(Clearwisdom.net) I once heard a story about cultivation in the Dao School. There were three brothers in heaven and all of them were accomplished deities. They had spent a long time at their level and wanted to elevate to high realms, so the three brothers had a discussion about how to descend to the human world to cultivate. They decided that they would form a family in the human world. The eldest brother would be the husband, the second brother would be the wife and the third one would be their child and act as a demon to help them cultivate, thus the three of them would elevate to a higher realm together.
The three brothers descended to the human world as arranged. The eldest and the second brother were husband and wife and they helped each other and encouraged each other, and were very diligent in cultivation. Many years later, they reached consummation. When the moment came for them to return to heaven, the eldest brother was not reluctant at all to part with everything in the human world and he ascended to heaven straight away. When the second brother was about to fly, he suddenly heard his child crying, so he thought he would take just one more look at the child. However, as soon as this thought formed in his mind, he could not ascend. The eldest brother was serious and determined and he was not attached to anything in the human world, and because of this he cultivated to a higher realm than his previous one. However, due to the second brother's attachment to sentiment, he not only failed to return to heaven himself, he also ruined the opportunity for the third brother to return.
From this Dao school cultivation story, we can see just how serious cultivation is. At the critical moment, one single thought of attachment is enough to make all the effort a cultivator has gone through come to naught. During the ten-plus years of our exposing the persecution, some practitioners suffered various forms of persecution because they could not let go of their attachments. This has caused a heavy loss in their cultivation. Even now, we can see some fellow practitioners are still extremely attached to sentiments, and they are especially attached to their children.
Some practitioners work very hard all year round to make money for their children; they overly care about their children and try everything possible to ensure that their children will be successful in ordinary society. As a cultivator, from the perspective of the Fa, one should indeed be responsible for one's children. To help them obtain the Fa is truly being kind to them; even if they cannot obtain the Fa at this time, we should educate them in a righteous way so that they will know the truth and be saved. At the same time, fulfilling our responsibility as parents we help them understand how to behave as human beings.
Of course we should do our best to care for our children, but we should not go overboard. To excessively use our abilities and resources as well as this extended precious time that Master and Dafa have given us on our children instead of saving sentient beings is truly harming our children, and at the same time, we ourselves would also drop down.
Dafa can save sentient beings and enable cultivators to consummate. This is all because of Master’s compassion. Master has again and again given us opportunities and time so that we can truly obtain the Fa and enlighten to the Dao and to eventually reach the requirements and standards of the Fa. If a Dafa practitioner cannot let go of sentiment, all his or her efforts would come to nothing, causing harm to both ourselves and others.
During the extended time that Master has given us, we should focus on being responsible to sentient beings, help Master in Fa-rectification and do our very best to save them instead of blindly laboring for our children.
Category: Improving Oneself
