(Minghui.org) If you relax your requirements for yourself in cultivation practice, you'll inevitably become lazy, slack off, and invite unnecessary troubles into your life.
However, if you have strong righteous thoughts and set a high standard for yourself, you'll meet with far less tribulations.
I used to harbor the mentality of fear when the local police stepped up their efforts to persecute Falun Gong, and when fellow practitioners warned me, “You're the main target in our area!” and “You need to rush home and hide your Dafa books along with Master’s portraits!”
I often took their advice and stayed home for days at a time, waiting in fear. Sure enough, the police came knocking on my door to harass me!
One day, I decided to clean out the substances of fear in my dimensional field. I then increased the time I put into studying the Fa, and sent strong righteous thoughts.
Slowly but surely, I noticed that my fear had greatly diminished. I even started to attend small experience-sharing meetings held by fellow practitioners. I also stopped hiding my Dafa books and Master’s portraits. When I'm in this state, I feel both relaxed and calm.
When I hear of incidents of police officers in my area harassing practitioners, I no longer feel nervous. All I think about is doing the three things well.
I now spend about six hours a day studying the Fa, sending righteous thoughts, and practicing the five Falun Gong exercises.
I used to get up late whenever I went to bed late, thus I always felt sleepy while sending righteous thoughts and studying the Fa.
I knew that my cultivation was not good, so I worked extra hard to catch up. One day it dawned on me: “If I maintained a very diligent state, I wouldn't need to work so hard to catch up!”
A local practitioner I know used to be very diligent in studying the Fa and clarifying the truth.
However, the more lax he became in his cultivation practice, the less he studied the Fa; the harder it became to stay awake while sending righteous thoughts, and his temper got progressively worse.
Since he didn't correct his state, he was later arrested, sentenced to jail, and even gave up practicing Dafa.
Another practitioner used to be very diligent. One day, she noticed that a lot of people in her neighborhood were throwing their cardboard boxes in the trash. Thus, she began to pick them up and sold them.
She later became very attached to making money. As a result, she found it hard to focus while studying the Fa and sending righteous thoughts.
When one of her legs became swollen, she spent an inordinate amount of time recuperating at home and studied the Fa less and less. Not long after, the police began to harass her.
One practitioner asked her, “Since you're not short on money, why do you bother to pick up these cardboard boxes?” She replied, “I simply cannot stop myself from doing this, even though I know I don't need the money!”
Master taught us,
“Because he wants to cultivate, though, the evil will try to stop him from cultivating. And when you don't cultivate solidly you become a target for the evil's persecution.” (Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York)
I think it is easier for a practitioner to be diligent than slack off. Why? Because once a practitioner slacks off, not only will his level drop, but he'll need to put in a tremendous amount of effort to reach his previously good state.
We should pay more attention to this phenomenon!
Category: Improving Oneself
