stomped my feet and tightened my hat. However, practitioner A had not moved during the past three hours and only changed her gestures once in a while. She didn't even wear a hat. I thought that she was so perfect. The chilling wind came upon us once again and I could not help but shiver. I said, "It is really cold." Practitioner A did not open her eyes and said, "It is not cold!" I suddenly understood and said, "You are right and it is not cold!" Immediately, I did not feel cold.
The session had ended. We left and did not have time to share. Two days later we met again. I asked her, "Didn't you feel cold that day?" She replied, "Rather than feeling cold, I felt hot. A warm current circulated my whole body and I was so hot that I could not wear the hat, so finally I took it off." We were in the same environment and wore the same clothes and did the same thing, but we had such different reactions.
Compared with practitioner A, I realized my deficiencies: Firstly, I did not put forth enough effort to rescue fellow practitioners, so I was interfered with while sending forth righteous thoughts and often could not concentrate. Secondly, I had a strong attachment of seeking comfort. Before I left, in order to avoid the cold, I tried to find warm pants, but did not find any. Thirdly, I had strong human thoughts and lacked divine thoughts. I regarded myself as an ordinary person and assumed that the weather would affect me.
Master told us,
"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" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
"So before the Fa-rectification is over you should seize the time that's left and solidly do well in every single thing that a Dafa disciple should do. That's how you should proceed on this path toward the future and toward what's the most magnificent; you can't miss any single opportunity, or go awry with any step." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")
I hope fellow practitioners can draw from my lessons and walk well the path that's ahead of us and put forth maximum effort to do well each thing in validating Dafa.
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