"More Haste, Less Speed" and "Straight to the Point"

By Zhang Tianliang

(Clearwisdom.net)

I once read a story about how a long, long time ago, there was a man who vowed to avenge his father's murder. He went into the mountains and found a famous swordsman to learn swordsmanship. He asked the swordsman, "How long will it take me to become proficient?"

The swordsman answered, "Seven years."

He thought this was far too long, so he said, "Look, I have a serious score to settle. How long will it take if I'm diligent in my learning?"

The swordsman answered, "Then you will need ten years."

He was confused and eagerly asked, "How long will it take if I do my utmost and use all my time to learn it?"

The swordsman nodded, "Then you will need twenty years."

When I first read the story, I thought it was absurd. However, I had a totally different opinion of it once I started practicing Falun Gong. The story contained a moral that ordinary people might not understand. The more impatient he got, the more time he would need. The reason was that if he were to develop some supernormal abilities, he could only succeed by giving up attachments. When he was in a hurry, his attachments were expanding and becoming stronger. He had the heart of pursuing victory, fighting against others, avenging his father's death and holding bitter hatred against his enemy. Thus, he would need more time to get all those attachments worn out. People often say, "More haste, less speed." However, modern people don't really understand the real meaning of this old saying.

Sometimes, this issue also exists in our individual cultivation process. It could be something as little as not having a high enough level of xinxing [mind or heart nature, moral character] when doing Falun Dafa work. When we focus on getting a satisfactory result as quickly as possible, the final outcome will not be as good. It could also be something as big as having an attachment to the completion of our cultivation or to the achievement of personal consummation. All these attachments are rationalizations for "more haste, less speed," and they will create obstacles in our cultivation.

I saw two Chinese tourists the other night, who were visiting America. First, I tried to come up with a good strategy to talk to them and to let them know about the truth of Falun Gong. Finally, however, I went up to them and directly asked, "Are you from Mainland China?"

They said, "Yes."

I said, "How are you? I'm a student studying in America, and I'm also a Falun Gong practitioner." They were shocked. I started to clarify the truth to them, and the result was very good.

Before, when I would talk to people, I didn't let them know that I practiced Falun Gong. Instead, I talked in a roundabout way, since I thought they might then be more receptive to what I would say. Sometimes it worked, but other times it didn't work at all. After the above experience of clarifying the truth to people by getting straight to the point, I reconsidered my previous "strategy" and found that I focused too much on how I should do it. Actually, the final result of either talking in a roundabout manner or of getting "straight to the point" is closely related to our cultivation levels, our understandings of the Fa, and our mindset when we talk. In other words, when we are in the process of clarifying the truth to people, we need to continuously study the Fa and purify our hearts. The power of our clarifying the truth will be greatly strengthened when we are performing this most sacred task of saving people out of a selfless and benevolent heart.

Finally, I want to quote Teacher's words, "I often say this: When a person talks to someone else, if he points out that person's shortcomings or tells him something without attaching any personal notions, the other person will be moved to tears. If you don't have any personal agenda, don't seek to gain anything, don't even want to protect yourself, are genuinely well-intentioned, and think of the other person's sake, that person will really be able to see this heart of yours -- no matter what kind of person he is." (From Teacher's "Falun Buddha Fa - Lecture at the Conference in Singapore," August 1998)

The above are my personal understandings. Please kindly correct me if I have stated anything inappropriate.

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