(Minghui.org) I am 68-years-old and have been practicing Falun Dafa for many years. Although I live alone, my cultivation environment is good. Every day, I do the Falun Dafa exercises, study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts, and go out to talk to people about the practice and the persecution. I also print Dafa informational materials and read experience sharing articles online.
Although I am busy, I was still distracted by the ordinary affairs of human society. I even dreamed of ordinary people’s things. I knew that I needed to improve in cultivation, but did not know where to start or what I needed to improve on.
I then read many articles on the Minghui website that talked about how practitioners improved after memorizing the Fa. I had tried to memorize Zhuan Falun in the past but gave up after memorizing about 10 pages.
This time, I was set on memorizing the Fa. I didn’t think about anything and required myself to study two lectures of Zhuan Falun every day before memorizing a few pages of the Fa. Afterward, my heart calmed down. The more I memorized, the more peaceful I became.
I have memorized Hong Yin and Hong Yin Vol. II. I am now memorizing Hong Yin III and Zhuan Falun. In less than a month, I have already made a lot of improvement.
Master's poem, “The Cosmos Remade” from Hong Yin III would often appear in my mind. Afterward, the ordinary thoughts and improper actions I was not aware of were shown to me.
I recently realized what was preventing me from truly being diligent was the attachment to selfishness. This was very evident when practitioners pointed out my shortcomings. Although I eliminated the attachment later, my improvement was actually to show the practitioners who pointed out my attachments that they had attachments too. More importantly, I did not try to improve based on the Fa, but rather used human attachments to fight and compete with others.
Another area where my selfishness would surface was when I went out to clarify the truth face-to-face. This was the path a practitioner must take, no matter how difficult it may be. To do well, practitioners need to let go of many human attachments.
Since the persecution began, I have been active in doing face-to-face truth-clarification, and have been able to persevere. Beginning last year, I have been trying to go out every day to talk to people about Dafa and persuade people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The effects have been good, but I felt I still lacked compassion. I was confused.
This time, through memorizing the Fa, I realized that my starting point of clarifying the truth stemmed from selfishness. There is nothing wrong when looking at these thoughts from the human level. However, cultivation looks at people’s hearts and not the surface-level actions. Saving people with the compassion we have cultivated from the Fa and our human thoughts and emotions are completely different things.
Master has allowed me to understand the profundity of the difference between acting with or without intention. This has resolved the questions I have had for a long time. I have enlightened that cultivation is not about the superficial actions we take, but that our heart must meet the standard of the Fa at every level by letting go of the different levels of selfishness.
Category: Improving Oneself
