(Clearwisdom.net) Master said, "In Buddha Law cultivation you have to boldly and vigorously forge ahead." (Zhuan Falun) That is to say that boldly and vigorously forging ahead is the state of mind required of a cultivator, especially us who cultivate the fundamental Fa of the universe, and who live in the same period of Master's Fa-rectification. This is the most unprecedented opportunity ever in history and it will never happen again. Our good fortune is beyond the description of any language and all the sentient beings in the universe admire us. Isn't it true that the old forces are also jealous of us? Shouldn't we cherish this opportunity? Especially now when the Fa-rectification has come to the end of the last stage, we Dafa practitioners should be more diligent. Let us ask ourselves, am I being diligent? Even though others may think that I am diligent, it is not adequate according to the requirement of Dafa. Measured by the yardstick of Dafa, I'm not even half as diligent. Many times, I felt so ashamed that I did not dare to even look at Master's photo.
Although I cultivated myself everyday, always remembering to look inward, I felt there was a kind of obstacle I have never been able to break through. Whenever I thought of the requirements of the Fa, I would feel so far behind, and would feel very uneasy. What is a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple? Am I still a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple? I felt as if I had wandered into a wrong area, and I found it hard to see again in myself any of the mighty force to eliminate all the evil in the universe. Oftentimes I would be moved by false images. What was the root cause for the problem? I did not think in depth about it with a calm mind. I only felt lazy and did not want to do much truth-clarifying work. I knew there was a problem, but did not know what had caused it. Of course, I was still cultivating, and constantly making breakthroughs and improving myself. I paid attention to looking inward in personal cultivation, and fellow practitioners thought I was doing very well. But when I asked myself and measured myself against the standards of Dafa, I knew there was something wrong. Master mentioned on several occasions that time was pressing, yet I did not feel the urgency. It was because I was still in the state of personal cultivation. I easily felt pretty good about myself and failed to dig out the root cause in my thoughts on the basis of the Fa.
A few days ago, I read an article on Clearwisdom Net "Using Dafa is an Unforgivable Sin," (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/10/21/41486.html) which had a big impact on some fellow practitioners. Yet, I did not feel much of it, wondering how could we still possibly have such problems now. I did feel however that I was not in a right state of mind, so I calmed my mind and started to examine myself. For a while I seemed to have fallen back into personal cultivation, and although I was making breakthroughs and improving myself step by step, I felt I could not go beyond the boundaries of personal cultivation. I am a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple and I should validate the Fa with a mindset of a divine being. It is true that I was not in the situation mentioned in the article, and I did make a good enough effort in looking inward and in solid personal cultivation. I was able to do things without pursuit and to assimilate to the Fa and cultivate without pursuit. However, when I dug deeper I asked myself whether I had paid too much attention to personal cultivation and self-improvement? When I looked at it this way, I felt as if a wall had been broken open and I finally saw where my problem was. Indeed, there was a problem with my starting point. What did I come for? Did I come only to cultivate and to improve myself? No! I came to save sentient beings! All of a sudden, I felt I had a much clearer understanding. Master has come to save sentient beings. Personal cultivation is nothing in comparison with Fa-rectification, and validating the Fa is the most important. Save sentient beings is our bigger responsibility.
In the article "Serious Teachings" from the Clearwisdom editors, Master said, "No matter how he 'persists in studying the Fa and doing the exercises' at home, he is being controlled by demons and is 'enlightening' along an evil path." At the time I was a bit puzzled, thinking that although these people did not step forward, still they kept studying the Fa and doing the exercises at home, and they would look inward and cultivate themselves when encountering problems. How could they be wrong? How could Master say that they were "being controlled by demons and 'enlightening' along an evil path"? At the beginning of the tribulation, the old forces of the universe had arranged that big test. It was aimed at the Fa. Dafa practitioners let go of life and death and stepped forward to validate the Fa, which was to lay a diamond-solid foundation of the Fa in the human world and to validate that Dafa was indestructible. Therefore any thoughts that were in discord with this were not righteous, and they were thoughts along the evil path. We have now gone beyond that stage and our current mission, which is also our true mission, is to save sentient beings. The understanding that attaches to the state of personal cultivation, and neglects and fades from the memory the necessity of saving sentient beings, is also "enlightening" along an evil path.
There are some practitioners who always pursue the "purest" state, and they always put personal cultivation first when they come across any problems. This has affected our efforts in saving sentient beings. Is this righteous behavior? Think about it, isn't it true that those who went astray along the evil path were taken advantage of by the evil because they pursued the so-called higher levels and higher understandings of the Fa? They betrayed their mission and yet they claimed they were still acting on the Fa. Of course there is nothing wrong with improving ourselves, but the key point is whether we have put the Fa and saving sentient beings first.
My understanding has become clearer and clearer. We have come to save sentient beings, not to take advantage of Master's Fa-rectification to improve ourselves. We are nothing without Master. We should endeavor to offer the best way we can think of to harmonize what Master wants to achieve. This is what we should think about and what we should do. The old forces put our personal cultivation first, yet Master is guiding us in saving sentient beings. Isn't it very clear that how we do well is to walk on the path Master has arranged for us?
What is a Fa-rectification disciple? It means a Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification period. Master said in "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples,"
"So, it was arranged that when you reach the standard for ordinary Consummation, you still have, in the human world, all kinds of ordinary human thoughts and karma. The purpose is so that while doing Fa-rectification things, you clarify the truth, whereby you all bring in, for the consummation of your paradises, beings that can be saved. As you consummate your own paradises you are, at the same time, eliminating your last karma, gradually getting rid of your human thoughts, and truly stepping forward from humanness."
Without human thoughts, we cannot stay in everyday people's society. Only in bearing some human thoughts can we treasure the beings here, and can we validate the Fa and save sentient beings in the human world. That is to say, we still have human thoughts in us so that we can validate the Fa in the human world, but we cannot attend to the trifles and neglect the essentials, and take the wrong standpoint.
Some think that they have validated the Fa before and their understanding of the Fa has reached certain levels, so they became self-satisfied and slacked off. They don't want to do the truth clarification work, and even do very little exercises and seldom study the Fa. That behavior is definitely not righteous. Thinking from the Fa's perspective, if one is attached to having validated the Fa before and forget the true mission of saving sentient beings, isn't it also enlightenment along an evil path? This kind of evil enlightenment is most difficult to distinguish. It leads people to unconsciously drop out of the Fa-rectification and our one body. If one holds stubbornly to his own understanding and looks at others from the perspective of his personal cultivation level, instead of looking at himself and issues from the standpoint of fulfilling our mission, that is very dangerous! Our essential mission is to save sentient beings, which is what we should do, more than anything else, during this period of time. Teacher said,
"If during this period you cannot do well with what you should do, this Consummation stage can only be a cultivation process, and it cannot fundamentally be Fa-rectification disciples' true and final Consummation. If during the evil's persecution a Dafa disciple doesn't do well or slacks off, it's very possible all his previous efforts will have been for nothing." "Whether you are able to treasure this period of time is, in fact, a matter of whether you can be responsible to yourselves. This period of time will not last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent Enlightened Beings, Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself." ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples") This is the Fa. Master is exhorting Fa-rectification disciples!
Sometimes practitioners discuss our way of playing roles in everyday people's society -- is this right or wrong, is it harmonizing Dafa in the human world or is it letting the evil take advantage of our loopholes and interfere? We tend to have different opinions. In fact, from the basis of fulfilling our mission and saving sentient beings, it is very easy to handle correctly. When we cannot handle things correctly, that's usually due to looking at things from the standpoint of personal cultivation. It is because we have confusion in our understanding of the Fa that we think either way seems to be correct. It is because we do not have the correct starting point that we cannot find the root of the attachments. Of course we cannot go to extremes, the key is that we must put our starting point of saving sentient beings in the right position.
Fellow practitioners, let's all think it over. Do we only focus on personal cultivation without putting Dafa in the right position? Are we satisfied at having validated Dafa before, instead of putting our real mission -- saving sentient beings -- in the right position? Have we even forgotten our true mission?
Why can't some practitioners be diligent in cultivation? Why are some practitioners unable to break through for a long time the pursuit of comfort and the mentality of laziness? Why do some practitioners slack off yet don't take it as a serious problem? Aren't these because we didn't have the correct starting point? Even when being controlled by the evil, some still feel it is a minor thing and that it would not interfere with the overall situation. How dangerous it is! Our path is very narrow; we cannot deviate!
The mighty current of Fa-rectification does not wait. So many sentient beings are waiting for us to save them and so many sentient beings are longing for us to save them! Let us all clearly recognize the mission of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples.