(Minghui.org) Greetings, fellow practitioners.

The path of cultivation is not easy, but it is also not that hard. In various lectures, Master warns us that time is running out, and that Fa-rectification will soon conclude. However, we are still here and still doing the three things. Some practitioners have become discouraged, in light of the length of cultivation. Some have lost faith in the Fa and quit cultivating; they thought Master said that it would conclude soon, yet no end is in sight.

When I read those accounts, I remembered something. Many years ago, before I came to Dafa, I was studying books about the life of a certain spiritual teacher from the East. That particular teacher observed a vow of silence, and he constantly told his followers with hand signs that “he will break his silence soon.” Some of his disciples anxiously waited for when that “soon” would come to pass, and they made all kinds of assumptions. When the teacher traveled to the West, they thought, “Maybe he'll end his silence by giving a speech on a radio or television station,” or, “Maybe he'll end his silence during the next gathering.” In the end, that teacher passed away without uttering a single word, even when he was in pain after two car accidents.

I think there is some similarity between what his disciples thought and what some of our Dafa practitioners feel about “Fa-rectification ending soon.” Perhaps the main reason Master teaches that it will end soon is to encourage us to be diligent. When one knows that something important will end soon, it spurs one to be more diligent, because who knows if there will be time tomorrow? However, some practitioners instead became attached to the word “soon” itself and started guessing when that “soon” would come to be, rather than understanding the true meaning in which that term was used. In my humble understanding, great enlightened beings' ways of doing things are very different from how human beings approach things with their linear way of thinking.

I wanted to share this story to help my fellow practitioners to let go of the attachment to time altogether. Even if it will take us a whole lifetime to cultivate, we should just cultivate nobly and with dignity.

Please kindly point out anything not in line with the Fa.

Category: Improving Oneself