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Being Strict with Oneself
(Clearwisdom.net) I began the path of cultivation in 1998, so one might
consider me a veteran practitioner. I had always thought of myself as the
employee who was strictest with himself in my workplace, and it would upset me
whenever I saw colleagues who would get by without meticulously following the
company's requirements. I had put more effort into my job only to get the same
recognition, and so I felt that I was losing out. After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I continued to believe that I was strict
with myself. I felt that there was some leeway in how closely one had to follow
the requirements at work. I used this same approach in my cultivation. I felt
that I was stricter with myself than everyday people were with themselves, but
that did not mean I had no leeway in how closely I had to follow the
requirements of the Fa. I practiced cultivation with the mentality of "just getting by" for
a long time. For example, if I did not pass a test well, I would rationalize
that I had passed it anyway, and that I couldn't possibly pass every test well.
I told myself that it was okay if I did not do something as well as I could have
and that I would do better next time. I even felt that I was raising my
cultivation level this way. When I did better than others in a certain area, I
would think that so-and-so could not keep up with me and that perhaps my
cultivation in this area was better than his. When I saw someone who was not as
strict with himself as I was with myself, I would think that he did not hold
himself to as a high standard as I did, and so my cultivation was better than
his. I was content to do a little better than others, yet I considered myself to
be a lot better. In reality, the opposite was true: I was failing to measure up
to Dafa's requirements at different levels. I was content to cultivate in this
confused state for a long time. One day, however, after another practitioner and I had spent thousands of
yuan in a business deal, we wound up losing our entire investment. On the
surface, it was because the items we had manufactured were one-to-two
millimeters larger than the requirement. While we were making the items, I
realized that the size was too big. But when I saw that my products were better
than the others, I rationalized that a larger product would do the job too. This
one thought wound up costing us several thousand yuan. I would not have lost the
money had I been strict with myself during the manufacturing process. When we learned of our loss, the other practitioner burst into tears. I too
was very upset, but not because of the money. I realized that while people were
being so strict with a product, I was unable to hold myself to a high standard
while cultivating in sacred Dafa, and that I had the mentality of "just
getting by." When the time comes for others to reach consummation, we will
not be able to bring back what we have lost, nor will we be able to make up for
it. By that time it will be too late for regrets, and it will be the most
heartbreaking thing we could imagine. Deep in my heart, I realized that the cultivation of Dafa is not a casual
matter and that we should not approach it with the mentality of getting by. It
is not good enough simply to do better than others. When we fail to meet Dafa's
requirements for us at different levels, simply doing better than someone else
will be inadequate, and it will not enable us to move upwards in cultivation. We
must be strict with ourselves. Kindly point out anything that is incorrect. Written on November 14, 2007 |