PureInsight | May 24, 2004
[PureInsight.org] At the conclusion of Master Li's teaching the divine universal law in New York at Easter 2004, He had this to say:
Today is Easter, the day of a god's resurrection! (Enthusiastic applause) This is all I'll say today. On this special, glorious day, may Dafa disciples' divine sides also be resurrected! (Long period of enthusiastic applause)
This last verse struck me as another one of his many gentle but urgent messages to get our act together and lose ever more of our human traits while living among common people. The message seems to urge us to bring our noble character traits to the fore and not to dawdle along, but hurry.
The verse addresses two concepts, though, "resurrection" and our "divinity." The significance of this two-fold, renewed mandate did not hit me until much later. Now I realize that resurrection is what we have been after all along – that it is part and parcel of what Dafa is all about, the getting away from our ingrained habits and returning to that which we once were, our true, original selves, living beings without cravings for earthly, temporary gratification. Resurrection can also be defined as the casting of a final judgment on humanity and a raising up to higher levels, a process during which the immortal soul will become one again with all other noble entities on that level. Resurrection here could well be our eventual conscious awakening from that which is merely temporal, is unimportant and short-lived, toward the valued, eternal and redeeming, toward that which promises new life and/or new energy, or perhaps even permanent energy, to dwell in the universe as a speck of good influence for eternity. If we diligently read, reflect on and study Zhuan Falun, we will quicken our pace tremendously and get to the point of new spiritual life and energy.
Making sense of "resurrection" was at first much easier for me than dealing with the second concept Master has mentioned – our divinity. Lately though, a small candle was lit in my head, dispersing the shadows and telling me that the two cannot be separated, particularly when considering all of Master's teachings. Many of us who have truly cultivated The Great Law for some time now have noticed that we think much differently about many things than common people look at life, and our thoughts are no longer that of the individual we were prior to the onset of our cultivation. I see it as reverting to all that is good and was once good – decency, scrupulous honesty, chivalry, courtesy, compassion and genuine loyalty. All these attributes can be "resurrected" in the absence of sappy emotions, with an assertive but kind mindset. When I find myself in a quandary, not quite knowing what to do, not wanting "to hurt someone's feelings," I ask myself how a saint would act. If the answer still does not pop into my head, then I ask myself, "What would Master Li do in this case?" He has said:
Don't do anything that I do not do, and don't use anything that I do not use. In cultivation you should say things however I say them.
(From Essentials for Further Advancement )
Reflecting thus, the answer becomes clear and the action will be appropriate. So much for my practical look at divine nature of a cultivator; but there is more.
Thinking further, I am convinced that the very act of us resurrecting ourselves, of renewing ourselves in Dafa, with the help of Master's fashen, resurrection will bring us ever closer to those divine characteristics that slumber in all of us. This daily quest for divinity in our human sphere takes much hard work and is not handed us on a platter, simply for the taking. Master had told us: "Cultivation is hard." (From "Path" in Essentials for Further Advancement II) The daily, persistent, sometimes agonizing step-by-step advance on the cultivation path is not for the faint-hearted, but each rain-filled pothole on the road we don't fall into and splatters us with mud brings us closer to transition from this earthly existence to the Divine Creative Intelligence that I call "heaven." With the magnificent power The Great Law has given us we can truly rise to the height of excellence in the highest degree and will eventually glimpse facets and qualities of Creation/Supreme Being/All-Illumination, taking our place as good stewards of the almighty Dafa.
