By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) We are very fortunate to be able to follow Master to reach the final stage of the Fa-rectification. As days pass by they seem ordinary, but every Dafa disciple has in fact been exploring his or her own path of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. In this process, one may sometimes do well and sometimes not, but every practitioner has improved and cultivated him or herself diligently. In this last moment, doing well the three things, searching internally to find our gaps, and eliminating fundamental attachments is every Dafa disciple's responsibility, and it is also the path that he or she has to take.

Dafa disciples cultivate themselves in ordinary society, so all the deep-rooted, ordinary people's notions can act as factors trapping and preventing practitioners from stepping out of humanness. As ordinary people's principles are contrary to upright ones, only by stepping out of the harness of human notions can one walk one's cultivation path righteously. Up to the present time, there are still different degrees of attachment to the time left for Fa-rectification among Dafa practitioners, whether one's sending forth righteous thoughts can effectively suffocate the evils or not, about whether one's clarifying the truth to his or her loved one can be effective, how one may ensure his or her personal safety by over relying on ordinary people's understandings of safety, how one may be affected by things that have happened in the ordinary society, how upon hearing news of persecution that is about to happen - one slows down in their efforts to clarify the truth and validate the Fa, and there are more examples in this regard. All these shortcomings are due to one's having a strong human mentality and lacking righteous thoughts.

In "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles," Master lectured several times on the Fa that some Dafa practitioners do not listen to others' criticisms. Looking at myself in this regard, I found that I had a big problem without realizing it. Ever since I was young, I have been attached to being competitive and not losing face. I was one of the top students during high school and before that. After I graduated from college and started to work, I was soon singled out by my working unit for career development. After I started to practice Falun Gong in 1998, and with the passage of time, it appeared that my pursuit for money and fame faded, but in fact this pursuit, hidden deep in my heart, is still very strong. The attachments connected to this attachment of pursuit, such as showing off, pursuing vanity, being competitive and being jealous, have also repetitively surfaced. As a result, the related interference and torments are always with me.

Several years ago I was assigned to lead a relatively large working unit. So it was often the case that I criticized others, while I rarely listened to them, not to mention their criticisms. I was also regarded highly in my home. As a result, I developed a habit of not listening to others' criticisms. I had not realized this attachment at all. Over several years, the issue of a work promotion was with me all the time, and my heart was often stirred up by this topic, although a promotion was never really in the works. I also resorted to ordinary persons' means to compete in my work among other officials. One can imagine what the end result was. So despite much effort spent on my work, I did not get acknowledged accordingly. Besides, I was often misunderstood and reprimanded by the upper management. As a result, I was under huge pressure continuously. I thought that it was unfair, and I once developed some negative mentalities, which were, in fact, the manifestation of my strong attachments. Although I could sometimes realize some of my problems and made some improvements, the problem was not fundamentally solved.

Shortly after Teacher's lecture, "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles" was published, during meal time my brother (who is not a cultivator), started to reprimand me for no grounded reason in a somewhat drunken state. This was obviously to eliminate my attachments, but I could not recognize this. Feeling infuriated, I went so far as to scold him. My mother and sister, who are Dafa practitioners, quickly pointed out to me that a cultivator should look within. I then suddenly awakened. Was Master talking in His lecture about me, a person who could not take criticism?

On May 1 of this year, my wife went to see her family, so I was at home alone. This was a good opportunity for me to study the Fa and practice the exercises. As I, unlike others, was unable to recite the Fa, I read the Fa loudly, and the effect was unimaginably good. When I read the Fa, my mind was clear and my voice was loud. I felt that everything sentient in my house was listening. The more I read, the more I wanted to read (this has become the way I commonly study the Fa). What was impressive to me was that when I read Zhuan Falun, I felt that the whole book was about xinxing improvement. Doing this also made me increasingly realize my strong attachment to fame, which was hidden deeply in my heart. Not letting others criticize me was just to protect and cover up this attachment.

Master said,

"As you know, when a person reaches the Arhat level, in his heart he is not concerned about anything. He does not care at all in his heart for any ordinary human matter, and he will always be smiling and in good spirits. No matter how much loss he suffers, he will still be smiling and in good spirits without any concern." ("Lecture Nine," Zhuan Falun)

At the final stage of Fa-rectification cultivation practice, I still reacted so strongly to others' criticism. This shows that I still have, deep in my heart, attachments that I have not recognized yet. Because of this, Master seriously pointed this out in his lecture and let me get rid of it determinedly.

This selfish mentality can be reflected in one's doing Dafa work. Dafa disciples have been using what they know to voluntarily assist Master in Fa-rectification, clarify the truth, save sentient beings, and expose and suffocate the evils. Everything Dafa practitioners have been doing is sacred. However, on many occasions, the selfish mentality can still surface. It may appear that even though a practitioner has been doing Dafa work and may have accomplished a lot, he or she may still have many ordinary people's notions and a selfish mentality, which makes what he or she is doing not that pure and effective. This may generate separations among Dafa practitioners, and as a result, the old forces can easily find loopholes that they can exploit to persecute us.

For example, when one writes an experience-sharing article, the mentality of showing off may unknowingly surface. When delivering Dafa materials, one always wants to give all of the materials to others so that they can be alleviated of the evidence in the case of encountering persecution. One keeps the materials that one deems "good" for oneself or for practitioners who are close to oneself. One wants to work together with or have more interaction with the practitioners whom one deems more cooperative. One wants to do something that one is familiar with or has done before, and once any changes happen, one will, without thinking, deem that he or she cannot do it. For those whom one deems to be unreliable or unsafe, one does not want to find ways to clarify the truth to them and even has the mentality of taking pleasure in the misfortune of those people with whom one has conflicts. Because a practitioner has not been persecuted, he or she may not send forth righteous thoughts frequently to eliminate the evil spirits behind the persons who have been persecuting Dafa practitioners. Some practitioners who were persecuted before do not want to expose the evil persecution because of being afraid of retaliation, and thus do not do a good job of exposing the evil to the local people. Being afraid is also a reflection of selfishness, and furthermore it is selfishness at a prominent level.

Master requires Dafa disciples to cultivate themselves into enlightened beings who are unselfish and altruistic and always put others first. This requires us to start from the minor things to rectify our thoughts, and find and seriously treat the gaps we have. Even when we are doing Dafa work, and even when we cannot see the immediate consequences, we still need to dig out the gaps without reservation, eliminate those notions which may appear ordinary, make the work that Dafa practitioners have been doing even purer, and play an even greater role by helping Dafa practitioners to form one body without gaps.

Dafa cultivation requires that practitioners adhere to the principles at the human level, while at the same time adhering to Dafa's principles at higher levels. This form provides convenience for even more sentient beings to cultivate themselves in Dafa, and this is also where the difficulty lies in Dafa cultivation. One needs to do well one's ordinary person's work, however, one's effort in doing the work well can manifest attachments like the pursuit of money and fame. It may also enlarge this pursuit. When one intentionally tries to get rid of this attachment, one can easily fall into the state of doing the work with passivity. How does one achieve the realm of "Doing but pursuing not--Constantly dwelling in Dao" ("In Dao," from Hong Yin) and how can one be both an excellent employee and a qualified cultivator? Only through enlightening during one's constant Fa-study and eliminating attachments can one constantly improve oneself.

Handling family relationships well is an important aspect of letting one's family members correctly understand the Fa. Usually one's not doing well in handling the trivial things in daily life, or not paying attention to the cultivation of speech is a specific hindrance to our family members' ability to accept the Fa and know the truth. It is also the reason for one's failing to achieve a good result in clarifying the truth to family members. There was a couple who were both Dafa practitioners. They were divorced before, and then got married again. Their disagreements were in the areas of how to treat a child from a previous marriage and the handling of money. They even went so far as to almost get divorced again. I do not know whether they had thought of whether their words and actions were in accord with the title of "Dafa disciples"? How could their family members near them correctly know and understand Dafa?

When the environment gets relaxed, there are still practitioners who use ordinary people's ways to prevent themselves from feeling lonely, rather than use their leisure time to do more Dafa work. Some people who have cultivated themselves in Falun Dafa for a long time still secretly smoke, drink, and/or spend a lot of time watching television programs. When they have symptoms of sickness karma, they go to the hospital to have injections and take medicine. All these things should not happen.

There are no rules in Dafa cultivation. The Fa that Master has taught us includes the principles that Dafa disciples need to abide by. Without strictly following Master's words, how can one be a Dafa disciple? I also came to understand that even the requirements of the exercises, such as, "The body is kept upright," "Compassion should arise in the heart, " "Maintain a serene expression on the face" ("The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa" from Falun Gong) play significant roles in cultivating practitioners' thoughts and behavior and tell us how to do well in the ordinary society.

We must study the Fa more and with a calm mind, use Dafa to purify ourselves and always "take the Fa as the Master" ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A."), "Examine each and every deed" ("Solid Cultivation" from Hong Yin), find the gaps in our cultivation, cherish the limited time left in the final moments, use our time to remedy our shortcomings, and catch up with the progress of Fa-rectification.

It took me a long time to finish this article. Every time I tried to finish it, I wrote only a few sentences and then laid the pen down. I always wanted to cover every aspect, which in turn made it difficult for me to finish. Writing about my understanding is also a process of eliminating my ordinary people's notions.

July 3, 2006