Taking the Fa as Teacher Is Fundamental To One's Cultivation Practice

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher taught us a long time ago,

"In order to truly enable you to ascend through cultivation, I have utilized a method, namely, taking what I can give to you and what I can help you with, and compressing all of it into the book of Fa. The only thing left is to see if you want to obtain it. For this reason I tell everyone that when you can't see me, you must take the Fa as the Master. Take the Fa as the Master." ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia")

A practitioner will walk his cultivation path righteously only if he takes the Fa as Teacher. Especially in the complex and difficult cultivation environment in China, studying the Fa well and taking the Fa as Teacher are what fundamentally ensures that practitioners do not take detours in their cultivation.

My cultivation state was not good a few years ago. I used to idolize or admire determined fellow practitioners I came in contact with. As a result, I was very likely to take fellow practitioners' understandings of the Fa as my guide. When I enlightened to something on the Fa, I would share it with fellow practitioners and seek their approval. If they had a different understanding or opinion, I would second guess myself or even push aside my understanding of the Fa. But I would also feel upset or troubled when fellow practitioners did not approve of my understanding. I was not diligent many times.

For example, not long ago I identified I had an attachment to certain food. I was especially partial to sweets and fruits. Gluttony is also an attachment that a cultivator should eliminate. When I confessed this attachment to a fellow practitioner, she dismissed my understanding and accused me of going to extremes and going down a dead end. I began to second guess myself right away, yet I still felt it was an attachment to be partial to certain types of food. Still, I became less serious about eliminating the attachment. In fact, I stopped conducting myself according to the Fa on this issue. Knowing that those determined fellow practitioners did not think it was an issue to be partial to certain food, I decided that I must have really gone down a dead end.

At another meeting, I confessed that my thoughts were not always pure or clean. I admitted that I was not able to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate these impure thoughts at all times. A fellow practitioner immediately said, "We are still cultivating among everyday people. How can we not have any human thought?" What she said upset me deeply. I immediately doubted if it would be too extreme to guard each and every thought of mine diligently. I even felt at a loss and didn't know how I should cultivate myself. I became less diligent in my Fa study. For a long time, I had not felt sleepy during my Fa study, but now it started to haunt me again. There are many similar incidents.

Today I visited Minghui.org/Clearwisdom.net and read a fellow practitioner's article, "Eliminate Preferences for Foods." I felt I finally found an answer to the problem that had troubled me for a long time. The author suffered from the exact attachment as me and was partial to the same types of food. I felt better instantly. This reminded me of something. Teacher has always required us to take the Fa as Teacher. Teacher has repeatedly taught us how we should regard Falun Gong volunteer assistants and coordinators of Dafa projects. Teacher asked us to measure cultivators according to their xinxing, instead of the length of their cultivation, their social status, or their roles in Dafa projects. However, I had always treated fellow practitioners' understandings and opinions as my guide instead of taking the Fa as Teacher. This is the reason why I had encountered so many obstacles in my cultivation path. As I reflected on my lack of diligence for quite some time, I could not help but ask myself:

"Why don't you listen to your Master's words: 'The only criterion for evaluating a student's cultivation is his xinxing'?" ("Another Comment on Evaluation Criteria" in Essentials for Further Advancement)

In addition, I identified an attachment to fame. I sought approval from fellow practitioners because I wanted to validate myself. Cultivating is about cultivating and being responsible for oneself. We do not cultivate ourselves to show off, but to assimilate ourselves to the great Fa of the universe and to fulfill our missions - assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification. If we do Dafa work only when fellow practitioners approve of or recognize our efforts and if we give up when this condition is not met, whom are we cultivating for? This shows that my main consciousness fails to dominate at all times. I should not have easily taken fellow practitioners' words as my guide, even though they are cultivators. In addition, Teacher told us to exchange our cultivation understandings so that we may remind each other to be diligent in cultivation practice. I had missed the purpose and ended up being confused.

I can also identify another issue. I feel confident that I shouldn't be partial to any food because Minghui.org published an article that shared the same view with me and because Teacher approves of Minghui.org. What if Minghui did not publish that article? There are millions of different cultivation states and cultivation issues, but there is only a limited number of articles Minghui.org can publish. Besides, those fellow practitioners working on and publishing articles on Minghui.org are also cultivators. If I should take articles published on Minghui.org as my cultivation guide, would I be truly taking the Fa as Teacher? In conclusion, it is imperative for us to study the Fa, study the Fa and study the Fa.

By sharing my humble understanding, I hope that those who have the same problem will learn from my experience and start taking the Fa as Teacher.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/28/155767.html

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