Cultivating Well in a Family Environment

(Minghui.org) A while ago several practitioners in our area were arrested. This happened as one practitioner went to visit the family of another practitioner who had been arrested. She was reported to the police by her husband.

This reminded me of a problem I noticed a long time ago but had failed to communicate in time with other local practitioners. I failed because I didn't understand cultivating as one body. The phenomenon that exists among our local practitioners is that outside the home, whether at work or in the community, practitioners are able to treat themselves as Dafa disciples. They cultivate their xinxing, look inward when faced with conflicts, and clarify the facts to validate the Fa.

At home, however, and in facing family conflicts, many practitioners behave entirely as everyday people. Sometimes they are even worse than everyday people as they swear and spank their children at will. A practitioner's wife once told me that she and her husband have a child who is an adult now and soon to be married, but the practitioner still spanks the child at will.

Some practitioners might not regard their home as a cultivation environment, failing to treat their non-practitioner family members as beings to be saved; instead, they simply take contradictions in everyday life as ordinary family conflicts and not as an opportunity to improve their xinxing. They are Dafa disciples outside the home, but after returning home, they become everyday people.

When we clarify the facts to people, we can often change their way of thinking in a few minutes because we are in a cultivator's state. Our words carry powerful, compassionate energy that can disintegrate the obstacles behind others and fill the depths of their lives with righteous thoughts. As such, when we regard family members as wives, husbands, children, and parents, we are immersed in qing, not righteousness. Thus, the words we speak carry sentimentality rather than purer energy.

We practice in society, and the family is a very important environment. After all, we spend about half of our time with them every day. How could we ignore it? Moreover, our families have a stronger predestined relationship with us. At home, if we can treat ourselves as cultivators, place strict demands on ourselves, and always look inward during conflicts, then we will not only improve ourselves but also validate the Fa and save our families.

If we fail to do well, don't we damage Dafa? If our family members can't see the wonderfulness of Dafa, evil beings are likely to take advantage of the loophole and use them to persecute us. If they can't be saved and are eventually destroyed, isn't it our responsibility?

Of course, a small number of family members may have been arranged by the old forces to damage us. No matter how well we behave, they do everything possible to interfere, obstruct, and persecute in order to stop us from cultivating. This situation does exist, but we can deny this arrangement and send forth righteous thoughts to eradicate it.

With our righteous thoughts, the evil factors will definitely be cleaned out. Without evil factors' manipulation, how could an everyday person do wicked things before us? Instead, they might stand on the side of righteousness and eventually be saved. So this too is an issue of our cultivation.

Master said:

“You’ve never considered issues on such a basis as saving sentient beings, but always think with human notions! As soon as you come across specific issues your human attachments will come to the fore! As soon as you come across specific things your human attachments will resurface!” (“Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference”)

If we have a Dafa disciple's mindset when going out to clarify the truth, but we forget about cultivation within the home environment, allowing human attachments to surface, then tribulations will continue to exist.

Some practitioners have a lot of family tribulations, and their situations have not improved for many years. When sharing with others, they often describe how rude, unreasonable, and pessimistic their families are, instead of looking inward. Some have said things like, “Even if I owed him in past lives, I should have paid it all back after these many years."

These situations are mainly for us to look inward, cultivate ourselves, and improve our xinxing. What’s important is that we treat ourselves as practitioners.

This is my current level of understanding, and by sharing it the hope that we can improve as one body.