Genuinely Cultivating Ourselves

(Clearwisdom.net)

Some fellow practitioners study Falun Dafa books as if they need to fulfill a mission. Every day they work hard on all kinds of projects, and send forth righteous thoughts whenever there are problems or difficulties. They take being busy with work as the manifestation of being diligent in cultivation and regard success in the work as progress in cultivation, instead of genuinely facing up to and removing their own attachments. Someday, those fellow practitioners will realize, "What's the matter? I never genuinely cultivate myself..." So let's study Teacher's article "True Cultivation" with a clear and clean mind.

Recently, many fellow practitioners mentioned that sometimes they have a strange way of thinking which attributes all of the problems encountered to the old forces' interference. What they failed to realize is that it is actually our own problem if the old forces can interfere with us. If we have no omissions, how can they make trouble for us? In addition, this interference is occurring in day-to-day life, rather than during truth clarification. Therefore, why don't we consider it as our own problem?

Personally, I think it is also difficult for a practitioner to genuinely look inward. If, whenever you have a problem, you can look inward and evaluate yourself with Falun Dafa, any "problem" will no longer be a problem, because the most important thing is that our hearts remains unmoved. What is the so-called external interference if our hearts are undisturbed? Isn't it just a stage show? Falun Dafa practitioners are the real main actors. Those difficulties among everyday people can only defeat our attachments but cannot affect our true nature.

I used to have bad thoughts, but to shirk responsibility I usually attributed them to the old forces, making them the unwarranted targets of my resentment. I would say that I couldn't recognize the intentions of the old forces and needed to take my own path. However, my words were not to make genuine improvement, but rather for me to feel that I had simply been deceived by the old forces but was still flawless. It seemed I had no responsibility to take, but in fact the attachments were still there and nothing had changed. I was used to shirking responsibility and holding on to my attachments. That wasn't right. What we need to do is to change ourselves. If we can cultivate compassion strong enough to melt steel, will there be any problem that we can't solve? Therefore, the real problem lies within us, ourselves.

We need to pay attention at every moment to adjusting our minds. If we don't make the changes in our hearts, external means won't work. Dissolving into the Fa, we should also remember to completely deny our incorrectly developed mentalities.

November 24, 2003

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/24/61054.html

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