(Clearwisdom.net) In my cultivation I found a problem while in the process of cultivating. We are easily contaminated by the bad conduct of people in ordinary society, such as being asked to watch a soap opera, read a newspaper or magazine, going on-line to read news of interests, chatting with ordinary people on improper subjects, and being careless in what one says among ordinary people or at home. There are also problems of being attached to going shopping and buying things that interest ordinary people. Sometimes one even plays games on one's cell phone or computer. These things do not happen all the time, but they happen as soon as one is not vigilant. It most likely is because of our lack of discipline. Once it happens, we may feel sorry afterwards and begin to correct ourselves, regretting that we did not work hard enough to do the three things.
The root cause, however, has not been resolved. For example, for those practitioners who are retired, if they could restrict the people they come in contact with when they are not telling people facts about Dafa to only other practitioners, they could keep themselves in a better state and not be contaminated by things in ordinary people's society. I tried all sorts of ways to avoid wasting my precious time, but often only got better for a short while and soon relaxed again. Then, as soon as I studied Dafa books, I would felt regret that I failed to keep my xinxing high.
I am a young practitioner. What often happens is something like this: "Today I went on an ordinary people's website that has nothing to do with my work. I was interested in movie stars, food, fashion, or said something that I should not have, or had a chat with an ordinary person on a fun subject, or was hysterical after hearing some jokes by ordinary people."
The other day, after I overcame the problem of lust that had bothered me for a long time, I had a better understanding about how not to be affected by ordinary people. As with the problem of lust, the issue is still whether one has the right understanding of things.
I had two wrong thoughts. The first one is that I was not clear about the requirement to "conform to everyday people as much as possible while cultivating" (" Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s), Essentials for Further Advancement II) Nowadays everything in ordinary people's society is warped. We need to follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance when we cultivate, rather than going along with the warped behavior of society. For example, on the subject of minding our speech, ordinary people like to gossip, show off, and put others down. This should not happen, as a practitioner should not talk like that. I myself still play cell phone games sometimes. The other day I found in Teacher's lecture that playing video games was also warped. I was stunned and stopped doing it right away.
The second wrong thought is that Teacher taught us that we may encounter many bad people when we explain the facts about Dafa, and some of them may even be quite demonic. We should pay no attention to their bad behavior, since they are to be dealt with in the next phase. I misunderstood this teaching and began to accept this behavior. Teacher actually wants us not to pay attention to them; he did not ask us to accept them. It is not to say that ordinary people do not have to repay their bad deeds. It is only that they will not pay for them now, but they will in the next phase. A person will pay for whatever he does. Our not paying attention to them means that we do not try to correct their bad behavior using ordinary people's ways, but we should be clear in our minds what is right and wrong, and what is good and bad. We should by no means agree with them in our minds, let alone cooperate with them in our actions. Once I understood this, it became easy for me to cultivate away my bad behavior.
For example, ordinary people feel reading the newspaper and watching TV are very enjoyable. Sometimes they ask me, "Hi, why don't you join us? It is so interesting." In the past when I met with this situation, it was a struggle, and I was not able to decide whether to do it or not. Sometimes I could withstand the urge, thinking that a practitioner should not be interested in those things. Sometimes I was unable to overcome my curiosity and desire to join them. Afterwards I would become regretful and not be able to settle down when I sent forth righteous thoughts at home. Now when I see people watching these things, I have a clear thought in my mind: "The things that ordinary people watch these days are all filled with violence and sex, and they are bad for people. They are contaminating themselves by watching them." With this clear notion, it becomes easy for me to turn it down. When they asked me to join them again, I was not affected and said calmly "Sorry, I do not have time now."
The colleagues in my workplace often get together to chat and seem to have a lot of fun. In the past I also joined them, but with a sense of guilt. When I now see them chatting, I know that all they do is gossip about other people and they are creating karma for themselves. With this understanding, it easily resolved my problem of minding my speech.
In the past I had a wrong understanding that people would misunderstand me if I kept quiet all the time. I then realized that being quiet would only cause people to think that I was introverted, which is not bad. Ordinary people can be introverted too, but people will not look at practitioners as being different.
As a matter of fact, as long as we strictly cultivate our xinxing, ordinary people will not feel that practitioners behave differently. Some people feel that practitioners are a bit different mainly because of their remaining attachments. For example, out of zealotry one does things to extremes or talks about things beyond people's belief, or they quit their jobs to fully focus on Dafa, attempting to follow ancient cultivators to cultivate in isolation. All these create misunderstandings for people. Some practitioners insist on telling people high level principles that they have enlightened to, but ordinary people are in the maze and are unable to understand the advanced principles of cultivation and will think that the cultivators are not right. Some practitioners also tried to be at a level that they actually are not. They act coldly to their family members in spite of the fact that they still have affection. Being benevolent means to treat everyone well and not be cold to anyone. All of these aberrations can only create wrong impressions for people toward practitioners.
Cultivation is a serious matter. One should not let the old forces find any loopholes; one should follow Teacher's arrangement. The only way is to study the Fa as often as one can. Study the Fa diligently, and examine it whenever one is faced with any problem. The path for a practitioner is very narrow. If one can understand the principles of Dafa and always follow them, cultivation is not that difficult. Only by cultivating oneself well can we do the three things well.
My level is limited. Please kindly point out my deficiencies when you see them.
