PureInsight | May 4, 2008
[PureInsight.org] This is a
story from history. In ancient Tibet, there was a young man who sought
the Dao. His master told him to clean the dirty areas every day.
In the beginning, the young man very much respected the renowned
master, who was highly admired by the people around him, and followed
the instructions carefully without the slightest mistake. He thought in
his mind: "If I do a good job in cleaning, very soon master will surely
teach me the Buddha Fa." With this thought in mind, the young man did
all kinds of similar cleaning jobs.
After a period of time, the young man praised himself with satisfaction
while looking at the clean surroundings he had worked on with his own
two hands hands: "I have been following master's instructions and have
been cleaning up all the dirty places ever since the day I began to
follow the master. Now, it is so clean and neat everywhere, Master
will, for sure, pass on his teaching to me.
So, the young man came before his master and asked for the teaching of
the Buddha Fa. Looking at him, the master said the same thing as
before: "You go and do the cleaning some more."
Hearing this, the young man stared at nothing blankly. He pondered and
pondered but couldn't figure out what the indubitable relationship
between cultivation and cleaning work actually is. Yet the master had
asked him to do these trivial things like cleaning, which had no great
significance in cultivating the profound Buddha's Fa.
After hesitating for a long time, the young man decided to leave as
soon as possible so he could find another master and obtain the Dao as
early as possible. He worried that his great will to cultivate the
Buddha's Fa would be hindered by those trivial cleaning duties. So, the
young man left. At the same time, his master stood on the mountain
looking at the departing young man. Tears quietly fell from his eyes.
The young man came to a fair. All of sudden, a bull started to run
crazily. The crowd was terribly shocked and people ran everywhere for
their lives. Before the young man had time to run, the bull had dashed
up to in front of him. The young man automatically opened his arms to
hold the bull's two horns. He then held up one of his palms and patted
the bull's head. The bull instantly fell to the ground with no strength
left.
Looking at his own hands, the young man was stunned. At that moment, he
suddenly came to understand that everything his master asked him to do
was his cultivation, and his ability had gradually increased as he did
the cleaning day after day without realizing it himself at all.
Suddenly, the young man burst into tears. He hastened back to his
master and continued his cultivation of the Buddha's Fa.
The day I heard this story from history it naturally made me reflect on
things I have been attached to in my cultivation in Dafa now. Everyone
wants to obtain the Dao, however, one has to do everything well before
he can realize the Dao. For thousands of years, among numerous
cultivators, only a countable few were eventually able to transcend the
human world and leave. I thought about my daily activities, going to
stores, delivering newspapers, and singing and dancing, that I used to
simply think of as shopping and entertainment.
Later on, my notions changed. In fact, everything in this world is a
large cleaning project for a cultivator. The demeanor when dealing with
people, the tone when talking and even the look in our eyes and the
thoughts in our minds when we are alone, we have to bring all these to
the standard of the Fa and look inward without holding back. Only then
will the way of returning to our true self be smooth. Since then,
whenever I go to stores, I noticed that every action of mine touches a
big crowd of people. I leave my compassionate and righteous thoughts
everywhere. Realizing this Fa principle, I sometimes feel that, no
matter what I do, it is like being in tranquility all day long. Working
and doing things as I am supposed to, there is nothing that can
interfere with me. I am cultivating my heart every moment.
Facing sentient beings, we give them the hope of returning to their true self.
Especially today, the righteousness of the Divine Arts (Shen Yun) is
leading the world to explore endless and magnificent realms of human
lives. The Divine Arts moves people's hearts because of its compassion
and tolerance towards life. During reincarnations throughout history,
we were once in this or that life, and we played all roles of the poor
and rich. Maybe it is through these processes of reincarnation that we
are reminded to be tolerant to sentient beings at any moment, because
we were once the same as these beings.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/3/28/52018.html
