(Minghui.org) I'd like to discuss with practitioners the topic of “cultivating as if you were just starting”. (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference”) That is Master's requirement at the last stage of cultivation during the Fa-rectification.
I can clearly recall our state when we just started cultivation. Taking Fa study as an example, we truly tried to “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation” in Hong Yin) I often heard touching stories from veteran practitioners. When it comes to spreading the Fa, multitudes would respond to a call. When going to the countryside, those who didn't catch the bus would walk on foot—there were no complex thoughts, just the feeling that this was something we should do.
Later, Master and Dafa were slandered and every practitioner faced the most serious xinxing test as we entered the stage of Fa-rectification. When a practitioner was arrested and detained, all others would join the rescue. Some would write letters. At that time, there weren't sufficient printed materials, so practitioners just hand wrote the letters. Regardless of the level of education, they just wrote the words from their hearts. Some would post flyers everywhere to expose the persecution. The flyers were either handwritten or printed from practitioners' own editing and typesetting, before the ready-made flyers were available. Some others would distribute the flyers and send forth righteous thoughts from nearby detention centers.
We did not have very efficient communication methods at that time, but practitioners just voluntarily formed small groups of two to three and stood in the snow to send righteous thoughts for an hour, even during very cold weather. The Domestic Security Division agents were quite evil but we all worked together with one heart. Later we had a relatively relaxed environment. That's because we had mailed, posted and distributed information to clarify the facts and expose the evil, and we had sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the wicked factors from other dimensions, so that the bad people would not become arrogant.
How about now? Some may think the evil is still rampant. In fact, it is far less than when the persecution first started and seemed to be omnipresent, and the slandering propaganda on TV, radio and in the newspaper was everywhere. It was not easy to have come through the past stormy fourteen years. During this period of time some practitioners walked steadily on the path of cultivation while others have been persecuted multiple times. Most of us have been marching on the front lines of the Fa-rectification path.
Although they have omissions in cultivation, how could a cultivator be free of mistakes? They were busy with Dafa projects and neglected Fa study, their xinxing could not keep up and allowed human thoughts to prevail; as a result the evil took advantage of the loophole. Just like us, they jumped into this world full of sin and venom with astounding courage in order to assist Master to rectify the Fa and save sentient beings. None of us came here to live everyday lives.
Think about the Dafa books we read every day, every edition of Minghui Weekly and the truth-clarification materials we distribute. Without the sacrifice of these fellow practitioners who marched on the front lines and were not afraid of losing their lives, what would our cultivation environment state be like? Let's ask ourselves: are we being kind and compassionate? Do we treat others' matters as our own? Not to mention that those of us who have been persecuted already have case materials submitted to the Procuratorate, we should even persist in exposing the persecution and aggressively rescuing practitioners who are still in prison. We should not be attached to the results of our rescue efforts.
The biggest notion today is being attached to the outcome. We get discouraged if a rescue is not successful and we should change this notion. What we are doing is taking the opportunity to clarify the truth, save sentient beings and create a cultivation environment. Our foundation should be based on saving sentient beings-- specifically saving sentient beings in the judicial system. They are waiting to be saved by us. When they all learn the truth, aren't they all saved? Our cultivation environment would become better and our fellow practitioners would also be rescued as a result. We can't retreat and hide whenever we hear anything negative. We should do well what we have to do using wisdom and reason.
The reason we are not able to reach the state of “cultivating as if you were just starting” is because we have too many attachments that we cannot let go of, myself included. In fact, it's not only our own attachments, let's just say, out of everything on this planet, everything in the three realms, what can we bring to heaven? Nothing. We are going to leave earth and the three realms. Everything in the human world is created for our cultivation. Why are we attached to these things? Can we take it to heaven? If we stay attached to them, we'll have to stay here.
Children, parents, house, work, fame, profit and emotion all are pulling us back and causing us to not be diligent in cultivation. The sooner we cut these attachments off the sooner we are free. Anything that is preventing us from being diligent and “cultivating as if you were just starting” has to be released. There is no excuse, because our cultivation is the top priority. Of course, we should balance everything in everyday life. If we do it well, then it's mighty virtue! Time is running out. Who knows when it all ends? In the end, it adds up to one word – fear. Fear of this and that. Isn't fear a test of life and death for a cultivator? What are we afraid of losing? All these things should be let go of by a cultivator. How can we be afraid of losing them?
What I talked about above is truly from my heart. Please kindly correct me if my understanding is not on the Fa.