Put Aside Pre-conceived Notions - Study the Fa and Cultivate with a Pure Heart

After reading Master's lecture at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference, I have had many changes: I have corrected my irregular living habits, become more serious toward Dafa, learned to better appreciate Master's benevolence, and have been more responsible to myself. I have the following experiences to share:

Lately we have modified our morning practice schedule by adding experience sharing after the one-hour exercise and one-hour Fa-study that we normally do. We use the time for experience sharing to discuss difficult issues that one faces in cultivation. In the past, we came to the practice site to exercise and study Fa for the purpose of exercise and studying Fa. Now we have converted the practice site into a truly peaceful cultivation environment, one in which one examines, corrects and elevates oneself with high standards.

There is a practitioner at our site who was anxious because he could not learn the deeper meanings of the Fa despite having studied it for a long time. He was interfered with by his preconceived notions and accordingly, he misinterpreted the "belief" that Master talked about. We shared our opinions and pointed out to him how he has mixed his thoughts with notions of ordinary people. This resolved his trouble quickly.

His change gave me a shock. Comparing myself, I found that actually many of us have difficulties in studying Fa as well. All of us more or less unknowingly use our own notions to interpret Master's words. After this experience, I tried to use a very pure heart to study the Fa. I find that I have brand new understandings now. When I study the Fa again, I do not have the feeling that, "I have read this before and understand it already." I feel that the inner meanings of the Fa are too deep to measure. I truly feel that my understanding now is only an understanding at this level and I will have a deeper understanding when my xinxing (mind nature) is elevated, and my mindset becomes even purer in the future.

I suddenly discovered that the inner meaning contained in Zhuan Falun is truly boundless. It all depends on how pure your heart is. If we can truly keep a pure mindset in studying Fa, we would be able to distinguish the old forces' interference easier, our Fa-rectification work would better approach the required standards, and losses we encounter would be much reduced. This is because the old forces can never reach the purity of Dafa. The more we study the Fa the purer our minds and thoughts will be. We will be more assimilated with Dafa, and be more capable of distinguishing the righteous from evil.

Afterwards in my experience sharing with fellow practitioners about Fa-study, we realised that we should not keep any pre-conceived notions about Fa-study, otherwise we will misunderstand things. A practitioner asked, "How can we purify our heart in studying the Fa?" After some discussions, describing her recent changes in Fa-study and cultivation, another practitioner said that "mindset" is very important. It is a critical issue whether we are looking for deficiencies in others, or we purely want to change ourselves and purify ourselves? With a clear understanding, it is easy for us to find the deficiencies in our xinxing. We naturally will want to change ourselves to reach a purer standard in our Fa study.

Often we see Fa's requirements on us when studying the Fa, but feel in our minds that it is too hard to achieve them. For example, in some serious disputes with a fellow practitioner, I could hardly stand his actions. Although I knew clearly in my mind what Dafa requirements are, I could not follow them and often regretted it deeply afterwards. Now I gradually understand, whenever I encounter this situation, I should not feel discouraged. If I can do that much today, I will do that much today. But I shall never forget the standards that Dafa sets for me, and cannot relax by lowering the standards for myself. I will do it bit by bit, then the impossible will become possible. The important thing is that we cannot forget the standards that we saw in studying the Fa, so that we can keep elevating ourselves. When we reach a standard, new meanings of Dafa will manifest themselves to us. This way we can keep elevating ourselves.

Another issue is that one often finds that one's elevation in cultivation happens in bursts, not being able to maintain it in a good state. An example is that one can only be persistent in doing exercises for a few days or weeks. After some experience sharing, we found that when we change ourselves, aside from our xinxing, we need to pay attention to interferences from our environment as well. For example, in the past I was not able to get up early to do Dafa exercises, but I got interrupted easily if I choose to do exercises at other times. Afterwards I realised that in order to reach the standard, I need to rectify everything, including my daily routines and behaviours such as my speech and conduct. I patiently studied and found a proper set of daily routines that suits my situations and can facilitate me in carrying out the three things I need to do everyday. It is like in an environment where Fa has been rectified, in which everything, including the environment, is rectified. The rectified environment in turn helps strengthen the righteous thoughts and rectify the incorrect.

My own understanding is that I need to get up early and do the exercises early, not giving any excuse to my laziness. When I insist to do the exercises everyday, I am automatically strengthening my righteous thoughts and ridding myself of my laziness. Exercises transform my innate body and let my spirit go through cycles of relaxing and strengthening, just as a person does not exercise himself but Fa exercises him. When a person does the exercises, he is strengthening and harmonizing everything. Before our body of flesh is transformed completely into high-energy substance, we need to take good care of it, because it is a safeguard for us for spreading the truth and doing Fa-rectification work, and because in our cultivation, we "want the innate body as well as the Cultivated Infant" (Zhuan Falun.).

These are the experiences in my recent cultivation and Fa study. I would appreciate your comments very much.