Pay Attention to Eliminating the Old Forces' Interference with Time

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I found that in terms of time we have available, some practitioners have encountered great interference from the old forces. This is reflected in their being very busy with their jobs, having to carry out various urgent tasks at home, and so on. Consequently, these things severely interfere with their doing the three things well, and their Fa study cannot be assured. They cannot calm their minds when studying the Fa, nor when they send forth righteous thoughts. They have been like this for a long time with no change. When they want to change this predicament, even after some effort they make little progress. They do not know what to do.

I also encountered severe interference with my time a little over a year ago. I often needed to put in extra hours at work, because I always felt that I had to work extra hours. Some practitioners reminded me, "You cannot keep this up when you cannot even guarantee making time for your Fa study." Only then did I begin to pay attention to this matter. I then thought, "What am I here for? What did I come here to do? What is most important? What will I get? What will I lose?"

Later I found that my inability to break through the longtime, old forces' interferences was to a large extent related to my human notions and attachments that I had not let go of. Master has told us that we need to conform to ordinary people's way of living in our work and lives while cultivating ourselves, but this does not mean we have to conform to ordinary people's mentality. I had the following thoughts. A very long time ago I made an oath to validate the Fa, explain the truth and offer sentient beings salvation amid this working environment, and it is not merely a matter of becoming a good person or accomplishing something with my career in this job. It is perhaps not accidental for me to do this job and have this skill, as those around me are perhaps those who need to be offered salvation and my skills are for validating the Fa.

These thoughts cleared my mind, and I came to understand how to treat my job and how to balance my job and the three things. I knew that my past assumption that I had to work extra hours and be a good person at work was only feasible during the time of my personal cultivation. The old forces had taken advantage of this loophole, as I had conformed to their arrangements. I neglected to recognize that the old forces had used this loophole to sabotage my role in Fa rectification. I realized that I needed to use this environment to do the three things well and not become attached to either loss or gain in my job, or merely being a good person. My work and family environments are not only for me to live my life, they are related to my offering sentient beings salvation, clarifying the truth, and validating the Fa.

Having clarified my thinking on this, my environment has gradually become better. I no longer need to work extra hours. Once I corrected my thought patterns, I understood that Master had already rearranged my life. If my thoughts were still focused on my personal improvement, it would have been extremely difficult for me to break through the old forces' arrangements.

Those practitioners who still experience time interference should examine themselves to see if they have isolated their work, life, and the three things from each other, and to see if they have not eliminated their attachments to their self interests and careers and so on. If that is the case, the old forces will transform even more false manifestations--to require practitioners to become so busy that they have no time available. If we can view things from the perspective of assisting Master in rectifying the Fa, this change in our thinking will change the environment.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/5/17/155035.html

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