"The 101st Day"

I remember that Minghui Weekly once carried a story about three Buddhist practitioners cultivating Buddhahood. The story is roughly as follows:

A master had his three students hand-copy the scriptures, saying he would come to take them on the 100th day. The first student, who did not want to overcome hardship, gave up under the enticement of a beautiful girl after copying the scriptures for a few days. The second student continued copying until the 100th day. But at that point, seeing that his master had not come to pick them up, he became disappointed and complained that his master had deceived them. He left in resentment. Only the third student continued wholeheartedly cultivating himself. Whether the master came or not, he kept copying according to his master's requirements. The next day, the 101st day, the master came to pick him up and helped him become a Buddha.

This story tells us that, to become a Buddha, one has to survive many layers of tribulation and repetitive sifting, until all of his or her human notions have been eliminated. Otherwise, one will never pass the tests and become a Buddha.

This story made me think about the current situation. Is it not the same for Dafa disciples who are to assist Master in rectifying the Fa and doing the three things (study the Fa [the teachings of Falun Dafa], send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and about the persecution to the world's people) well? Several years ago Master told us that Fa-rectification had almost come to the final phase and was about to end, but after several years, the Fa-rectification has not ended. Some disciples began to have doubts: Shouldn't the Fa-rectification have come to an end a long time ago? Why does it still not end? How long would it be until it finally comes to an end?

Practitioners with this mindset are like the second student in the story that did not single-mindedly follow his master's requirements and instead used his own xinxing (heart and mind nature/character) to judge his master. Master is compassionate towards all sentient beings. How could we be so impertinent as to judge Master?

On the other hand, is the Fa-rectification still ongoing because of disciples who have not done well, thereby prolonging the end? Master has already clearly addressed this point in several recent lectures. Master is worrying about us and sentient beings! But some Dafa disciples still do not have a sense of urgency. They still wait and even complain about Master. Master wants all of his Dafa disciples to succeed and for us to establish our own mighty virtue. Master has given us the title of "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples," the highest glory in the whole cosmos, and told us that this is something that has never happened before and will never happen again. How can we not cherish this title? Do we want to waste all of our previous efforts?

The last tribulation is usually the toughest to overcome. Although the "101st day" seems to be not much different from the "100th day" on the surface, the former can be thought of as a threshold indicating whether one's xinxing has met the requirements. The degree of difficulty at the 101st day may even surpass that of the previous 100 days put together.

I hope that we Dafa disciples will not be like the second student in the story. We should be more diligent as the Fa-rectification nears the end. We should quickly let go of all the attachments that we still have. By then, Master will certainly come to take us, and Master has already prepared the best for us.