Getting Back to the Best Cultivation State

Greetings to respectful Master, greetings to everyone!

Master said in What Is a Dafa Disciple, “I hope to see you regaining your enthusiasm and getting back to your best cultivation state.” I have found recalling what I experienced in the past is helpful for me to get back to my best cultivation state. Therefore, I wrote this sharing. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.

1. Studying the Fa
In a certain period after the persecution started, I did not have a clear understanding about the persecution arranged by the old forces. In 2000 Master said in Towards Consummation “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.” Thus, in addition to the usual studying Zhuan Falun, I took time to memorise some of Master’s articles. To do this is a hard process; I forgot quickly what I had learnt before. However, I held on to a principle: do not pursue speed, do it solidly until I can recite correctly every single word in the article before considering it complete.

When I memorised the words: “This period of time will not last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent Enlightened Beings, Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself.” (Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples) I suddenly came to understand why a fellow practitioner who was diligent could express his wish to the Master, even before the persecution, that if consummation cannot be reached, he would have both his body and soul destroyed and why those who cannot verify Dafa are the worst of beings. If I could not do well and verify Dafa, I would be cheating Master, gods and beings! I must not become a sinner in the universe! As I have obtained Dafa, I must not regret and must carry on cultivation to the end of Fa-Rectification.

I also came to understand many other Fa principles after learning the Fa by heart. For example, the old forces arranged the persecution based on the old cultivation principles. There is one facet of old cultivation ways which is the same as the CCP's philosophy: coercion. Master said, “Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts”. A human mind is just a human mind. Coercion can never change it. Only when practitioners let go of attachments, can something be removed. Dafa cultivation practice is the completely voluntarily cultivating of one’s main spirit with a clear mind to let go attachments. Because of this, the old cultivation practice cannot make practitioners themselves reach consummation. Only Dafa cultivation can enable a human being to cultivate into a god.

Different implications exist between Dafa cultivation and the old cultivation way. In Dafa cultivation, Master changes us from the origin of our lives. I have enlightened to another implication of cultivating inwards during Fa Rectification -- we look for the origin of our lives which have been assimilated to Zhen-Shan-Ren, the characteristics of the universe. The process of “looking for” is a process continuously cultivating away the stuff that is unassimilated to Dafa in our dimensions. Once we find our origin of lives we will reach the realm of consummation and return to our true selves. Therefore, a cultivator should not only look inwards but also actively, rather than passively, cultivate inwards and speed up our journey of returning to our true selves. Later on, I will talk about a lesson in this aspect.

2. 24 hours of Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
9 years ago, in June of 2002, the Minghui website published Master’s 2 poems, The Difficult Path to Godhood and Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions on 2 consecutive days. This was a few days before the CCP’s evil head Jiang Zemin visited Russia and the Baltic countries. I remember some practitioners were hesitant at that time, wondering whether they should go to Russia or the CCP’s embassies to send forth righteous thoughts at short distance before the articles were published. However, after Master’s poems were published, many disciples awakened from Master’s hint. They took actions and overcame many difficulties. Those whose circumstance allowed went to Russia, those who could not go to Russia went to London’s CCP’s embassy to carry out 24 hours non-stop sending forth righteous thoughts. Everyone worked together, eliminating evil and assisting Master to save sentient beings.

After Russia, the evil head went to the Baltic countries. Practitioners from all parts of the world entered those countries to send forth righteous thoughts. I remember at that time those countries were not in the EU yet and the living conditions were poor. I went there together with a few UK practitioners. We took the old fashion trains, lived on bread and biscuits, travelled and sent forth righteous thoughts day and night.

Later in the same year, the evil head went to Houston. Disciples from all over the world got together again in Houston to carry out 24 hours non-stop sending forth righteous thoughts. I also remember I was with a female Chinese disciple from Switzerland. We were in the strong wind & rain, on slippery, muddy ground. We tried very hard to hold the poles of a banner and recited the poem Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions. Around midnight, Master went to see disciples at the sending forth righteous thoughts site. Disciples were all very encouraged.

Our project of 24 hours sending forth righteous thoughts outside the CCP’s Embassy in the UK started on 5 June of that year. After the evil head went back to China, some UK disciples thought, after sharing, it was necessary to keep sending forth righteous thoughts 24 hours a day until the end of the persecution against Falun Gong. In over 9 years, even though we have gone through various hardships and difficulties, we have been holding to our righteous thoughts and carrying out righteous actions.

3. Clarifying the truth
After I got a clear idea of the difference between Dafa cultivation and the old cultivation way, I realized that because the old forces intentionally uses the evil party to change people for the worse in order to test Dafa disciples, the result is that everyday people’s xinxing is continuously dropping. Many people do not have a positive attitude towards Dafa and are facing elimination so they are truly persecuted and Chinese people are the worst affected. Therefore, the mental and psychological persecution is the core of persecution. In clarifying the truth, talking about physical persecution is not enough, we must talk about mental and psychological persecution.

People often ask: why is Falun Gong persecuted? I have realized that the core of this issue is about Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance and the CCP’s philosophy of fighting. They are different spiritual beliefs. Meanwhile, the CCP’s dictatorship and tyranny do not allow people to have different ideas and voices. If a person is not Chinese, I go straight to the above 2 points. In most cases, it takes only about 3 to 5 sentences for them to understand the reasons, because many people who live in Western society know human rights in China do not exist. They do not like the CCP. If time allows, I continue to tell them how in 7 years Falun Gong spread by word of mouth and the number of Falun Gong practitioners became bigger than the number of party members. The CCP feared losing control, the evil head was jealous and there were other causes. For the Chinese, especially those from mainland China, I usually start from the angles of cherishing life, human rights and the CCP's propaganda, before I mention the above 2 points.

A Lesson
One day last summer I heard a voice talking to me “Ze Xia, it is time for you to leave”. At the moment I heard it, I was a little shocked and thought it was untrue. Then my mind was blank for about 1-2 seconds before I remembered Master’s words about cooperation and practitioners working together. I said to myself: “No, this voice is the old forces’ arrangement which is not what my Master wants”. After that, for a few days, I did nothing about it and almost forgot about it.

However, a few days later, I visited my relative and her family. This lady is in the generation above me. According to traditional Chinese culture I need to listen to her. During my visit, she talked to me very seriously with pressure urging me to “go to a solicitors and get your will sorted, otherwise if anything happens to you, it will be difficult for your family to get your property.” I then realized that her words might be linked with the voice telling me to leave. I asked myself: “Should I do what she said?” My answer was still “No, that is the old forces’ arrangement.” Again, I did nothing about it.

One day, as I walked down the street, a thought came into my mind: “Look at these people, they seem to enjoy life here very much. I am leaving it anyway.” After that, I had a dream, in which I was holding a stick with some bits and pieces of black material on it. At this time, there was a ferocious animal rushing towards me. I was scared and threw the stick from my hand. That beast picked up the stick from the ground, turned and ran away. After waking up, I realized this is a hint from the Master telling me that only through letting go of bad things my life could I be free of danger. In the meantime, I also came to understand that this dream happened because upon hearing the voice asking me to leave I did not really follow Master’s requirements and look inward.

Master said in Be Clearheaded, “If you, as a student [of Dafa], do not follow Master's requirements, it is definitely no simple thing. The old forces have arranged for all Dafa disciples a set of their things, so if a Dafa disciple doesn't follow Master's requirements, he must be following the old forces' arrangements. The old forces are in essence gigantic trials and tribulations that accompany you at all times, focused on whether in Fa-rectification Dafa disciples are able to step forward. ” I hurried up to look inward and found many attachments including a fighting mentality, fame, being too engrossed, lust and jealousy. In the meantime, I increased the length of sending forth righteous thoughts every day, when it was possible, removing evil factors in my own space. I finally passed the tribulation.

This experience made me realise my cultivation state was not right. I must strengthen my Fa study and get it adjusted. I started to learn Zhuan Falun by heart and got enlightened: comparing my current self with myself back then, it is true that my understanding and cultivation state are both different and there have been improvements. However, standards set in the Fa are different. Therefore, I cannot compare today’s cultivation state with before. I should compare my cultivation state with the standards set in the Fa at different periods.

I used the standards set by the Master in Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions to examine every single thought and action and have found that I have not reached the standards, I am not completely walking on a righteous path, there are deviations. One example is that I am not diligent sometimes, due to my attachment to comfort. This bad cultivation state leads to below standard performance in carrying out Shen Yun tasks and saving beings.

Some practitioners said, the old forces are not qualified to test us. Yes, I agree but if we could not do well it is equivalent to accepting tests arranged by the old forces. Master has been waiting for us to wake up so we can verify Dafa with our righteous thoughts and actions, to verify that old forces are not qualified to test and block us to fulfill our mission to save beings!

Finally, let’s encourage each other by re-visiting the a poem published by the Master 9 years ago, not to let the Master down and make a fast improvement in order to save more beings!

The Difficult Path to Godhood
Predestined relationships spanning endless lifetimes
Each connected by the thread of Dafa
Through hardships the body of gold is tempered
Why such slow and leisurely steps?

Thank you!