For a period of time, I was not in a good cultivation state. I felt sleepy when I was studying the Fa, and I got distracted when I was sending forth righteous thoughts. I didn't get up early to practice the exercises. I was satisfied with my only participating in a weekly group Fa study, distributing several dozen pieces of truth-clarifying materials, encouraging a few people to renounce their CCP (Chinese communist party) memberships, and sending forth righteous thoughts four times a day. I believe that I did not do the three things with all my heart and soul, although I did perform them. It was not a truly diligent cultivation state.
The article "A Long Journey Tests the True Gift of a Horse"
(http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2009/6/20/108426.html), published on the Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom) website on April 23rd, 2009, revealed some fellow practitioners' incorrect cultivation states of seeking comfort and being relaxed and indifferent. I felt I had the same bad cultivation states. Although I was adjusting myself all the time in order to concentrate on studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and saving sentient beings, I did not make a significant change.
Through studying Master's "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference" again and again, I enlightened to the fact that Master pointed out the reasons for seeking comfort and being relaxed and indifferent from many angles. Since we do not get the chance to see Master and it was a long time since a new article had come out, we practitioners were cultivating in bleak loneliness, which made us slack off and feel relaxed. Various temptations of ordinary society interfered with practitioners. Dafa practitioners are on the way to becoming immortal and possess powerful supernormal abilities. However, most of our supernormal abilities are locked, so people cannot see cultivators' power and even we ourselves do not realize it. Besides, the evil persecution has lasted for ten years, and the evil elements are still rampant in some locales of mainland China, all of which creates tremendous pressure for Fa-rectification. For all of the above reasons, Dafa practitioners might have the states of seeking comfort and being relaxed and indifferent.
Once when I was studying the Fa, I was suddenly enlightened to the fact that the Fa Master taught was to direct us in how to practice cultivation. Since we already knew the root causes behind the incorrect cultivation states, why didn't we eliminate them? Thus, I sent forth a righteous thought to decimate all the rotten substances and evil elements around me which created these bad cultivation states. As soon as I sent forth the righteous thought, I suddenly felt that a shell around me was disintegrated. Afterward, I felt very awake and concentrated when I was studying the Fa. I started to get up on time to practice the exercises. When I was sending forth righteous thoughts, I was very concentrated. I felt that when I was clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, the righteous thoughts were powerful and the effects were good.
In "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference", Master said:
"If, however, there isn't anything that obstructs Dafa disciples' efforts to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, then I won't come out to give a talk. In the absence of prominent, widespread problems that pertain to the whole body, I won't say anything."
Since Master talked in length about the incorrect cultivation states of seeking comfort and being relaxed and indifferent, my understanding was that this was actually a widespread problem among practitioners. Since it was a widespread problem, it was a warning for our fellow practitioners that it was necessary for us to calm down to study the Fa more, look within, take the Fa to judge ourselves and check if we had similar problems. We should eliminate the incorrect cultivation states of slacking off and being relaxed and indifferent, in order to make a major breakthrough in cultivation and to be elevated to a higher level. Let's persistently and diligently do the three things to save sentient beings.
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