(Minghui.org)
(Continued from Part 1)
Back when I was still looking for a righteous practice, I had never heard of a master who would help his disciples unconditionally as long as they wanted to cultivate. His Law Bodies would continue to protect the disciples until they completed cultivation.
Master Li Hongzhi says,
“Perhaps everyone has heard this statement in Buddhism: “When one’s Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake ‘the world of ten directions.’” Whoever sees it will come to give a hand and help this person out unconditionally. In providing salvation to humankind, the Buddha School does not attach any condition or seek returns, and it will help unconditionally. Accordingly, we can do many things for practitioners. But for an everyday person who just wants to be an everyday person and to cure his or her illness, it will not work. Some people may think, “I’ll practice cultivation after my illness is cured.” There is no precondition for practicing cultivation, and one should practice cultivation if one wants to.” (Zhuan Falun)
I feel special for being able to practice Falun Dafa and to be part of a righteous practice. Cultivating in Falun Dafa is a serious matter, and I know that I've waited millions of years for this opportunity.
The minute I decided to practice, I let go of my fear for the uncertain future. I stopped being afraid of dying from random accidents or incurable diseases. I knew that I was no longer part of karmic retribution like an ordinary person and there was a high-level being guiding and protecting me.
The high level being even arranges how his disciples will come across the practice. He arranges coincidences so that the disciples can suffer and eliminate karma. This way, even when they are lost in the fame, monetary gain, and emotions of the secular world, they are still able to retain enough enlightenment quality to recognize their way home. This is the compassion of the high-level being.
A fortune-teller told me that a sage who could offer salvation would be born in the dharma-ending period in Northeast China. He said that the shape of China looked like a hen, and the sage would be born in the location where the hen's eye is.
I was excited and hoped that I would be able to recognize him when he began to teach his dharma. I eventually did.
When I came across Falun Dafa, I admired the practitioners and wanted to be part of this practice. At the same time I seriously doubted that I could be as steadfast and happy to endure hardships as they were.
I spent seven hours and finished reading Zhuan Falun online that night. It was dawn and I wanted to scream to the world, “I found the righteous practice! It exists and is right here! Everyone, it's waiting for you!”
Later I calmed down and knew that most people today wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't believe that, in this dharma-ending time, a righteous practice that could offer salvation could be accessed online, free of charge.
They wouldn't believe that it requires no rituals, no hidden fees, and that one can practice without becoming a monk. They would never think that as long as they sincerely want to practice, the master will begin to purify their bodies before they know it, just for their pure desire to return to their true selves.
From the day I finished reading Zhuan Falun, I never suffered from insomnia again and my eczema and digestive problems were gone. For years and years, I'd spent so much time and money treating these problems and they kept coming back. The teachings in Zhuan Falun told me that for a practitioner, it's all suffering to eliminate karma. It's been two years and I still haven't taken one pill; none of my illnesses have recurred.
But when I told my family and acquaintances that my insomnia – which had been bothering me for the past ten years – had disappeared, nobody took me seriously.
Master says,
“ Belief comes before seeing.” (from Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Canada)
The quality of enlightenment is what matters when salvation is offered. People are drowning in human notions and refuse to judge things rationally.
I couldn't help but notice the number of people who are oblivious to the righteous practice around them. They pursue the happy lives that they had in mind and suffer without knowing why. As Buddha Shakyamuni once said, “It is hard to a obtain human form, be born in the East, and hear the Buddha's Dharma.”
I am grateful that I was born Chinese, in Taiwan. Looking back, I realized that my desire to save people since childhood didn't come from any psychological problem, but my sense of responsibility as a Falun Dafa practitioner.
I read Zhuan Falun every day, repeatedly. It has a magical power. Every time I read it, I get answers to questions, but new questions as well.
This happens no matter how many times I've read it. A phrase that looked so familiar to me last time could feel different, like the words themselves had new meanings. I knew that I have understood the meanings from an even higher level each time.
I used to chant the Amitabha Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, and the Medicine Buddha Sutra every day. Now I know that it was no more than just repetitive recitations.
Buddha Shakyamuni had told his people that his dharma could no longer offer salvation 500 hundred years after his nirvana. There was no power from the high-level beings behind the words in his sutras. I got rid of the hundreds of copies of sutras and all the religious books I had.
People may wonder how I know that Falun Dafa is a righteous practice. In the past ten years, I have studied “cultivation” from various sects. I knew all about the cultivation methods that are not righteous. So I can tell the difference when a righteous practice came along.
Whatever I used to learn before was invented by men, who measured Buddhas' teachings with their human notions. These sects all had something in common: they want money, fame, or power, and the founders all gave themselves insufferably arrogant titles. When they lectured, the contents came from a variety of sutras to show that they had sufficient knowledge of Buddhism.
The first time I read Zhuan Falun, I was touched by how Master Li disclosed the truth of the universe and cultivation with simple, clean language. I often repeatedly read a small paragraph of his lecture so that I could take my time to savor the profound meanings within it. In this book, I didn't feel any intent to show off.
Master was generous and taught so many things, while wanting nothing in return. I began to wonder who he really was. I read 44 books of his other lectures in a week. Though I didn't find an answer, I was left in awe of what he said. I admired his warm and caring tone when he patiently told us what we needed to know. He treasured every disciple.
Being a teacher myself, I knew that he had more compassion than anyone and was the greatest teacher on Earth. He described in detail the history of man since the beginning of time; he told us all the heavenly secrets we needed to know. He wanted nothing from us.
It took me almost 100 hours to finish reading his other lectures. I couldn't wait to read it all over again. They were as interesting as the first time I read them because there were in-depth meanings behind the simple words he used. After I read all the lectures the fifth time, I had a clear idea of who Master was.
I knew that through my non-stop Fa study, Master had opened my wisdom so that I was enlightened to this heavenly secret and rationally believed in it. Had anyone just thrown an answer at me, I wouldn't have been so convinced.
Each time I read Master's lectures, I had a deeper understanding of the Fa and how magnificent Master was. I also knew how hard it was to offer salvation in the dharma-ending time.
The reason why Master never promoted the miracles he did or the mighty power he had was that he wanted to be viewed as an ordinary person by the public. This way people can continue to cultivate without their eyes opened so explicitly.
In contrast, it was ironic how other qigong masters proclaimed themselves as some kind of Buddha or god. Master traveled far and wide and quietly taught the Fa without advertising, disturbing society, or accumulating any fortune. He did everything for his disciples and wanted only their will to cultivate.
Through my desire to know who Master and what Falun Dafa was, I have studied the Fa so many times and built a firm belief in Master and the Fa. I was willing to conquer hardships and change myself, knowing that it would be hard.
The key is to hold myself to a strict standard and unconditionally follow Master's instructions without hesitation.
I was impressed with what Master said,
“A well-known person does not necessarily know things well.” (Zhuan Falun)
The ancient original sutras contain language incomprehensible to modern men. As a result there are many “modern sects” that teach “cultivation” that conforms to the desires and attachments of modern men.
Their fees are high, their rituals complicated, and their headquarters magnificent. They want to build reputation and authority, like ordinary men, and need to protect their pursuits in the secular world.
The first time I read Master's other lectures, I realized that so many of the ideas that I had in my head were fundamentally wrong. For example, people in science and education spend so much money researching how to bring out the creativity in our brains.
This question that bothered me for years was finally answered. Our wisdom doesn't exist in our brain. A brain only translates our thoughts into language and action. Everyday people in science and education wrote numerous books and research papers, and still no one is able to explain how wisdom is formed and how to bring it out.
Master explained it simply: as long as a person values virtue and has a pure and kind heart, divine beings will grant him wisdom.
Various theories of body and mind constantly talk about how man can use their thoughts to guide supernormal abilities or manipulate power from the universe.
But Master has said,
“What determines your level is gong potency, rather than abilities.”
and
“Gong potency is the determining factor [when it comes to levels], it is developed through character cultivation, and it is what’s most important.” (Falun Gong)
No one will have gong potency (energy) or supernormal abilities without cultivating their heart. This makes a lot of meditation masters with fancy theories look ridiculous.
Also when Master explained the phrase “No Dharma is definitive” in Zhuan Falun, I was utterly awakened. I have chanted the Diamond Sutra hundreds of times and read numerous books that tried to explain the Sutra, but I still didn't understand what “No Dharma is definitive” meant. And all it took for Master to explain things was one page.
Master disclosed the mystery of time and space, of which mankind may never discover. There are different levels of time-space and the law of the universe determines which beings may see the truth of which levels of time-space. There are an infinite number of forms of time-space.
I often dreamed that I could fly and travel through time. I could go wherever I wanted and cross different times in history. I believe what Master said about how magnificent and amazing the celestial universes in other dimensions were. I also understand now why Master said that having a human body is a kind of suffering because it is made by and restricted by matter in the secular world.
I began to memorize the teachings in Zhuan Falun recently. I have read the book over 100 times, to the point where I thought I knew every word by heart. However, as soon as I began to memorize the teachings, I felt that the words and the meanings I knew had changed, like I have never read them before.
I felt that the meanings of the words were penetrating a deeper level of the particles that made me.
I didn't feel any sublimation or change of heart when I used to frequently read the Buddhist classics. It was like what Shakyamuni said a long time ago, that his dharma would not be able to save people in the dharma-ending time and that his disciples should wait for the Buddha of the Future to descend.
Relative to reading the Fa, I have to be more focused when memorizing it. If I got distracted, it would take me hours to memorize just one page. I required of myself to memorize several pages every day so that I would have the power to save people quickly.
(Continued in Part 3)