By a Dafa practitioner in Hebei province

(Clearwisdom.net) There is a story that a long time ago, birds had no nests. One day, the phoenix, queen of the birds, taught the other birds how to build nests. So all the birds including the crow, the pied magpie, the swift, the red-billed blue magpie, winter-wailing bird and the swallow strove to be the first to take the class.

When the phoenix said, "To construct a nice nest, first of all, you have to find a big tree with three prongs", some birds thought, "Oh, I got it, that is easy!" and flew away. The phoenix continued, "Then collect some dry branches and place them across the prongs." Some other birds thought, "Aha, branches are everywhere, I got it," and flew away. The phoenix continued, "Then you need to collect some soft grass and..." During the class, more and more flocks of birds thought they understood how to construct nests and flew away.

Only the swallow meticulously listened to the phoenix from the beginning. At the end, the phoenix said, "Actually, this nest I talked about is not good enough. To build a cozy nest, you'd better find a lee place under the eaves, and carefully mix mud with your spit, and adhere the sticks with mud one by one. My last advice is to make the entrance small, and put some soft grass in the nest. The nest thus constructed is cozy enough to live in for a long time, where wind and rain cannot reach". The swallow thanked the phoenix and flew away in delight.

Consequently, some birds ultimately did not know how to build a nest, while some only could construct very coarse ones. Only the swallow could make the best nest.

I got some enlightenment from this story. Why did most of the birds not know how to construct good nests? One reason is that they did not have the patience to persist in the class to the last minute, and another reason is that they did not fully grasp the techniques. I remember there is a saying that cultivators are as many as a cow's hairs, but those who succeed in enlightenment are as few as a cow's horns. When we look back on our cultivation as Dafa practitioners, it is estimated that there were once over 100 million practitioners. After the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, countless practitioners left the practice. More and more practitioners rejoined cultivation during the Fa rectification process, but some less than ideal situations occurred from time to time, such as arrests, persecution by illness karma, disturbances of families, lack of righteous thoughts in our minds, and the temptation of comfort.

The reasons for this could be summarized as: first, we did not study Fa well in our hearts. This leads to a superficial understanding of the Fa and failure to grasp the inner meaning of the Fa, thus, we could not use the Fa to guide us to solve problems in every aspect of our practice. Then the old forces could exploit our loopholes.

Second, we did not study the Fa completely. This leads to an incomplete understanding of the Fa; sometimes we even use Teacher's Fa as an excuse for our inappropriate deeds. I found a rare situation: some fellow practitioners only study the book Zhuan Falun, and do not pay much attention to the Teacher's new articles and Fa taught in different periods. Some never take a look at Teacher's Fa taught before July 1999. I suggest here that those fellow practitioners, especially those who quit and returned to cultivation, try to collect all of Teacher's Fa and new articles, which should help all of the practitioners as a whole. If they were not important for the whole body, Teacher would not make them public. Determination is the driving force for diligent cultivation.

The swallow earnestly listened to the phoenix up to the last minute, so she learned to build the best nest. Because Dafa disciples in the Fa rectification period are here to help Teacher rectify the Fa and save sentient beings, for the sake of the eternal future of the universe, we have every reason to study the Fa well in our hearts and make it to the end with Teacher and fulfill our great prehistoric vows.

Please kindly point out any improper understandings.

Posting date: 6/5/2006
Original article date: 6/5/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/5/21/128196.html

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