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Gain and Loss A practitioner in China
[Minghui Net] I am continuously busy everyday, so busy that I hardly have
time to stop and examine what I just went through. But I will have the chance
shortly, because I'm becoming more and more tired, which will create time for me
to reflect.
Indeed, I want to succeed in cultivation and return to a good home. As I
understand from Master's teaching, a cultivator's wanting to succeed in
cultivation is not wrong, but one should not let this wish become an attachment.
I also understand that whether one can succeed in cultivation depends on the
person himself. Whether we can complete the cultivation that Master has arranged
for us, or in other words, whether we want to complete it, and whether we
believe and are firm or not, are all matters of individual choice.
The course of our losing, including losing itself, is the course of our
cultivation. It is also the path that brings us closer to consummation. This
process is full of suffering, desperation, hesitation, confusion, hidden
bitterness, reluctance, and so on. All steps are hard on this fixed path. They
are like the rocks on the road, which we have to step over in order to reach our
destination.
We learn to truly unburden ourselves in order to gain total freedom. My
understanding is that such freedom is sacred, selfless, and comes as a natural
result of having given up attachments. It is not the result of pursuit. Such
freedom is noble and unselfish. It is to have compassion for all beings, and to
completely assimilate to what is righteous in the universe. It is natural and
without any strain.
I understand from Teacher's Lecture in Canada that the reason why a
cultivator's body may not be restricted by the law of gravity is because
"It has severed its connection to the particles in this environment, so
you're no longer subject to its cohesive force, and are no longer subject to its
restraining and drawing power." [Teacher's Lecture in Canada, 2001]
This is a result of cultivation, not pursuit. It is the result of letting things
happen naturally. Teacher preserved our human side in order for us to be able to
connect to our highest innate place in the future. That is it. Hence, before we
reach our highest innate place, or before the entire cultivation process
finishes and the Fa rectifies the human world, what we want to gain (i.e., what
we think is good and are reluctant to give up), and what we think we have
already gained, are all preventing us from improving and connecting to higher
realms.
But this is cultivation. We have to eliminate our attachments within
attachments while experiencing pain on top of suffering. But "'natural'
does not exist, and 'the inevitable' has reasons behind it." The key is
whether we can truly recognize and completely give up attachments. Being
reluctant to leave any level that is lower than our innate level is dangerous.
Cultivation cannot bear your looking backward. You can only go forward. Looking
backward is for you to do in the future, when you will already be a great and
solemn enlightened being.
The greatness of the future is based on the current "ordinariness"
of life. The happiness of the future is based on current hardships. The
magnificence of the future is based on the current plainness. Hence,
consummation in the future is based upon our current behavior and thoughts. It
is both serious and strict. I understand from Master's teaching in Canada (2001)
that these things are for all beings to use as a reference in the future;
therefore, we must follow a strict standard.
When it becomes difficult, the disciples all know to help each other out,
coordinate with each other, and to be unselfish. But under favorable
circumstances, we sometimes do not do so well and let the evil interfere and
take advantage of us. Thoughts of selfishness, egotism, and self-protection are
not righteous. When we have such thoughts, we are already within the
tribulation. As Teacher said in "Your Mind Must Be Right," (Lecture
Six in Zhuan Falun) the practitioner who finds a fortune-teller will
increase his tribulation.
I just read the article, "What Shanshan Saw in other Dimensions
VII." Evil is trying its best to do damage. This requires us to unite as
one and not give the evil any opportunities. This is not for ourselves, but for
rectifying the Fa. Cultivation in Fa rectification is not for individual
cultivation or personal consummation. Everything is absolutely unselfish and
noble. Completely assimilating to Dafa is our ultimate goal. We must improve as
a whole and turn into one body that has no weak spots to attack. Perhaps this is
the reason that Teacher keeps waiting. During this process, what we lose is the
framework of individual cultivation, which centers around one's self; what we
lose are the human concepts, human notions, and everything that is human. What
we gain is a rational understanding of the Fa from the point of view of our true
self. This is the righteous thought. No matter how complicated our environment
is, how stressful (so-called unsafe) it is, we should control ourselves and
persist with righteous thoughts. It is difficult, but the harder it is, the more
it shows our greatness and compassion. Being able to achieve this is true
greatness. The bitter pain that we feel when we give up everything will create
mighty virtue for the future.
We are being saved. Teacher claims that we are great, because we can follow
the progress of Fa rectification, be firm with the Fa, and display Dafa's
greatness. This cannot be sought after or grasped intentionally. Eternal
greatness comes from Dafa and the great lives that Dafa creates. Yet this
greatness reflected in the human world appears as ordinary modesty, letting
things happen naturally, compassion, kindness, generosity, and so forth. Of
course, at the current stage, only when we completely dissolve into the Fa is
this true greatness displayed.
Teacher asks us to hold one hand vertically in front of our chests and
silently recite the verses that he often uses: "The Fa rectifies the
cosmos, the evil is completely eliminated," and eliminate the evil in the
Three Realms. When I read the poem "The Great Enlightened" in Hong
Yin,
"Having experienced tens of thousands of hardships, /
Two feet treading on thousands of demons;/Palms upright, shaking heaven
and earth,/ Across the air stands a giant Buddha"
I felt Teacher's expectation and boundless compassion. Then my extraordinary,
solemn, and all-conquering determination arose. Yes, Teacher claims we are
great-- then we must achieve it, and we are able to achieve it too!
Let's have "all excessive thoughts extinguished," "wash away
all filth and ignorance," follow Teacher and send forth the strongest and
most pure righteous thoughts, eliminate all evil in the Three Realms, and
receive the bright new cosmos, in which "the mega-havoc is over, and the
universe is illuminated." [from Hong Yin]
Posting date: 6/9/2001 |