(Minghui.org) Many fellow practitioners are addicted to online shopping and getting deals and discounts. Some even participate in activities similar to multi-level marketing schemes and defend themselves by saying that they haven't broken any laws.
The old forces are taking advantage of such loopholes and, as a result, many practitioners have suffered long-lasting tribulations. Their attachment to self-interest grows stronger and stronger. Lots of time is being wasted at this critical period for saving sentient beings.
As Dafa practitioners, we know we should discipline ourselves based on Dafa, not just on society's laws. For example, it is legal to speculate on the stock market. It is legal to go fishing. In some countries, homosexuality is legal. Can we, as cultivators, do these things?
Every veteran practitioner understands what we shouldn't do. But sometimes people find excuses for themselves because they are driven by attachments, pursuing fame and self-interest. Master told us the story of Shakyamuni's disciples collecting alms bowls and comparing them among one another. Shakyamuni taught a lesson specifically about alms bowls. He said that since you've become a monk, why can't you let go of an alms bowl? Perhaps you want to go home and return to the secular world where you can have everything? But if you want to cultivate, you have to let go of every secular attachment.
Master gave two other examples in Zhuan Falun. One was about practitioners working at a textile factory. They returned all the stolen leftover towel cloth to the factory. Another was about a practitioner's child buying a lottery ticket and winning a bike. The practitioner wanted to donate the cost of the bike to his workplace.
My understanding is that those are the standards of Dafa practitioners and they are the most righteous path for cultivators to follow in the future.
We are at the final moments of Fa-rectification. We need to reflect on ourselves. What position does Dafa have in our hearts? What is the position of our own cultivation? As long as we have greedy thoughts, the attachment of self-interest will transform into things in order to lure our mind, blind us, and consume us.
Master said:
“In order for anything to have a foothold in this world, to be able to hold up, and establish itself, there has to be a key factor: It has to form a field in this dimension, a field that materially exists.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe”)
When we have developed the attachment to self-interest, a material field develops for its existence. And the evil beings take advantage of it to interfere with and persecute practitioners.
Over the course of the twenty-year persecution, many practitioners have been living in financial difficulty. However, as long as we have firm faith in Dafa and walk a righteous path in cultivation, no matter how difficult circumstances may be, we have nothing to fear.
The current time we have for cultivation is due to Master's extension and his tremendous endurance. In other words, we don't own our time. Time is a Dafa resource. It is extended by Master for us to cultivate ourselves and to save sentient beings. To waste our time or be irresponsible in our cultivation is committing a sin.
Let's all cherish the final moments of Fa-rectification, stay clearheaded and finish the last segment of our cultivation path.
This is my own understanding. Fellow practitioners, please compassionately point out anything inappropriate.
Category: Improving Oneself
