(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher emphasizes repeatedly that Falun Gong practitioners should do their very best to conform to the everyday people's society during our cultivation. We should start by being a good person. Then, we should rise above just being good people in order to transcend an everyday person's life and finally become a great divine being who reaches Consummation with virtuous enlightenment and righteous Fa.
Dafa is great, holy, and pure. Then, would a person in modern society who has distorted human notions deep inside become great and pure without cultivating his character once he starts to practice Falun Gong? Would he achieve the basic requirement of being a good person who is created and set by Dafa for the lowest level, which is mankind, in only one easy step?
For a long time, I was not able to detect a thought that was hidden in my sub-consciousness. It was that I was better than ordinary people because I had obtained the Fa. I even become so proud that I sneered at everything.
When non-practitioners or fellow practitioners talked with me about some problems, I often looked at them with a scornful expression, thinking that they were looking at things from a conventional human perspective, which is a representation of the attachment to fame, personal interest and emotions. This implied that I saw things from the perspective of the Fa and that what they said were only trivial things that I would not be attached to. Driven by the attachment to outward appearance, I hindered others from pointing out my attachments and faults. I refused to look inward and improve myself from my heart. This caused me to have a very shaky foundation for my personal cultivation and I acted even worse than an ordinary person in some aspects. My speech and actions were not above those of everyday people, they were simply abnormal. This caused ordinary people to have the impression that "those Falun Gong practitioners are even worse than we non-practitioners."
Although I did the three things that Master told us to do, I only did them formally, without really following the essence of Teacher's requirement, focusing on the inner meaning, or achieving the standard of the Fa.
I regarded doing Dafa work as the essence of cultivation. I did not want to look inward and was gladly taking a shortcut, because getting rid of attachments and notions is very tiring and painful.
In this way, I seriously violated and destroyed the social state created by Dafa for the lowest level--mankind--and damaged Dafa's reputation. It was not cultivation but undermining Dafa. It was just pushing people out!
Cultivation in Fa-Rectification consists of personal cultivation. This is the basis for reaching Consummation for a Dafa disciple. If we do not lay a solid foundation for our personal cultivation, cultivate compassion as well as have a peaceful mindset, and consider others first when doing things, how could we keep a calm mind in such a severe environment?
Without having holy and righteous thoughts, how could we save sentient beings, eliminate the evil, validate the Fa, and fulfill all of our historic responsibilities?
Let us ask ourselves: Do I meet the most basic requirement of being a good person set by Dafa ?