(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share my understanding regarding doing the exercise movements. Please point out anything that is inappropriate.

While all true practitioners know the importance of practicing the exercises and doing them daily, many may never have suspected that their movements are not correct. However, I have come across some problems in this regard.

When I first began practicing Falun Gong, I learned the five exercises from the person who stood in front of me at the group practice site. I "learned" how to do them after three mornings and did them like that afterwards. Five months later, my diseases, including hypolipidemia, emphysema, stomach ptosis, and varicose veins were all cured. I naturally thought that my movements must be correct and never doubted it.

The effect of practicing Falun Gong on my wife was even better. Before she started practicing, her right side was paralyzed due to rheumatic arthritis. She was cured three months into her practice.

We have kept practicing for over ten years. However, we felt that the effect was not that good. My wife often had pains here and there, and I had the same problem. I was unable to do the meditation with both legs crossed for an entire hour. We both thought that the poor effect was because our karma was great. We didn't give it too much thought and kept doing the exercises with our eyes closed.

One night when we practiced the exercises, my wife kept coughing. When she was doing the second exercise, Falun Standing Stance, she walked to spit holding both arms up. I warned her, "Fellow practitioner, you are not supposed to walk around when doing the second exercise." She talked back and said that it was "a special circumstance."

We shared our thoughts after finishing the exercises. She told me that I made mistakes in many movements. For example, when it was time to rotate the Falun four times, I did it four and a half times, I didn't follow Master's words, I dozed off during meditation, I moved my body back and forth when I did the second exercise, and I also scratched whenever I felt an itch. My wife's movements were not correct either, and she also talked during the exercises.

We decided that we needed to pay attention to this issue. We invited over ten veteran practitioners to discuss this issue with us and practice the fifth exercise together. Everyone was surprised and said, "Many of us were assistants who taught the exercises to new practitioners. We never thought that our movements were not correct. We made mistakes in movements such as Jin Hou Fen Shen, Shuang Long Xia Hai, Holding the Wheel Above the Head, rotating Falun clockwise four times, Ning Zhang and Guo Tou in the fourth set of exercises, and the hand gestures in the fifth exercises. What's amazing is that no one had ever thought about it. We always took for granted that our movements were correct."

In our sharing, we discovered more shortcomings in doing the exercises. We did some of the movements poorly, especially when we had interference, were not feeling well, or when we were busy. Sometimes we didn't want to continue. Some practitioners only practiced the meditation and skipped the standing exercises. Some read Dafa books, but did not practice the exercises. They claimed that they had already "cultivated to a high level," and did not need to practice the exercises. Although it is an isolated case, it doesn't conform with Dafa's requirements. Why did it happen? It is mainly because we didn't have a clear understanding of the Fa principles.

Master has talked many times about how the exercise movements are a complementary way to reach consummation. He said in the book The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa, (Chapter I),

"The exercise movements are necessary for transforming and cultivating these things. The exercises are part of the harmonization and perfection in our Dafa. So Dafa is a comprehensive mind-body cultivation system. It is also called 'The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection.' Dafa thus requires both cultivation and exercises, with cultivation taking priority over the exercises. A person's gong won't increase if he merely does the exercises and fails to cultivate his character. Meanwhile, a person who only cultivates his character and doesn't perform the exercises of the Great Way of Spiritual Perfection will find the growth of his gong strength impeded and his innate body (ben-ti) unchanged."

I enlightened that for Dafa practitioners, doing the five sets of exercises is not the same as doing regular exercises. Instead, they are movements for us and for our small universes and countless sentient beings in our corresponding universes guided by the high level principle--The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa. Our every movement is saving sentient beings. However they way our bodies in this dimension move is how the countless sentient beings in our corresponding universes move. Therefore, when we do the exercises, we not only need to have a clear understanding of the Fa principles, but also need to do as Master said in Zhuan Falun, Lecture Three, "Spirit or Animal Possession,"

"Qigong practice requires one to value virtues, do good deeds, and be kind. One should conduct oneself this way in everything and under all circumstances."

And in Lecture Five of Zhuan Falun Master also says,

"In doing the exercises, if you do not think about good things, at least you should not think about bad things. It is best if you do not think about anything."

Master made the principles very clear. However, we did not meet the standard. We could not achieve a state of tranquility and had all kinds of messy thoughts in our minds. Some practitioners even chatted during the exercises. Isn't this practicing evil cultivation?

I also enlightened that not practicing the exercises well is an issue of not respecting Fa and Master. Master taught us the five sets of exercises and he recorded instructions for every movement. Think about it, the great Buddha is standing right in front of you and gives specific instructions for every movement. Isn't that magnificent? However, many practitioners only consider Master's instructions as background music, and they treat the exercise movements as ordinary exercises. The effect is naturally not good. If Master is standing there and looking at you, and you are looking around, chatting, and doing the exercises casually, is that respecting Master and Dafa? In fact, when we practice the exercise movements, Master's fashen is watching us. We must treat it seriously!

Some practitioners have rarely joined group practice since 1999. Most of us practice alone at home, where there is no opportunity to correct each others' movements. Even when couples or whole families practice together, everyone closes their eyes and practices on their own. As a result, many veteran practitioners' movements are not correct. It is more problematic for new practitioners. They don't have time to learn the movements from veteran practitioners. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persecuted Falun Gong since July 20, 1999, and many copies of The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa have been destroyed. It is now very hard to find this book. Some practitioners didn't have an opportunity to read The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa. Therefore, their movements are not correct, and they don't know the principles, characteristics, and meaning behind each movement. Their state of cultivation is naturally not good.

The book The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa is a complete cultivation method of practicing mind and body. It was inherited through a very remote age and no one dared to change it. Fellow practitioners, let us follow Master's teaching! Let us have a clear understanding of Fa principles, have calm hearts, and correct our movements. We could benefit from watching a DVD of Master teaching the exercises, asking fellow practitioners to correct our movements, looking inside, and eliminating evil interference. We need to cultivate well, do the five sets of exercises well, and firmly fulfill our prehistoric missions.

Written on January 31, 2010