PureInsight | April 19, 2026
[PureInsight.org] Recently while studying Master’s lectures given in various places, I have gained a slight insight into the meaning of the word “cultivation”, and I would like to share with fellow practitioners.
1. Master’s Fa Has Cleared away My Confusion
In the past, my understanding of the word “cultivation” was limited to a perceptual level. I one-sidedly believed that studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and doing things to save people were cultivation. I could not truly understand what Master said in 2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C., “‘Cultivation’ is the perfection and fulfillment of a being.” Yes—since cultivation is about accomplishing one’s life, what an enormous matter this is! If such a great matter is not done well, how could that be acceptable?
Master also said 2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C., “So in other words, don’t underestimate this world and its people. Dafa disciples aren’t the only ones ‘cultivating’ or working on themselves; others are doing the same, in a sense. They are being tempered as well. As people lead their lives and go about their jobs, wherever they may be, and deal with things, think about things, and act in this world, they are all making choices—in the contest between good and evil—that will impact their future.”
Through systematic Fa study, I have gained a new understanding of this passage. I truly feel that the people in today’s society are not simple. Although they appear to be busily going about their lives in all kinds of social environments—seemingly living at ease—they are actually busy for the sake of the cultivation of us Dafa disciples. They are doing what they should do in order to help accomplish Dafa disciples. What seems simple is in fact not simple at all. Without them, how could we improve? Without their existence, how would we have today’s complex cultivation environment? Yet they are doing things directly related to Dafa without knowing it, being tempered by this complicated historical event within this complex environment. In life, work, and family settings, when they encounter problems, through life, work, and family environments, when they encounter problems, through their thoughts in the struggle between good and evil and through their actions, they are positioning themselves.
For example, my husband is a very illustrative case. He does not cultivate, but he deeply acknowledges Dafa. From beginning to end, he has not missed reading Master’s articles; he reads every lecture carefully. He can even recite Master’s revised Lunyu without mistake. Although he does not like to practice the meditation exercise, he regularly practices the first, third, and fourth sets of the Dafa exercises.
His health condition has also been quite remarkable. During the more than twenty years of my cultivation, whenever he has been with me, he has basically not taken any medicine. At times, medical checkups showed serious “illnesses” such as blood sugar levels more than twice that of a normal person, as well as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, elevated liver enzymes, and so on. Yet he was not afraid. He did not take medication but simply paid attention to his diet, and within a few months everything returned to normal. Is this not a miracle? Recovering quickly from several illnesses without medication—could it not be the result of this ordinary person believing in Dafa, with Master cleansing his body?
Therefore, the people in today’s society truly are not simply, they are all involved in this. We must not underestimate the people of today and should seize the opportunity to save them. Master’s Fa has dispelled my confusion.
2. True Cultivation Means Cultivating That Heart of One’s Own
Looking inward and cultivating oneself may already be a breakthrough for diligent practitioners. But for me, I used to always feel that I was right. After I began cultivating, that sense of superiority not only remained but even increased. This may be related to my more than thirty years as a teacher. From a young age, I was competitive and strong-willed, unable to tolerate others criticizing me. Among ordinary people, I developed a self-righteous mindset. Influenced by the toxic culture of the evil CCP (Chinese Communist Party), I always strove to be the best, to reach the extreme, and often handled things in an extreme way. As a result, I developed a strong tendency to look down on others.
In the past, when someone criticized me, I simply ignored it. Since childhood, I disliked being managed and looked down on those who tried to manage me. Among relatives and friends, people kept a respectful distance and rarely dared to offend me. Among fellow practitioners, few would directly offer me negative feedback. This caused my human attachments to grow more. I became more willful in doing things, often going to extremes, and sometimes even deviating from Dafa. Thus, in my more than twenty years of cultivation, while participating in projects to save people, there were times of significant interference. On several occasions, the evil forces exploited my loopholes. Each time, under Master’s compassionate protection, I passed through the dangers without serious harm.
Master told us in Teaching at the Conference in Los Angeles, “ Cultivation is about looking inside yourself. Whether you are right or wrong, you should examine yourself.” Master also said in A Congratulatory Letter to the Fa Conference of Taiwan, “Cultivation is about working on the human mind and heart; it is about cultivating oneself. Only when you are able to examine yourself, looking inward amid problems, conflicts, difficulties, or when being treated unfairly, is it true cultivation. And only by doing so will you be constantly improving, staying the right course on your cultivation journey, and progressing toward consummation!”
From Master’s Fa, I have realized that cultivation is about cultivating oneself. To truly cultivate, one must eliminate that human heart that clings to attachments. Yet in my twenty-seven years of cultivation, I have not truly cultivated myself. Master taught us in What Is Cultivation Practice? from Essentials for Further Advancement, “Only when you are studying the Fa and cultivating your heart and mind in addition to the means of reaching Consummation—the exercises, and truly changing yourself fundamentally while improving your xinxing and elevating your level—can it be called true cultivation practice.” Master said in Zhuan Falun, “True spiritual practice means cultivating your mind, working on yourself, and reflecting on your role in things rather than blaming your circumstances.” Master also said in Teaching the Fa at the Switzerland Fa Conference, “You need to treat all of the troubles you encounter as cultivation, because they are definitely cultivation.”
In fact, for a cultivator, aside from cultivating oneself, all other worries are like “groundless fears” Master also taught us in Teachings at the Conference in New Zealand, “If when you encounter any trouble you can manage to look inside yourself and find your own attachments, then that is precisely cultivation.” Yet on such a big issue, I went against the Fa and failed to cultivate myself according to Master’s teachings. I kept looking outward and ended up walking the path arranged by the old forces. As a result, after twenty-seven years of cultivation, I have not changed much. I have not cultivated the great compassion that a cultivator should have, nor have I manifested the miracles Master spoke of in Dafa, nor have I well demonstrated the beauty of Dafa.
Looking back now, the ideas I used to cling to—who was right or wrong, who was good or bad—were all human notions, attachments that people refuse to let go of. They are not what a divine being wants. A divine heart is one that will completely let go. The entire universe is composed of the Fa, and Dafa belongs to all humanity—so why worry about how others are doing? In the past, I often worried that one practitioner might fall behind or that another’s Fa-study state was not good. But now, measured against the Fa, those were merely surface appearances; the real issue was how my own attachment was moved when I saw them. If I can think about problems within the Fa, then isn’t everything arranged by Master? Every practitioner is under Master’s care. There is no need for me to engage in “needless anxiety.” Isn’t that all about cultivating myself? Why would there still be so many worries? Aren’t they all human attachments?
In the final analysis, cultivation is about cultivating oneself—it is about cultivating that human heart. Only by cultivating ourselves well can we do the three things the Master asks us to do well. If we do not cultivate ourselves well, we will cause trouble for Master.
3. Mistakenly Taking Doing Things as Cultivation
While studying Teaching the Fa at the 2019 New York Fa Conference, when I read Master’s words, “What you are working on is not cultivation in and of itself. Be it the businesses you own, your Dafa projects, or whatever it is you do—they are not cultivation in their own right. What makes something cultivation is the attitude that you bring to it and the way that you deal with and resolve any issues, namely, by applying the standards for a practicing Dafa disciple!” Master also said, “That’s because, as you know, spiritual development happens amidst unknowing; when you don’t know whether you have done right or not in your cultivation, you still have to carry on, and it will be like that all the way until the day your cultivation is successfully completed.” And Master said in Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference, “And actually, when you manage to, while in the various professions, do well all the things that you ought to do, you are then in fact cultivating.” Master also told us in Teaching at the Conference in Singapore, “You pass a test well, and don’t pass a test well, tempering yourself in the process. That is cultivation.” After studying these teachings, I suddenly felt enlightened. For twenty-seven years of cultivation, I had always believed that I was cultivating fairly well. I had mistakenly taken doing Dafa-related work itself as cultivation—exactly the opposite of what Master said, that doing things themselves is not cultivation.
In the past, whether writing sharing articles or communicating with fellow practitioners, I often talked about how many truth-clarification materials I had distributed, how many stickers I had posted, how many flyers I had printed, how much truth-clarification currency I had circulated, and how many people I had persuaded to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Each time I mentioned these things that validated the Fa, I felt self-satisfied, believing I had done Dafa work well. Sometimes I even looked down on practitioners who had fear and did not dare to participate in Dafa activities.
However, when I occasionally reflected on myself, I always felt that something seemed to block my progress on the cultivation path. I felt that my improvement was slow, especially in terms of improving my xinxing (moral character). As a result, my cultivation state was sometimes good and sometimes unstable. There was not much overall change. Certain attachments repeatedly surfaced, yet I could not find their root cause.
Through studying Master’s lectures, my confusion was dispelled. After cultivating for twenty-seven years, Master has explained things so clearly—yet why could I still not do well? Now I realize that I have not truly studied the Fa well, nor truly understood what real cultivation is. I mistakenly regarded doing things as cultivation and focused my heart on accomplishing tasks, instead of treating the process of removing human attachments as the main priority. So, over the years, although I did many things, my attachments were eliminated very slowly, and naturally my improvement was slow as well. In the final analysis, it was because I did not truly know how to cultivate and did not understand the special nature of Dafa cultivation. In today’s morally declining world, cultivation feels especially difficult if one does not truly cultivate the heart.
From studying Master’s lectures, I have come to realize: work is work; it is not Dafa cultivation. None of us can abandon our roles among ordinary people. In society, we should fulfill those roles well. We should honor our parents, educate our children, and handle relationships with relatives, friends, and neighbors properly. Among ordinary people, we should begin by being good people and doing our jobs well. If we cannot even do our own work properly, if we cannot even be considered good people in ordinary society, how can we be considered as good cultivators? Therefore, we must cultivate ourselves well. Only by cultivating our xinxing can we elevate our level. We must begin by eliminating one attachment after another. Only by cultivating ourselves well can we do well the three things Master asks us to do. The projects in Dafa themselves are not cultivation; they were not originally part of Dafa. But while carrying out these specific projects, we can cultivate ourselves in the process, improve ourselves, and eliminate our human attachments.
Realizing this, I feel I have greatly disappointed my Master. I have obtained such a wonderful Dafa and have such a compassionate Master—how could I have been so unworthy? Regret is useless. From now on, I must take my cultivation seriously, cultivate my heart and remove attachments, be more diligent, cultivate myself well while doing the three things, truly improve my xinxing, and become an extraordinary person through cultivation.
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Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/300690
