PureInsight | July 16, 2006
[PureInsight.org] Master said in "Teaching the Fa in Canada" this year:
"Dafa has been established in human society, and your form of
cultivation has you conform to ordinary society to the maximum extent.
Many people think it's about being lenient with and making things
convenient for our cultivation, but diligent students don't see it that
way. It is, rather, the path that Dafa disciples must take as they
cultivate. So everything that you do, be it your balancing well your
family relationships while you live among ordinary people, balancing
well your relationships in society, how you perform at your workplace,
how you conduct yourself in society, etc., none of these are things you
can just go through the motions on. All of these are part of your
cultivation format, and are serious matters.
Many students understand only that doing the exercises and studying the
Fa are cultivation. Yes, with those you directly engage the Fa. But as
you go about truly cultivating yourself in your day-to-day life, the
society that you come into contact with is your cultivation
environment. The work and family environments that you spend time in
are both settings in which you are to cultivate yourselves, are part of
the path you must walk, are what you must handle, and handle correctly
at that. None of these should be glossed over."
These words from Master's lecture have helped me realize the importance
of balancing well our everyday life and all our responsibilities in the
human world.
Since, before, I thought that I should take things lightly in the
secular world, I ended up living passively without really cherishing
every aspect of my human life. Now, I have the understanding that that
this kind of attitude was wrong. Sometimes, we might think that we do
the three things well and that we are actually diligent in our
cultivation but this is not necessarily the case.
The actual cultivation is in our every day life. In our every day life
we encounter the tests and in our everyday life we get the
opportunities for improvement. If we don't cherish every aspect of our
lives and be aware of the sacredness of every moment, how are we going
to cherish those tests and those opportunities for improvement?
Not being attached to things in the ordinary human world does not mean
that we live passively. How can we live passively and at the same time
be full of awareness every moment? But being full of awareness every
moment is the key to actual cultivation because only then can we
control every thought, every feeling, every word and every action and
judge if it is in accordance with the Fa.
We cultivate in our lives, we do not separate from our
lives to practice cultivation. Of course, as we cultivate our
priorities change and the things we do in our every day life change as
well. But we should not neglect our lives. If we neglect our lives,
even if we do the three things well, don't we neglect our cultivation?
And there is also another aspect I would like to discuss.
Master said in Zhuan Falun in "The Attachment of Zealotry" that
"The majority of people in our school will practice cultivation in
ordinary human society, so you should not distance yourself from
ordinary human society and you must practice cultivation with a clear
mind. The relationships among one another should remain normal. Of
course, you have a very high xinxing level and an upright mind. You
will upgrade your own xinxing and your own level; you do not commit
wrongdoing and only do good deeds—these are only such a manifestation.
Some people conduct themselves as though they are either mentally
abnormal or they have seen enough of this secular world. They say
things that others cannot comprehend. Others will say: "How come a
person who learns Falun Dafa becomes like this? It seems he has a
mental problem." Actually, it is not so. He is simply too excited and
so appears to be irrational without common sense. Think about it,
everyone: Your acting like this is also wrong, and you have gone to the
other extreme - again it is an attachment. You should give it up and
practice cultivation while living normally like everyone else among
everyday people. If while among everyday people others consider you
infatuated, they will not deal with you and will keep a distance from
you. Nobody will provide you with opportunities to improve xinxing, and
neither treat you as a normal person - I would say that this is not
right! Therefore, everyone must be sure to pay attention to this issue
and conduct himself or herself well."
I believe that, even if we are not too engrossed, we should pay
attention to the fact, so that every day people should interact with us
as one of his or her own.
In my truth clarification I realized that people are more willing
to hear my truth clarification when they have common grounds to share
with me. For example, with a musician I could have an interesting
conversation talking about music and, at the same time, be clarifying
the truth to him. If we become unable to talk with every day people
other subjects apart from our truth clarification, are we not losing a
chance to communicate better with those people and touch their hearts
much easier?
I encountered this problem when I met an old friend of mine the other
day. It was as if I wanted to meet him just for giving him a flyer,
without being really interested in his life or in what he had to say.
And this does not show respect to people at all.
