To Cultivate Away the Old Forces

[Note: "old forces" can be understood as corrupt old elements in the universe which have arranged the persecution of Falun Dafa and Dafa practitioners with the purpose of destructively "testing" them.]

(I)

At one stage, I saw things this way: when overseas practitioners were rejected by Icelandic Customs, I thought it must be that many practitioners had the attachment of sending forth righteous thoughts at a short distance, which was seen by the old forces and that then they arranged such things to make practitioners realize their attachments. Therefore, I understood that the key point was that practitioners should realize that they have such attachments and they have to remove them.

When I shared experiences with one practitioner, she said such thinking was taking the old forces as our Master. We should not leave any space for the old forces in our mind at all. They were like the fake Buddha who was in charge of the monks. If you cultivated according to their arrangements, in what direction you would cultivate?

I was astonished but glad that she might be right, though I was not very sure about what she said. I mentioned the old forces many times when we exchanged opinions to figure out this issue. She said: “you mentioned the old forces again.”
Afterwards, I found several articles on the websites, which were similar to the understanding of this fellow practitioner but were from a different point of view.

(II)

Currently I have a further understanding of this Fa-principle: “matter and mind are one thing.”(Zhuan Falun) I realize today that our thoughts can be seen clearly in another dimension when they arise. When we run into something, we think: ”why did the old forces arrange it?” ”Did the old forces take advantage of my attachment?” In another dimension, it can be seen that the old forces exist in our minds. Our thoughts have been brought up and arranged by the old forces over a long period of time and it is hard not to get stuck inside them. We cannot break through the thinking of accepting the old forces’ tests. But, whatever we do, we should thoroughly deny the existence of the old forces and think only of what Master Li has asked us to do: studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth. The beings in another dimension are eagerly awaiting salvation. When we run into problems, what we should think is: “what am I being reminded me of?” “What do I need to enlighten to?” There are no old forces at all in our minds. What else can they do?

From “Teaching the Fa during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the Western United States Fa Conference”, "Touring North America to Teach the Fa”, and “Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.”, Master Li talked many times about the relationships with the old forces. I realize that our understanding on this issue is the key point. We know that the old forces even arranged every thought of Dafa practitioners. Therefore, the understanding of the relationships between Master and the old forces, Dafa practitioners and the old forces is difficult to resolve in our minds and will be easily be interfered with. As for my personal understanding, for a long period of time, many articles have mentioned that we do not have to think about how the old forces think and how they arrange things, which was not, however, highly valued. A person like me has certain understandings about this issue, but the old forces will be first reflected in my mind when my thoughts are not righteous enough.

We should, in our minds, put the old forces in the position where they should be. Now that Master told us “I do not even acknowledge the old forces themselves”. (Teaching the Fa at the Fa conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.) We should cultivate away the old forces from our consciousness. If they do not exist in our consciousness, they do not exist materially because the substances and the consciousness are one thing. No matter how high their levels are in another dimension, they are of material existence. They have effects through our consciousness. If we cultivate them away from our consciousness, the old forces of material existence will be eliminated in the process.

I think, during our course of cultivation, Dafa disciples’ understanding of the Fa needs a process. (Of course, my current understanding is not absolutely right and perfect.) During the process, we naturally will talk about and think of the old forces to understand them further. When we really understand about them from the Fa, the word “old forces” should disappear from our thoughts and our views little by little because we do not even acknowledge them.
The above is my personal understanding at current level. Please point out anything inappropriate.

Translated from http://www.yuanmingeurope.net/articles/200302/17800.html