(Minghui.org) Master Li Hongzhi said,
“If a person is completely in the Fa no one can touch him.” (“Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”)
I enlightened from this Fa-teaching that when a practitioner does not fully follow Master’s words and is instead influenced by human notions, issues may arise. Among the practitioners who were persecuted, be it by arrest, detention, or suffering from sickness karma, many had slacked off in cultivation and were pursuing comfort. As a result, they were not very active in doing the three things or were not doing their best. Instead of cultivating diligently, they were focusing their energy on leading the life of an everyday person.
When a Dafa disciple fails to do the three things well, he or she has essentially deviated from the path arranged by Master. In other words, this practitioner has walked on the path arranged by the old forces, which may in turn exploit the practitioner's loopholes and create various tribulations in their cultivation.
Seeking Comfort Is Irresponsible
As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we shoulder the important mission of assisting Master in saving sentient beings. If we fail to validate the Fa wholeheartedly, it will be impossible for us to fulfill the mission. That is, slacking off and seeking comfort is irresponsible, and the consequences may be disastrous. We can look at this from several angles.
First, slacking off means not genuinely assisting Master with Fa-rectification. Master treats each of us Dafa disciples with compassion. He scooped us up from hell, purified our bodies, and enabled us to be illness free. In addition to bearing countless amounts of karma that we had accumulated in our past lives, Master has also installed a Falun (law wheel) and cultivation mechanisms in us, helped us develop gong (higher energy) and protected us on our cultivation paths. Besides the things that we know about, there are many that we do not. Master has done so much for us, so how should we treat Master? If we slack off and pursue comfort, that would be the same as not sincerely assisting Master with Fa-rectification. Wouldn’t this be not treasuring Master’s compassionate salvation?
Secondly, slacking off means not being willing to save sentient beings. As practitioners, sentient beings corresponding to the parts of our body that have cultivated well are already saved. But those corresponding to our uncultivated parts of the body have yet to be saved. They are waiting eagerly for us to cultivate well and save them. When we slack off and seek comfort, aren’t we letting down those sentient beings?
Thirdly, slacking off can be likened to being irresponsible. As Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, we have the mission of saving sentient beings. The number of Dafa disciples is limited, and each of us must do our share to save sentient beings. If we do not save the sentient beings we're supposed to save, they could lose their future because of us.
Unwilling to Bear Hardship
There are at least two reasons for practitioners to slack off and seek comfort. The first is being unwilling to bear hardship. I've seen some practitioners, who had done many things to validate the Fa, slack off. Thinking they had sacrificed a lot in the past, they may have felt that they did no longer wanted to suffer. As a result, they turned to pursuing comfort. As I see it, they have been interfered with by their human notions.
Dafa disciples have been following Master to lay a foundation for Fa-rectification throughout 5,000 years of civilization, and we have played various roles in history and suffered through repeated cycles of reincarnation.
I once read an article from a practitioner who described having reincarnated as Wei Zhongxian, a notorious figure in the Ming Dynasty. Playing that role and committing bad deeds was relatively easy, but taking on the karma and suffering afterward was very difficult. Therefore, no one wanted to play that role. To lay the foundation for Fa-rectification, however, the practitioner decided to do it. After Wei died, he was frozen for 100 years in another dimension, which corresponded to 25 years in our society. We know that when going outdoors in the winter, we may freeze and suffer frostbite. But that represents only a brief moment. If a person is frozen for 25 years—suffering all that time but not dying, what kind of pain is that? After this, that practitioner continued reincarnation and suffering, until this life cycle. This is one example. Many other practitioners have also suffered unimaginable pain in the past.
That is, after suffering such pain throughout history over hundreds or thousands of years, we have finally arrived at this critical stage of Fa-rectification. If we do not do things well and are unable to save people as we are supposed to, because of human notions and seeking comfort, is that our true intent? Shouldn’t we make the best use of time and do things at our full capacity?
Pursuit of a Good Life in This World
Another example of slacking off is enjoying a good life like an everyday person. This human world was created for Fa-rectification and for practitioners to cultivate here. This cultivation environment has two characteristics: illusion and suffering. A cultivator must be able to see through the illusion of the human world, endure hardship, and maintain righteous thoughts, in order to be considered qualified. If one only wants to pursue a happy life in the human world, how can they meet the standards of cultivators?
Ordinary people may think that bearing no hardship would be a good life, but that's far from a truly good life in heaven. A person may appear comfortable sitting somewhere, but he needs to use strength to move his body around. In contrast, divine beings have weightless bodies and enjoy true comfort that human beings will never have. In the eyes of divine beings, the human world is like a mud and dung pit. Pursuing a so-called happy life in this dung pit would be considered ridiculous by divine beings.
Of course, mankind lives here because they cannot see the truth of the universe. But for us Dafa disciples, we have already learned the truth from Master so we should not seek comfort like everyday people.
Fa-rectification has proceeded to this stage, and we cannot reverse our decision to descend to this human world to be Dafa disciples. If any of us wants to back out because we can't shoulder the responsibility of Dafa disciples, it would be impossible to find a replacement. Before descending to this world, we vowed to act as Dafa disciples and save sentient beings. If people lose their futures because we slacked off, we are at fault. Even if Master does not do anything to us, divine beings will not acknowledge us as Dafa disciples. The old forces would also find excuses to persecute us. They may punish us by way of sickness karma or arrest, in the name of helping us remove our pursuit of seeking comfort.
Letting Go of the Attachment to Self
To become divine, cultivators must let go of selfishness. If a cultivator is truly compassionate and selfless, he or she would not seek comfort for him or herself. By letting go of self and having no attachments, one would be able to tolerate others and put themselves in others’ shoes. They would eventually become assimilated to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Being attached to oneself is the root cause of all other attachments, such as a showing off mentality, jealousy, unwillingness to suffer hardships, and pursuit of comfort. Letting go of superficial attachments is not enough—we have to resolve the fundamental attachment to self. Only then can we change from being everyday people to being divine beings.
If we validate the Fa with selfishness, we are doing things like an everyday person. When assisting Master with Fa-rectification, if we can let go of self and immerse ourselves in the Fa, things will go smoothly, as the old forces will not dare to interfere and Master will also help us.
Please wake up from the illusion and be clear-minded. If we linger in the human world for some petty comfort and delay our journeys of returning to our true homes, we would be stuck here when other practitioners reach enlightenment. It would then be too late for regret. Let's remind each other to cherish Master’s compassionate salvation, sentient beings’ expectation of us to save them, the journeys we have walked, and the future of ourselves and sentient beings. As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, being diligent is our only option.
These are my personal understandings. Please point out anything inappropriate.
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Category: Perspectives
