(Clearwisdom.net) I've obtained the Fa and studied Zhuan Falun for eight years now, and yet the seemingly plain words in the book contain endless truths.
I've learned something from studying the Fa recently, and that is, everything, with or without form, including human desires, is a substance. A cultivator must walk out of humanness before he or she can become a divine being, and the first step to achieving that goal is to get rid of all kinds of desires, including attachments to food, sleep, emotions, and even human truths.
Through a recent event, I came to understand that any form exists as a substance. Here I am referring to whether I was able to get up in the middle of the night and do the exercises. I used to believe that I couldn't get up early or go to bed late for the exercises, like my fellow practitioners could, especially in the winter. A fellow practitioner said to me not long ago that the reluctance to get up early to do the exercises is a kind of substance, and once we transcended that substance, the issue of laziness would be no more. I thought he had a point.
When I was awakened by the trill of the alarm in the middle of the night, my first thought was quite human, and it was in line with that substance: "I won't get up. I will wait until tomorrow morning. It's so cold and late." And then that practitioner's words crossed my mind, so I had this feeling of not wanting to be overcome and was unwilling to give in to that substance and was unwilling to be controlled by it. So I sat up in bed and started doing the exercises. It turned out that I didn't feel sleepy at all during the day.
There are many more types of humanly-formed substances, and now I am able to acutely feel their existence. Sleepiness, as mentioned above, is one of them. Some practitioners have described it as the "demon" of sleepiness. Whatever these interferences are called, they all materially exist. Once we are able to transcend them, they will not be able to control us.
A more typical case is the substance called "emotions." I haven't had much experience in passing the test of love between a man and woman, but I do about the competitive mentality among human beings. When I see students that don't know the truth, my first impulse is to leave them alone and ignore them. A lot of that kind of mentality has gone, but I know I still have it. This kind of substance stems from fear. In fact, it's because of that fear that another kind of substance comes about. If I am able to remove fear from my mind, regard clarifying the truth to them as saving them, regard them as pitiful since they have bad thoughts about the Fa, and disregard myself completely, I will have less fear and more compassion. The most important thing is that we need to know that the attachments to fear and competitiveness are all substances that cause a lot of trouble for cultivators. They are like glue that sticks to cultivators and gets them confused them.
Also, safeguarding oneself is a substance, too. When others say something bad about us, or when fellow practitioners point out our shortcomings, we may take it well on the surface, but underneath we don't feel grateful; instead, we harbor negative feelings. This substance originates from ego and selfishness. Selfishness is a substance, too. Furthermore, to this substance, the old forces would add more similar substances, enlarging the tiny negataive thought a cultivator had in the very beginning. It's really dangerous if the cultivator is not aware of that.
As a matter fact, the whole universe is a world made up of substances. Master once said that everything is substance. Now I have a profound understanding of that. In particular, I feel that sleepiness is a kind of gray, sticky substance. I found that competitiveness out of fear is a black, sticky, and smoke-like substance, capable of spreading widely, even enveloping our heart. The mindset to protect oneself based on selfishness is still vague to me, because I have not fully enlightened to it. (I am unable to see other dimensions, but I have strong feelings about them.)
The fact is, all attachments we need to get rid of are substances. The moment a bad thought emerges, it's like a dirty thing starts growing on the body. If a bad thought stays in our mind for long, it will become larger and more ugly, bloody and gross, and it will attract other dirty things, too. It looks like a chunk of toilet paper submerged in a drain. In other dimensions, our attachments are exactly like that.
I have slowly come to understand what high beings are. Simply put, a high being is one that has no dirty things on it, and its body is pure beyond imagination.
Occasionally I'd ask myself, "If I do many things and achieve a lot, could I spend less time doing the exercises and studying the Fa?" But the minute such a thought emerged, a substance would appear in another dimension, an ugly thing that looked like a rotten piece of bread soaking in a sewer, and start growing on my body. So, regardless of how much you've done, if a thought such as this is growing on you, in the eyes of enlightened beings, this practitioner is still very dirty.
If I do not want to be that dirty, the only way is to study the Fa more and purify myself with the Fa. Whenever I encounter any conflict or anything, I should try to remember Master's words in the shortest time possible, to identify and see what substance has come out again in the shortest time possible, to prevent dirty stuff from emerging in the shortest time possible, and to remove my attachments in the shortest time possible.
Despite what I said above, all will be empty words if I do not study the Fa more. That's because without the Fa's power, we will never be able to find and wipe out those substances easily. I know that the ability to identify those substances in the shortest time possible is a reflection of one's cultivation level. Cultivation is all about finding the attachments as early as possible, seeing the nature of those substances, and letting go of them.
The above is what I've enlightened to so far and I wanted to share it with fellow practitioners.
October 5, 2008
