(Minghui.org) I was shocked when I first read the recent Minghui editorial “Starting Point.”How come some practitioners still treat cultivation as a trifling matter after so many years of practice?

After thinking it over, however, I realized that such situations do exist, even with practitioners that I know.

I once met a practitioner who was released after agreeing to give up his belief and to spy on other practitioners. He didn't feel that he had done anything wrong, because he did it to get out of prison earlier to tell others about Falun Gong.

This practitioner later caught his wife having an affair with another man. He was furious and beat her lover.

I learned of the affair from a well-known coordinator in my region. What struck me was the fact that neither the coordinator nor other practitioners felt the husband's behavior was anything out of ordinary for a genuine practitioner.

I knew something was off, but couldn't articulate it at the time. Now after reading “Starting Point,” I came to see things more clearly. The Minghui editorial elaborated on the problem:

“Such situations have arisen for students and Dafa disciples to discern things and cultivate in the Fa, and to learn to consider cultivation as the starting point whenever they encounter something, assimilate to Dafa so as to save more people, instead of continuing to be influenced by human attachments.”

“However, in the special environment in Mainland China, there are always some people who don't place cultivation as the first and foremost, or solidly do well the things that are needed to save people—instead they take human attachments as their starting point.”

It is my understanding that my local practitioners had failed to handle things as practitioners, and they allowed their human notions to take over. We should really look within and examine our own starting points. If we are off in that regard, we will inevitably invite all kinds of tests and troubles.

As we still harbor various attachments, any deviation from a righteous starting point would leave loopholes for the evil to take advantage of.

Had all practitioners been able to regard the Fa as Master and act in accordance with the Fa principles, there wouldn't have been any forum for Li Xupeng and other individuals mentioned in “Starting Point.”

As practitioners, we should measure everything we encounter with the Fa principles. If we are mired in our human notions and argue with each other non-stop over trivial topics, we will never see the nature of the matter at hand.

From my own experience, the more we are able to calm down to study the Fa, the better we can understand the deeper meanings of the Fa and the firmer the faith we have in Master. We will find ourselves small and insignificant compared to the Fa.

With the Fa guiding every action and thought of ours, we will no longer become lost when plagued with human attachments and evil interference. As long as we keep the Fa in our minds, we will be able to maintain a righteous starting point and find solutions during difficult times.