My Understanding of "Cultivating as if You Were Just Starting" (Part 2)

(Clearwisdom.net)

2. The Relationship Between Mother and Daughter Ascends to that of Fellow Practitioners

One day, I went to a senior practitioner's house for group Fa study. The practitioner told me that in the last two weeks her lower back suddenly hurt badly, and she even had difficulty bending over. She said that though she had tried to study the Fa, do the exercises, and send righteous thoughts, none were very effective. She also looked within but didn't find any attachment. In the past she had several similar situations, all of which were solved by sending righteous thoughts. Seeing the frustration on her face, I said to her, "Recently, I enlightened to understanding that all the practitioners from one study group cultivate in the same environment. If one of them isn't diligent enough, the evil may persecute other practitioners as well. In our group, I have noticed that although your second daughter studies the Fa with us every time, she hasn't significantly improved, and she hasn't taken clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings very seriously."

She was shocked upon hearing this. She said, "If you didn't tell me about this, I would never have thought about it. Although I live with my second daughter, except for group study, we have been studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and sending righteous thoughts separately for a long time. Even when we go out to clarify the truth, we never do it together. I have never treated her as a fellow practitioner, thought of us as a group, or suggested that we should cooperate together. Sometimes, my daughter had to stay with her husband (a non-practitioner) and even forgot to send righteous thoughts. When I pointed it out to her, she was unhappy and refused to talk to me for a few days. On one occasion I reminded her that she should focus on doing the three things and not waste time on her husband. She became upset and started to ignore me. One day when I was cooking, I asked her what she wanted to eat. She didn't say a word to me until I took everything out of the fridge. I then couldn't help losing my temper at her, feeling that I wanted to kick all of her family out of my house. Although I didn't really mean it, I couldn't get over it. My daughter's attitude towards me then directly affected the attitude of my granddaughter. If I pointed out to her that her exercise movements weren't correct, she turned her head aside and become very impatient. At night, I asked my granddaughter to study the Fa, but my daughter asked her to do her homework first, intentionally expressing her dissatisfaction. Over time, it produced barriers between me and my daughter. No one spoke about it any longer, but we all held it in our hearts. I didn't realize that this was the reason why the evil persecutes me."

After this, I invited the senior practitioner and her daughter to my house. I said to them, "We cultivate to the maximum extent as ordinary people. I enlightened to understanding that all the settings of ordinary people are our cultivation environments, and so it is with our home environment. If so, everything we encounter in our family is directed towards our attachments. If we don't consider it as a chance to improve, then we are giving up this cultivation environment. How can we then cultivate and improve? How can we eliminate our attachments? Master told us,

'To tell you the truth, the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments.' (Lecture One from Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)

"If we don't give up our attachments and don't improve our xinxing, the layer of human substance will restrict us. Even if we are studying the Fa, we can't obtain the Fa. We have been cultivating all along. Isn't the cultivation process one of removing attachments? When your mother touched on your attachment, you weren't happy about it and ignored her. Does this meet the standard of a practitioner? What's more, it's even below the standard of our ancestors who respected their parents. To be a Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period, everything we do should be the best and most righteous, as everything we do will be left to the future generations. How can we not do it righteously!"

The senior practitioner's daughter then said, "Yes, you're right. I was studying the Fa, but I didn't have enlightenment in the Fa. I often felt that I hadn't improved much, and now I understand the reason was that I didn't treat my home environment as a cultivation environment to upgrade my xinxing. I reacted emotionally in family issues. The more attached I was, the harder it was for me to put my feelings aside. This is all because I didn't have a rational mentality towards cultivation and didn't cultivate myself by the standard for practitioners. At times I knew I was wrong, but I just couldn't get over it. The ultimate reason for this is that I had the attachment of sentimentality, and I didn't treat my mother as a practitioner, which caused all these problems, which should have been solved when I first started cultivating. But I didn't realize that this was why the evil persecuted my mother's body. It wasn't until today that I finally understand the principle taught by Master, 'The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be' [in 2005]."

After they found their own attachments, the senior practitioner started feeling less pain in her back, and her daughter became more diligent in doing the three things and sending righteous thoughts. She also asked her daughter to study the Fa with her grandmother first before doing her homework.

Two days ago, the granddaughter had a fever for four days and three nights. Her father was very worried, but her mother and grandmother kept reading the Fa to her and sending righteous thoughts for her, and she finally recovered. This also let her father witness the power of Dafa. The husband of the senior practitioner's eldest daughter is a public servant, and he also recently expressed his wish to study Falun Dafa. I told the senior practitioner, "Every change around you is the result of your changing from a mother to a fellow practitioner."

Master told us a long time ago,

"...everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

"If all Dafa disciples could grasp this, and all sincerely achieve a state of having their righteous thoughts be at their most powerful point, then one day would be enough to resolve things. With every person dissolving the bad factors within the scope of his reach that he is responsible for, wouldn't the entire world change?" ("Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting" in 2009)

3. Staying Here Instead of Leaving

One day I heard that a senior practitioner had been taken to the police station. Miraculously, she was able to use divine power to unlock the handcuffs and open the electronic doors, and under the watchful eyes of two police officers, she left in an upright and dignified manner. She arrived at home safely. However, because she was afraid of being bothered by the police officers again, she wanted to leave the area and go back to her hometown. In my opinion, "being afraid" revealed her attachment. Didn't she lack compassion? She didn't truly enlighten to why Master gave her the chance to demonstrate her divine power. I said to the practitioner who told me about this, "We should ask this senior practitioner to stay here among our righteous thoughts. This is a good chance for her to further clarify the truth to local people, and we shouldn't let her lose this chance." After we briefly exchanged our opinions, we planned to talk with the senior practitioner. The following night, the senior practitioner talked with me and two other practitioners.

After we listened to her miraculous experience, we all expressed our opinions. Most of us believed that the reason why Master let her demonstrate her divine power was to encourage her to make a leap forward in her cultivation. Every Dafa disciple walks on the path leading towards consummation, so we all need to improve our levels and pass the tests, and we shouldn't stay at the same level for too long. If we become satisfied with ourselves in studying the Fa, doing the exercises, sending righteous thoughts, and clarifying the truth every day, and if we keep this status for a long time, we could easily be trapped into doing Dafa things as everyday people, and this could become an obstacle on our path towards consummation. Master showed the mighty grace of Dafa to the senior practitioner to strengthen her confidence in assisting Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings. It turned out that she was afraid and wanted to run away from this matter. Where was the compassion? The police officers seemed to be "interfering with her," but actually their knowing side came for the truth of Dafa. Why don't we think in this way? Perhaps in order to hear the truth from the senior practitioner, those police officers have suffered hardships in history, but now the practitioner wanted to walk away from them. Is this something a Dafa disciple should do?

After discussing this, the senior practitioner realized that she hadn't been compassionate enough, and that she only saved those people who treated her well and listened to her. However, for those who didn't listen to her and even "arrested her," she considered them as not savable. Master has said,

"Saving people is just that, saving people, and to pick and choose would not be merciful." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")

Finally, the senior practitioner said, "I know what to do now. I will use my divine power given by Master to save more people, to fulfill my prehistoric vows and return home with Master."

Looking back at my cultivation path, while protected by Master, I started from knowing nothing and cultivated step by step. In this process, I have been deeply aware of the hardship in cultivation. Over the past ten years, my understanding about Dafa ascended from perceptual to rational. Regardless of how successful or how hard it was on my cultivation path, and regardless of how long it takes to cultivate in the future, every step in cultivation is a brand new step. Every step is an important step, and we should never relax while taking these steps.

Please remember what Master has said,

"That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")