My Understanding of the Pursuit of Comfort

By a practitioner from Qingdao City

(Clearwsidom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in 2007. Since I have practiced for only a relatively short period of time, I still have many attachments. My pursuit of comfort, in particular, surfaces once in a while, causing interference.

During the initial period after I started the practice, my pursuit of comfort was very strong. I was not diligent in studying the Fa or in practicing the exercises and was often interfered with by sleepiness. I would only practice the first four exercises and skip the fifth, using excuses such as "it's too late" or "I am too tired." I would go to bed instead. Sending forth righteous thoughts is part of a war between the righteous and the evil. Although I realize the significance of sending righteous thoughts, I still have only done so casually due to my pursuit of comfort.

While studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, I have continued to share my experiences with fellow practitioners. Reading articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, I learn a lot from others. I came to realize my pursuit of comfort and began eliminating this attachment during my cultivation process. The bad habits I had formed in the past such as laziness, indulging in material objects, and being unwilling to bear hardships need to be eliminated because I am a practitioner. I should reject them continuously with righteous thoughts.

In our daily lives, we face different pressures from work and other areas of life. Sometimes I feel very tired. However, I enlightened that it is crucial to position my thoughts correctly in such circumstances. Master said:

"We have said that good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences. With her old age, if she were an everyday person, how could she not be injured? Yet her skin was not even scratched. Good or evil comes from that instant thought. If she were lying down there claiming, 'Ugh, I feel terrible. Something is wrong here and there.' Then, her bones might really have been fractured, and she would be paralyzed." (Zhuan Falun")

Such consequences from one spontaneous thought have clear manifestations in me when I hold onto the pursuit of comfort.

During the initial period of practicing Falun Gong, when I had thoughts such as "I am busy," "I am tired from work," "I am depressed," or "I am under pressure," trouble would come and find me. I would have to work extra hours or handle other business related issues, therefore wasting time. When I got home, I would indeed be exhausted and want to skip dinner and go straight to bed. As I progressed in cultivation, I started rectifying my thoughts and eliminating the bad thoughts. I made my great responsibilities as a practitioner clear to myself and made up my mind to do well in the three things that Master requires us to do. Conditions improved. My business related work in ordinary society decreased, and thus I had enough energy for studying the Fa and doing Dafa work. When I distributed truth clarification materials, I would not feel tired no matter how far I walked or how many stairs I climbed. But sometimes I still could not control my thoughts, which oscillated back and forth.

In addition, Master has asked us to be able to endure the toughest hardships of all, be they physical or psychological. Practitioners are clear about this. However, can we truly achieve it when we face real-life situations?

In the experience sharing articles published on the Minghui website, many practitioners have mentioned that they were "busy" with work or other things, and thus they did not study the Fa or practice the exercises for a prolonged period. Should we look inside to see if we have hidden our pursuit of comfort? Master arranges our path of cultivation such that we need to cultivate in ordinary society and requires us to maximally conform to the ordinary society. However, many practitioners use it as an excuse to conceal their various attachments. It should not be this way. It is also disrespectful to Master and Dafa.

January 12 2010

Posting date: 1/30/2010
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/1/13/216181.html

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