(Clearwisdom.net) I recently noticed that practitioners around me had the notion that "Cultivation affects work and work affects cultivation." I had such a notion for a long time as well. I am writing this article to share my views with practitioners.
Some practitioners were busy with the three things and didn't look for a job. They eventually had to go and find a job due to the financial pressure. However, their pre-condition in looking for a job was, "The work shouldn't be too busy and it must allow substantial free time to do the three things." Some practitioners were very busy at work for many years, and all of a sudden they resigned and re-applied for another job. But their pre-condition for looking for another job also was, "I must have abundant free time to do the three things." Quite a few practitioners said to me, "It doesn't matter if I earn less. The most important thing is that I can have weekends and public holidays to myself, so I'll have more time for cultivation." The result was that either practitioners couldn't find a job or they found not-so-busy jobs with less income but they became lax. Some practitioners didn't have a job and also felt that time was passing very quickly and were unable to do much Dafa work. All of the above practitioners ended up with such a problem: their financial situation was very tight. They were not able to bear the slightest burden due to their insufficient income and were not able to do the three things well or cultivate well.
But my situation was just the opposite. I was very busy with work and earned a good income, but I had much less time available to study the Fa, which I was very upset about. Sometimes I was not able to do the three things well as a result.
The above two situations manifested differently but reflected the same issue, which was that our task of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings was badly affected.
What manifested were false images, but they truly reflected how hard it is to cultivate. If we can come to a righteous realization from the Fa and dissolve the tribulations, that is the great virtue of a cultivator, and that is true cultivation. I had been stuck in the process for a long time. During the most difficult time, I felt as if I had been kidnapped by the old forces and was not able to do anything. Until now, I don't think I had completely broken through it. But I have come to a clear understanding of the Fa.
Whether it is interference or persecution, it is all for cultivation. Those things appear with our cultivation. Our improvement of xinxing{{ is most crucial. Master said: "Without cultivating the heart, no one can make it." ({{Zhuan Falun) To improve one's xinxing, one must look inward. Only by looking inward can one find one's xinxing omissions, and then can one improve and move forward. Have we rid ourselves of the notion of "cultivating comfortably without any hardships?" Master said: "If you want to return where you came from, you must have the following two factors. One is suffering. The other is enlightenment." ("Lecture in Sydney") If we say that "only when we have enough time can we do the three things well," are we setting a pre-condition for doing the three things? Do we do the three things conditionally? Yes, we need time to do the three things, but that is not the reason for us to set a pre-condition. Righteous thought, not pre-condition, guarantees us that we have sufficient time to do the three things. If we set a pre-condition for ourselves, we are moving backwards.
Like myself, I was so busy every day, but did I cultivate my heart all the time at work? Was my heart moved sometimes? If our hearts are restless and unbalanced or we complain and set pre-conditions, can we achieve efficiency at work? The busier we are, the more restless our hearts become. The poorer our xinxing is, the harder our work becomes. At our jobs, we come into contact with many people. Sometimes we can let people know the truth within several minutes in only a few sentences. Are we able to achieve that? Are we able to let people feel our compassion? Most of the time we are not able to maintain a placid and uncomplaining heart. If we don't pay attention to the cultivation of our xinxing, the old forces will then take advantage of our loopholes and put us in tribulations all the time.
Our restless hearts cause the hassles in our work. Only by cultivating our hearts can we make changes. Superficially, work affects our studying the Fa and doing the exercises. In reality it is not too difficult to solve this problem. "One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing level" (Zhuan Falun). The cultivation of Dafa directly targets one's heart. So no matter where we are, we should improve our xinxing first. We should be resolute and stay calm during tribulations. We shouldn't become passive or submissive. Instead we should keep our dignity and maintain our xinxing with the righteous thoughts of doing the three things well under any circumstances.
We should calm down and look inward to find the omissions that prevent us from walking steadily on the cultivation path. We had a glorious past. To walk the future path well we need to rid ourselves of all sorts of incorrect notions. We have to put this into practice and cultivate our every thought and every action. Only when our xinxing is up to par can we achieve everything naturally.
