(Minghui.org) The Minghui editorial board issued a notice on February 2, 2024, about a particular individual who “is no longer a Falun Dafa disciple.” From what I know about her, she has stopped practicing Dafa. However, some practitioners refused to acknowledge the notice and insist to still treat her as a practitioner.
True Dafa practitioners understand that cultivation is arduous, more challenging than anything else in the world. The path is not always smooth, but becomes more difficult when the old forces interfere with us due to their jealousy. For practitioners who stumble in cultivation, Master Li (Dafa’s founder) gives them the chance to recommence cultivation and negate the old forces’ arrangement by writing a “solemn declaration.” But it’s no simple task to restart cultivation and make amends.
Master has removed most of our karma, leaving only a small portion for us to endure, which is still often formidable. For practitioners who don’t only deviate from their cultivation path, but also interfere with others’ cultivation, they will incur substantial karma. Such behavior crosses the bottom line of a cultivator. Even when those practitioners realize their mistake and want to resume cultivation, they would face great difficulties. It’s not something they can easily overcome. It’s easier said than done. One can’t take it for granted and it’s not something most people can easily understand.
Master told us to “search within yourself when you encounter tensions or conflicts.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VII)
When issues rise among practitioners, we need to reflect on the path we’ve walked, think about how to continue walking a righteous and steady path in the future, and make sure our cultivation remains pure and sacred.
When the old forces launched the persecution back in 1999, many practitioners were relatively new to Dafa. Before gaining a profound understanding of it, they were pushed into the era of Fa rectification. From my observation over the past two decades, I feel that a considerable number of practitioners still base their cultivation on ordinary people’s things.
First is self-validation. Some practitioners take the abilities bestowed by Dafa as their own abilities; they become attached to themselves and validate themselves while doing things.
Second, some practitioners put everyday people’s academics, theories, reasoning, logic, science, interests and reputation at a higher place than Dafa. They failed to truly assimilate to the Fa through Fa study and their xinxing remains at the level of ordinary people. When conflicts arise, they blame others instead of trying to cultivate themselves. They are attached to mundane matters and employ everyday people’s theories and logic to judge how others should cultivate. Some even critiqued how Master should guide our cultivation or deal with practitioners from a mundane perspective.
The above two behaviors reveal that the practitioners’ xinxing remains at everyday people’s level. They fail to recognize these attachments or break free from them, allowing these substances to accumulate over time, and creating gaps for the old forces to interfere with us. It’s akin to setting a trap for oneself, sometimes causing us to be unable to continue cultivation. After all, how can a human mindset comprehend cultivation? No one can climb over the high mountain of cultivation with a modern human mindset.
True cultivators understand that lives originate in heaven and they descend to the mortal world for the final salvation by the Creator. In the process, their abilities are sealed up layer by layer. Even Buddhas and Tao cultivators have to start from scratch, in order to reactivate their sealed abilities. Even when a portion of these remarkable abilities is released, it can achieve commendable things. However, that should not breed arrogance in this human world. Hubris leads to failure and obstructs cultivators from enlightening to the principles beyond the human realm.
Let us seize this opportunity to remind ourselves: let go of the human thoughts and transcend it. We are here to cultivate and become the enlightened beings in the new cosmos, not to live a human life. Only by cultivating ourselves in Dafa and letting go of human notions, will we achieve the ultimate victory.
The above is my current understanding to share with my fellow practitioners.
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Category: Improving Oneself
