(Clearwisdom.net) A fellow practitioner had given me some money for making Dafa truth-clarification materials. It was all in the form of coins counted out to be over one hundred yuan (1). This practitioner is a farmer who makes a living by selling vegetables.
Nowadays farming expenses are high and on top of that, crops are losing value and vegetables are cheap. Her income is therefore quite low. Meanwhile, her family is badly in need of money. She has three sons. The oldest one is married and the second oldest just got married. The youngest son is also at the age to get married. Her husband is a non-practitioner. Under these circumstances, she has saved every penny she could for a long time in order to save up enough to make truth clarification materials so that more people can know the truth of Falun Dafa and the persecution.
There is a young married couple, both practitioners, who owe others over 10,000 yuan. Rain or shine, they would go to a mountain picking silkworm cocoons that others had missed. They worked many days doing this and earned 300 yuan, but did not spend one penny of it. Instead, they spent all of it on making truth-clarifying materials.
Most practitioners in rural areas live very simple lives so as to save their hard-earned money. For example, an article of clothing can last many years. Often they eat simple food and every penny of theirs is spent very carefully. In order to save sentient beings, they give all that they can for making truth-clarification materials.
Those are just two of many touching examples that I have shared, especially for those practitioners who have freely spent their money. I hope that in the future, when spending other practitioners' money for making truth-clarification materials, we can see the hard work put behind it and feel the trust other practitioners have put in us, and their compassionate hearts to save sentient beings. When spending money for other reasons, we should consider whether we still have attachments of vanity, of showing-off or laziness that could make us spend money unnecessarily.
Some individuals probably don't think it's a big deal. They think they are doing "big things," whereas those practitioners mentioned above are doing "minor things." This notion is actually very dangerous. If we search deeper, we will find that this is caused by a show-off mentality while ignoring Teacher's words and failing to realize the most basic thing as a practitioner: cultivation.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago conference:" "...So I think that for Dafa disciples clarifying the facts has become a unique way of cultivation for you cultivators today..." Each of us is still cultivating ourselves through doing the three things, namely, studying the Fa and doing the exercises, sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth. The only difference is that we are cultivating at different levels. Cultivation is to "...ignore superficial formalities and only look at one's heart" (from "Seeking Discipleship with Teacher" in Essentials for Further Advancement). There is no such thing as "big things" or "minor things." What is only required is a pure heart that meets the standard.
I am a young male practitioner and have many ordinary people's attachments. Although sometimes I do some Dafa work, filthy notions that have formed over thousands of years still surface, even the notion that makes me think, "What will happen to this place if I had not been here [clarifying the truth to people and saving them]." I know that these notions are not from the true me, so I then try to eliminate them. Teacher's compassionate smile often appears in my mind, bringing tears to my eyes. It's truly the magnificence of the Buddha's mercy! How lucky we are to have the predestined relationship with Teacher and to have become his disciples. Such a boundless universe contains so many numerous lives and only we have the capability to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. We all know that it is Teacher's great compassion that gives each of us the greatest honor and unprecedented opportunity. He also gives every life in the universe the opportunity to be saved. If you and I do not do what we are doing, lives can still be saved because Teacher is capable of doing anything and the Fa rectification will definitely succeed. Please remember Teacher's words, "...everything that's done in validating the Fa is done for yourselves-not a single thing is done for me..." (From Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa conference).
Of course, we cannot become attached to what Teacher will give us. As Dafa practitioners, we should do whatever we can to save sentient beings and cultivate ourselves into enlightened beings with great compassion.
(1) Yuan is the unit of Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.
