(Clearwisdom.net) A few days ago my niece, a student in a provincial city, called me and said, "Aunt, I just finished the college entrance exam. I'm quite satisfied with how I did. Finally, three years of high school have ended. I want to visit you and enjoy the country life so I can take a break and relax."
Yesterday my nephew called me, "Aunt, I will have a mid-term exam in a few days and will soon graduate from middle school. But I don't feel confident about the exam. Can you help me recite what you believe in? (he means "Falun Dafa is good!") The gods will then bless me to have a good grade."
Today, my son came home from school and mentioned the same thing, "Mom, I will graduate from elementary school at the end of June. With just a few days left, I really need to use my time well to study. If I leave school with a really bad grade on the final exam, I will be really embarrassed to face the teachers and students. Now I regret that I didn't treasure these six years of elementary school. It would be really wonderful if I could re-live those years.
Three children described their attitudes about the same thing--exams and graduation--but each was different. My niece is very confident because she is usually very diligent, which is similar to the diligent practitioners. The more one puts forth, the more one gains. In the process of hard cultivation, those practitioners have cultivated their hearts without any attachments or loopholes. Their firm righteous thoughts have saved countless sentient beings. When they take the final exam, they will reach whatever cultivation fruit status they should attain. They must be very self-confident.
My nephew is not as diligent as my niece, so he is a little timid in anticipation of the coming exam. Luckily, he has good enlightenment quality and knows that Buddha Law is powerful. He wants to take advantage of Dafa, which is similar to those practitioners who have good enlightenment quality but many human notions. Those practitioners are not confident about their graduation. They know their attachments but are unable to eliminate them. At the last and final stage of cultivation, if one is still unable to remove the last attachments, where do you expect Master to place you? In fact, I am among them. I know that sentimentality is the biggest obstruction in my cultivation but I still can't put it down. I know the mentality of comfort and easiness hinders a practitioner, but I still seek comfort. I know the attachment of fear is critical to a practitioner, but I still allow those factors to surround me tightly and I use any excuse not to clarify the truth to save people. In fact, no matter how good your inborn quality and enlightenment quality, they won't matter if you don't meld yourself into the Fa to truly cultivate yourself.
My son is among those who didn't study diligently. He has already graded himself in his mind and feels regret. But it is too late to feel regret today if you are going to take an exam tomorrow. It's no use at all. The practitioners who are not diligent in their cultivation, have gone astray in their cultivation, and can't get up after falling down are in the same situation. They may finally be understanding the impact of their wrongdoings, but it's hard to compensate for the damage they caused by simply saying, "I regret what I have done. Master, please forgive me." Just as Master said,
"When the day of Consummation really comes, let me tell you, Dafa disciples really will Ascend in Broad Daylight, and the whole world will be able to see it. (Applause) Those who won't be able to Consummate, when that day comes all you can do is just sit there and sob! For the ones who haven't cultivated well, I'd say it'll be too late to cry." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
What kind of examination paper will we hand in when the Fa-rectification period comes to an end? On ordinary exams, some questions are answered by filling in the blanks, some by marking true or false, and some by selecting the right answer among multiple choices to demonstrate your understanding. In our cultivation and our life, we also encounter these questions everywhere and every day.
Referring to the questions where one fills in the blanks, since we cultivate the universal law of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, we have kept filling our hearts with sincerity and truth, and returning to our true selves, filling the blanks with kindness, benevolence, and auspiciousness, filling them with tolerance, forbearance, and broadness. The more factors of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance you fill in, the more points you will get. If you are filled to the top, you will receive all the points.
There are so many judgment questions in our cultivation. If your celestial eye opens, when you see a huge deity who wants to teach you something, can you conclude that it's interference? When you hear voices that praise you, can you understand that its to test you? When somebody bullies you, says bad words about you, or is angry with you, can you realize that it is to test your xinxing? When you think something said on the CCP TV or newspaper sounds reasonable, can you conclude the that evil is using the party culture to manipulate you? When you are being persecuted physically and mentally, can you realize that there is evil in other dimensions behind those villains? When you are confused by your attachments, can you conclude that it is serious interference? There are many such things. If you can quickly judge right from wrong and true from false and eliminate the interference with righteous thoughts, and firmly believe in Dafa, you will get high points on these questions. Otherwise, if you are interfered with and go astray, you will get zero points. If you cause negative effects, points will be subtracted, and even if you manage to compensate for the damage, you will still not be able to gain any points.
For multiple choice questions, of course we should choose kindness and eliminate evil, choose truth and get rid of falsehood, choose tolerance and give up competition, choose doing for others and eliminate selfishness, choose diligent cultivation and not slack off, choose saving sentient beings and put down personal loss and gain, and choose cooperating with heaven's will to eliminate the interference from other dimensions. We should choose the harmony of Dafa and discard the CCP's evil culture, choose benevolence, harmony, forgiveness, peace, selflessness, fearlessness, wisdom, and reason and get rid of fame and self-interest, showing-off, competition, jealousy, lust, comfort and ease, and arrogance. As long as we make the right choices and in our minds eliminate the wrong ones, Master will be pleased to mark a big check on our paper and give it the highest grade. In reality, this is easy to say but hard to do, so we must cultivate our minds solidly and eliminate all of our attachments.
The complicated questions should earn us more points in our cultivation. We will get zero points on the whole question if even a single thought in our minds doesn't conform to the Fa, is not based on the Fa, or is not from the standpoint of the Fa, because Master wants the pure, 24k gold Dafa disciples without any flaws. In order to get high points, we should study the Fa diligently and set up a solid foundation in our cultivation and our mission of saving sentient beings. When our minds are filled with the principles of the Fa, how can we be confused by any questions on the exam? Can things such as falling from a cliff happen again? Those who went astray didn't study the Fa calmly and well, so the evil took advantage of their loopholes. Thus, their minds gravitated toward the demons and they gradually strayed from the Fa.
Regarding our exam, I was reminded of an ancient story called "Exam to Became a Deity." A scholar named Wu Xin wore his best new clothes to take an exam to become a deity. Halfway to the exam site, a woman spilled a basin of dirty water on him. Mr. Wu didn't complain at all and just wondered why he had encountered such a thing. He realized he might only have cultivated on the surface, since on the surface he wore beautiful clothes. He returned home and changed into the casual clothes he often wore, but half-way there, a little boy urinated on him. Mr. Wu didn't complain or become angry about it. Once again, he looked inward and wondered why he had encountered such an even more embarrassing thing. Maybe his tolerance wasn't high enough. He went back home and changed into very old and worn-out clothes. He thought to himself, "If the clothes become dirty again on the way there, I will not change them again. My clothes might be dirty, but my heart is clean." Once he had this thought, he didn't encounter any more incidents to make his clothes dirty. He arrived at the exam site without encountering any more problems. Many people had already gathered to participate in the exam to become a deity. They all wore clean, neat clothes. Many laughed at Mr. Wu for his worn-out clothes, and some even said he didn't respect the examiner. Mr. Wu was not moved by their attitudes and comments. Apparently, he had no attachment to showing off, competition, or need to save face. When the examiner announced the winner, he said, "The top winner is Wu Xin." Everyone stared at Mr. Wu, who looked very ordinary, and wondered how he had won first place. The examiner, who now appeared as a god, said, "I have tested everyone again and again on your journey here. Everyone had different tests. Only Wu Xin passed all the tests. Apparently, he has gotten rid of the mentality of showing off, irritation, competition, fighting, and hate, and has the characteristics of a deity, such as benevolence, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, peacefulness, and wisdom. Therefore, he definitely deserves first place."
This story is very impressive. Looking at it from the standpoint of our cultivation, it is very simple and clear to understand. Master has reminded us again and again that our xinxing will be tested or we will even encounter tests of life and death. If we still can't give up our attachments that we have already identified, then aren't these strong attachments embedded like granite? However, time will not wait for us. Fa-rectification is advancing forward extremely fast. Never knowingly do what you know is wrong. Otherwise, you may miss this precious cultivation opportunity and it will be the biggest regret you could ever imagine.
Every single day we are taking our graduation exam and Master knows clearly the number of points we are getting. Our graduation day is approaching. Just like at the exam site, the examiner blows the whistle to alert the test takers to check their papers and make their corrections quickly. Once the paper is handed in, the grade is set. Therefore, the test takers should check their papers carefully before handing them in. The whistles and alarm bells have been sounding again and again for our big exam. Most importantly, Master has taught us again and again that we must study the Fa, cultivate ourselves well, and do well the three things. Master also taught us that the evil has been eliminated and the environment has changed to encourage us, so before we hand in our papers, we must examine ourselves carefully and look inward. We should spread the truth widely to save sentient beings. Let us do well on our graduation exam that only occurs once in tens of millions of years. Let us follow Master to return home with a good grade.
June 21, 2009
