(Clearwisdom.net) According to legend, before Buddha Shakyamuni reached nirvana, he left a final set of rules to his disciples. One of the rules was: You must not oversleep. Buddha's teachings were very profound. His last words were especially important. Maybe this rule was one of the most important teachings he left for his disciples. The reason for oversleeping is laziness, which is one of the demon natures in human beings. If one does not overcome this habit, then the person is in some ways nurturing his own demon nature.

For a long time, I could not find enough time for Fa study and exercises. Every day I got up very late, but still felt sleepy. I was very concerned, but I simply could not become more energized and diligent. I felt I was wasting my time every day. After some soul searching, I discovered a fundamental pitfall of mine. In cultivation, I was missing a key attribute of "diligence." An old Chinese saying has it: "The key to the day is in the morning; the key to the year is the spring; the key to a life is diligence." But looking at myself, I was always fond of sleeping, and wasted lots of precious time. I recalled Buddha Shakyamuni's teaching to his disciples, and realized that laziness was a huge impediment to my cultivation. All cultivators, especially Dafa practitioners, must overcome this barrier.

Master told us in Zhuan Falun:

"The master takes you through the entrance, and it is up to you, yourself to practice cultivation."

We are responsible for eliminating our own bad habits and cultivating diligently.

In Buddhist stories, some monks cultivated across several lifetimes, and they endured much hardship in all those lives. Despite that, they still did not dare to relax a bit. Cultivation is like a boat going upstream; a brief lapse can cause a cultivator to drop to a lower level, and all of the accumulated results will be lost. We as Dafa practitioners will complete our cultivation in this life, not in several lives. Therefore, we cultivators should place stricter requirements upon ourselves. We cannot afford to ignore the slightest wrong notion to form in our minds. We must constantly relinquish our demon nature.

Minghui Radio has been broadcasting the exercise music to China in the morning for a long time, but still many practitioners do not participate in the morning group exercise. Our Dafa cultivation does not set strict requirements on the time, location and the orientation for our exercises: the Fa will cultivate our mind and body even when we are not doing the exercises. Nonetheless, Dafa still has some wonderful traditions. Before 1999 in China, many practitioners did exercises in the parks from 4:00 to 6:00 a.m. every morning in all four seasons, even in bad weather. This form of diligence in cultivation is something we should all work to safeguard. After ten years of persecution, many practitioners grew older and weaker, but our Dafa is a cultivation of mind and body. At the beginning of cultivation, many people noticed a reversal of the aging process. Some elderly practitioners looked much younger than their age. But now, many veteran practitioners have grown older and weaker. I believe that not doing enough exercises might have contributed to this phenomenon. Some people say they are too busy saving people to do exercises, but we should all know the principle: "The Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." If a practitioner's body is full of high energy matter, his spoken words are full of energy. Then whatever he says can suppress people's bad thoughts, instill righteous thoughts, and help them see the truth. That is the best way to save people.

Doing the morning exercises is safeguarding Dafa's tradition. It is also the best way to cultivate both body and mind, relinquish demon nature, and restore our energy level. Diligence is the most important weapon to help save sentient beings.