Walk Our Path Righteously By a Dafa practitioner from Mainland China (Clearwisdom.net) Master said, "In Buddha Law cultivation you
have to boldly and vigorously forge ahead." (Zhuan Falun) That is to
say that boldly and vigorously forging ahead is the state of mind required of a
cultivator, especially us who cultivate the fundamental Fa of the universe, and
who live in the same period of Master's Fa-rectification. This is the most
unprecedented opportunity ever in history and it will never happen again. Our
good fortune is beyond the description of any language and all the sentient
beings in the universe admire us. Isn't it true that the old forces are also
jealous of us? Shouldn't we cherish this opportunity? Especially now when the Fa-rectification
has come to the end of the last stage, we Dafa practitioners should be more
diligent. Let us ask ourselves, am I being diligent? Even though others may
think that I am diligent, it is not adequate according to the requirement of
Dafa. Measured by the yardstick of Dafa, I'm not even half as diligent. Many
times, I felt so ashamed that I did not dare to even look at Master's photo.
Although I cultivated myself everyday, always remembering to look inward, I
felt there was a kind of obstacle I have never been able to break through.
Whenever I thought of the requirements of the Fa, I would feel so far behind,
and would feel very uneasy. What is a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple? Am I still
a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple? I felt as if I had wandered into a wrong area,
and I found it hard to see again in myself any of the mighty force to eliminate
all the evil in the universe. Oftentimes I would be moved by false images. What
was the root cause for the problem? I did not think in depth about it with a
calm mind. I only felt lazy and did not want to do much truth-clarifying work. I
knew there was a problem, but did not know what had caused it. Of course, I was
still cultivating, and constantly making breakthroughs and improving myself. I
paid attention to looking inward in personal cultivation, and fellow
practitioners thought I was doing very well. But when I asked myself and
measured myself against the standards of Dafa, I knew there was something wrong.
Master mentioned on several occasions that time was pressing, yet I did not feel
the urgency. It was because I was still in the state of personal cultivation. I
easily felt pretty good about myself and failed to dig out the root cause in my
thoughts on the basis of the Fa.
A few days ago, I read an article on Clearwisdom Net "Using Dafa is an
Unforgivable Sin," (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/10/21/41486.html)
which had a big impact on some fellow practitioners. Yet, I did not feel much of
it, wondering how could we still possibly have such problems now. I did feel
however that I was not in a right state of mind, so I calmed my mind and started
to examine myself. For a while I seemed to have fallen back into personal
cultivation, and although I was making breakthroughs and improving myself step
by step, I felt I could not go beyond the boundaries of personal cultivation. I
am a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple and I should validate the Fa with a
mindset of a divine being. It is true that I was not in the situation mentioned
in the article, and I did make a good enough effort in looking inward and in
solid personal cultivation. I was able to do things without pursuit and to
assimilate to the Fa and cultivate without pursuit. However, when I dug deeper I
asked myself whether I had paid too much attention to personal cultivation and
self-improvement? When I looked at it this way, I felt as if a wall had been
broken open and I finally saw where my problem was. Indeed, there was a problem
with my starting point. What did I come for? Did I come only to cultivate and to
improve myself? No! I came to save sentient beings! All of a sudden, I felt I
had a much clearer understanding. Master has come to save sentient beings.
Personal cultivation is nothing in comparison with Fa-rectification, and
validating the Fa is the most important. Save sentient beings is our bigger
responsibility.
In the article "Serious Teachings" from the Clearwisdom editors,
Master said, "No matter how he 'persists in studying the Fa and doing the
exercises' at home, he is being controlled by demons and is 'enlightening'
along an evil path." At the time I was a bit puzzled, thinking that
although these people did not step forward, still they kept studying the Fa and
doing the exercises at home, and they would look inward and cultivate themselves
when encountering problems. How could they be wrong? How could Master say that
they were "being controlled by demons and 'enlightening' along an evil
path"? At the beginning of the tribulation, the old forces of the universe
had arranged that big test. It was aimed at the Fa. Dafa practitioners let go of
life and death and stepped forward to validate the Fa, which was to lay a
diamond-solid foundation of the Fa in the human world and to validate that Dafa
was indestructible. Therefore any thoughts that were in discord with this were
not righteous, and they were thoughts along the evil path. We have now gone
beyond that stage and our current mission, which is also our true mission, is to
save sentient beings. The understanding that attaches to the state of personal
cultivation, and neglects and fades from the memory the necessity of saving
sentient beings, is also "enlightening" along an evil path.
There are some practitioners who always pursue the "purest" state,
and they always put personal cultivation first when they come across any
problems. This has affected our efforts in saving sentient beings. Is this
righteous behavior? Think about it, isn't it true that those who went astray
along the evil path were taken advantage of by the evil because they pursued the
so-called higher levels and higher understandings of the Fa? They betrayed their
mission and yet they claimed they were still acting on the Fa. Of course there
is nothing wrong with improving ourselves, but the key point is whether we have
put the Fa and saving sentient beings first.
My understanding has become clearer and clearer. We have come to save
sentient beings, not to take advantage of Master's Fa-rectification to improve
ourselves. We are nothing without Master. We should endeavor to offer the best
way we can think of to harmonize what Master wants to achieve. This is what we
should think about and what we should do. The old forces put our personal
cultivation first, yet Master is guiding us in saving sentient beings. Isn't it
very clear that how we do well is to walk on the path Master has arranged for
us?
What is a Fa-rectification disciple? It means a Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification
period. Master said in "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples,"
"So, it was arranged that when you reach the standard for ordinary
Consummation, you still have, in the human world, all kinds of ordinary human
thoughts and karma. The purpose is so that while doing Fa-rectification
things, you clarify the truth, whereby you all bring in, for the consummation
of your paradises, beings that can be saved. As you consummate your own
paradises you are, at the same time, eliminating your last karma, gradually
getting rid of your human thoughts, and truly stepping forward from
humanness."
Without human thoughts, we cannot stay in everyday people's society. Only in
bearing some human thoughts can we treasure the beings here, and can we validate
the Fa and save sentient beings in the human world. That is to say, we still
have human thoughts in us so that we can validate the Fa in the human world, but
we cannot attend to the trifles and neglect the essentials, and take the wrong
standpoint.
Some think that they have validated the Fa before and their understanding of
the Fa has reached certain levels, so they became self-satisfied and slacked
off. They don't want to do the truth clarification work, and even do very little
exercises and seldom study the Fa. That behavior is definitely not righteous.
Thinking from the Fa's perspective, if one is attached to having validated the
Fa before and forget the true mission of saving sentient beings, isn't it also
enlightenment along an evil path? This kind of evil enlightenment is most
difficult to distinguish. It leads people to unconsciously drop out of the Fa-rectification
and our one body. If one holds stubbornly to his own understanding and looks at
others from the perspective of his personal cultivation level, instead of
looking at himself and issues from the standpoint of fulfilling our mission,
that is very dangerous! Our essential mission is to save sentient beings, which
is what we should do, more than anything else, during this period of time.
Teacher said,
"If during this period you cannot do well with what you should do,
this Consummation stage can only be a cultivation process, and it cannot
fundamentally be Fa-rectification disciples' true and final Consummation. If
during the evil's persecution a Dafa disciple doesn't do well or slacks off,
it's very possible all his previous efforts will have been for nothing."
"Whether you are able to treasure this period of time is, in fact, a
matter of whether you can be responsible to yourselves. This period of time
will not last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent
Enlightened Beings, Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even
Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has
reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself."
("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples") This is the Fa. Master is
exhorting Fa-rectification disciples!
Sometimes practitioners discuss our way of playing roles in everyday people's
society -- is this right or wrong, is it harmonizing Dafa in the human world or
is it letting the evil take advantage of our loopholes and interfere? We tend to
have different opinions. In fact, from the basis of fulfilling our mission and
saving sentient beings, it is very easy to handle correctly. When we cannot
handle things correctly, that's usually due to looking at things from the
standpoint of personal cultivation. It is because we have confusion in our
understanding of the Fa that we think either way seems to be correct. It is
because we do not have the correct starting point that we cannot find the root
of the attachments. Of course we cannot go to extremes, the key is that we must
put our starting point of saving sentient beings in the right position.
Fellow practitioners, let's all think it over. Do we only focus on personal
cultivation without putting Dafa in the right position? Are we satisfied at
having validated Dafa before, instead of putting our real mission -- saving
sentient beings -- in the right position? Have we even forgotten our true
mission?
Why can't some practitioners be diligent in cultivation? Why are some
practitioners unable to break through for a long time the pursuit of comfort and
the mentality of laziness? Why do some practitioners slack off yet don't take it
as a serious problem? Aren't these because we didn't have the correct starting
point? Even when being controlled by the evil, some still feel it is a minor
thing and that it would not interfere with the overall situation. How dangerous
it is! Our path is very narrow; we cannot deviate!
The mighty current of Fa-rectification does not wait. So many sentient beings
are waiting for us to save them and so many sentient beings are longing for us
to save them! Let us all clearly recognize the mission of Fa-rectification
period Dafa disciples.
Posting date: 11/3/2003 |