(Clearwisdom.net)
Teacher mentioned in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference (Q&A Portion, Part 1),"
"You know, in cultivation the most prominent sign that a person still harbors human attachments is his doing things that are not to validate Dafa but instead to validate himself! That is playing a destructive role."
I have deep feelings about this. When doing Dafa work, whether I am overwhelmed by a lot of Dafa work or if I feel I am doing fine, I easily deviate from the basis of validating the Fa. Human notions may come into effect. When the basis is not right, under strong human notions, one can easily turn to validating oneself. Thus, the work won't have the effect of validating Dafa.
Human desire is unlimited, so humans are always seeking, seeking out others' approval or seeking self-realization, as pointed out by psychologist Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory. He says humans have five levels of needs. These include physiological needs, safety needs, socialization needs, needs for esteem, and needs for self-actualization. The so-called five levels of human needs, from the perspective of cultivators, should be eliminated.
My own understanding is that the physiological needs is the source of desire. The safety needs is the source of fear. The socialization needs is due to the fear of loneliness. As for esteem and self-actualization, to speak from another angle, these are the desire for fame. Humans are busy trying to make their way in society. They seek approval from family, coworkers, society, the nation, and even the world and history's approval.
When we do Dafa work, we should frequently search our inner-selves to check if we are truly acting as cultivators. If we are, doing Dafa work is cultivation. If not, the work is just work. Teacher said,
"Ordinary people can also do the things that Dafa disciples do, but they cannot have the mighty virtue of Dafa disciples. They can only receive blessings and virtue, and accumulate future blessings." ("Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference").
We also need to frequently search inside when doing things to see whether what we do can serve the purpose of saving sentient beings. This is a very important standard of measurement. Otherwise the thoughts that surface can often be, for example, hoping that other practitioners will praise the things that we do. In that case all the things that we do would in fact be to get practitioners' approval. Isn't that the same as seeking fame among practitioners?
I enlightened that during our process of validating Dafa we cannot stray from Fa-study, otherwise our work will not serve the purpose of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. Without adequate Fa study our hearts in doing Dafa work would not be pure, and could become mixed with many human notions, which need to be eliminated during cultivation. Even if the old forces do not interfere, Teacher's fashen will give us hints.
Thus, during the process of cultivation we will encounter all kinds of difficulties. If we do Dafa work using our own human notions, it will not be very effective. It may even serve the role of assisting the evil. Thus, Teacher keeps emphasizing Fa-study, because the Fa can break all attachments.
Our ability to do Dafa work purely from the basis of the Fa and saving sentient beings, I feel, is related to whether we truly understand the purpose of validating Fa and saving sentient beings. It is exactly because our understanding is not accurate and not deep that our motivation is not pure. Our human notions of seeking others' approval and seeking self-actualization can then easily interfere with us and sometimes take priority over what we know is important.
Why do we need to validate the Fa? Because Dafa practitioners' lives are created by Dafa. It is our duty to validate the Fa, and it is also an opportunity for Dafa practitioners to establish mighty virtue. It is not only a responsibility, it is an honor.
Why do we need to save sentient beings? Because if Dafa practitioners do not save them, their minds could have bad thoughts about Dafa. Then during the interim of the new cosmos replacing the old one, during the incoming Fa-rectification's magnificent current, they could be permanently weeded out. Shouldn't we urgently save them?
