PureInsight | November 24, 2008
[PureInsight.org] Recently, I felt myself not being diligent. I was not doing the three things well (i.e. cultivating oneself, sending forth righteous thoughts, and clarifying the truth), and I faced distractions and drowsiness when sending forth righteous thoughts. This situation had persisted for a while and although I felt it was not right, things did not change.
Yesterday during Fa study, I thought to myself, “Dafa is so profound. Why is it that those interfering elements still haven’t been eliminated?” Later, I realized that the fundamental reason was that I did not let go of those elements deep in my heart. With so many notions and impure thoughts, it is hard to fully experience the greatness of Dafa.
Several times when waking up in the morning recently, I felt it was so warm in my bed and so cold outside, and I wanted to stay in bed for a while instead of getting up immediately to send forth righteous thoughts or study the Fa. But looking back over these past several years, most of the time I got up immediately after waking up, instead of being attached to comfort. So why did I change now?
Although this appeared to be a simple issue, as I dug further, I could see problems in my cultivation state. My thought process was that it was cold outside of my bed, so why bother getting up as soon as possible? But this, in fact, pointed to a fundamental question: Why do I want to cultivate?
Thinking about cultivators in the past, some practiced in Daxing’an Mountain or Changbai Mountain in northeast China. In the freezing winter, what kind of perseverance did they have? But even more directly, in China today, where our fellow practitioners are being persecuted, some practitioners were stripped naked and thrown outdoors in the freezing winter and cold water was poured over their bodies continuously. Were I in that situation, how would I behave?
Cultivation in Dafa is the most precious opportunity one could have. A Dafa disciple’s mission is so great that it is beyond imagination when thinking with human notions. The difficulty in this process can either be direct persecution inside China as mentioned above, or all sorts of elements that weaken one’s determination in cultivation. When one cannot be diligent with a clear mind, he or she may get stuck in the mud and forget the true purpose of coming here.
Interference takes various forms. When a practitioner’s attitude or responses are different from one’s own, do we react with human notions and struggle with them, passively avoid them, or observe things coldly as a bystander? We have to fulfill a multitude of responsibilities among our various social and family interactions, but do we forget our grand mission while in those environments? At the workplace and on other occasions when we see people fighting for fame and self-interest, do we remember to examine ourselves to see if we also react negatively or have attachments of fighting, jealousy, or dishonesty?
Sometimes I feel cultivation is very difficult. On the one hand, a strong determination in cultivation cannot be shaken. On the other hand, when interacting with people, we have to be fully considerate of their situation and feelings. Therefore, our expressions, movements, words, and actions all have to achieve a positive result. When the starting point of all of these is to fulfill a Dafa disciple's mission, we will not go astray.
October 7, 2008
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/10/7/55231.html
