PureInsight | March 7, 2011
[PureInsight.org] During discussions, we often talk about the issue of diligence. Many practitioners, including myself, sometimes complain about why we are unable to remain diligent and then find several reasons. It seems that we know all this from the Fa, but are still unable to overcome it. Right after the discussions, the situation might be better for a few days, but then would go back to usual. To fundamentally solve this problem, I would like to discuss this in detail.
One reason is laziness. After waking up in the morning, we often want to sleep for a few more minutes instead of getting up immediately for exercises. As a result, we fall back to sleep again. Without sufficient exercises, we lack energy for the whole day, causing a vicious cycle. Laziness results from the attachment to comfort. Thus, a lot of time is wasted instead of being spent on doing the three things.
The second reason is lust. This issue is often seen because we are living in the everyday society. Regardless of being married or single, this imposes a major challenge, especially to young practitioners. Because the environment at large is degenerated, there is temptation everywhere. Whatever we see or hear might bring up an attachment that interferes with us doing the three things. After discussing this many times, I found that the fundamental issue is not being married vs. being single, but instead whether or not one can completely let go of the desire. Imagine ancient practitioners who went to mountain caves to cultivate, they may still face this issue of lust in their mind. Therefore, the critical thing here is whether we have strong will power, and whether we can completely let go of such thoughts.
The third reason is thought karma. It happens to some practitioners that, whenever we want to do the three things, there are many negative thoughts surfacing. As a result, we spend lots of effort resolving the conflicts in our mind. Let us take writing an article as an example. One may be afraid that he or she is not good at writing, that there are not enough things to write about, or it is hard to organize the materials. These struggles delay the article writing again and again. Writing articles, in fact, is also related to one’s cultivation. Only when doing it can one find ones shortcomings and rectify them with the Fa. It is also a process of becoming enlightened, that is, a process of improvement. The old forces pay close attention to every thought of ours, and they try to take advantage of every loophole that we have.
I think the best way of eliminating thought karma is to recite the Fa and write articles. In this way, we fill every cell with the Fa and eliminate any thought inconsistent with the Fa. Whether it is lust or any other type of attachment, we should pay attention to it and completely eliminate it. When our mind becomes pure, our wisdom will naturally emerge. We will then be able to handle things smoothly and remain diligent.
When digging further, we may find dozens or even hundreds of reasons that keep us from being diligent. However, the above-mentioned reasons may be the major ones that hinder us from making steady progress. In addition, the cultivation environment Master left to us is one for us to improve together. Therefore, when incorporating ourselves into one body, and consistently comparing ourselves to other practitioners and the Fa, we will be able to find our gaps and thus catch up quickly. Loneliness is an attachment that weakens our will and, when that happens, thought karma is more rampant in interfering with us. Therefore, only when forming one body and focusing on doing the three things can we rectify the environment and remain diligent.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2011/2/22/72113.html
