(Minghui.org) I have been thinking of writing this sharing article for quite some time. But each time when I sat down to start writing, I was held back by something. I knew that it was interference, so I told myself that I would get it done today and share my understanding with fellow practitioners.
Our cultivation has come to the very last phase, and many practitioners are aware that time is pressing and are doing their best to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification. However, I have also noticed that some diligent veteran practitioners are being held back by certain attachments that they have yet to recognize.
They are treating their family members and children with modern concepts instead of guiding them with traditional values. When I point this out, they are still confused, saying that Master has told us to be good people. I feel they have not truly understood the Fa principles that Master has taught us and are going to extremes.
I would like to share some of my understanding in the hope that we can avoid detours so as to improve and elevate in cultivation more quickly.
What level of traditional values do today’s Chinese people still have in their minds? Very little indeed, especially the younger generations. Even if there might be a little bit left, it has been greatly diluted with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture. Most of what is in people’s minds today is the deviant modern culture.
As Dafa practitioners, we understand that the righteous way for humanity is to return to the traditional culture set forth by the divine.
The CCP has wreaked havoc in China for so many years and has destroyed China’s five thousand years of traditional values. The true traditional concepts and values have been pushed away from us. Therefore, even Dafa disciples are confused sometimes as to how to deal with things in life and how to educate our children according to traditional values.
For example, there is an elderly fellow practitioner who always invites her children for meals during festivals. She is busy cooking in the kitchen by herself and refuses any help from her children, thinking that, as a practitioner, she should always be a considerate and good person. By doing so, however, she now has less time to do the three things.
There is another fellow practitioner who held very strong righteous thoughts when going through a test of sickness karma and completely denied the interference. But when her children offered to help with the household chores while she was unwell, she refused to let them, which caused her family members to misunderstand. In fact, one can deny the interference of sickness karma by focusing more on Fa study and Dafa work instead of doing household chores for the entire family.
There are other practitioners, who, in order to take care of their married children, work from dawn to dusk, doing everything for them. Some become extremely busy, and some others feel exhausted and helpless.
When some practitioners are unreasonably accused by their children, instead of pointing out their children’s rude behavior, they keep apologizing, saying they were in the wrong.
The above examples have something in common, which is that those practitioners have all ignored the obligation of the younger generation to respect and take care of the older generation. Those elderly practitioners have lost the traditional concepts and are unwittingly going along with the warped modern notion that the older generation is obligated to do everything for their grown children without the latter respecting and caring for the former.
Traditional culture includes respecting our elders and caring for the young. Shouldn’t our children respect us, the older generation? It’s true that as Dafa practitioners, we are not moved by everyday people’s affairs and always look inward, but we also have an obligation to teach our children to rectify their wrongdoings.
When we go through a test of sickness karma and our children want to help us, this is normal human behavior. If we refuse their help, aren’t we depriving them of their due obligations? Even though we do not seek our children’s filial kindness, we are cultivating among ordinary people, and we must conform to ordinary people as much as possible while cultivating our xinxing.
We have an obligation to show our children know how good person behaves, know what their responsibilities are, and how to honor their parents and care for others. We should help them understand that being grateful is a virtue. So, in our daily lives, we should pay attention to guiding the younger generation to develop righteous notions and concepts and to live their lives based on traditional culture and values.
In today’s China, most elderly people are doing all the chores around the house so that their grown children can focus on work with peace of mind. It’s true that people nowadays are under a lot of pressure and busy with work. We should help them when they get really busy, but only to a reasonable extent. If they don’t do what they should and don’t assume their own household responsibilities, isn’t it actually a sin?
If the younger people spent less time swiping their phones and surfing the Internet, wouldn’t they be able to do more housework by themselves? In today’s degenerating world, younger people have become rather self-centered. Our unconditional sacrifices tend to make them even less grateful over time and, in the end, they become heartless. Shouldn't we then also be held accountable for their degeneration to a certain degree? Does such “unconditional kindness” without a baseline make us truly good people? Aren’t we also unwittingly helping to hasten society's moral deterioration? We should actually guide the younger generation back onto the traditional track.
Yes, we are Dafa cultivators, and human affairs are what they are today, and we aren’t responsible for rectifying them. These things will be dealt with when the Fa rectifies the human world. But, as parents, we still have the responsibility and obligation to guide the younger generation and help them understand what “filial piety” and “etiquette” mean, what is right and what is wrong, what should be said and done, and what they shouldn’t do. On the other hand, whether they can conduct themselves properly and how much they can achieve depends on themselves, and we should not become attached to them.
The above is only my personal understanding. Please kindly point out if there is anything improper in the sharing.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Perspectives
