(Clearwisdom.net) We all know that only when we maintain the state of being a cultivator at every moment can we be diligent. We also know that we want everything done perfectly, but oftentimes, things aren't the way we hoped. Some practitioners ask, "In situations where we cannot get things done perfectly, is it more important to get the things done, or to maintain a cultivator's state at every moment?"
To me, this question seems strange. It sounds like maintaining a "cultivator's state" impedes getting things done. In my opinion, in a "cultivator's state," we should do things more efficiently! The reason some of us do things slowly is because we're doing them in human ways, and that's why we encounter big obstacles and low efficiency.
In fact, on many occasions, some of us have only maintained a "cultivators' state" on the surface by studying the Fa, practicing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. But as soon as we start to do things, we forget about cultivation. We deal with conflicts and interference with human attachments, and cause gaps between practitioners or bad coordination. Or, we look at everything as "technical problems," failing to realize they are interference from the evil in other dimensions, and we don't eliminate them solemnly with righteous thoughts. In the end, doing Dafa work becomes everyday people doing things, and of course the work will slow down. This is the fundamental reason for being slow. Let me give a few examples. When I set a target for myself to get up at 4:30 in the morning to practice the exercises, I should put down everything I am doing and go to bed after sending forth righteous thoughts at midnight, remembering to finish them the next day. Oftentimes there are many things unfinished. I then tell myself, "I can finish them very quickly. Give me three minutes." But it turns out that three minutes didn't take care of it, so I say to myself, "Three more minutes." That wasn't enough either. So I keep borrowing time from my sleep and stay up very late, sometimes until 1 or 2 a.m. Therefore I can only sleep two or three hours and not wake up in the morning. When the alarm goes off, my human conventional way of thinking takes effect: "I went to bed so late last night. If I get up and practice the exercises, I'll feel sleepy. Let me snooze a little longer." So I push the alarm clock back, telling myself to sleep for three more minutes before the second alarm goes off. When the second alarm went off, I pushed it back again. When the third alarm went off, it is already past 5 o'clock, and my desire for going to practice the exercises has become weak. At this time, my human conventional way of thinking emerges again, "After all I can practice the exercises during the day. Let me sleep a little longer." Finally, it is past 6 o'clock when I wake up. I even miss the 6 a.m. global sending forth righteous thoughts.
Once I skip doing the exercises in the morning, it becomes difficult to find time to make up for it during the day, because I have to study the Fa, clarify the truth, take classes, and do Dafa work. So I don't do the exercises at all. Sometimes, after skipping the exercises for two or three days in a row, I say to myself, "I must get up and do the exercises tomorrow." And indeed I manage to get up. So I will be diligent for the next two or three days. Like this, failing to persist with doing the exercises, I became less confident in cultivation and fail to do other things well.
The fundamental reason for this is that I fail to maintain my xinxing and do things according to my standard. Therefore, in my opinion, after a practitioner fails many times to do things well enough, his level will drop. It's all because we can't maintain our xinxing on many minor occasions. It's true that "One ant hole may cause the collapse of a thousand mile dike."
Before clarifying the truth, do we send forth righteous thoughts first? If not, why not?
The human conventional way of think is always like this, "Sending forth righteous thoughts takes 15 minutes. Many things can be done in these 15 minutes. Moreover, there are so many things waiting to be done, very important things that concern many sentient beings. Saving sentient beings is the most important. After all, I have studied the Fa and practiced the exercises, so it will be good enough for me to send forth righteous thoughts four times a day." Please think carefully: Is it right to think this way, even though one has studied the Fa, practiced the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts four times a day? The starting point of saving sentient beings is not wrong, but the mentality of doing things this way has a problem. In this case, isn't giving up sending forth righteous thoughts in order to save 15 minutes a conventional way of thinking? Will gods rush in doing things? If we are doing things in a human state, how can a human defeat a demon? Only gods can do it. Therefore, at this time, we should clear-mindedly realize, "I am a cultivator, and I should follow the standard of a cultivator." As soon as we reach the state of a cultivator, we will be empowered with a divine force, and Teacher and righteous gods will help. If we keep ourselves from reaching a cultivator's state and always think of putting forth only human efforts, how can we eliminate the evil in other dimensions and confront the demons?
Oftentimes, although a tremendous amount of effort has been expended, things are not done well or even finished for reasons just like this.
Once, I suddenly had too many things to do, and with the mentality of doing them quickly, I was unknowingly doing things completely in a human state. It caused the most important machine to stop working. Later on, through continued sending forth righteous thoughts and looking inside, I eliminated all the bad thoughts in my mind, found my fundamental attachment, repelled it, negated it, removed it, and gradually reached the standard of a cultivator. I came to understand that, as soon as we have reached the cultivator's standard, Teacher and righteous gods will come to help. Therefore in my case, the machine started working again, and I could get things done smoothly. But still I had taken a detour. I further understood that, when we are doing things, Teacher has actually been watching us all the time, to see whether we put Dafa or getting things done as the first priority. Sometimes when we encounter difficulties and cannot overcome them, if we keep thinking of how to get things done, we cannot have a breakthrough. When we have exhausted human ways, get stuck, cannot come up with any ideas, and are about to give up, we might think, "Let me ask Teacher for help." As soon as this thought emerges, and because we have let go of the mentality of getting things done, and in fact put Dafa as the first priority and getting things done second, there will be breakthroughs immediately. On many occasions, things aren't done perfectly, not because of us not doing enough, but because we haven't reached the cultivator's standard. When the demon is interfering with us, we failed to treat ourselves as cultivators. Even if the righteous gods want to help us, they cannot, because we lack righteous thoughts, didn't treat ourselves as cultivators, and didn't put Dafa as the first priority. What's worse, while persecuted in the midst of tribulations, we don't enlighten to it. It is often in the end, after we cannot continue any more because of interference, that we finally say to ourselves, "OK. Let me try sending forth righteous thoughts before I come back to it again." After sending forth righteous thoughts, we suddenly can get it done. Then we look at it with a human mindset, "Indeed sending forth righteous thoughts is useful." This is looking at Fa-rectification cultivation with a human mindset, getting frustrated when things don't go well, and taking great pride in it when things do go well.
I'd like to add one point. Why will some practitioners' hands fail to stay erect when sending forth righteous thoughts? Usually it's because of being sleepy. Then why won't they open their eyes in this case? Simply because they want to sleep. Isn't this a human attachment? Will it work if we send forth righteous thoughts with a human mentality? Will we be clear-minded if we send forth righteous thoughts with a human mentality? If when we're sending forth righteous thoughts, we can see Teacher's law body right next to us and all kinds of gong that we have sent out, will we let our hand fall? This is what a human does, deceiving only himself. Even when clearly knowing Teacher is sitting right next to us, when we have a human mindset, we are reluctant to think about it and be responsible. When doing things, we often think with our human mindset, "No one can see it." As soon as this mentality of "no one can see" emerges, if we do not resist it and suppress it, we are actually already in a human state.
This concludes my personal understandings. We must treat ourselves as cultivators at every moment. Only when we do so are we able to take the path that Teacher has arranged for us.
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