Some Understandings After Studying Master's New Article "Greetings"

In "Greetings," Master said,
"Walk the last steps of your path well and with determination, study the Fa well, and, with a foundation laid by your having cultivated well, your righteous thoughts will naturally grow stronger and you will surely do well with what Dafa disciples are supposed to do."

This made me truly understand the importance of studying the Fa well and cultivating ourselves well.

In the past, I didn't study the Fa well and had some misunderstandings. I considered myself a Dafa disciple who had done personal cultivation prior to July 20, 1999 and Fa-rectification cultivation afterwards. Therefore, I thought it would be enough to only do things to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. I was not strict with myself about cultivating xinxing (character) and doing the exercises. As a result, I had some detours on my cultivation path and I am very regretful.

After studying Master's new article "Greetings" and looking back over the path I have walked, especially after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, I realized the fundamental reason for my being persecuted was because I did not study the Fa well and did not cultivate myself well. This presented loopholes for the evil to take advantage of. In the beginning, I started practicing cultivation hoping to improve my physical health. Master purified my body and my illnesses disappeared. Because I had not studied the Fa well and only superficially understood the Fa, I didn't know what to do when the evil persecution started. Although knowing I should openly validate the Fa, I was concerned about personal loss. As a result, I yielded to the persecution. However, Master did not give up on me and kept caring for me. Later, although I knew I should cultivate myself well when validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, I tended to ignore personal cultivation. I often separated saving sentient beings from cultivating myself and thought one could reach consummation after building up mighty virtue in the process of saving sentient beings. I thought that upon consummation, Master would disintegrate those parts that had not cultivated well. Therefore, when human notions surfaced, I didn't pay attention to them.

In fact, saving sentient beings cannot replace personal cultivation. Take truth-clarification (explaining the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong) as one example. In the beginning I was thinking about saving sentient beings. But as time went on, things became routine. If I approached this sacred responsibility with the mentality of finishing daily tasks, how could I save sentient beings? The same thing happened while doing face-to-face truth-clarification. In the past, I tried my best to clarify the truth, although the environment was not favourable. Now the situation has improved, but I am doing very poorly and have lost the momentum I had previously. I also used the excuse that I had already clarified the truth to the people around me. In fact, it's because I did not cultivate myself well and did not have strong righteous thoughts. Many human notions surfaced, including laziness, seeking comfort, zealotry, showing-off, struggling, fame, self-interest, lust etc. All these are hindering me from saving sentient beings. Master said,

"Walk the last steps of your path well and with determination, study the Fa well, and, with a foundation laid by your having cultivated well, your righteous thoughts will naturally grow stronger and you will surely do well with what Dafa disciples are supposed to do."

From this we can see the importance of cultivating ourselves well. Only then can we save more sentient beings.

These are some of my personal understandings. Please point out anything inappropriate.