Some Comments on the Difference between "Stubbornness" and "Steadfastness Resulting from Righteous Enlightenment"

By A Falun Dafa Practitioner from Singapore

(Clearwisdom.net) Stubbornness is a manifestation of human notions. On the human level, it's a characteristic of people with narrow minds who are unable to recognize principles at higher levels and blindly repel all viewpoints, opinions, or conducts that are not acceptable to themselves. Therefore, stubbornness itself connotes a kind of limitation. Looked at on a deeper level, stubborn people are usually those who have made some achievements in a certain area but could not move beyond that area to make further achievements. Their recognition of personal achievements leads to a self-imposed arrogant psychology, which usually becomes the source of stubbornness.

Then, after a person embarks on cultivation in human society, he/she may more or less bring along notions and conducts of everyday people. A little bit of progress or enlightenment may be consciously or unconsciously magnified to become an excuse for self-satisfaction or arrogance. While being achieved, that little bit of progress prevents the cultivator from advancing into even higher and broader realms. They may even accept and comprehend Dafa principles selectively, which then results in some misunderstandings of the Fa and creates obstacles on the road of cultivation.

What will stubbornness do to a group cultivation environment, then? Here, it causes the relationship between cultivators to become inharmonious, resulting in the formation of small groups inside the large one. Different thoughts and experiences are rejected and well-intentioned comments and suggestions are received with a deaf ear. The impact on the collective environment by a stubborn person's own omissions will cause even bigger omissions. Is this situation correct? Absolutely not! Moreover, it provides a big excuse and opportunity for the evil old forces to exploit and cause damage! Since anything unrighteous, or insufficiently righteous, will be thoroughly rectified during the Fa-rectification period, how can this incorrect situation be permitted to exist? Nevertheless, at present this kind of situation actually does exist in different places among practitioners. In some places, it has existed for quite a long time. Although it is being gradually corrected, shouldn't we take a more proactive approach to address this issue?

A cultivator's rock-solid righteous faith and steadfastness resulting from his/her enlightenment to the principles of the Fa is absolutely not the stubbornness that is built on personal attachments. Stubbornness comes from selfishness, and is a strong display of sentimentality as well as looking at things from one's own perspective. It is not a result of looking inwards, but instead, it reveals that one is not cultivating xinxing on every matter. Being stubborn is being narrow-minded, no matter whether it's an everyday person, cultivator, or god. Being stubborn means holding onto one's own conventions and ignorantly repelling the truths at higher levels; it is an impedance to the Fa rectification. All of this is exactly what must be rectified in the period of "The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos."

The righteous faith from enlightenment to the principles of the Fa is a kind of vast wisdom and pure insight on a cultivator's own level. It encompasses and sees through all. It is a manifestation of a complete assimilation to "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance" on a cultivator's own level. This righteous faith is also a type of compassion and benevolence, and supports and safeguards the whole universe's glorious and pure future instead of merely taking care of one's own world and sentient beings. We have seen the rock-solid faith and righteous thoughts that could break mountains in half displayed by numerous genuine Fa-rectification disciples, both inside and outside of China. Where does this kind of strength come from? It comes from breaking out of one's stubbornness and selfishness and from establishing a firm belief in Dafa. Its mighty strength is the genuine manifestation of a god assimilating to "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance." In comparison, isn't the stubbornness of those so-called "high-enlightenment quality" people precisely an attachment of self-obsession? When compared with genuine righteous faith, which is truly great, stubbornness is dirty and indecent. Then, why don't we make an effort to get rid of it as soon as possible, thereby taking a positive step forward?

(Reprinted from PureInsight Net)
Chinese version available at http://minghui.cc/mh/articles/2001/10/29/18769.html

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