Asceticism Is Only One Kind of Cultivation Method

By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, I have read fellow practitioners' sharing on validating Falun Gong financially in the past few days. I fully agree with their understanding on this issue. Practitioners in China have lived in a harsh environment with long term persecution and many have more or less formed such a notion. They think practitioners doing well in the three things should also be very frugal and live a very simple life materially. Even if practitioners have extra money, they should not use it to improve their standard of living. So whenever some practitioners went to buy clothing or dine in a restaurant, other practitioners would worry that they were going astray.

A practitioner had to cut down his expenses temporarily when he offered to help another practitioner financially who was forced to leave his home. Practitioners around the area thought that is the way it's supposed to be. For a long time, practitioners have created a box for themselves and measure Dafa cultivation today with the old cultivation methods. They always try to impress others with being "poor and plain." Actually Master taught us a long time ago that the key issue is to not be attached to money. What we cultivate is our mind. Dafa cultivation focuses directly on our minds, instead of asking us to forsake materials things.

Many practitioners are afraid of getting involved with "money." They are afraid of making mistakes on this issue. I personally think they have gone to an extreme. Money, just like other resources, is for us to use at will. If we regard money as something special, we may not be able to handle it well.

The reasons why some practitioners fail to have a clear understanding about their financial situation is because of the influence of the Chinese Communist Party's culture and jealousy. It is also the excuse that the evil forces use to exacerbate the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners financially. A practitioner I knew lost his job when the persecution began. Things were very tight for him financially, but he never stopped validating Falun Gong. He didn't regard money as anything special, either. He just treated money as merchandise. When buying something with money we are simply exchanging one type of goods for another type of goods. He didn't think about ascetic practices either. Even when he didn't have any money to spare he thought, "In this special period of time it would be more convenient for a Dafa practitioner to have a car." With such a thought, now he is not only able to support his family, but also has his own car. He has not received any support or donations from others, and all the money was earned by him and his family through legitimate means. He lost his job because of the evil persecution However, he was able to improve his living standard to above average, even without a job. Isn't this a demonstration of the greatness of Dafa? It is a manifestation of negating the financial persecution of Dafa practitioners by the evil forces.

Let me add a few more words about the practitioner I had talked about who offered to help another homeless practitioner. He is an older practitioner who voluntarily offered to support the other practitioner's living expenses. Before long, he received an aid grant for the same amount. Later, the homeless practitioner went to another place with a better environment to validate Dafa, and no longer needed his support.

The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/2/29/173232.html

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