PureInsight | April 7, 2007
[PureInsight.org] There is a story in Grimm's Fairy Tales:
A merchant had done well at the fair. He had sold all his wares and
filled his moneybag with gold and silver. Now he wanted to make his way
toward home and to be in his own house before nightfall. So he loaded
his duffel bag with the money onto his horse and rode away.
At noon he made a rest stop in a town. When he was about to continue on
his way, a servant brought him his horse and said, "Sir, a nail is
missing from the shoe on his left hind hoof." "Let it be," answered the
merchant. "The shoe will certainly stay on for the six hours that I
still have to ride. I am in a hurry."
That afternoon, when he dismounted once again and had his horse fed, a
servant came into the inn and said, "Sir, a shoe is missing from your
horse's left hind hoof. Shall I take him to the blacksmith?" "Let it
be," answered the man. "The horse can manage for the few hours that I
still have to ride. I am in a hurry."
He rode on, but before long the horse began to limp. It did not limp
long before it began to stumble, and it did not stumble long before it
fell down and broke a leg. The merchant had to leave the horse where it
was, and unbuckle the duffel bag, load it onto his shoulder, and walk
home on foot, not arriving there until very late that night. "All this
bad luck," he said to himself, "was caused by that cursed nail."
I related this story to Dafa practitioners' cultivation practice. While
dedicated to doing the three things well, we cannot overlook the
removal of our attachments and the raising of our xinxing.
Otherwise our attachments would blow up and grow while we are relaxed
and affect us in doing the three things well. Just like the merchant in
the story who thought it didn't matter to have a missing nail as his
time was tight, the "shortcoming" turned out to grow larger and larger
and in the end affected his entire progress. Different from taking time
to fix the nail, removing our attachments doesn't consume extra time,
except that enough attention must be paid to this matter in our minds.
In my own experience, the moment when my attachment, the substance, was
removed, all of a sudden I felt enlightened. My level was elevated and
my heart became purer, my mind became more open and wisdom came out as
spring water, and therefore I could do the three things better. It did
not affect anything time-wise, but instead helped me get twice the
results with half the effort!
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/3/11/42683.html
