How to Balance Cultivation and School Study

For a Dafa practitioner who is currently in school, how to balance Fa-rectification cultivation and school study is an important issue that must be faced and dealt with.

Teacher said, “In the future, there will then be many experts and scholars whose wisdom will be broadened through the Buddha Fa. They will become the new pioneers of mankind in different fields of learning. Yet, it is not for your becoming a pioneer that the Buddha Fa has given you wisdom. You have attained it because you are a cultivator. That is, you are first a cultivator, and then an expert. Then, as a cultivator, you should make use of all feasible conditions to spread Dafa and validate Dafa as a correct and true science, rather than preaching or idealism—this is every cultivator’s obligation. Without this enormous Buddha Fa, there would be nothing—and this includes everything in the universe, from the most macroscopic to the most microscopic, as well as all of human society’s knowledge.” (“Validation,” from Essentials for Further Advancement)
“Taking the Fa as the Teacher,” I personally think students should regard themselves first as practitioners, then as students. We didn’t come to this “world that is… most filthy” and filled with karma to “not let go of those filthy things that you cling to in this filthy world” (Essentials for Further Advancement). We did not come to study in school here and live the dirty life of degenerated human beings. Instead, we came to assist Teacher to rectify the Fa and return to our true original selves, our original “holy, pure, and incomparably splendid world” (“Validation”, Essentials for Further Advancement).

1. Regard oneself as a practitioner of the righteous Fa first and always.

First, we should be clear that the purpose of our study is to better assist Teacher to rectify the Fa and assimilate to Dafa, and to “melt into Fa” “towards consummation.” It is not to fight for good grades and good universities, or for a good future job so as to live better than others, or live a so-called comfortable and happy life by ordinary people's standards. We should regard school study as an environment for Fa-rectification cultivation and fully utilize it; we should “Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa, and offer people salvation with benevolence” (“Rationality”).

“Using the Fa as the teacher,” “cultivate your inner self,” and require of oneself a practitioner’s xinxing standard at every single moment to make one’s every thought, every word, and every action specifically conform to Dafa’s requirement, assimilate to Dafa, harmonize with Dafa, and validate Dafa. As long as one’s xinxing satisfies different requirements and reaches different levels in Dafa, Dafa will endow you with the reason, wisdom, strength and energy that you deserve according to your level. The higher the level and realm your xinxing reaches, the more lofty the reason, wisdom, strength and energy you will obtain. So for a cultivator with great wisdom, you would feel the ordinary people’s knowledge that you learn in school to be very clear and very easy; therefore, when you study, you will feel quite at ease and spend half the time to do twice the work.

2. Study according to a Fa-rectification cultivator’s standard.

Teacher said, “In teaching the Fa, I have talked about the principle whereby a student who does his schoolwork well will naturally be admitted to college, whereas a student who is attached to being admitted to college but who doesn’t do his schoolwork well won’t be admitted” (“Eliminate Your Last Attachments”).
Teacher also said, “Ancient Chinese science is different from our present science that we have learned from the West, as it took another path that could bring about a different state. Therefore, we cannot understand ancient Chinese science and technology through our current way of understanding things. Because ancient Chinese science focused directly on the human body, life, and the universe, and it studied these subjects directly, it took a different approach. At that time, when students went to school, they practiced sitting in meditation and emphasized good posture. When they picked up their brush-pens, they would regulate their breathing and qi. All professions believed in emptying the mind and regulating the breathing, as this was the state throughout society” (Zhuan Falun).
Therefore, as a student, one should act according to Teacher’s requirement for a cultivator. Study well as long as you are a student. You should be calm, serene and concentrated. At the same time, regard studying well as needed to harmonize with Dafa; your studying well is for the purpose of harmonizing with Dafa and manifesting Dafa.

3. “Remove reputation, material interest and sentimentality through cultivation; ascend to the firmament upon consummation” (“Achieving Consummation and Completing Gong,” Hongyin).
Lastly, we need to keep away from fame and self-interest. We should not be fighting for fame and self-interest, because they are strong attachments that hamper cultivators from reaching consummation and should be eliminated by cultivators. Remember, “Forbearance is the key to improving one’s xinxing” (“What is Forbearance?” in Essentials for Further Advancement).

We can’t add new attachments while our old attachments still exist. We should get rid of our attachment to fame and self-interest and be able to “… sacrifice in forbearance. Being able to make sacrifices is the result of improving in one’s cultivation” (“Non-Omission,” Essentials for Further Advancement. “There is sacrifice in forbearance, and a complete sacrifice is a higher principle of non-omission” (“Perfect Harmony,” in Essentials for Further Advancement). By “Cultivating until no attachments are left,” (“Cultivating in a Maze,” in Hongyin) we can reach consummation.

If you fight for first place with others, you have already lowered yourself to the level of an ordinary person. Then you have to obey the principles on the level of ordinary people, and your wisdom will only be as good as ordinary people's. Your way of thinking will be in the same state as ordinary people's, and you will be soaked in sentiment and will develop vanity, attachment to conflict, jealousy, a show-off mentality, and many ordinary people’s attachments to fame, self-interest, and emotional attachments.
You will then spend lots of time and energy fighting with others, and you will become narrow-minded and haggle over every penny. Your heart will also become impure and unable to concentrate, your health will decline, and your school grades will be affected. Also, from the perspective of cultivation, you will lower your level, because “One’s gong level is as high as one’s xinxing level, and this is an absolute truth” (Zhuan Falun). Finally, “ Foolish and lost, vainly dreaming of the road to the western paradise; Like blindly groping in night walk and scooping for the moon in water.” (“Intentional Actions”, Hongyin), you will not have cultivated well and you will not have studied well; you will feel suffocated and angry, and cries of discontent will rise all around you. In the end, you will have ruined yourself.
In fact, there is a saying among ordinary people that “A planted flower doesn’t blossom, while a willow no one planted flourishes.” This is a manifestation of the universal principle of natural attainment without pursuit in human society. Therefore, we should also study with no pursuit and act with no purpose. “However much you sacrifice is the amount you will gain—it is just such a principle” (Zhuan Falun).

Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/11/6/12301.html