PureInsight | August 26, 2002
Introduction: A Dafa disciple profoundly impacts all other practitioners and sentient beings by whether he or she can clarify personal successes or failures with regards to practicing the Fa principles in his or her daily life. As we are reminded, our journey is not just for our own personal enlightenment.
Prior to beginning cultivation in Dafa, I spent time reading books on ancient and modern cultivation methods. I was astonished by the cultivation methods used in some of the Taoist practices. For example, the new disciples are bound to a stool for several hours in a sitting meditation position. In other cases, the disciples were ordered to practice the sitting meditation on a balancing board above a manure pit. This was to help improve their ability to achieve tranquility. After reading these accounts, I developed a great respect for the determination of these cultivators. Indeed it appears one has to endure hardships regardless of the cultivation practice. There is a famous Chinese saying stating that when the heaven bestows special responsibility on a person, the person is made to "mentally overcome tribulations, and suffer physically, and from hunger." I came to the understanding that this statement summarizes an absolute requirement for cultivators to achieve consummation as it is a standard for consummation.
Since learning about the Fa, it has been easy for me to practice the exercises with other practitioners, even in the early morning or late at night. One time when I went out to practice at 3:30 in the morning, upon my arrival, I even found some practitioners had already started the sitting meditation. During the past several years, especially since I left China, my environment has been filled with tribulations although on the surface my life would appear to be peaceful. When the persecution of Dafa began, the interference by the evil in the human world and other dimensions were rampant. However, I was not discouraged because I always thought that a practitioner would have to pass the test of life and death sooner or later. This is a requirement in all modern or ancient cultivation practices. Furthermore, I am fortunate enough to cultivate Dafa, and Master continues to endure so much for his disciples. Compared to the side-path practices, the hardships we suffer on the surface are very little. Anytime I think about this, my heart is filled with gratitude towards Master and I am more steadfast to Dafa. I should try my best to reach the standard of a cultivator, and I should not use the compassion and magnanimity of Master as an excuse to slow down. When I read the touching stories of the righteous thoughts and acts of the practitioners in China, posted on the Clearwisdom or Clearharmony websites, besides respect, I also have a feeling of shame. We have more freedom outside China, so there is no reason for us not to do better. A cultivator should meet the standard no matter where he or she lives.
Many of the recent articles written by our disciples discuss the lessons learned from the trips to Germany and Iceland. I personally feel sorrow that the Dafa disciples as a group did not meet the standard. In many of Master's lectures, he tells us that the evil forces persecute Dafa disciples by creating situations that test disciples. Also, Master will take advantage of the actions of the old forces in this test to evaluate disciples. However, Master will not allow the old forces to test disciples endlessly. The important thing is that practitioners must keep righteous thoughts during all situations and always meet the requirements of a Dafa disciple. Remember, Master has offered compassionate salvation and borne immeasurable suffering in order to save as many sentient beings as possible. Therefore, the righteous thoughts and acts of Dafa disciples as a group becomes very important because if there are any loopholes in Dafa disciples as a whole, the evil has an excuse to continue to persecute Dafa. Hence, every Dafa disciple should purify every word and act so that as a whole we can meet the requirement as soon as possible in order to save more sentient beings.
Master is capable of doing anything, however in order to save even more sentient beings, Master still has to wait for disciples to enlighten and to upgrade their levels by practicing Fa principles in all situations. Master has boundless compassion and tolerance but we should try hard to deserve the title of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. This is not only for ourselves, but also for those countless beings that have immeasurable expectations of us. Thus, purifying our every thought, word, and act is the best way to thoroughly deny the arrangements of the old forces. This is also the standard we ought to set for ourselves and meet.
"As you know, the persecution endured by the mainland Chinese Dafa disciples is severe enough, so each practitioner must truly and clearheadedly recognize his own responsibility, and truly be able to, when sending forth righteous thoughts, calm his heart and genuinely produce the effect of righteous thoughts. Therefore this is an extremely crucial matter, an extremely important matter. If every practitioner could accomplish this, let me tell you, in those five minutes of simultaneously sending forth righteous thoughts, the evil within the Three Realms will cease to exist forever (from "Fa Lecture at the Florida Conference in the US")."
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/7/17/16844.html
