(Minghui.org) After I read, “Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference,” I realized many of our problems and tribulations in cultivation come from not focusing and absorbing what we are reading while studying the Fa. Without a deeper understanding of the Fa, it is difficult for us to make breakthroughs in cultivation.

One example is sentimentality. When we are trapped in human notions, we may do things irresponsibly creating karma and unnecessary interference for ourselves. In other words, whether a practitioner can let go of sentimentality and human thoughts is a major test for all of us; it will decide if we can make it to the end of cultivation and meet the requirements.

Many of us have cultivated for a long time. By elevating from this earthly world, we have to discipline ourselves with a higher standard. After all, our final realm is determined by our own situation and how much we are assimilated to the Fa, not external circumstances including the recent wave of suing Jiang Zemin for persecuting Falun Gong.

Everyday society has its own standards. In ancient China many people believed in and worshiped gods, but they were not cultivators. They led enjoyable lives, including a happy family, wealth, helped others, and were able to do good deeds. They also knew doing bad things would lead to negative consequences in their next lifetimes. But in the end, they were still everyday people.

For us Falun Dafa practitioners, the situation is different. We need to ascend from out of the Three Realms, proceed beyond reincarnation, and reach our final destination. With guidance from the Fa principles, we are cultivating on our path, even though we live in this human world. That is, we should not be disturbed by what is happening in society; rather we need to pay attention to how to do better as Dafa disciples.

It is not an easy process, because we are separating ourselves from the thoughts that used to reside in us. Nonetheless, as practitioners we do need to put our mind on improving ourselves and do better on our cultivation paths, instead of being attached to what happens in everyday society.

Here is one example. One practitioner and his relative opened a retail store. They agreed that the practitioner should work the day shift, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and his relative would work the night shift. However, because of household chores the relative usually did not come until 8 p.m.

In the beginning, the practitioner called his relative, asking him to come earlier. But that did not work. Later the practitioner complained about this almost every day saying: “Because you were late, I do not have enough time for Fa-study. Why do you always interfere with my cultivation?”

The practitioner left the store two years later. But he soon had a problem—he had difficulty walking up and down stairs. His legs were so painful that he had to hold onto the handrails for support. When he examined himself, he knew he was doing the Three Things but he could not figure out what went wrong.

Later when he was reading Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun, he realized he had poor xinxing. Instead of being compassionate towards others and handling things with righteous thoughts, he simply complained about them and indulged himself in human notions.

The situation improved once he understood this, but the pain later came back. As he continued to look inward and improve, the pain finally disappeared two years later.

Once a practitioner told me that in his dream Teacher gave him a hint: that many practitioners have not assimilated to the Fa although they are practicing. When I examined myself, I found I also have this problem. When we face conflicts we really need to let go of sentimentality.