(Minghui.org) I am a young practitioner with a four-year-old child. I have slacked off in cultivation and tried to make myself feel better by comparing myself to other young practitioners who gave up the practice.
During Chinese New Year, I decided to post some truth-clarification materials. Since it gets cold and dark during the night and since my young child would accompany me, I decided to head out after lunch. During the Chinese New Year period, there were many people on the streets walking around and celebrating. I chose a path that had barely any foot traffic and I didn’t pass out many flyers. Still, when I got home, I felt very accomplished. In the morning, I studied the lectures and in the afternoon I went out to post truth-clarification materials. I felt very content and went back to ordinary life at home.
I dreamed that I was standing by a big pothole with an older man riding a bicycle. I was sliding down the pothole and I thought it was something very fun to do. I was worried that it would be dangerous if the older man rode his bicycle down the pothole. But the older man rode his bicycle and came up on the other side of the pothole. When I woke up, I knew it was a hint I was really lacking in my cultivation and seeking to live comfortably.
When the persecution first started, I used to go out with my mom to put up truth-clarification materials, and those materials were all handwritten by me. However after our family was persecuted, I never went out to do that again.
When I went home this year, I rarely saw any Falun Gong posters outside. I discussed this with some practitioners and some said that the people in charge in the village remove posters. The practitioners didn’t want those people to incur karma, so they’d stopped putting up posters. Others said they were afraid of officials barging into their homes and questioning them. At the time there were many practitioners being persecuted to death; most of them passed away from sickness karma. This made a bad impression on ordinary people in the village. From a practitioner’s perspective, I think we should continue putting up posters to save sentient beings.
My mother-in-law, who is also a practitioner, shared with me a dream she had: In the dream some said that my aunt, who was once persecuted, wasn’t cultivating diligently, with a more relaxed environment.
I thought about myself. The environment improved, but I have let myself lead a more comfortable life. I am not treasuring time to do more Fa study and become more diligent. Instead, I am attached to many secular things. Master said,
“An everyday person cannot realize this. An everyday person is just an ordinary person in ordinary human society, a person who thinks about how to advance himself and live well. The better he lives, the more selfish he becomes; the more he wants to possess, the further away he moves from the characteristic of the universe. He then heads for destruction.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
There is an old saying: “We are born in sorrow, but leave in peace. We are cultivators and we shouldn’t let ourselves be content in the life we are in now.”
Master said,
“The more circumstances ease up, the less you can let up. The more comfortable things get, the easier it is for you to ease up in your thinking and relax. That won’t do. It is imperative that you do well with it.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of Minghui’s Founding,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)
With Master’s teachings mentioned above, we should better ourselves in our cultivation path.
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Category: Improving Oneself
