Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts as a Group

I would like to share with fellow practitioners some thoughts from the past several days of sending forth righteous thoughts as a group.

Pull away from Indifference; Melt into the Fa

Starting June 7 we began to send forth righteous thoughts as a group at set hours every day. During the first two days of sending forth righteous thoughts, I was very laid back and did not realize the urgency and importance of this mission. My attitude was reflected through trivial excuses. I felt the need to attend to unfinished Dafa work. I insisted on sending forth righteous thoughts only at home, based on the argument that our supernormal abilities take effect in other dimensions and sending righteous thoughts as a group doesn't matter. I had truth-clarification work to be done; there are already enough practitioners sending forth righteous thoughts, and doing so was an inconvenience in time, location, etc. But all these excuses were actually human notions. They were reflections of my human attachments, exploited by the old forces. I realized that I hadn't melted into the Fa when I was indifferent about sending forth righteous thoughts at set intervals, when I hesitated to step forward and when I fell behind with the pace of Fa-rectification. In other words, I lacked true belief in the Fa. I have been staggering under a perceptual understanding instead of ascending to the rational nature of the Fa. Maybe I had some unresolved questions about the Fa, or I didn't come to understand the Fa that was required to overcome my existing tribulations. I came to realize that my indifference to sending forth righteous thoughts as a group was rooted in my human attachments.

Strengthen righteous thoughts; deny interference in all forms.

Yesterday we took the time to share our experiences on sending forth righteous thoughts. Some practitioners encouraged others to step forward by saying, "There is bound to be some interference, which we must eradicate with righteous thoughts. Please step forward immediately." These words sounded very righteous. When the practitioner said, "There is bound to be some interference," he already expected interference, which was a form of consent to the interference. I don't mean there won't be any interference if we stop thinking about it. I mean we must fundamentally deny all types of interference from the root of our thoughts. If we get rid of our subconscious consent to evil interference, the old forces will have no excuse to test us. "…it's actually because the old forces insist on testing Dafa disciples' xinxing that they've done this. That's definitely the case. If it weren't, this definitely wouldn't have happened. The best way to deal with this situation is for Dafa disciples to walk their paths righteously, to try their best not to let the evil or the old forces take advantage of their gaps, and to solidify their righteous thoughts. The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things." (From Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston)

Genuinely ascend from a perceptual to a rational understanding of the Fa.

Fellow practitioners who sent forth righteous thoughts as a group in the past few days, have felt a great deal of pain in their legs and back. In response to the pain, a fellow practitioner tried to encourage others by saying, "Hang in there. There are only five more days to go. We will finish up on the 18th." I don't think this should be the mentality. It is not right to passively tolerate the pain. All of us remembered to add one thought to eliminate the persecution in the form of body aches, and it did work at the beginning. But when it stopped reducing or eliminating the pain, we failed to inspect ourselves further for any loopholes. Instead we chose to passively endure the pain. Our mentality was fully reflected in the comment of a fellow practitioner, "Look at those overseas Dafa disciples who send forth righteous thoughts in front of Chinese consulates on a daily basis despite the rain or the heat. They even remain in front of the Chinese consulates on cold nights. Here we are sending forth righteous thoughts in a comfortable room--with air-conditioning! What is a little pain to us?" I am not opposed to the idea of pointing out differences in the physical environments in order to help some practitioners eliminate their pursuit of comfort, an attachment that had been intensified during the physical pain. However, in my humble opinion, that's still a perceptual-level understanding. It is when we advance our understanding of the Fa to a rational level that we will be able to fundamentally change our understanding on current missions. In other words, encouraging fellow practitioners this way is full of human sentiments. This is not the right mentality of a God who regards safeguarding the Fa in the human world as his mission. The key issue is how we should conduct ourselves or on what basis we should look at things. Because we understood the Fa perceptually, we encouraged our fellow practitioners with human sentiment, which resulted in our decision to passively endure the interference as humans. We analyzed the Fa through sentimentality and forgot the real goal of sending forth righteous thoughts at this critical moment. Master has already cautioned us in His recent lecture and three new articles. He has even provided us ways to overcome the tests of the old forces. "The evil beings that have participated in this seem to be acting maliciously, but the old forces are merely using them, and the purpose of their using them is to have us clear away those pieces of trash in the universe during the Fa-rectification." (From Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston) Each time I sent forth righteous thoughts I felt as if I was having a bath. My body became very warm and sweaty. Meanwhile, I had a runny nose. My palms became numb and stiff. My legs in the double lotus position became tense. My hands and feet seemed to attract or repel each other as if they were magnetic. Sometimes I felt sore at the mingmen point as if it had been hollowed out. At first I was not sure how to regard these symptoms, and simply thought that "everything we encounter in cultivation is a good thing" without thinking about their root causes. After I studied Master's new articles, including Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston, Entering the Gate of No-life, Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions and The Difficult Path to Godhood, I came to realize that there is just too much evil. All the symptoms were signs of lacking energy after an intensive consumption of supernormal abilities, which would be quickly restored by doing the five exercises.

As for the pain, I believe that several reasons contributed to it. First, my true body was wounded during the battle against the evil. In this case, we will recover from doing exercises. Second, the pain might be interference from the evil. Third, and most importantly, for Dafa disciples from very high levels, it would have had a tremendous impact on their bodies when they tried to rectify the deteriorated factors in their systems. The impact would be considerably severe if a disciple had not been diligently advancing further. At the present moment, Fa-rectification is rapidly progressing. For those who haven't been catching up with the pace of Fa-rectification in their cultivation, it might be more painful as the Fa-rectification gets closer to the end. Anyhow, it is too late now to regret having not diligently advanced as we should have. What we should focus on right now is how to learn a lesson and catch up with the pace of Fa-rectification right away.

As soon as I realized this, I decided to not passively endure the pain anymore. Instead, I tried to face the pain with a positive attitude. The pain stopped right away. Another example is about a practitioner who always smiles when sitting in the full lotus position. Some practitioners asked why he didn't seem to experience any pain in his legs, he replied, "I completely deny the pain in my mind, so the pain ceases to exist."

Clearly recognize the urgency of sending forth righteous thoughts.

Many fellow practitioners have already talked about the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in other dimensions that has been manipulating human beings. Therefore, I won't repeat it again. However, I have noticed that some practitioners haven't realized the urgency of the issue. They know we must eliminate the old forces' arrangements and the embodiment of evil in the human realm to create a peaceful environment for people to understand Falun Dafa. Perhaps some practitioners have been nonchalant in sending forth righteous thoughts because they haven't realized the urgency of this issue. We all know from studying Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston that the force of Fa-rectification has now already reached the point of this surface dimension. It means that the Fa-rectification will end any minute and Fa-rectification of the human world is on the horizon. What would happen to those people in China who still don't know the truth about Falun Dafa and are poisoned by the deception and lies of the evil? Besides, these people represent a very large population. To send forth righteous thoughts is to save the lives of these people! To send forth righteous thoughts is to save all sentient beings and the worlds they represent. We are saving numerous and countless lives! My fellow practitioners, sending forth righteous thoughts is not as simple as it looks. "Every single thought" of ours truly determines the lives and future of an infinite number of sentient beings!

Differentiate cultivation in the Fa-rectification period from self-cultivation; catch up with the pace of Fa-rectification.

Master has already clearly pointed out in "Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciples" the differences between cultivation in the Fa-rectification period from personal cultivation, as well as Dafa disciples' path during the Fa-rectification period, and how Dafa disciples should cultivate in the Fa-rectification period. I think when a disciple is keeping up with the progress of Fa-rectification, he will surely feel being "pulled up" to higher levels during all Dafa activities, including going overseas to attend a Fa Conference, organizing a Dafa activity, etc. Why is this so? It simply was arranged this way. We have to remove our final obstacle in our cultivation in Fa-rectification work. Therefore, it is important to catch up with the Fa-rectification process. In fact, every practitioner who has participated in sending forth righteous thoughts as a group felt an unprecedented rate of advancement in cultivation.

Then the next issue is: what is the Fa-rectification process? I think Fa-rectification is Master's wish. Master controls the process of Fa-rectification at a macroscopic level. How far has the Fa-rectification advanced? Master once said in a lecture that the will of a great God was the celestial change and that the behaviors of the Gods were the concrete manifestations of celestial change. All the Gods are also guarding and following this change. Master said, "Without human action happening under cosmic changes, such conditions would not have been brought to ordinary human society, and neither would they be called cosmic changes." (From "The Issue of Killing" in Lecture Seven of Zhuan Falun) Master published three previously written articles three days in a row and clarified the situation with great compassion. The only thing left for us is to conform to the celestial change and carry out our roles.

Dafa disciples are one body.

When I sent forth righteous thoughts on the evening of June 8, I saw many people sitting in the double lotus position in a giant and spacious dimension. On the right side some people formed a square as if they were surrounding a square town. On the left side, there was a large crowd. There were also some people lined up in a straight line. The line was connected to the center of one side of the square. Some people scattered about the area. I also saw some empty places. It means there are still considerable numbers of practitioners who haven't arrived at their expected positions. The situation was very comparable in this dimension. There are a limited number of practitioners who are currently keeping pace with the Fa-rectification. I hope everybody can try to discuss this issue with as many practitioners as possible. Please help those practitioners who haven't stepped out humanness and understood this issue from the Fa, and try to persuade those who are able to participate in sending forth righteous thoughts as a group to join the mission while still harmonizing the Fa. Do not wait until history turns the page to regret that you have missed this unprecedented opportunity of once in a million years, all because of one incorrect thought.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/6/15/16456.html