Western Practitioner: Being Diligent Amidst a Busy Life

by a Western practitioner in the U.S.

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a twenty year old western practitioner. I am a full time college student and I also work three days a week at my job. I would like to share my experiences and my understandings of cultivating amidst a very busy lifestyle.

I obtained the Fa a little less than one year ago and since then my lifestyle has changed drastically. Before I started cultivation, I was a decent worker and did pretty well at school. However, I did not have much drive, and led a relaxed and lazy lifestyle. After I started cultivation, I soon began to realize how precious time is right now and the importance of all disciples being diligent. One of the first major attachments that I had to work through was my laziness and pursuit of comfort. I was very used to coming home from a busy day of school or work, and relaxing by the pool or listening to music. I also had the attachment of complacency, which made me think that because I had a long day of school, I deserved a break and a night of relaxation.

The primary thing that I have had difficulty with in my cultivation is being diligent and making time for the three things. It seems like every day I am busy from 7 in the morning until midnight, and I have really learned a lot about what being a practitioner really means. Master has stressed many times the importance of maintaining a focused Fa-study regardless of how busy we become. Master has rearranged our lives, and from my understanding, he would not arrange our lives to be too busy to study the Fa with a calm mind.

Because I was constantly going from one task to the next, when it was time to study the Fa I had a very difficult time studying with a calm mind. My mind would race all over the place without me even knowing it. To help correct my Fa-study, I started to memorize and recite the Fa instead of just reading a chapter a day. Reciting the Fa is a world's difference from just reading the Fa. If my mind is not calm when reciting, I will not be able to memorize one sentence. It is a very effective way of showing me how my Fa-study truly is. I set the goal for myself that I would memorize at least one page a day, which right now takes about two hours to complete.

There were many days when I would put off Fa-study until the end of the day, after everything else was taken care of. What I realized though, is that by the end of the day I was exhausted and I would have a difficult time calming my mind down and staying awake while memorizing. When I stepped back and thought about my situation, I realized that memorizing Zhuan Falun is the most important thing that any being could possibly do. How could I treat such a sacred opportunity as a simple task I did before going to bed? I am now trying my hardest to study the Fa as soon as a wake up, before my day starts. I am slowly working on getting up earlier, and getting rid of my personal notions and attachments involved with sleep. When I can start my day with calmly memorizing and reciting Zhuan Falun, the whole day seems to go better, and my righteous thoughts are much stronger.

I have also begun to understand the importance of taking time to reflect upon my cultivation, no matter how busy I get. Another barrier that being busy set for me was that I did not take the time to examine my own cultivation, and look at how well I am doing the three things. There were many times that for a week straight I would not study very well, and I did not fix the problem because I did not take the time to reflect upon my progress and state of mind. I understand that it is very important for us to take time and objectively look at our cultivation state. If we see any problems or areas with room for improvement, we should correct our actions immediately. We will never be able to fix our problems if we do not first look inside and find the problem. No matter how busy life gets, we must study the Fa well, and we must be able to look inside ourselves and truly fix the problems that we find. These are only my limited understandings.

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