|
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. |