Little Things Help Us Improve in Cultivation

(Minghui.org) Little things in life are always testing a cultivator’s character to see if they regard themselves as true cultivators. I would like to share some of my recent experiences.

I went home to help my father wash his clothes on Sunday. After I washed them, I had a hard time turning off the water. The old plastic faucet continued to drip despite my attempts to turn it off completely. Worried, I forced it and eventually broke the faucet. Water sprayed, getting everything wet.

I panicked and recalled a similar situation at a place I used to rent. In that rented apartment I was unfamiliar with the water pipes there, so I could not find the main valve when a pipe broke. Eventually, water spread over the entire kitchen and living room floors.

I knew nothing about the water pipes at my father’s, so I called him to turn off the main water valve. My father is not a cultivator. His age is catching up with him, so he often walks and responds very slowly. He told me he did not know where the water valve was and chastised me for making such a big mess to do something so simple. I asked him to get help from someone who knew how to turn off the main valve. Trembling, my father said angrily that he couldn’t. Meanwhile, I was soaking wet.

With no other option, I began to ask Master in my mind, “Master, help! I was impatient and did things without considering the consequences, so I caused trouble. Please help me, Master.” Just as soon as I finished thinking this, the water flow let up and slowly ceased. I turned around to look for my father and found that he had located the water valve in the main room and turned it off. Afterward, I asked him why he said he didn’t know where it was. He replied, “I couldn’t remember it at that time.” I suddenly realized that Master gave my father the inspiration after I asked Master for help when it was most urgent.

From this incident, I realized how insignificant humans are and how easy it is for higher beings in other dimensions to control us. They send messages to the human mind so the person will regard it as his or her idea and act accordingly. Likewise, it is very simple to seal off a person’s brain. Higher Beings use human attachments, concepts, desires, thoughts, and karma to firmly control us.

Master said:

“As a matter of fact, anything in human society, as long as I choose it, can be used for Dafa disciples’ cultivation. Take music, for example, something I talked about before. If people are guided by Dafa as they study and compose music, they can make progress and have inspiration, and the things they will think of and come to see as being needed, will be divine revelations. So in other words, whichever field you might be in, when you are able to improve your skills, that is a reflection of your having continually risen in realm. And people can see that you are a good person and someone who cultivates his or her heart and mind. From the vantage point of human beings, you are becoming a good person. As a result of studying the Fa and cultivating your inner self, you do better and better, and gods give you the wisdom you deserve and give you inspiration so that you can come to realize a lot of things while you study, create better things, improve your technique, and reach beyond.” (Teachings at the Conference in Los Angeles)

Cultivators are at different levels with different levels of understanding. I realized that when our thoughts meet the standards of a certain level, the Fa at that level can be revealed to us.

My father is getting old and has troubling walking. While it seemed that I was helping him do things, my mind was filled with irritable emotions and complaints, which was reflected in my attitude of not taking care of things and acting carelessly, impatiently, and roughly.

Another time, I was helping my father clean up his bedrooms. He keeps all kinds of stuff, old and new. I wanted to throw away some old cardboard boxes, but he didn’t want me to. When I insisted on throwing the boxes away, he sat down and muttered behind me, “I just ignore your stubbornness.” As I was walking away, I suddenly realized that what he’d said didn’t sound like my father but was consistent with the mentality of Higher Beings. They looked down on me because I did not behave like a cultivator when I reacted against ordinary people. “Why should I argue with ordinary people?” I thought. So I put the cardboard boxes back where they were.

As Fa-rectification Dafa practitioners, we should do things to validate Dafa for all sentient beings in the universe to see so that we may offer them salvation. If we do not cultivate well and do not behave according to Dafa’s standards, our cultivation state can gradually fail to meet the requirements of the Fa for a cultivator. Higher Beings at certain levels may look down on such cultivators. Thus, all kinds of trouble, cultivation interference, and even various forms of persecution may happen to those cultivators.

Every moment in life is a good opportunity for cultivation, so we must take advantage of every one.