(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioners all know that looking within is a critical aspect of cultivation. However, some practitioners are still having difficulty in finding the root cause of a problem after looking within. This is because one tends to pay attention to phenomena on the surface instead of digging deeper for hidden loopholes. Here is one example. One elderly practitioner burns incense in front of Master's picture every day, both morning and evening. She has been doing this for several years. One day, her husband suddenly turned against her practice and said many negative words. This practitioner was very angry and told him how wonderful Dafa is, how righteous Master is, and how many benefits they had received from Dafa. She said that all these were reasons for worshiping Master, but her husband was not convinced. This practitioner was afraid of him saying more words against Dafa. So she stopped burning incense in front of Master's picture.
When this practitioner discussed this with another practitioner, she was told to look within. She was puzzled, "What can I find by looking within? Is there anything wrong with burning incense for Master?" That practitioner said, "It is all right to burn incense for Master. But instead of focusing on a superficial form, we should pay attention to xinxing improvement, since that is more important. Although you have kept burning incense for several years, have you truly improved your xinxing or have you only been doing this as a routine? If one person casually burns incense without sincerity in the heart for cultivation, gods will not allow this to continue. They think Master has done so much for you, how can you treat Master so casually? Therefore, they may use some everyday incident to give you a hint. If we can thus look within and rectify ourselves, things will be resolved." This practitioner came to understand this and things returned to normal.
Looking within is indeed a critical aspect of cultivation for us to improve. Master is caring for all of us and it is up to each of us whether we can improve ourselves through looking within. If we remain undisturbed by superficial phenomena and dig deeper when looking within, we will find our loopholes. Master has made the best arrangements for us and nothing is accidental. We should consider everything that happens as an opportunity to truly improve ourselves.
