(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, while I was studying "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference", I suddenly questioned myself, "How many hours do I treat myself as a practitioner everyday?" Thinking it over, I felt what I did was not good enough. Examining my conscience, I've been practicing Falun Dafa during the past five years of inhumane persecution. But on some issues, I couldn't maintain the state of a practitioner. In daily work, I didn't always measure myself by the standards of a Falun Gong practitioner, failing to keep my character when I ran into conflicts, tribulations or tests. Sometimes, I was absentminded with all kinds of distracting thoughts as I studied the Falun Dafa teachings and practiced the exercises. Even when I clarified the truth to the people about Falun Gong, I had lots of personal attachments. I didn't always treat myself as a practitioner.
Teacher says in Zhuan Falun (1), "What's not a right mind? It refers to a person's inability to always treat himself as a practitioner." Why was I unable to treat myself as a practitioner? First, I didn't study the teachings of Falun Dafa enough. My mind was not on the right track, I was not in Dafa and my righteous thoughts were inadequate. My belief in Teacher and Falun Dafa was not firm enough. Second, I didn't have a complete understanding of the important duty and historic mission of a Falun Gong practitioner during the period of the Fa rectification, questioning my mighty virtue or supernormal abilities. In many cases, I treated myself as an everyday person. One last point, I didn't let go of my personal attachments, failing to shake off the constraints of an everyday person's ideas and being trapped by the old force's arrangements.
Teacher says in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference,"
"As you know, as Dafa disciples continually cultivate themselves while they validate the Fa, many bad things that were formed among everyday people have been gradually removed during your cultivation process, but some things have only been reduced, while many things have truly been removed. So the things that have been reduced aren't completely removed. There's a reason you can't get rid of them completely yet, and it's to allow you folks, before you Consummate, to live in ordinary society, to save sentient beings in ordinary society, and to do the things that a Dafa disciple should do today. But since these attachments will often show up in your cultivation and your life, they show up in your words and actions in different settings, and can even show up in every single thought of yours during your daily life. When you're affected by a human attachment, then at that moment, or for that short while, or on that matter, your behavior is the same as an ordinary person's. If you often fail to follow the requirements for a Dafa disciple, a cultivator, then aren't you an ordinary person?
It's fine to have those human things--when you are able to restrain them in your actions, strengthen your resolve, firm up your righteous thoughts, and handle yourself well, then that's cultivation...But if you're not careful then a lot of times they will make you come across as very attached."
The Fa rectification has reached the end of the final stage, so clarifying the truth, saving people and cultivating ourselves are especially important. Recalling that I was dominated by an everyday person's mindset and attachments 24 hours each day, it was quite dangerous. I had something on my conscience. At the 2004 Chicago Conference, Teacher emphasized the issues of self-cultivation of Falun Dafa practitioners and the neglect of doing the three things. This problem was serious and common enough to bring to our attention.
We should follow Teacher's requirement: "I've told you to study the Fa a lot, to study the Fa, study the Fa, study the Fa... When you don't give weight to Fa-study, those things are bound to be indulged" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference"). Let's keep our thoughts, words and actions in Falun Dafa, and negate the old forces' arrangements. "You are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference").
Note:
(1) Zhuan Falun the comprehensive guide to the practice of Falun Gong.
