To Handle the Lack of Time with Righteous Thoughts

Highly esteemed Master!
Dear fellow practitioners!

I am a practitioner from Romania and I obtained the Fa in 2004. It is a great honour for me to share my cultivation experience here at the European Fa-conference.

Since I was little I wished that the whole world could be a happy environment built on correct values and structures that people would happily respect and follow. Through my communist school education I was convinced that intelligence is the key and if we could be just a bit smarter we would not do so many foolish things that hurt other people and us in return. Having difficulty in finding such an environment and values, I was determined to build such a society if I had to. Then in 2004 a simple glance at the written principles Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance near a person that was meditating, made me realise: "Yes, this could truly work".

Unfortunately our current world is rather different from the world where people understand, respect and happily apply these precious principles. So from this point on it was just natural for me to try to allow people to see and understand what the righteous Fa is that brings about these principles. Being lucky to have the opportunity over the years, I have been trying to help with projects like: Clear Harmony, translating Fa articles, the Human Rights Torch Relay, Shen Yun, a little with Epoch Times, and maybe a few more. Also perhaps I should mention that I'm married, have a four and a half year old daughter, have a full-time job, and each day I cannot go without studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and still need to have some time to do some exercises and other things, like keeping up with emails.

Writing this sharing for example also takes time, so as a reflex I could have just said that I don't have time. But, wouldn't that be a grave mistake then? Wouldn't I be missing out on a great cultivation process? Aren't my attachments and shortcomings just extremely obvious when I read again my draft of the sharing? Isn't this a precious time to improve? Isn't this the reason why I'm here? Master gave the Fa Conferences as a precious opportunity for us to improve. Then isn't the so called lack of time giving me the opportunity to see what else I could possibly think is more important than to be able to contribute to a Fa conference. This way, those petty attachments, which I thought were insignificant, have no other choice then to show me their true power. This in turn helps me to take them seriously and to strengthen my will to eliminate them.

For these reasons I would like to share with you about the issue of lack of time and how that relates to my lack of righteous thoughts. This experience of mine was formed based on a few events, kindly arranged by Master.

The first one made me realise that the expression “I did not have time” is actually a false expression. I used this expression without thinking every time I did not manage to find the time to do something, and this expression gave me in turn the impression that I was completely innocent because, you know, time is supposed to be objective. This practitioner on the other hand very naturally pointed out to me that the actual reason why I did not do that thing, was not because of a lack of time, but because I did not consider that thing to have a high enough priority.

Needless to say this has implications with a lot of other things, making our heart during cultivation extremely transparent. For example it is very telling on how much time and attention I spend on Fa study or on exercises or on truth clarification or simply on having enough compassion for the sentient beings that are close to me, just as Master has instructed us in Zhuan Falun: “You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone.” (English edition 2000)

Having realised that so many things can be so easily covered up with the reflex expression of “I don’t have time”, was not a small thing. Isn't it much better to realise my responsibility for the priorities I set myself, than to slide down in ignorance?

The second thing that made me realise how the lack of time is produced was after I read a message from a practitioner saying that “the Euro-tunnel has some technical problem, Shen Yun buses and truck are still in France in a queue. Let’s be aware of the battle between good and evil always underway.” I was telling myself that: look, here is a serious issue that is truly handled with a clear mind and permanent righteous thoughts by this practitioner, who is not fooled as much as me by the illusion of the three realms.

Then I dropped a toothpick, and could not find it anymore. This event could have been one of the most uneventful wastes of time that could have ever happened in my life. Still the fact that I was way behind with some truth clarification projects and the fact that I was reminded in the most serious manner that there is a constant battle between good and evil, made me realise that this event was real and I should really not waste any time on it, and in turn I stopped wasting time in looking for the toothpick. This is just an example to show how we prioritise our time and how subtle and seemingly innocent this loss of precious time can be. When I’m not clear enough in my thinking and consequently my righteous thoughts are not strong enough, I can waste time in thousands of ways without realising it. Then wouldn’t this be a major victory for the evil?

I believe that every practitioner has the heart to help Master in the salvation of sentient beings and in Fa-rectification. Master considers all of us Dafa disciples; this makes us extremely precious particles in the universe. When we say that we want something the whole universe is listening.

So how come we can have so much interference? Now, my understanding is that this is exactly because the whole universe is listening and they want us to cultivate to Completion. This in turn, gives us both power and responsibility. On the one hand if my thoughts are righteous no evil can stand in my way, not even the subtle ones, on the other hand if I relax my righteous thoughts I can easily lose sight that my mission is divine and then I’m just a limited human being that can be lead astray unconsciously in thousands of ways.

So what are righteous thoughts? Now I understand that these are the thoughts that come from the Fa, because these are the only thoughts that can help us break away from the false illusions around us. Thus true improvement comes from good Fa study, and when we are evaluating things with the Fa we have learned. I guess this is also why experience sharing is so precious when done with the Fa principles learned.

In all our experience sharings and in all our projects, we have the opportunity to look inside and to evaluate things with the Fa. We also have the power and the honour to encourage each other, which is extremely important. Having lost a toothpick in plain sight now I personally know how easy it is to get mislead in this world even on seemingly trivial attachments.

I believe we can help practitioners around us to lose less time, just by sharing on this issue. If we could fully expose this evil, I believe, that just as with any other evil, we could disintegrate it and it could no longer slow us down.

Thank you for everything esteemed Master, thank you fellow practitioners.