(Clearwisdom.net) One of the Falun Dafa cultivation principles is that one should refrain from pursuing money and material things. This means that not only can one let go of personal attachments and pursuit for having money and material things, but is also related to the manner in which Dafa is introduced to the public and how responsible practitioners must be during the period of the Fa Rectification. Teacher discussed this matter many times from different angles, and put special emphasis on how the local volunteer assistant centers should be managed in relation to Dafa conferences, and projects that clarify the truth to the public. In order to help us walk our path well without blemishing it during the Fa-rectification period, master also discussed the issue of managing money between fellow practitioners.
After July 20, 1999, the beginning of the persecution of Dafa practitioners, a number of difficulties related to money began to emerge, such as accumulating money that may reflect negatively on Dafa. Secret agents who mingled with practitioners when practitioners needed money to make Dafa materials used this occasion to gather information for the Chinese government. Many practitioners became so used to receiving monetary aid from others when producing truth-clarifying materials that they developed the idea that "making these materials was all that they were required to do in order to validate Dafa" and that it was acceptable to receive assistance from others.
For example, one practitioner who was in charge of making truth-clarifying materials experienced some difficulties with his family members (all were Dafa practitioners) due to his inappropriate way of handling the relationship between doing Dafa work, holding a job and family responsibilities. He refused to accept advice from his family. Not looking inward, he wrongly assumed every suggestion they made was external interference.
His financial situation became rather difficult because of his inability to deal with work related issues after him being persecuted. He was unable to handle the relationship between Fa-rectification and work properly. Even after he got a job, he couldn't be effective in his work and thus failed to earn an income. When his wife (also a Dafa practitioner) tried to persuade him to do a more effective job, he used Teacher's Fa lectures in his arguments with her about not being attached to money. He accused her of being overly attached to money, and that she did not see the Fa-rectification as the priority in her life. (He mistakenly assumed that making truth-clarifying material was all he needed to do to validate the Fa.) His wife tried to discuss this matter with him many times. However, given his strong attachment to his viewpoint, he was unable to communicate with her. Their difficulties grew more severe.
Knowing that he had financial difficulties and that his wife was very troubled about their finances, practitioners often provided him with financial help. In reality, his wife's salary was quite good. But when practitioners gave him money, he didn't tell them the truth of his situation and accepted money from them, because he didn't want to take money from his wife due to his ongoing conflict with her.
Below is Teacher's response to a question in his "Lecture at US East Coast Fa Conference":
"Question: If a person accepts well-intentioned gifts from fellow practitioners over a long period of time, is the person losing his virtue (de) indefinitely?
Teacher: I'll give you an example. A student's family all of sudden gets into financial difficulties. For a cultivator, this hardship may exist because he owed this debt from the past. During the karma elimination process, he must bear this kind of thing. But it shouldn't last very long. I'm saying that this may be what the situation is. Therefore, some students feel that he's having such a hard time and that we need to help him out. How should we help? Everyone contributes money, gives money to him, and provides for his family. Well, this person thus stops working. In addition to studying the Fa, he stays at home and lives on their money. A little later, he stops studying the Fa: "Go ahead and bring the money over. I'll just keep living like this." Think about it, everyone. You do of course have compassion, but you can't treat these matters this way. Everyone has his own tribulations. You can assist him out of compassion by helping him find a job or by temporarily attending to some emergencies. But you absolutely should not do so over a long period of time. You would disrupt the path I arrange for him. It would become impossible for him to practice cultivation. In the end, he would stop his cultivation practice. He would stop looking for a job, and he wouldn't want to solve the problem as long as he had money to spend: "Everything will be ok as long as you bring me money every month." Then, I say, what are these students doing?
"Gift giving? What's gift giving? Say someone gives you something. Why should someone you don't know you give you things? Oh, you know them since you're all students. Can expensive things be casually given among students? Why? You should have a reason! If they aren't expensive things, why are you being supplied with them continuously over a long period of time? Why? Why do you accept them? Is it because you can't abandon your attachment to greed? Are there other reasons? Why don't you try to find them? This is unacceptable. This Dafa of ours doesn't involve money or possessions. No money or possessions are involved. You have come to practice cultivation. All of you sitting here, I won't ask you to pay a cent. Why should other people give you things, but you yourself just can't let it go? I want to raise a particular subject. All those who work for Dafa, and all those who work for Master: Regardless of the reason, you absolutely cannot accept anything from students. Things that are to be transferred to Master must be given to Master to handle. Do not take the liberty of handling these things on your own, keep them for yourselves, withhold them, or open letters or other things for Master in private."
The path of cultivation is a solemn one, especially in the last stage of Fa-rectification. To understand clearly from the Fa and purify our humanness from our thoughts, we should clearly recognize what meets the standard of the Fa and what does not. We shouldn't use Dafa work and the obstacles we encounter because of xinxing problems, and thus bring harm to Dafa unwittingly. Furthermore, we should not think that since all-important matters are being handled satisfactorily the small things carry no importance. Cultivation is a process of letting go of attachments. The Fa-rectification cultivation is to rectify everything in the old universe, which includes our every impure thought. Any un-righteous thought will, if not relinquished, cause one's effort to be for naught.
When a practitioner gives money to other practitioners, he or she should do so according to the Fa. Should we automatically give our generous help to a practitioner who spends too much time on Dafa work and thus causes himself or herself financial hardship, without first considering whether the actions of this person are within the teaching of the Fa? Do we use this severe persecution as an excuse to relax our cultivation? Is it because we trust this particular practitioner so much that we can overlook his attachment and thus hurt the Fa? Is it because this practitioner had faced the evil and overcame this obstacle that he has earned credit that allows him to do things not based on the Fa? So what becomes of the practitioner who donated the money? Is he or she helping other practitioners or is he or she promoting the attachments of others? When he or she gave money to others, did he or she consider whether his or her actions were based on the Fa? Did he or she consider the manner of spreading Dafa? If we behave this way, will others in the future follow our behavior? Isn't this a serious problem? Every practitioner should think this over very carefully.
During the Fa-rectification period and under the severe persecution in Mainland China, how do we correctly deal with the problem of finding a job? There is an article published on the Minghui website on December 3, "We Need to Change Our Notions When Looking for a Job" (English version: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/12/15/43158.html), which validates Dafa from practical experiences and would be very helpful for practitioners under this severe environment.
Many practitioners thought that during the final stage of Fa-rectification, the most important thing to do was to clarify the truth of the persecution for the public. So they hoped to find work that would not be too time-consuming, but instead would pay enough to provide for a living that will allow ample time to devote more time to truth clarification projects. They had very strong attachments to this issue. Although their thoughts were noble because they wanted to rectify things and save sentient beings, they did not fully understand the inner meaning of Fa-rectification. It seems to them that Fa-rectification means to do more Dafa work. My own understanding is that the real meaning of Fa-rectification is to make life righteous, to make the old universal law righteous. Its manifestation in this world is for practitioners to study the Fa, cultivate our minds, send righteous thoughts, and clarify the truth. While we right ourselves in our own working environment, we also clarify the truth about the persecution, uncover evil, and bring our surroundings closer towards the righteous, which is helpful for laying the foundation for Fa-rectification. Undertaking truth clarification projects is a means for us to clarify the truth to people--what really makes this work is the Fa, because when our moral character is elevated and when we unify with the Fa, the great Fa will again manifest in this human society through our cultivation.
If images of Dafa practitioners appear in every human living environment, then how effective will clarifying the truth be? Actually, whether we are creating Dafa materials, interrupting a defamatory propaganda against on that is broadcast on TV, or suing Jiang globally, our pure mind and compassion expressed through our truth clarification projects and activities for Dafa will actually negate the evil character of the persecution, and let people know the facts and be saved. This is the manifestation of the Fa in human society. Actually, normal work will not interfere with our truth clarification projects for Dafa.
When dealing with every aspect of society, all situations become more mature and benign, Projects for Dafa will be done better and more efficiently.
In answering a question dealing with the issue of work, Teacher gave some guidelines in, "Lecture at the Australia Fa Conference":
"Student: As a university student who practices cultivation, how can I keep making progress with diligence? Some disciples have suggested that not going to college and joining the workforce may result in a better environment for cultivation.
Teacher: I'd say that this would be a horrendous mistake. I understand that some people will become overly excited when they see the truth, especially when I teach the Dafa today and have taught so many heavenly secrets. Upon obtaining the Fa one will become excited and it's easy not to balance well the relationship between cultivators and everyday people. To cultivate while conforming to everyday people's society to the maximum extent is not just a simple sentence, this is the Fa! It's interconnected from every angle and perspective. I know that there will be more people studying Dafa all over the world in the future, billions of people studying. When I first taught this Fa, I already knew what the result would be. With that many people all coming to study, if no one works or goes to school, can this be allowed? So, I thought about that stage before I began teaching this Fa. The question of how to allow people to cultivate in everyday people's society is of great relevance. So, neither your work, nor your business, your school studies, or any other aspect of your life will interfere with your cultivation. You need to go about your work and studies as usual. Your work and your studies are absolutely not cultivation, but as a person who practices cultivation, your improved xinxing will manifest itself in your work and studies. This is the relationship. So, wherever Dafa students are, people will all say that, as a person, you're just so wonderful. This is the state that's a reflection of your cultivating while conforming to everyday people's society to the maximum extent. If you can't achieve this, it means that you're not acting according to my words, to Master's requirements. If you don't even listen to what I say, then why do you still call me Master? I wouldn't teach you to walk down a path that's not good. Since I've taught this Fa, I must be responsible to it. In fact, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves, because you exist together with Master. You're the most magnificent Gods of the future, the exemplary models of the new cosmos, and mankind's hope for the future. By all means, don't, once you study the Fa, stop doing everyday people's things. As for things that Dafa doesn't allow, if you don't do them, it shows that your enlightenment quality is good. If you don't do an everyday person's normal job, then there's a problem that's produced by the attachment of zealotry."
Dafa cultivation is not about dealing with money and material things. To a great extent, it cultivates our self in human society. During Fa-rectification period, we do our best to clarify the truth; no one shall use the names of Teacher, Dafa or Dafa workers to collect money. Otherwise, they will be violating the principle of Dafa cultivation, discredit Dafa, and allow depraved people to exploit others.
Every one has their own cultivation path and mentality to cultivate. Each person has his or her own predestined relationships and karma, so each person's tribulations will be different. Perhaps we all have different things to cultivate before reaching the final step, which explains why we will encounter different environments. But we can truly cleanse ourselves, pay our karma based on the Fa and to validate Dafa, melt in Fa and achieve righteous thought and righteous behavior.
Let me end my discussion with Teacher's article, "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature":
"You must be clear that the form of cultivation practice that I leave you can never be altered. Don't do anything that I do not do, and don't use anything that I do not use. In cultivation you should say things however I say them. Pay attention! Inadvertent alteration of the Buddha Fa is undermining it all the same!
I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. So from now on, whatever you do or whatever you say, you must consider others--or even future generations--along with Dafa's eternal stability."
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly advise if you find anything improper.
