(Clearwisdom.net)

My Thoughts after Reading Master's New Article

By Liansheng

I haven't read the Minghui/Clearwisdom website recently because I was busy with everyday people's things. Last night I saw Master's new article, “What Does it Mean to 'Help Master Rectify the Fa'?”

I respectfully read the article with happiness from the beginning and read it several more times this morning. After reading it, my heart felt somewhat heavy. Thinking over the progress of my own cultivation, I wondered how many times I was really assisting Master in Fa-rectification? In how many circumstances have I not been in such a state? On some occasions, I used human notions to think about Master and the Fa-rectification, thus making it hard to overcome trials and tribulations. Instead I had the thought that the Fa should be like this or that. I complained about this or that. Looking back now, I see that I almost ruined myself. During the early times of the evil, frenzied persecution, I thought of Master with human notions, I thought that Master would soon eliminate all evil, end the persecution, and rescue His disciples. When the process of Fa-rectification wasn't consistent with my expectations, I continued to give free rein to my human thoughts, and I compromised with the evil in order to protect myself, which left an indelible stain on my cultivation path.

When facing tests of sickness karma, using my human thoughts I worried about this or that, but failed to meet Master's requirement to let go of those human thoughts. Thus the evil used this loophole, and persecuted me even worse by taking advantage of my sickness karma. I was ultimately able to make it through the test of sickness karma by firmly believing in Master and Dafa. When the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published, I was very excited, and my human thoughts believed that the Nine Commentaries should have already come out long before! The evil Party would have already collapsed if it had come out earlier. Although I was active in distributing the Nine Commentaries, my thoughts weren't completely based on the understanding that disintegrating the evil Party is saving sentient beings. I instead had mixed feelings of resentment and anger. Some former practitioners analyzed Fa-rectification and Master with their human notions out of their fear, and as a result they gradually left Dafa, and adopted religions that conformed to their notions, attachments, and fear.

Thinking it over rationally, cultivating Dafa is a process of taking Dafa as the standard and cultivating away one's postnatal self. If one really wants to have the Fa of the cosmos conform to one's own notions, it is tantamount to non-cultivation. Even if we are cultivating in the Fa, and have been enlightened to some Fa principles, we can't take what we have been enlightened to as supreme truths, because what we have been enlightened to is only partial, and at a certain level. Master and Dafa are infinitely and boundlessly high and far-reaching. We can only unconditionally follow Master and Dafa.

I sometimes compared worldly figures and events with Master and Fa-rectification issues. Afterwards I felt uneasy, because in doing so I had disrespected revered Master and Fa-rectification. But after making such a comparison, I felt immeasurably respectful and proud. Since the Chinese Communist Party seized power in China, it has done so many evil things. How evil it is! But facing Dafa, it is unable to have its way. Shouldn't we Dafa disciples feel proud? There are Dafa practitioners in more than 100 countries around the world. In China, Dafa and Dafa practitioners are rescuing sentient beings while being subjected to the most evil persecution in mankind's history. This is such a grand and complicated thing! How is this entire situation managed? Nevertheless, everything has been done in an orderly manner according to Dafa's requirements. This is the manifestation of Master's compassion and magnificence in the human world. We follow our revered Master, so how can we not be proud and respectful? We should 100 percent believe in and do as revered Master tells us!

When I am in a good cultivation state and am clear-headed, the principles seem crystal clear to me. But sometimes while actually facing a test in my cultivation practice, I fail to completely believe in Master and the Fa, and fail to do a good job in assisting Master rectify the Fa. I've caused Master to worry about me and have to remind me! I know there are times when I've really failed to live up to Master's expectations. In the future I must do well in assisting Master with the Fa-rectification!

My Understanding of “Faith”

By Lai En from China

I asked myself, “If I could be around Master every day how would I do?” I unequivocally answered, “I would be diligent! I definitely would not intermittently slack off as I do now!” Why? Fundamentally it is an issue of believing in Master and the Fa. I know my human notions hinder me from fully believing in Master. If I don't even have the most basic belief, then everything I have done would be nothing more than a formality.

I was deeply moved after reading Master's new article. Since the first day of our cultivation, the issue of the extent or depth of our belief in Master and the Fa has existed, continually. In my opinion, sometimes we only believe in the part of Master's Fa that we can understand, and not in the parts we don't understand or that don't conform to our notions. In fact, we comprehend that portion which we understand at our current levels. We can't comprehend other things, which represent where we need to improve our levels to reach the understanding. We are also being impeded by our postnatally acquired notions, and we should work to break through them.

Master said,

“The most difficult things for people to abandon are their notions. Some people cannot change, even if they have to give up their lives for fake principles. Yet notions are themselves acquired postnatally. People always believe that these unshakable ideas—ideas that can make them pay any price without a second thought—are their own thoughts. Even when they see the truth they reject it. In fact, other than a person’s innate purity and innocence, all notions are acquired postnatally and are not a person’s actual self.” (“For Whom do You Exist” from Essentials for Further Advancement)

Cultivation is serious. Oftentimes, we bury our heads in the sand or knowingly violate the Fa principles while doing things, which represents attachments to ego and covering up our attachments. Those are all attachments that need to be abandoned. Every human attachment impedes us from believing in Master and the Fa. Human attachments are derived from fame, benefits, and human sentimentality, and are also postnatally acquired notions, but are not our true selves.

Master's words are the Fa, and we should unconditionally believe what Master says at all times. We should cultivate ourselves solidly, study the Fa more, follow the Fa principles to cultivate ourselves, abandon our notions, let go of our human attachments, and walk towards divinity. We should no longer give Master cause to worry about us, and try our utmost to accomplish what Master wants.

The above in my understanding. I welcome fellow practitioners pointing out anything that is improper.

Study the Fa Well and Eliminate Human Notions

By a Dafa practitioner from China

It has been a while since Master published a new article. When fellow practitioners told me that they had brought me Master's new article, I was very happy. But after I finished reading it, my heart became quite heavy.

We all know that Master came here to rectify the Fa, and we, as Dafa disciples, came here to help Master rectify the Fa. From the Fa, I understood that we should unconditionally do whatever Master has told us to do, best fulfilling what Master wants. I've never had any doubts about this.

We all know that during the process of cultivation practice, we still have human attachments that haven't been eliminated, as well as all the notions we've formed in human society. When we are just about to eliminate such human notions or when the notions or mentalities are challenged, we are at a crucial juncture, deciding whether to choose the Buddha Fa or our human notions. Therefore, if we can study the Fa well, we will enlighten to the Fa's principles and thus make the right choice.

In “Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference” Master said,

“...when it comes to the Fa-rectification and what I choose, all beings' harmonizing and completing things according to my choices and contributing their best ideas and approaches--not to change what I want, but to harmonize and complete things according to what I've said--is the best thought a being in the cosmos could have.”

Master revealed the principles to us a long time ago. But what's important here is whether we can truly let go of the notions we've formed throughout history, which is the process of cultivation practice.

I live in China, and I haven't seen Master in person. But I have always thought that if I were ever lucky enough to see Master in person, then I would certainly do everything Master asks me to do, since what Master says must be absolutely correct and we should all do what Master wants unconditionally. So what is doing things “unconditionally?” My understanding is that it's not anything that we should discuss, have disagreement about, or have our own opinions on. If Master says [go] left, then we go left; and if Master says [go] right, then I'll definitely go right.

In my opinion, the fundamental reason that some practitioners don't have a good understanding of this issue is because they don't understand the ultimate reason and purpose of Fa-rectification. Nor have they positioned themselves well in relation to Master and the Fa-rectification. Also, they haven't identified their notions that originated from the old universe and reflected on themselves. Isn't the fundamental reason why the old forces were eliminated because they wanted to do things according to their own wills and even wanted to influence Master, because they failed to position themselves correctly?

I've also looked within to find my loopholes in this regard. Although my notions weren't the ones that directly went against what Master wants, the side of me that hasn't fully cultivated the Fa was sometimes unconsciously controlled by the human attachments that I've yet to identify. After I realized this problem, I corrected my deviant behavior of validating the Fa according to my own ideas. Actually, we all should frequently look within to see if we still have those notions that make us unconsciously fail to follow what Master tells us.

After all, in teaching the Fa, Master has explained all the necessary principles to us. Only by studying the Fa more and well can we truly understand the Fa's requirements and clearly distinguish our human notions and attachments, and then eliminate them. Only in this way can we fulfill what Master wants based on the Fa and also reduce the unnecessary worries Master has for us.

I welcome fellow practitioners pointing out to me anything that is improper.