(Clearwisdom.net)
Personally, I think "looking inside" means we need to be firmly grounded in the Fa principles in order to dig out the selfishness and the attachments that we have accumulated in our different lives in the human world. Then we need to peel them off layer by layer. The process of looking inside is the same as cultivation. Here, I would like to share my experiences in looking inside during my cultivation. Please correct me if there is anything wrong with my understanding.
Right before the Spring Festival this year, the police arrested one of my fellow practitioners and quickly brainwashed him. That practitioner then reported me to the authorities. I was very angry when I heard this. I complained about him and became anxious. Under the circumstances, I didn't study the Fa very well. I didn't look inside to try to improve myself in order to break through the difficulties. Instead, I simply kept complaining. Since then, I haven't been able to calm down to send forth righteous thoughts, study the Fa, and practice the exercises. It has also affected my work of saving sentient beings. Since I didn't pass that test, it became bigger next time.
A plainclothes policeman followed me around when I did Fa-rectification work. Fortunately, the wisdom that I got from the Fa and Teacher's arrangements helped me to avoid danger. Still, my attachment to fear increased steadily. I stopped doing Fa-rectification work. My selfishness trapped me and I couldn't make a breakthrough. I was very annoyed by my own state. Other practitioners tried to help me improve my xinxing (mind or heart nature; moral character), however, I didn't agree to be helped because I myself hadn't yet enlightened to my problem. My granddaughter is a primary school student. One day, when she was doing her homework, she stopped and said to herself, "every test must be passed; every place, everywhere are demons." (From Teacher's poem Tempering the Heart and Will) Then she resumed doing her homework. I suddenly came to realize that it was a hint for me from Teacher. All of a sudden, I felt relief. My complaints and anger melted away. Again, I truly felt that Teacher is with me all the time, protecting me and instructing me in my cultivation.
Teacher said in Zhuan Falun,
"Accordingly, in your future cultivation practice you will run into all kinds of tribulations. How can you practice cultivation without these hardships? If everyone is good to one another without conflicts of interests or interference from the human mind, how can your xinxing make progress by your only sitting there? That is impossible. One must truly temper and upgrade oneself through actual practice." (From Zhuan Falun, Lecture Four)
We will always encounter tribulations along our cultivation path. We have been improving ourselves by breaking through these tribulations. How can we cultivate ourselves if we are overcome by fear whenever there is a problem?
Sometimes, we don't even realize that we are wrong, or we can't understand where we made a mistake. In those situations, we need to study the Fa and look inside to bring the problem to light and to correct it. We should certainly not complain about others or blame them for the problem. We should not ask others to assume our responsibilities. Otherwise, we are not walking the path of cultivation, but looking at problems with everyday people's attachments. Teacher told us, "It is extremely dangerous to add anything human to cultivation practice." (From Digging Out the Roots) The old forces will take advantage of any everyday people's attachments. They will expand the attachment and use it to create another obstacle for us. In doing so, they will destroy us unless we can enlightened to this point. Therefore, it is an extremely dangerous thing. We definitely need to pay more attention to this issue.
From the above experience, I also came to realize that the reason the evil could take advantage of me is because my righteous beliefs and righteous thoughts were not strong enough. As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we should be able to move forward along our Fa-rectification path no matter how far the evil appears to range. We need to strive forward no matter how difficult it is. Only through this, can the evil be eliminated.
2. We must look inside when Teacher gives us hints
Generally, whenever Teacher has given us hints, it has been because we didn't fully enlighten to some problems on our own. For those stubborn problems, we need to truly look inside in order to dig out the root causes and to eliminate the obstacles in our cultivation paths. The following is what I experienced two years ago. However, I think it's still worth sharing it with others so we all can learn a lesson in our cultivation.
When Teacher gave us the Fa-rectification verses two years ago, I didn't fully understand why we needed to send forth righteous thoughts. In a dream, Teacher gave me some hints to let me know that sending forth righteous thoughts is a very serious and important thing not to be ignored and that consequently I need to strengthen my righteous thoughts. When I was first sending forth righteous thoughts, I didn't pay much attention to clearing my own dimensions. I thought that my own dimensions were good enough because I have Teacher's fashen ("law body"; a body made of gong and Fa) with me and I am a veteran practitioner. Thus, I didn't bother to clear my own dimensions. Instead, I would simply start with eliminating the evil rotten ghosts in the cosmos. However, one of the toes on my left foot suddenly swelled up one day and turned purple in the middle. It seemed to bleed internally and the bone seemed broken. I couldn't walk and it affected my Fa-rectification work. I was very worried and couldn't understand how such a thing could happen. During that night, in my dream, I saw five or six things that looked like quails. They had black and white feathers, which were spread apart and very hard. They dashed towards me and tried to bite me. One of them bit the toe on my left foot. I tried very hard to get rid of it. Then I woke up. I regretted that I had forgotten to send forth righteous thoughts. I sat up in the bed for a while before I realized that Teacher had just told me why my foot was hurt. I also came to understand that there existed bad influences within my dimensions and that they were hurting me. In addition, I understood that sending forth righteous thoughts is not for others, but for ourselves. Truly, how important it is to send forth righteous thoughts! We wouldn't be able to cultivate if we didn't send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. We need to take this issue more seriously.
I thus came to truly realize that cultivation is a serious matter. We should not try to make decisions independent of the Fa. We should not deviate from what we are told to do. We should follow Teacher's instructions. I had the bad experience described above because my righteous beliefs and righteous thoughts were not strong enough. In order to have righteous beliefs, we need to firmly believe in Teacher and the Fa. Righteous thoughts will arise when we have righteous beliefs. And we should follow Teacher's requirements. Teacher said,
"Then when we do everything righteously, should we expect there to be no interference? It can only reduce a lot of the losses. And that's because your gaps would be taken advantage of due to the fact that you yourselves still do have undetectable elements, and the old forces insist on forcing in what they want to do." (From Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, draft version)
I came to realize that the evil will not willingly stop the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. We need to learn the Fa well so we can have righteous thoughts, improve our levels, see through the evil's tricks, and eliminate the evil.
The above personal experiences make me see more clearly that Teacher is so benevolent. Teacher always treats us kindly and gives us second chances. We can never understand the immense compassion of the Fa. We can never fully understand the deep Fa principles. However, as Falun Dafa practitioners, we should take Fa-rectification as the most important thing. We should always believe in the Fa. We should always respect the Fa. We should become one body in our Fa-rectification cultivation to eliminate all the evils and to safeguard the Fa's dignity.