My Understanding of "Maximally Conforming to the Way of Everyday People While Cultivating"

By practitioner Sheng Lian from Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) Through recent sharing with fellow practitioners, I've noticed that some practitioners do not have a proper understanding of "maximally conforming to the way of everyday people while cultivating," they have only paid attention to "conforming to the way of everyday people" and ignored "while cultivating." This has led to them thinking and behaving like everyday people and has become a significant hindrance in their cultivation.

For example, some practitioners say, "I go to clean up the house for my daughter and wash clothes for my grandson. We are cultivating among everyday people and we must conform to society and be good people. We need to let our family members know that we are good." Some others say, "I cannot send forth righteous thoughts regularly sometimes. When it is meal time and my children have all come back home from work, it is not good if you leave the table and not eat with others. Didn't Master say that we must conform to society while cultivating?" Some other practitioners say, "I'm retired now and I will find myself another job. Master said that we cultivate among everyday people and should conform to society. I'll find myself a job and cultivate while working." There are quite a few practitioners around me who think this way.

I feel that if these practitioners only pay attention to "conforming to the way of everyday people" and forget cultivation, then they have not gained a proper understanding about "maximally conforming to the way of everyday people while cultivating." My personal understanding of what Master said is that while we cultivate, our words and actions should conform to the state of everyday people's society so that they (including our family members) will understand us, and we should not go to extremes or come across as strange. For example, although we do not need to become monks or nuns in our cultivation and we do not need to resign from work, and we also look after our families, we must not confuse ourselves with everyday people. We are cultivators who have elevated above everyday people and we must not forget cultivation. In our everyday lives and at work, we must at all times cultivate ourselves while maximally conforming to society.

A fellow practitioner, after he retired, completely devoted himself to Fa-rectification cultivation. He said, "I have a retirement pension. It's good enough, and I will put all my time and energy in assisting Master in Fa-rectification." He did not look for other jobs after he retired and let go of the attachment to self-interest. On this matter, he has put into action the principle of maximally conforming to the way of everyday people while cultivating. On one occasion, a practitioner was expecting some guests. Before they came, he had prepared some truth-clarifying materials. After the guests came, he clarified the truth to them while cooking. While the guests went out for a walk after the meal, he went out with the truth-clarifying materials to distribute them to households around his area. On his way back, he bought some vegetables and prepared something again to entertain the guests. I think this practitioner did well in "maximally conforming to the way of everyday people while cultivating" in this respect.

Some practitioners say, "When I see everyday people chatting, I do not join them. We are different from them and I will take a detour to keep away from them." I think this is a forced action. A practitioner who has cultivated well would walk over naturally, standing there with a smile on his face, watching them talking about those never-ending everyday people's topics. But he would find an appropriate moment to clarify the truth to those people to save them. This way, he would have maximally conformed to everyday society and at the same time saved people.

Therefore, as Dafa practitioners, we should not just understand the meaning of "maximally conforming to the way of everyday people while cultivating" at its surface value as would everyday people. Instead, we should discipline ourselves with the standards of cultivators. Dafa cultivation is cultivation in everyday people's society. The great way is formless, and we do not need to become monks or nuns or resign from work. Young practitioners will also get married. No matter what social status one has, there is no need to change it. We cultivate in our existing work environment and family environment and let go of attachments to fame, self-interest, sentiment and human notions so that we can elevate ourselves above everyday people, rather than understanding the Fa from a narrow-minded point of view and behaving like everyday people. The difference between a cultivator and an ordinary person does not lie in whether what they do is the same on the surface, the difference lies in the inner realm. It is our "hearts" that are not in everyday people's things, not how we do things on the surface.

Fellow practitioners, let us remember Master's teachings, study the Fa more often and study the Fa with a calm mind. Let us regard ourselves as cultivators and require ourselves as per the standards of the Fa at all times, and use the Fa to guide our words and actions. We should not stop at being just good people. Being a good person is the first step in our initial stage of cultivation, not the end. Good people are still human beings at everyday people's level and they cannot elevate from the earth or reach consummation to go to a heavenly paradise. Master said,

"The primary purpose of my coming to the public is to guide people to high levels, genuinely guiding people to high levels." ("Lecture One" from Zhuan Falun, March 2000 translation version)

Let us diligently advance together and become gods in various heavenly paradises.

Please kindly point out anything improper.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/16/140263.html

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