PureInsight | July 28, 2003
[PureInsight.org] During my cultivation, I have always asked myself a question that has greatly benefited my cultivation. The question is: "What is cultivation?" Every time I tried to come up with an answer to this question, I remembered Teacher's words: "...to practice cultivation is to cultivate the human heart." (From "Falun Buddha Fa Lecture at the Conference in Europe")
1) Seize Every Opportunity to Purify Our Hearts
When we encounter arguments and conflicts, we must regard them as opportunities to cultivate our hearts. When you encounter something that makes you uncomfortable, that is an opportunity for cultivation. That is an opportunity for us to see where our xinxing (moral character) truly lies, and to correct it accordingly. However, we tend to fall easily into the specific challenges at hand and become result-oriented, or even use the end result to prove who's right and who's wrong. If this kind of attitude persists, we will probably miss many opportunities to improve our xinxing. We should learn many valuable lessons from the past. It is of utmost importance that we seize every opportunity to purify our heart, because we do not have many opportunities left. We should not allow ourselves to be consumed with any superficial issues and miss the opportunity to cultivate. I think that is what the Fa requires of us. Each opportunity to purify our heart does not come around for the second time!
We should not become attached to the specific problem and forget the spirit of cultivation. In retrospect, I have noticed that many specific challenges or problems were not as complicated as we had imagined. During the Fa-rectification period, cultivating our hearts is probably far more important than simply solving any problem technically or changing things according to our likings. A solution to the problem may not affect the final outcome at all.
While I listened to Teacher's answer to a question about physical interferences and sending forth righteous thoughts at the 2003 "Lecturing and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," I suddenly realized that we should have a rational understanding of the correlation between looking inward and opposing the old forces' arrangements. If we only stress opposing the old forces' arrangements, but fail to look inward, we won't fundamentally solve the problem of physical interference. It is especially important that we genuinely look inward when we encounter physical interferences.
2) How to Harmonize the Whole Body
The importance of Dafa practitioners being one body during Fa-rectification work is often discussed. It would be easier to see the importance if we regard each practitioner as a different part of one human body. Each part of a human body functions differently to reach a collective goal: to maintain our body so it can work smoothly.
In order for the practitioners in different regions to function as a whole body in the Fa-rectification work, each practitioner is responsible for thinking before taking any action: "Will my or my region's action be of any benefit to the progress of the entire body of Fa-rectification work?" I believe that this should be the basis for all of our actions. I hope that we will work together to attain the goal of always prioritizing the action of the whole body.
This concludes my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything erroneous.
Translated form: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/7/4/22339.html
