(Clearwisdom.net) I began practicing Falun Gong when I was a child. I'm now studying for my master's degree.

The current Chinese society is truly as Teacher described it in "Danger" (from Hong Yin Volume II):

"Daily the world's morals decline,
people fanning the flames
Rotten demons lead the way,
people follow along..."

Many people in society are living their day-to-day lives in a carnival-like style, as if the world were to end soon. Young people in particular indulge themselves in pleasure-seeking pursuits which exude low-morality, evil and demon nature.

These lifestyles also have the effect of stimulating one's sensory organs to the maximum extent. As soon as one begins following this lifestyle, he or she is pulled down more and more. An ordinary person is easily consumed by this lifestyle. For practitioners, this way of life creates huge cultivation obstacles.

As practitioners, we should avoid things of an evil nature while holding ourselves to higher standards. We should rectify ourselves with the Fa principles and purify our way of life within ordinary society. I believe we should choose for ourselves an upright, promising and pure way of life, because as practitioners, we need to snap out of humanness and walk toward godhood. During our cultivation, we should therefore try to align ourselves with the behavior of gods at all times, and at every step, as we climb to godhood.

In my cultivation, I have come to realize that in order to completely snap out of this environment while cultivating, one must pay attention to one's lifestyle and maintain a practitioner's way of life. As a true practitioner, one's lifestyle should be fairly simple. We should do well in our work and our studies, and do the necessary activities in our lives while limiting contact with everyday human society so as not to develop attachments. Of course, during the special period of the Fa rectification, practitioners need to clarify the truth, so we cannot totally avoid contact with others. As I see it, we should start by building a solid foundation for our personal cultivation, and maintain a simple and pure lifestyle. We should maintain our righteous thoughts and a healthy cultivation state, so as to manifest great power in saving sentient beings. Finally, we should use our practitioners' compassion and righteous thoughts to change sentient beings, as opposed to ourselves being contaminated by the environment of everyday people.

1. From the Perspective of Cultivation

Human beings can't be separated from their human environment or human realm, because they are bound by the "elements" in their environment and their realm. An indulgent and dirty way of life is an element or a chain that can bind us even more strongly. Since a practitioner is cultivating to reach godhood, the bond with the human environment must be broken. If a cultivator adopts an indulgent and dirty way of life, that bond to human society would be virtually unbreakable. This kind of indulgent lifestyle is arranged by the old forces. It is the old force elements at play. Of course a practitioner's cultivation should avoid old force arrangements. Therefore, practitioners should gradually eliminate the indulgent lifestyle. Indeed, a practitioner, "Puts a stop to its downward slide." ("Illuminating All" from Hong Yin Volume II) One should be a "golden light in the mortal world," so one's lifestyle should be a healthy one.

2. From the Future Perspective

A practitioner's words and actions will be left for the future both as a reference. The current human lifestyle will serve to contrast the lifestyle being purified by practitioners, so we must be pure and upright. We must reach the standards even while cultivating near indulgent lifestyles arranged by the old forces' corrupt elements. Quoting what Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006,"

"So everything that you do, be it your balancing well your family relationships while you live among ordinary people, balancing well your relationships in society, how you perform at your workplace, how you conduct yourself in society, etc., none of these are things you can just go through the motions on. All of these are part of your cultivation format, and are serious matters."

By and large, as practitioners we should walk our cultivation paths in a righteous way.

This is my personal understanding at the current stage, please kindly point out anything that does not comply with the Fa principles.