Thoughts on Cultivation and Hardship

A Practitioner in Beijing

PureInsight | January 30, 2008

[PureInsight.org] I have been
cultivating for more than 10 years. But my level has been rising very
slowly and I have still remained at the stage of personal cultivation.
I did not enter into Fa-Rectification period cultivation. My laziness
and the intention of avoiding hardship have especially been dragging me
down. Every morning I had a fight in my head about whether to get up
for the early morning exercises and many times I was defeated. Every
time I regretted it very much. So before I went to sleep I always made
the decision to get up early the next day. But, in the morning,
sleepiness and the desire to avoid hardship found excuses such as "I
can do the exercises later." My main consciousness was not strong
enough and I fell back to sleep. I was disturbed by this very much but
I was not able to break through it and was not able to thoroughly get
rid of the demon of laziness and cultivate diligently.



Recently, I thought about this again and I decided to completely clean
up these interferences. First, I made it clear those thoughts of
laziness and seeking comfort are not the real thoughts of my main
consciousness. They are incorrect notions which one should eliminate
during cultivation. Master's Fa can help to eliminate them. I calmed
down during my Fa study, no longer treated Fa study as a task, and
tried to read as much as I could. When I studied the Fa with a calm
mind, Master's hints came out from the Fa. Master said:



"Whether you can practice cultivation all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and suffer." (Zhuan Falun)



Yes, I want to cultivate. How can I not be willing to suffer even so
little? How can I not want to get up early and make myself cultivate
diligently? Those are human notions I developed and they cover up my
true self.



Thinking further, why did I so much want comfort for my body? I was
thinking of the comfort of a human being as real comfort. I treated
myself as a noncultivator. If one seeks the happiness and comfort of an
ordinary person, then he is not a cultivator. He wants what secular
people want. He will be disturbed by all the unfairness among ordinary
people and he will have attachments concerned with when cultivation
ends and the environment for cultivation, his free time, and news
reports. He will spend a lot of time paying attention to what's
happening in the world rather than spending time studying the Fa! This
is totally off the requirement of the Fa.



Currently, in Mainland China the practitioners are still undergoing
evil's persecution, including my wife. I'm also watched by the police.
That became my excuse and I started to treat things in the ordinary
person's way. I was not very solid and firm as a true practitioner
would be. I was at the level of a person who does not cultivate and I
was seeking ordinary people's comfort. I did not treat myself as a true
cultivator. A true cultivator should be able to cultivate under any
conditions and in any environment. They are not going to change with
changes in their environment. They know they need to face any
environment and none of the things ordinary people seek are their final
goal. If one's heart remains at the ordinary human's level then one
will follow an ordinary human's notions. A true cultivator should break
free from all human notions. He can only be lifted when he follows the
standard for cultivators.



Translated from:

http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/10/169890.html

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