(Minghui.org) I recently visited a friend who used to be a practitioner but eventually gave it up. I tried to convince him to return to cultivation but failed.
Talking with him, I sensed that the biggest obstacle in his heart was the ideology of “Logical Positivism” he so firmly embraced. He only believes in things that can be seen or verified.
Looking back at my journey of cultivation, which has been bumpy and winding, the fundamental reason for all the tribulations I've had was that I did not have solid trust in Master and the Fa. I thought I had good a understanding of the Fa, but at critical moments, when facing tests, I did not have enough righteous thoughts. My mind was full of human notions, so I approached the problems with a human mindset instead of a cultivator's.
I was a student for some 20 years, so I had formed strong notions based on a positivistic way of thinking. Moreover, the atheistic brainwashing in China had also made me reject anything untouchable or invisible. I had no idea what other dimensions were.
In cultivation, this way of thinking still influenced me, so when tribulations came, for example, in the guise of evil police officers, I only focused on the visible “facts,” such as the political power that the Party has, and ignored the invisible fact, that Master is with me all the time. Actually, I usually didn't think Master was always with me, so I didn't have such a mindset while enduring tribulations. The deeper reason underlying this notion came from the influence of the positivist ideology in my mind.
Although I read the Fa, I didn't really obtain the Fa, so my mindset didn't change, and I was unable to treat the persecution and negating the persecution with righteous thoughts.
I enlightened that I had to get rid of the notions that modern science had instilled in me—one of them being that I could only believe what I could see. I knew that only if I rid myself of those notions could I read the Fa well and cultivate well. I had to relinquish the doubts that made me think certain things were “unbelieveable.”
This is very important, especially in today's China, where nobody can completely trust anybody. When we read the Fa, we must lower the shields that we use to protect ourselves and completely give ourselves to Master and Dafa.
If we can face tribulations with righteous thoughts gained through cultivation, we can pass all tests, including the test of life and death. Think about it: we have obtained the Buddha Fa, what can we not let go of? The reason that we do not completely trust Master and the Fa is that we are afraid of being deceived and of losing out on fame and money. However, the process of cultivation is a process of getting rid of the attachments to these things. If we cannot get rid of these attachments, how can we develop trust in Master and the Fa?
Every cultivator has experienced miracles that an everyday person would not encounter. These miracles are the result of our cultivation, not our abilities.
In cultivation, we need not validate the correctness of the Buddha Fa, for that is a notion from Logical Positivism. Instead, what we need to show the world is that cultivation is the real reason we have supernormal abilities or that other miracles occur. And that is truly validating the Fa.
Master said in Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles:
“So in other words, whichever field you might be in, when you are able to improve your skills, that is a reflection of your having continually risen in realm. And people can see that you are a good person and someone who cultivates his or her heart and mind. From the vantage point of human beings, you are becoming a good person. As a result of studying the Fa and cultivating your inner self, you do better and better, and gods give you the wisdom you deserve and give you inspiration so that you can come to realize a lot of things while you study, create better things, improve your technique, and reach beyond.”
Master also said in Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005:
“The gods at a higher level, then, have tied whether the lives at the lower levels can invent things and whether they can produce things onto the elevation of their realms. If a person's realm is elevated, his wisdom will be opened up, and he will be allowed to produce things, create things, and elevate. After he elevates, he will realize again and again that he is able to accomplish those things only because of the rise in his morality, and realize that he is able to elevate only because his own realm has risen. That entire incomparably gigantic system is like this, elevating while in pursuit of some type of skill.”
In cultivation we must be humble and give all the credit to Master and Dafa when we run into any miracles or develop any supernormal abilities. Modern science has failed to explain many phenomena. How can we trust it and follow its guidance when we face evil from other dimensions?
Modern science is a big obstacle in our cultivation. We will not be able to make real breakthroughs or improvements in cultivation until we get rid of this obstacle. Under the guidance of modern science, people seek tangible profits, so people have become more and more materialistic and ignore spirituality. That is the danger of modern science.
Another harm from modern science is that it makes us tend to give credit for supernormal abilities developed in cultivation to our own efforts or hard work. This is akin to theft and is a reflection of not trusting Master and the Fa. It is also the beginning of being self-centered and destroying oneself.
My biggest enlightenment in cultivation is that “trusting Master and the Fa” means we need to do what Master asks us to do and we should not follow the notions we have developed in everyday society.
If we don't give up modern scientific notions, we will forever stay in the human world.
As a scholar, I have a tendency to use human notions to deal with things and to use modern scientific notions to evaluate problems in cultivation. This is a reflection of not trusting Master and the Fa. So from this angle, the longer we study science, the stronger the hold those notions have on our minds and the harder it becomes for us to develop solid trust in Master and the Fa.
This is my understanding from my 20 years of cultivation. I hope my sharing will help other scholars and scientists in cultivation. Let's get rid of this obstacle and improve in cultivation together.
Category: Improving Oneself
