(Clearwisdom.net) After we started our journey on Sunday afternoon, the first two-thirds of our trip to New York City went quite smoothly. When we were about 300 miles away from our destination, however, we encountered some unusual weather. Behind us red clouds hung in the sky like a volcano spewing out burning flames, and ahead of us dark clouds shadowed the way like an endless sea. As dusk fell, it went dark everywhere except for the tail lights from the vehicles in front of us. We had expected to arrive in New York City by midnight, but were surprised to find that the southbound I-87 freeway leading to the north of the city was closed due to flooding.

We decided to take a back road instead, but our GPS was confused at best. The route it calculated was a winding dark mountain road whose conditions were not visible at all. Standing water, downed trees, and fallen boulders dotted the road, one section of which had even sunk, but we were able to travel just fine. All the houses we passed had no lights on, since the residents had already been evacuated. By 2:00 a.m., however, we were met with barriers even on this back road. We managed to find a fire station to seek help and were told the road would be reopened by 6:00 in the morning. So we went back to our car to sleep. When dawn broke, however, the main southbound interstate freeway I-87 remained closed. With police assistance, we took a detour and drove to New York City via I-84 further to the north. When we finally entered the city, there were still numerous road barriers, but we managed to arrive at the conference location by 8:00 a.m. Even though we were all exhausted after this long trip, we felt very happy to see so many other fellow practitioners, some of whom had very similar experiences to ours.

The experience sharing conference was delayed for quite a while. The moment we began the meeting, Master arrived and began to teach. I remember Master looked very serious and gave us some very stern warnings regarding our cultivation.

Reflecting on the last leg of our trip to New York, I see a parallel with our cultivation journey, which is full of scares but with no real danger, and full of barriers but always with a path appearing, leading us out of danger. From the very beginning of our cultivation, we should be mentally prepared that cultivation is not smooth sailing or pure enjoyment. During the past few years, Master has repeatedly advised us to walk well the last leg of our cultivation journey and to rediscover the diligent state of mind we had when we just started cultivating. At present, the cultivation environment is not as harsh and the evil is not as rampant, but it thus poses another kind of challenge, namely, staying diligent and persevering in our cultivation. In “Journey to the West,” Tripitaka and his three disciples had to pass numerous tribulations and make up any test missed before reaching Consummation. We are no different and we have no reason to slack off in our cultivation.

The last leg of our cultivation journey is not necessarily easier. For practitioners in China, the old forces are “putting them through a comprehensive and destructive test that targets all human thoughts and attachments.” (“Towards Consummation,” Essentials for Further Advancement II) As for we practitioners outside of China, we also have the issue of relinquishing our fundamental attachments. If we don’t want to rid ourselves of the selfish nature we developed in the old universe, there is no way we can become renewed lives in the new universe. The only choice we have is to abandon our attachments; there is simply no other choice. If we have all risked everything, including the life we had before as divine beings, to come down to this human world filled with evil to assist Master with Fa-rectification, we should at least reach the same realm from which we made the descent, right? I admit it is very difficult to weed out our attachments, but if we fail to recognize and remove them, then everything we are busy doing is nothing but fake cultivation intended to cover up our fundamental attachments. I suggest that we gather up our courage to face and rid ourselves of our attachments and do not go too easy on ourselves. After all, the extent that we do this displays the true colors of genuine Dafa disciples.