(Clearwisdom.net) Before I took up cultivation practice, subconsciously I always measured whether a person deserved respect based on his material wealth and authority. After practicing cultivation for a long time, I have come to realize that irrespective of one's social strata, those who preserve and accumulate de (virtue) are the most noble people.
Even after practicing cultivation for many years, it is quite often very difficult to let go of our own attachments voluntarily. Most of the time we make progress because we want to pass a test. It is very difficult to achieve the state of "knowingly surrendering" as Master requires. I have sometimes drifted into a state of following what others do to become good people. While doing the three things every day, there was always this busy feeling, but deep inside my innermost feelings were those of emptiness. When encountering situations where others didn't understand me, there was always this need to first alleviate the empty feeling. I didn't know where the boundary and the mercy of a cultivator manifested.
Recently I encountered several big xinxing tests. The complexity of the issues at hand made it impossible for me to analyze and assess all the facts. I remembered that Master said, "As long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly." (From "Transformation of Karma" in Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun.) Initially it was through the desire to restrain myself and consider others first that I handled the situation. Afterwards, I sensed feelings of enrichment and steadiness.
By remembering that Master asked us to preserve de and to guard our xinxing, I discovered that preserving de was not limited to defending our own positions. It was about assimilation to the Fa, measuring the pros and cons from the standpoint of other people when considering things, and abandoning one's own, personal perspective. By aligning myself with and assimilating to the Fa, I was able to move toward righteousness.
