PureInsight | December 9, 2002
In Zhuan Falun, Master says: "only by emphasizing xinxing cultivation can your gong increase and your level be upgraded. What is xinxing? It includes de (a type of matter), tolerance, enlightenment quality, sacrifice, giving up ordinary people's different desires and attachments, being able to suffer hardships, and so on. It encompasses various things. Every aspect of xinxing must be upgraded for you to make real progress" (From "Why Doesn't Your Gong Increase with Your Practice" in Lecture One).
In my understanding, one of the factors that makes the cultivation of Dafa so great is that it goes directly to the heart of the matter: xinxing. It is my understanding that xinxing is what we truly are, and everything else including our bodies, our speech, our thoughts, our actions, everything is a reflection of our xinxing. Therefore, one could cultivate body, speech, mind, conduct, and so on forever, but never achieve true change. Yet, if one cultivates xinxing directly and makes a change there, it manifests throughout one's whole being. Everything else stems from xinxing. Thus, by cultivating xinxing, we are going to the heart of the matter and when a change happens there, it changes everything...all manifestations.
As Dafa disciples, our mission is Fa-rectification. Today, we have come together for this precious Fa-conference during this critical time in Fa-rectification.
What shall we share? What shall we discuss?
I believe that, as is the case with cultivation, the solidity and effectiveness of everything we do in Fa-rectification stems from our xinxing as well. Therefore, if we truly go to the heart of the matter, identifying problems in our xinxing and make changes there, it will have great benefits on all fronts of the Fa-rectification.
Our ability to truly meet the standard of a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple is the primary factor that will ensure we can carry out our mission of Fa-rectification well, manifest the mighty virtue of Dafa in the human world, and avoid following the degenerate arrangements of the old evil forces.
I would like to share with my fellow disciples some of the attachments and problems I have uncovered in my own xinxing. I hope by sharing these insights, such attachments and problems can be exposed and eliminated on a wide scale, thereby no longer allowing them to cause interference in my path of Fa-rectification nor the paths of my fellow disciples.
Understanding Master's Fa of "Conforming to the state of everyday people's society"
In the 1999 "Lecture at the Australia Fa Conference," a student asked Master, "As a university student who practices cultivation, how can I keep making progress with diligence? Some disciples have suggested that not going to college and joining the workforce may result in a better environment for cultivation." (Draft translation)
Master answered, "I'd say that this would be a horrendous mistake. I understand that some people will become overly excited when they see the truth, especially when I teach the Dafa today and have taught so many heavenly secrets. Upon obtaining the Fa one will become excited and it's easy not to balance well the relationship between cultivators and everyday people. To cultivate while conforming to everyday people's society to the maximum extent is not just a simple sentence, this is the Fa! It's interconnected from every angle and perspective. I know that there will be more people studying Dafa all over the world in the future, billions of people studying. When I first taught this Fa, I already knew what the result would be. With that many people all coming to study, if no one works or goes to school, can this be allowed?! So, I thought about that stage before I began teaching this Fa. The question of how to allow people to cultivate in everyday people's society is of great relevance. So, neither your work, nor your business, your school studies, or any other aspect of your life will interfere with your cultivation. You need to go about your work and studies as usual. Your work and your studies are absolutely not cultivation, but as a person who practices cultivation, your improved xinxing will manifest itself in your work and studies. This is the relationship. So, wherever Dafa students are, people will all say that, as a person, you're just so wonderful. This is the state that's a reflection of your cultivating while conforming to everyday people's society to the maximum extent. If you can't achieve this, it means that you're not acting according to my words, to Master's requirements. If you don't even listen to what I say, then why do you still call me Master? I wouldn't teach you to walk down a path that's not good. Since I've taught this Fa, I must be responsible to it. In fact, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves, because you exist together with Master. You're the most magnificent Gods of the future, the exemplary models of the new cosmos, and mankind's hope for the future. By all means, don't, once you study the Fa, stop doing everyday people's things. As for things that Dafa doesn't allow, if you don't do them, it shows that your enlightenment quality is good. If you don't do an everyday people's normal job, then there's a problem that's produced by the attachment of zealotry."
I feel that Master's answer to this question carries profound Fa at realms that, after over three years of cultivation, I'm still struggling to achieve.
One of the primary mistakes I've made is to pay attention to the second part where Master says, "I know that there will be more people studying Dafa all over the world in the future, billions of people studying… The question of how to allow people to cultivate in everyday people's society is of great relevance," while overlooking the part when Master says: "To cultivate while conforming to everyday people's society to the maximum extent is not just a simple sentence, this is the Fa! It's interconnected from every angle and perspective." I was understanding the principle of conforming to everyday society in a very superficial way, as if it were just a requirement on our conduct alone, and not a profound Fa that is "interconnected from every angle and perspective." Of course, I was not conscious of this. I read Master's Fa, and thought I was following the Fa, but many attachments and ways of thinking can lay hidden before being later exposed through further study and cultivation.
How did my misunderstanding of this principle of Fa manifest?
Over the past few years, we all have been very busy doing work for the Fa-rectification. Because of omissions I carry at various levels, however, I have sometimes understood "putting the Fa in the first place" to mean we can turn our backs and ignore our families, our work place, our friends and other elements of our environment that are -- at least on the surface -- not directly related to Dafa and Fa-rectification. Again, this was not a conscious decision in most cases, but through my actions I can observe this lack of understanding in myself manifest.
More recently, many practitioners I have talked to and I have come to realize this problem, and have made efforts to examine its roots, so as to remove the attachments causing these problems. Still, I have noticed some extremes in this area. As practitioners discuss the importance of spending time with family, friends and other social environments, I have noticed some elements of qing and superficial understandings of "conforming," which makes the sacredness and the profound inner meaning of the Fa behind this principle not so sacred. That is, rather than reflecting the sacred duty of truly validating Dafa in all environments, it becomes more like a human thought of "spending time with family and friends" or worse, a show or an act to present a good face to others that is not grounded in Dafa.
What is the root problem? I believe both the problem of turning my back on matters of my everyday life as well as approaching matters of my everyday life with the intent of showing a good face comes from a lack of understanding of the Fa Master has taught regarding "conforming to the state of everyday people." These problems have become more pronounced amidst the current stage of Fa-rectification because when faced with the immensity of our mission in the Fa-rectification, it becomes more difficult to not cut corners in the fundamentals of cultivation. But as Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference," "Those who do well will change the environments around them, and those who do poorly will make the environments around them change according to their states of mind."
How did this problem manifest in my life?
One of the most obvious indicators was that often times everything that was not "Dafa work" in my life inevitably got put on the back burner, be it work for my job during the day, doing chores around the house, making contact with my family members, etc. Day in and day out, I would work tirelessly on Dafa-related projects, only stopping to do work at my job when I had to, only stopping to do chores around the house when my wife asked me to, only stopping to contact my family when it had been so long that they might start wondering where I was. In all cases, I was treating the issue of handling matters of my everyday life as some type of public relations side project that I did just enough so that people wouldn't think poorly of me. This behavior on all fronts of my life lead back to my lack of understanding of "conforming to everyday society." Again, I was treating Master's words as merely cultivation of conduct.
First and foremost, a disciple should be able to manifest the benevolence and goodness of the Fa in every environment. To not do this, indicated I was often not truly being a disciple. Consequently, Dafa work and the matters of my everyday life were constantly put in opposition to each other, where I had to either choose to do Dafa work or choose to conduct the matters of my everyday life. But Dafa is the great Fa of the cosmos. How could there not be a benevolent solution to any situation a disciple finds himself in if the disciple is manifesting the Fa in those situations?
True, amidst all the difficulties, hardships and deviant arrangements made by the old forces, this becomes increasingly difficult to do, but this is no excuse for a Dafa disciple. The benevolence and goodness of Dafa must still manifest in every environment, regardless of the pressures, regardless of the difficulties.
Yet, time and time again, I did not reach the standard, and so, time and time again, work for Dafa and the matters of my everyday life were put in opposition to each other by my lack of understanding, where I had to choose to either do work for Dafa or take care of matters around my home. Do work for Dafa or do a good job at work. Do work for Dafa or handle matters and affairs well with my family.
Many times, I would look at it from the perspective of testing whether I could put everything down for Dafa, and so I would just do the Dafa work, leaving the matters of my life not settled or handled well. Occasionally, however, I would do the opposite, putting off Dafa work to handle a matter of my everyday life.
Actually, it was my own shortcomings that were putting Dafa work in opposition to all these matters. How could Dafa be in opposition to anything in a disciple's everyday life, such that there remains no choice but to choose between doing Fa-rectification work and manifesting the goodness of Dafa in my everyday life environment?
Originally, I had not planned to come to this conference because my family had scheduled a family reunion over the week of Thanksgiving. My father had even bought plane tickets for all of us children and our families.
One day after chatting with other practitioners, however, I realized how important and critical a Fa-conference is at this point during the Fa rectification. How could I miss this Fa conference? Should I stay at the family reunion for the entire week or should I come back a few days early so that I could attend this Fa conference? Once again, it seemed from the surface that I was in a position where Dafa was in opposition to manifesting the goodness of Dafa in my everyday environment - in opposition to "conforming to the state of everyday people."
As I contemplated my dilemma regarding going to this conference or not, I at first did not know what to do. As I calmed down to think about it, however, the first thought that came to my mind is that I must put Dafa in the first place, above myself and above even my being a Fa-rectification disciple. Changing my vacation plans and going to the Philadelphia conference could create a lot of misunderstanding, and so I should just go and spend time with my family. This is putting Dafa in the first place by not creating any misunderstandings amongst my family members.
But, as I thought about this more, I felt this was an unrighteous solution, and one that even carried elements of fear. I was carefully tiptoeing around plans with my family out of fear of creating misunderstandings. It carried the air of appeasing the family rather than righteously validating Dafa to them.
I contemplated this problem calmly and then a very righteous thought emerged and I knew clearly what to do.
I called my wife and said I wanted to change the flight arrangements and come back two days early so that we could attend the conference. She immediately became upset because in the past I have so often pushed aside matters of family and my everyday life, and so when I told her what I wanted to do she thought I was again going to push these aside. This time, however, my mind was clear, and instead of arguing with her, as I usually did when I wanted to push something aside so I could participate in a Dafa activity, I began, from the bottom of my heart to explain…the words and ideas were simple, but they swelled tears in my eyes and I told them to my wife.
I explained that seeing the family is not some social obligation we do so that they won't formulate bad notions about people who practice Falun Dafa - a sort of, give-them-what-they-want approach to appeasing people so as to avoid losses for Dafa.
Seeing the family, like everything else a Dafa disciple does, should be a magnificent manifestation of kindness and goodness, not because we go there with some conscious intent of making a good impression, but because we carry the Fa in our hearts and it then manifests. In other words, it is not merely cultivation of conduct, but true xinxing cultivation -- cultivating the heart of the matter that then manifests in our environments.
I explained to my wife that I had enlightened to the fact that Dafa could never be in opposition to family or any other matter of everyday life. If it ever appears this way, it must be omissions we have and perhaps the old forces are utilizing them to make matters worse. The true manifestation of Dafa is beneficial to everything at all levels. If we are starting from the standpoint that Dafa is at odds with the workplace, family or other elements of our environment such that causing misunderstandings in these environments becomes "inevitable" in order to do what is necessary for Fa-rectification, then the starting point is not right.
When I looked at it from this perspective, I knew this principle to be true, and then immediately saw that my leaving two days early should not cause any losses. It was the degree to which my cultivation state manifests Dafa that would truly effect the environment and how my family viewed Dafa. Additionally, it might even be an excellent opportunity to talk with my family about why I chose to make the schedule change, thereby providing them with an opportunity to gain a better understanding of Dafa.
After all, what could be more wonderful to a family of everyday people than to have a family member cultivating Dafa? If my family could see the true situation, they would celebrate my departure, wishing my journey well. My parents would remind me to listen well to the speeches, to compare how I cultivate with the other practitioners and they would make sure I had written a speech to share with my fellow practitioners. If they knew the true situation, perhaps my father would go back to his office to brag to his co-workers how his son cultivates Dafa and is headed back to Philadelphia for an experience sharing conference.
Of course, my family are everyday people so they can't see the true situation and they can't know the true situation, but this is the true situation and I am a Dafa disciple, so it must be the case that the benevolence and kindness of Dafa can be exhibited to my family through this arrangement in a way that they can understand.
In other words, if I walk my path well, my family will see the goodness of Dafa, and at the same time, I will attend the conference in order to strive forward with my fellow disciples. This is the effect that a true disciple should achieve. This is the righteous solution. This is the path I should walk.
In short, if my family cannot see the benevolence and goodness of Dafa, then it is exactly like what Master said in his answer to question I read above from the Australia lecture: "If you can't achieve this, it means that you're not acting according to my words, to Master's requirements. If you don't even listen to what I say, then why do you still call me Master?"
As I explained this to my wife, she was very silent. She could tell I had taken Master's Fa as Master in my heart and had enlightened to a principle at my level. She could tell that, by embracing the Fa, I was embracing every aspect of my life and being responsible to every aspect of my life.
She quietly said "ok" and then I made the arrangements so I could be back to Philadelphia in time for the conference.
Of course, as Master has also emphasized many times, there is the issue of people's notions and attachments. There is an issue of what is reasonable from the perspective of everyday people. If I had to cancel my entire trip to see my family, then that might be another story. That is, would this act so stir their notions that it caused a negative affect? These issues need to be carefully considered in every situation. We can't just enlighten to a principle and then blindly follow it without considering how our words and our actions might affect others. We must have a broad perspective and see things from many angles because our responsibility as Fa-rectification disciples is not solely to our own cultivation and enlightening, but to validating the Fa. According to my understanding, manifesting the goodness of Dafa must come before anything related to our own cultivation and enlightening.
Looking at this situation from another angle, however, wasn't this an arrangement? It was not the case that the entire family reunion overlapped with the Fa conference. It was just a few days at the end, and these few days were enough to give me an opportunity to encounter this tribulation and enlighten.
According to my understanding, letting go of humanness does not mean turning our backs on our affairs in the human world. It means removing the attachments in our hearts to these human things, while still cultivating amidst them. In "Loss and Gain" from Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun, Master says, "Our school of practice directly targets one's mind. The key issue is whether you can take lightly and care less about the issues of individual gain and interpersonal conflicts. Cultivation practices in temples or in remote mountains and woods completely sever your access to ordinary human society, forcing you to lose everyday people's attachments and denying you any material benefits so that you can lose them. A practitioner among everyday people does not follow this path. This person is required to take them lightly in this everyday human environment. Of course, this is very difficult. It is also the most crucial aspect of our school of practice. Therefore, the loss we refer to is loss in a broad sense instead of a narrow one." I have read these lines countless times, and yet judging from my understandings and actions, it seems I am still struggling to achieve this realm and truly follow this Fa.
What is the root problem of why I casually understood "Conforming to everyday people's society?"
I feel the real root of the problem is fear, which itself stems from a lack of faith in the Dafa that I have discovered in my xinxing.
When I first obtained the Fa, I had been living a simple, and relatively secluded life. After obtaining the Fa, I would read constantly and in those first few months, I could see very clearly the almost endless trappings of the big dye vat that is human society in this day and age, and I was very much afraid of it. I absorbed so much of the Fa in the first few months, and yet it seems like I overlooked what Maser teaches in terms of how we cultivate in the world and that with such a great Fa, this is possible. It is very difficult because we are cultivating amidst the dye vat, but with such a great Fa, this is not only possible, but presents a tremendous opportunity. I overlooked the teachings related to this area, or perhaps more accurately, I failed to really believe it to some degree.
Therefore, it seems I often brought impurities into my work for Dafa, as if I were grasping the Dafa work to sustain a connection to the Fa. This is using the Fa as a crutch, and not true cultivation. Assimilating one's heart to the Fa principles is the only true way to emerge from the great dye vat, rising above and beyond like a Lotus flower emerging untainted from the muddy swamp. As Master said in the article, "Determination," "If you take up this path out of some interest, your mind will definitely not be firm and you will definitely forget the fundamentals while living in human society." (In Essentials for Further Advancement)
Of course, the true problem here is a lack of faith in Master's Fa and the power of the Fa.
When I examine all the difficulties I've had in cultivation, Fa-rectification and my everyday environment, almost every time it boils down to cultivation issues. And, at the root of almost all these cultivation issues, is one problem: lack of faith, to some extent, in Master and Dafa. With true diamond-like, righteous faith in Master and the Fa, no tribulation can stop us. Of course, these are words. To actually achieve such righteous faith, Fa study is the key.
As Master said in the article, "Drive Out Interference," "Now you can see why I've often told you to read the book more, right?! The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." (From Essentials for Further Advancement II)
These are a few of my experiences and understandings. Let us help each other and strive forward together amidst the Fa-rectification. Thank you.
