The Importance of a Cultivator's Every Thought

(Minghui.org) We all know from our cultivation of Falun Dafa that, in order to reach consummation, we must work hard to remove all kinds of attachments, including human emotional ties, zealotry, and the show-off mentality, to name just a few.

In other words, we must make sure our thoughts conform to Dafa's standards at all times. I'd like to share my understanding of the importance of maintaining pure thoughts from a slightly different angle.

As I see it, even divine beings in heavenly kingdoms are not guaranteed their perpetual existence there. If they fail to meet the standards of their realms, they will drop to lower levels.

For us cultivators that are still on the divine path, it is even more important that we keep our thoughts in line with what Dafa requires of a genuine cultivator. Any slight deviation from those standards may have dire consequences.

There was a story about a cultivator on the cusp of reaching consummation. She was in the middle of ascending to the heavens when she heard her mother's desperate cries from down below. She was unaffected at first and kept ascending. Her mother pleaded for her to take one last look back, which she ultimately did. Everything was ruined in that moment! She fell back to the human world and realized that her mother was a mortal enemy from a previous life who had come to ruin her cultivation at the last moment.

This story is about how extremely important it is to remain unaffected by human notions and to maintain pure thoughts. Of course, we are still cultivating and often face temptations, and to stay the course, we must follow Falun Dafa's teachings. When we are unsure, we need to ask ourselves what a truly enlightened being would do. In some cases, however, we instead follow the lead of other, seemingly outstanding cultivators.

Would enlightened beings in heavenly kingdoms idolize a particular being and forget about the lord in their realm? No. Enlightened beings do not have the attachment of zealotry, nor would they blindly follow others at the expense of the principles that they adhere to.

Looked at from a different perspective, Buddhas are omnipotent and equipped with divine powers. Would they casually show off their capabilities to sentient beings? No. Even when they do manifest their powers, they do so for the purpose of helping sentient beings affirm their faith in the Buddha Fa, not to invite blind admiration.

If enlightened beings in heavenly kingdoms are like some of us - easily affected by various human thoughts - what kind of chaos would ensue? A Buddha's impure thoughts may bring earth-shattering changes to the heavenly kingdom and upheaval to his subjects. Would that be allowed to happen?

Thus, the tranquility of a Buddha's realm is extremely important to the stability of all his subjects.

Similarly, we should remain unmoved by human notions in the course of our cultivation. We must be strict with ourselves and relinquish our human attachments, and only then can we reach consummation.

Please kindly point out anything improper.