(Clearwisdom.net) As the Fa rectification moves forward, and the more I understand the Fa, I can feel Teacher's compassion and the mighty power of the Fa more and more. The universe has a long history and its beings have waited a long time to be saved. When the time comes and we are facing Teacher, sentient beings, and our choice of being a practitioner, whether we have been open and noble Dafa practitioners is a serious issue. Today, the most important things are to strictly follow Teacher, to cherish every moment, and to be strict with ourselves.
After the past seven years of hardship, we are where we are today because we believe in the Fa and Teacher, and we have Teacher's compassionate protection. Dafa practitioners' responsibilities are getting heavier. What touches me most is the importance of studying the Fa, how Teacher looks after us, and the omnipotence of Dafa. In this process, when we do well, it is because we followed the requirements of the Fa. During times we don't do well, we look inward and study the Fa even more. We must do well the three things that Teacher asks us to do. These are the most divine things. As for how to do better, and how to do things more openly and nobly, I want to talk about my experience from studying the Fa.
1. Consistently Study the Fa with a Calm Mind and Follow the Fa at All Times
Teacher is right beside us and Dafa gives us all the wisdom and abilities we have. Only when our minds follow Dafa all the time can we have righteous thoughts and righteous actions as we walk the path Teacher arranged for us. The strong righteous thoughts come from the Fa based on consistent Fa study and solid practice. The old forces set up a giant hardship for Fa rectification and are attempting to interfere with Fa rectification, shaking practitioners' righteous beliefs, and forcing sentient beings to deviate from the Fa. The result is the destruction of practitioners and sentient beings. Teacher cherishes all beings and devotes everything he has to give beings more opportunities again and again. The beings are cherishing their own lives if they can cherish Dafa. Dafa is the most precious thing and studying the Fa is what we must do, and do well. All righteous thoughts of practitioners come from the Fa and no one should deviate from the Fa at any moment.
Regarding studying the Fa, we need to pay attention to how we study the Fa. Are we diligently studying the Fa and not just doing it for the sake of it? Are we perfecting ourselves with higher standards and not just going through the motions?
Teacher told us,
"I think that as long as you seriously read the book and seriously learn it, when you don't understand something Master's Law Bodies will give you hints and have you understand. But there's one thing: when you study the Fa, don't do it while holding on to some attachments. You have to calm your mind and be truly studying the Fa. Don't study with some purpose in mind. When you study the Fa, you can't let your mind wander or think about other things while studying the Fa. You can't do that or you'll learn nothing. When you study the Fa, just study the Fa. No interference should be able to affect your Fa-study." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
The first thing we should do when we study the Fa is to respect Teacher and the Fa. We should study with the most respectful and pure minds and stay calm and focused. We need to balance everything with Dafa and assimilate to Dafa. Dafa creates everything for the future and guides us toward the future.
I was busy a while ago with household duties and couldn't be clearheaded when studying the Fa. I read in a few articles that some practitioners memorize the Fa and have enlightened to a lot. I thought I had to memorize the Fa, even if it was just a paragraph a day. It took me two months to memorize the book Zhuan Falun for the first time. Now I work during the day and have little time after I finish housework in the evening. I try to squeeze in time to memorize the Fa and send righteous thoughts during the day. At night, I read through the Fa I memorized and study Teacher's other articles. Now I can finish memorizing the book every two weeks. I now feel that I am less distracted and have more righteous thoughts. My head is clear, rational, calm and peaceful. I also don't have as many problems in the things I do.
2. Putting Myself Behind Dafa at All Times - Being Responsible for the Fa and Sentient Beings
Beings in the old universe are selfish and concerned for themselves, whereas beings in the future are concerned for others. Practitioners have to cultivate based on the righteous Fa and become righteous enlightened beings. This is what Fa rectification and the future need, and it is what we must do.
Before I practiced Dafa, I rarely saw an issue from others' perspective. I only wanted to look out for myself. I often criticized others and thought I was always right. I was ignorantly accumulating karma every day.
Teacher scooped us out of hell. He shouldered a lot for us, gave us many precious things, and offered salvation to us. He gave us, karma ridden humans, a chance to become gods. Teacher created the magnificent beautiful new universe and everything in it for us, but wants nothing in return. How can we not take the practice seriously?
From the Fa principles, I realized that "selfishness" is the dirtiest thing and Dafa is the best and most righteous. When I use my own notions to measure others, that is selfishness. Now I have to eliminate all the selfishness and make sure what I do is for the sentient beings and others. We cultivate compassion, and we can't mix in our personal elements in cultivation. We can't set limits for ourselves and hinder the salvation for sentient beings, nor can we base decisions on our human notions during cultivation. Whether we are being responsible for ourselves or being responsible for personal sentiments directly impacts the effects of validating the Fa and clarifying the truth.
Before, I didn't want to have contact with a practitioner who was just released from the forced labor camp. Then I realized that I have to be responsible for the Fa and for others. Teacher doesn't want to leave any practitioner behind. I have to do what I am responsible for. I sent righteous thoughts to clean the practitioner's environment and share my understandings of the Fa with him. I stressed the importance of Fa study and looking within. I suggested memorizing the Fa and sending more righteous thoughts in his situation. Later, that practitioner felt the benefits of memorizing the Fa. His righteous thoughts got stronger and he found his attachments. He wanted to write a solemn statement, and I told him my understating on the necessity and solemn nature of that statement.
There were practitioners who had gotten lazy with the practice and had almost given up after getting out of the forced labor camp. I thought I should share my experience with them. We practitioners are one body. We should treat our fellow practitioners with rationality and compassion and improve together in the Fa. Teacher values our wills to cultivate and can help us with anything if our minds are in the Fa.
As Fa rectification has progressed, things in the human world have changed accordingly. When we feel passive, are we moved by our human notions? Only when we eliminate selfishness will we be able to detach from the things in this human world. When we put Dafa as our highest priority and care about nothing but Dafa and sentient beings, will we have time to worry about our personal gains? We won't feel mistreated and we won't be misguided by the illusions in this world. The bad thoughts and attachments are what we need to eliminate during the practice.
3. Seize the Time to Do the Three Things Well
Today is the most precious period in history. As the new universe replaces the old one, sentient beings' choices today will determine their futures. Dafa gave us the historical responsibility to save sentient beings and we must shoulder it well. Everything in the human dimension is an illusion that confuses people, but the choices people make in this dimension are real. The Buddha Fa is letting the truth of the universe appear in the human world again. The attitude toward Fa rectification is the real manifestation of a being's xinxing standard and real position.
Clarifying the truth to sentient beings is being responsible to their lives. This is the compassion that exceeds the human level and is the best thing. Dafa's beauty will benefit a being forever. Being saved is a sentient being's greatest wish, as assimilating to the Fa is the sole purpose of the existence of a being's life. In order to save more beings, Teacher is still waiting and giving more chances. We feel the beings truly wanting to assimilate to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Practitioners who progress diligently are cherishing every moment to do the three things well. They are clarifying the truth with the wisdom and special talents given to them by Dafa.
I have been giving out truth-clarifying materials that I have received from other practitioners. If I was short of materials, I made them myself. Two years ago, a practitioner showed me how to make materials at home. Though I continued for several years, I slacked off and didn't pay attention to the result at times. When I saw practitioners being arrested, I felt especially reluctant to continue the work because I had done a lot already. When I looked inward, I realized that I didn't put saving sentient beings as my top priority and had the selfish attachments of fear, a life of comfort, and laziness. For so many sentient beings, no matter how much I did, it was not really much at all. A diligent practitioner would never think he did too much. I was interfered with and missed so many opportunities.
I found that the more I slacked off, watched TV, entertained myself, or was attached to talking about ordinary human issues, the slower I felt the time was passing. In fact, I was wasting time and my life. Shouldering such a great mission, I am impeding saving sentient beings and causing a great loss to Dafa. On the contrary, if I arrange my time well and seize the time to do Dafa work, I feel time is very short. We should always compare, within a same amount of time, how much we have done and how much a diligent practitioner has done.
4. Be Strict with Ourselves and Walk Every Step in Validating the Fa Well
Protecting the Fa is our responsibility. Everything practitioners do is for creating the future, and our actions are an example for history. Teacher has been our example everywhere he has gone. The future can't be negatively affected because we didn't do well at this time. At times in the past, my righteous thoughts weren't strong when I studied the Fa and I did not conduct myself as a practitioner. I often did not behave well when I was among ordinary people, and sometimes I behaved even worse than ordinary people. Before I was a cultivator, I would sometimes act in a slick manner and lie to others in order to get things done. However, after I did this one time, a person pointed it out, saying, "That's a lie. It's different from what you said last time." Now I know that lying increases the bad matter we carry and turns us against the characteristics of the universe. Teacher told us in Zhuan Falun, "I am a person who will not say what he does not want to say, but what I say must be true." We have to strictly follow what Teacher tells us to do.
We practice Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. The purity and selflessness we carry from the practice is changing our surroundings. We can't let the things happening in ordinary society manipulate us. We should be "Full of great aspirations while minding minor details." ("Sage" from Essentials for Further Advancement) No matter where we are, we should act openly and nobly. Teacher arranged this form of cultivation for us. We should embody a Dafa practitioner's spirit and do what we are supposed to do, both at work and at home. In so doing, others will then see the greatness of practitioners and the beauty of Dafa. The key is to act righteously.
Teacher encouraged us with his speech in "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference",
"Everything here in human society was established for Fa-rectification, and all that exists today exists for the sake of my Dafa disciples validating the Fa. Remember: you are the stars of today's world, you are the lives that sentient beings are watching the most intently, and you are beings who are determining the future of every person in the human world! (Applause) So, saving all beings and cultivating yourselves well are of the utmost importance for you, the Dafa disciples. It's not done just for the Consummation of your own being--it is also about fulfilling the hopes that have been placed in you by sentient beings, by more beings!"
In this magnificent era, Teacher and sentient beings have high expectations for us. Dafa practitioners shoulder heavy responsibilities, so let us be more rational, more mature, and wiser. Let us act more openly and nobly as we validate the Fa and save sentient beings.
