PureInsight | February 3, 2003
[PureInsight.org] I always love to be neat and tidy. Since I practice Dafa, I have striven to be more careful to maintain the good image of a Dafa disciple. Master teaches us, "Genuinely cultivating Dafa, The only thing that is important." (From Hong Yin, "Obtaining the Fa", July 7, 1994) The Fa principles must be reflected in all aspects of our cultivation and daily life.
First of all, we should always respect the portrait of Master Li. We should keep in mind that Master is the greatest, the most merciful and benevolent. The great work that Master has done to save sentient beings is beyond description. I would like to share some of my experiences on this topic.
We have moved several times over the years. Every time we move to a new place, the first thing we would do is to hang up the portrait of Master on the wall with respect. One day I went to visit a fellow practitioner's home. It was very pitiful to see that the portrait of Master was not kept properly. Why can we not show more respect for the portrait when some practitioners in Mainland China have protected the portrait of Master at the risk of their lives? We should hang up the portrait respectfully and properly. Also, we should arrange our Dafa books in a way of neatness and tidiness without them being surrounded by other things, this would maintain the solemnity of Dafa. In addition, we should try our best to keep our surroundings tidy.
I usually make and keep everywhere I go neat and tidy. So my fellow practitioners praise me and I also feel great about myself. However, a chance visit to one of my fellow practitioner's home stirred up my feelings. There are four children in the family. The eldest is eleven years old, the middle child is six and the youngest are twins that are four years old. You can imagine the heavy amount of the housework in this family who has no babysitter. To my astonishment, the couple is very busy with Dafa work but they keep their home very neat and tidy. They hang up the portrait of Master very properly and put all Dafa books neatly in a bookshelf. All the rooms, including kitchen, storage room, toilet and laundry are clean, very tidy and kept neat looking. Not a piece of paper or a pen can be seen on any of the tables or bed headboards, except some paper currently being used on a desk.
No clothes are hung on back of door, bed or chair. The wardrobes including the one for children are neat and tidy, with separate drawers for each person. When asked which drawer belongs to whom, the six-year-old sister and four-year-old brothers can recognize the right drawers and the position of their own clothes. The children have a good habit of taking off their clothes, then folding them and putting them in order with the shirts on the bottom, then trousers and socks on top before going to bed in the evening. It is easy and convenient to put them on in sequence the next morning.
The children have many toys, but you cannot see them from outside, because some of the big toys are put into a baby crib that is not in use, and the other toys are put in order in the specified drawers. The toys are put into a big plastic bag when going out to play and are immediately put back into the specified drawer afterwards. Whenever we visit, the rooms are always neat and tidy.
The parents shared their experience with me. Master teaches us, "He is full of great aspirations while minding minor details." This can be applied to the educating of the children. Sometimes children are annoying but we must be calm and patient, and spend more time to teach them how to do things. For instance, we can do housework together with the children to build a good habit in them, and then let them do the work by themselves and praise them for even a little achievement. From the long-term point of view, they can be the good assistants in doing the housework and can save us much time.
The parents also have understood that the placement of all items in this dimension of the human space correspondences to the disposition, as well as the materials in other dimensions. The neatness and tidiness in this dimension can give the rotten materials of the other dimensions nowhere to hide.
After comparing myself with the couple practitioners, I uncovered my own attachment to complacency, which hides deeply in me. I have found out that I was not as great as I thought I was and am very far from the requirement of the Fa. I loved neatness and tidiness but I did not understand that based on Fa. Sometimes I even look at things on the surface by using a human's concept. Occasionally, I tidied up things only because I hated dirt and disorderliness.
I recalled that one day I helped to clean a fellow practitioner's room, which was very dirty and messy. It took me quite a lot of time to complete the cleaning. The fellow practitioner was moved and thanked me. I was a little annoyed and said, "How does this look like a place of a Dafa disciple?" I was not able to share with him my understanding on the subject based on the Fa. Consequently, he was still untidy. Sometimes some individuals put Dafa materials such as truth sharing Dafa documents and CDs with other groceries, which were never touched for months or for years. Some of these people were singles, or have only one child or one child with a babysitter but they were not as neat and tidy as the couple practitioners that have four children.
Master teaches us in Zhuan Falun, "Everything will be purified for you in the other spaces including your home environment. How could you possibly practice the Gong if your environment is not pure and has all sorts of interference bothering you?" Master also teaches us, "I have one student who one day saw my Law body is here. Teacher, please come in. My Law body said, 'This room is too messy, and there are too many things.' Then my Law body walked away."
My personal understanding is that Master refers not only to one area but also all kinds of aspects including our daily life. How great and merciful our Master is! We should feel ashamed for ourselves for the untidiness. We must carefully arrange and tidy up those Dafa documents which have been put over there for years and we should use them properly. We must cherish the contributions, including manpower, material and financial resources that Dafa disciples have made to save sentient beings.
Master also teaches us, "Be sure not to ignore everything and become sloppy, unkempt, and grimy once you practice Falun Gong—that's unacceptable. From a certain point of view, you are damaging Dafa's image. Isn't that the case?" (From Lecture at the Conference in Switzerland, September 4th and 5th, 1998, Geneva) I understand that neatness and tidiness are very important. We should follow Master's teaching and make our personal life neat and tidy in order to eliminate any opportunity for evil to enter our life. It is also a protection of Dafa. Whatever we do, we should understand and do things based on the Fa principles. We should view things from the overall situation.
All materials have lives. If you were not kind to them, they would in turn interfere with you or even worse take revenge on you. For instance, if you carelessly put or throw them everywhere, you cannot find them when needed; clothes can rot easily if not washed, then you have to spend more money to buy new ones; if you are not careful in looking after your car, it may breakdown when you need it. All these examples have shown us that it will cost us more in terms of money, time and energy, if we do not look after our property with care.
Dirt represents laziness and it is also an arrangement by the old forces. We have to eliminate all of them. When the disposition is upgraded, "neatness and tidiness" can be achieved.
Translated from:
http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/1/7/19949.html
