PureInsight | June 2, 2008
[PureInsight.org] In the past, for a long time I hadn't been able to handle my cultivation practice correctly in relation to my everyday life and work. I went to two extremes, either feeling I could break from the everyday people's world entirely and do nothing but cultivation practice, or being trapped in everyday people's conflicts for a long time. For example, when I first started practicing cultivation, I threw away all my non-cultivation books in front of family, and I often grasped every minute at work to read the Fa, despite how my co-workers felt. When I talked with non-practitioners about how wonderful Dafa is, I was very proud as if nobody else knew more than I did. Now, looking back at my path of cultivation practice over those years, I saw a strong attachment of selfishness.
I was afraid that I couldn't keep up with the Fa-rectification process, so I worked very hard at clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. I was afraid I couldn't complete cultivation practice without getting rid of so many attachments, so I racked my brains trying to "look inside." I was afraid that everyday people would drag me to their world, so I purposely kept my distance from them in my thoughts and actions. I was afraid of all sorts of obstacles on the path of cultivation practice, so I couldn't do things openly and nobly, and instead was very careful... Put simply, I lacked a selfless and pure heart.
Now, I really regret for that and feel sad. Because of my shortcomings, non-practitioners couldn't understand me, and I couldn't approach them and tell them the truth about Dafa. I lost many opportunities to save people just because of my going to extremes and selfishness.
Today, I once again read Master's lecture, Teaching the Fa in San Francisco 2005. Master said, "As I have said before, this is the form that Dafa disciples' cultivation takes today - the cultivation is done among ordinary people, and you cultivate without breaking from the secular world. I discussed this before in teaching the Fa: It's precisely because Dafa disciples cultivate this way that they can achieve something never seen before in history - a human becoming divine through cultivation." I didn't understand until now that it is because the Fa is so grand that even when we live in the secular world we can achieve such high realms. It is truly a "great way without form." I came to understand that maximally conforming to the human society does not mean we should become everyday people. Even if we do our jobs well and take care of our families well, we won't become everyday people because the Fa is in our hearts measuring everything. Our heart is full of compassion and won't be affected by the human world.
When I was able to conform to the human society well, I found it very easy to validate Dafa and save sentient beings. During those times, I was very close to non-practitioners and they enjoyed spending time with me. Therefore, face-to-face opportunities were created for me to tell them the truth.
Today, I met a person and clarified the truth to him. He reminded me not to treat other people’s hardships and unhappiness with an heir of superiority, and that nobody liked to accept pity, which is almost like taking charity. Upon hearing his words, I felt it was Master's hint to me. I realized more and more that the closer to the end, the more calm and sober I should be, and I must be a Falun Dafa practitioner who has a heart of saving people and whose behavior conforms to everyday people's society.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/5/28/53056.html
