(Minghui.org) I had difficulty in persisting in practicing the Falun Dafa exercises each morning as I knew I should. I felt quite depressed about my situation, and last month I discussed my situation with a fellow practitioner. She said that she always practices the Falun Dafa exercises every day at 3 a.m. regardless of weather or time of year. She is so used to this schedule that she does not even require an alarm to wake up each morning. I was surprised by what this practitioner told me and realized that compared to her, I must have big gaps in my cultivation. I knew that I must do better, but after several days my situation had still not improved.
I hand copied Teacher's book Hong Yin III, and noticed that I felt so different after doing this. I decided to hand copy all of Teacher's published writings and soon completed, “What Does it Mean to ‘Help Master Rectify the Fa’” and “What is a Dafa Practitioner.” Teacher' s Fa filled my heart and I suddenly understood where I came from. I had waited many lifetimes to fulfill my responsibility to Dafa. If I don't meet my obligations now, in this life, the results will not be good for those waiting in other places and dimensions. Teacher told us about the structure of our universe. We all know there are many lives in just one particle of sand. If we don't perform well, we may cause losses for countless other beings. This is such a serious situation! Thus, I must cultivate myself well and keep my thoughts and behavior righteous. If I cultivate diligently and do the three things well, I can save more sentient beings. I must do this, not for myself, but for all sentient beings.
On May 13, 2012, I sent out righteous thoughts at midnight. I decided to start this special day by eliminating the attachment to sleep and persist in morning exercise no matter what. I pledged to get rid of the pursuits of comfort, laziness, jealousy, conflict, lust and other attachments. I would strive to follow Teacher's arrangements for me. I felt energetic on my first day, but there seemed to be some interference with getting up early. My righteous thoughts fought against this disturbance, but the sleep demons fought back at me. I almost fell over while practicing the exercises because I felt so tired. However, I resolved to eliminate this interference and pass this cultivation trial.
I didn't feel as sleepy on the third day, but I found that my sitting meditation posture was not good. That meant that interference with my cultivation practice was still occurring. I kept my eyes open in an attempt to stay awake. I felt sleepy for the remainder of the day. I told myself that I would not be controlled by time in this universe. My sleeping time should be decided by the necessity of assisting Teacher's Fa-rectification. Time and sleep should not influence my body and mind. I realized that all the feelings of discomfort are interference. Most people think that if they sleep less than eight hours per night, they won't be well rested. After Teacher helped me to change my everyday people's concept of sleep, I no longer felt tired at all.
I found the true reason for my problem with practicing the exercises daily, and I got rid of my human concepts about it. I believe Falun Dafa practitioners' time is quite limited. We need to go to work and also take care of our family responsibilities. We must do the three things well in addition to everything else. Now I normally go to sleep around midnight, after sending righteous thoughts, and get up around 3:40 a.m. I feel rested, as if I had slept for 8 hours, but actually it is a lot less. I no longer need to sleep for 8 hours every night to feel rested. Thus, I thoroughly passed the challenge of eliminating this interference having to do with sleep. I hand copied the book Zhuan Falun during the night time. I copied each sentence, each character and even each punctuation mark with heartfelt effort and did not feel sleepy.
Teacher has taught the Fa for twenty years now, and I have continued to practice the exercises every morning. This is actually a very basic requirement for Dafa practitioners. Now, I also can meet this standard. I felt so guilty previously. There are some practitioners who have similar situations as I and they haven't realized their loss yet. Some practitioners who live in the village are accustomed to going to sleep early and stopping to eat 2 meals a day due to their human concepts. These things take away our precious time. At the end of such a key period in history as this, we should decide to get rid of human concepts and do everything well.
To those practitioners who still struggle with sleep demons, no matter how difficult you believe it is to overcome, it can be done. As long as we decide to maintain firm righteous thoughts and call on Teacher to help us, we should be successful. On May 13, 2012, I made a decision and a promise to Teacher. Some practitioners hesitate to make promises to Teacher, because they worry that they will not be able to keep them. Fellow practitioners, if you worry it means that you are not confident. Ask yourselves if you want to follow Teacher and return to your home. Eliminate everything that will interfere with your cultivation of Falun Dafa. If you don't get rid of it now, when will you do so? Worrying about whether you can be successful in eliminating interference means you don't really want to do it. Don't allow any excuses for this attachment to remain.
Please kindly point out anything you might find inappropriate in my personal understanding on this subject.
Category: Improving Oneself
