|
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.
Posting date: 6/6/2007 |