Western Practitioner: “How’s Cultivation?”

(Clearwisdom.net) The other day, I mistakenly sent a text message to another practitioner whom I hadn’t seen in a few years. We figured out the mistake, and the practitioner then asked, “How’s cultivation?” I replied, “It is fine, how’s yours?” To which I never got a reply.

Since everything happens for a reason in cultivation, I was a bit puzzled as to why this interaction happened. I mentioned it to another practitioner who said, “How’s cultivation?” is often something people say without really meaning it.

After discussing this for a bit, we both realized that, “How’s cultivation?” shouldn’t be just idle chitchat or small talk. It should be something incredibly sacred and important. We all should deeply care about the state of our fellow practitioners' cultivation.

“The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things.” ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")

If we truly felt this way, this wouldn’t be an empty question. Upon looking within, I found that when I usually ask, “How’s cultivation?” it’s when I’m stuck in a situation with a practitioner that I don’t know particularly well or am not very interested in talking to. “How’s cultivation?” had become for me, just something to say to be polite and to avoid an awkward silence, like “How are you today,” or “Nice weather.” This kind of interaction is based solely on how I felt, of preferring to talk to practitioners I might be friends with, and not wanting to talk to those I'm not.

“Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it. Then, as a practitioner and one who rises above and beyond, one should not use this approach to judge things, and one should break away from them.” ("Demonic Interference In Cultivation," from Zhuan Falun)

If I say something as monumental as “How’s cultivation?” it should be something I mean and care about with all my heart.