PureInsight | April 6, 2011
[PureInsight.org] After so many years of cultivation, many of us consider ourselves clear on what is personal cultivation and what is Fa-rectification period cultivation. For example, the latter one means not only Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts, but also stepping forward to clarify the truth. Then, what is personal cultivation? We can relate it to those practitioners who stay at home and do not step forward to validate the Fa. I used to look at things this way as well.
When thinking it through further, however, I realized that doing the three things does not necessarily mean one is doing well in Fa-rectification period cultivation. Taking myself as an example; although I have kept doing the three things, I was still trapped in the state of personal cultivation that was arranged by the old forces. There are some issues that had bothered me for a long time and I was unable to find a solution. Later, I found that was because I had focused on personal cultivation and was thus unable to break through the tribulation. The following is my experience.
Since the vicious persecution started, I have not been financially stable. My family even used my detention, which was because of my belief, to take advantage of me. For example, my ex-husband started to have an affair with a woman a long time ago and after we divorced, got married to her. Instead of paying child support for our child as decided by the court, he often shirked the responsibility and threatened me. My younger brother, on the other hand, often borrowed money from me although he knew that I had no job and was financially unstable. He never returned the money to me, and when I refused to give him more money, he often swore at me. My mother did not allow me to bring Dafa books home and even threatened me with her suicide. Although she knew that Dafa is good, she was against my cultivation because of her fear of the CCP.
When living this miserable life, I always treated it with forbearance and continued to look within. However, as I continued to improve, the above troubles even worsened, which really worried me. It is not easy to find a job either. I applied for a job earlier this year; however, the employer hired an applicant who had less education and skills than me. At that moment, I realized something was wrong.
When looking within, I found that I was attached to money, or was it because of my jealousy? It did not seem that way. From Fa-study, we know that an everyday person would benefit simply by reciting “Falun Dafa is good.” Why should I end up like this after cultivating for so many years? Plus, my current situation negatively affected the salvation of sentient beings. For example, when I asked my relatives to quit the CCP, some of them said, “You are saying that one will be blessed after quitting the CCP. Why are you are still out of a job?” My former coworkers sometimes would also talk about this, saying, “She [me] was a capable person. How come she is like this today?”
With the disrespect from my family and relatives, I woke up and realized that I had been trapped in the state of personal cultivation. Instead of rectifying my surrounding environment, I yielded again and again, thinking that I was cultivating forbearance. In fact, a Dafa disciple should oppose this persecution rather than acknowledge it. From Fa-study, we know that as Dafa disciples are continually validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, we should be able to have an ordinary living environment. The overall resources of Dafa disciples are limited. How can our resources be recklessly taken away by the evil or everyday people? An ordinary person who does that is actually committing a sin. How can I allow him or her to continue doing that?
The old forces are not clear on what Fa-rectification period cultivation is, and they instead only focus on personal cultivation. However, personal cultivation alone does not apply to Dafa disciples since whatever we do right now is related to the Fa-rectification. We of course should continue to look within, but that does not mean that we should yield endlessly. The old forces are actually taking advantage of this and are manipulating everyday people to persecute us financially. After learning this lesson, I decided to rectify this situation with righteous thoughts.
My ex-husband came again, shouting and complaining. He said he still did not have any money to pay for child support. I looked him in the eye with righteous thoughts, and said that he failed to meet the basic moral standard. I also said that I would contact his employer about this. He panicked and stopped saying that he did not have enough money. The next day, he gave me part of the money and has not been so rampant since then.
My younger brother came again to borrow money. After I said no, he threatened to cut off his relationship with me and wanted to hit me. I knew that he was being manipulated by bad elements in other dimensions; otherwise how dare an everyday person treat a Dafa disciple like that? Looking him in the eye, I sent forth righteous thoughts and told him that I was not frightened by him. He was stunned and his viciousness immediately disappeared.
After being clear on the Fa, I was able to handle things with righteous thoughts and righteous actions. The evil dwindled and these people were not rampant anymore. With strong righteous thoughts, I knew that nobody should take my money and that I should have a job. This is because there are things that I have to do. Since Dafa disciples are playing the leading role in the everyday society to help Master with Fa-rectification, everything else should facilitate this rather than stand in the way.
When thinking back, I felt bad that I had not realized this earlier. Some practitioners are still mistreated by their family members, including swearing, destroying books or computers, and they are treating these acts with forbearance, just like what I did in the past. This is a trap of personal cultivation, and we should stop spending so many resources merely to behave as a good person in the everyday society. Instead, we should focus our time and energy on places where we can save sentient beings.
There is not much time left. I hope all practitioners could do better on this subject and save more sentient beings. Please point out anything inappropriate in my sharing.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2011/3/20/72851.html
