Treasuring Our Opportunity to Cultivate

(Minghui.org) I read an article titled “Money Cannot Move a Practitioner's Heart,” and it left a deep impression on me. I would like to share my thoughts on this topic.

When discussing the value of cultivation, a cultivator would without hesitation say, “It’s priceless.” Indeed, cultivation is a way to genuinely uplift one’s life, and even the sum of all the wealth in the world cannot compare to the fruit of cultivation. The wealthiest people cannot buy the lowest position in the world of the divine. Throughout history, emperors and those in power have wished to become immortal, but none were able to have their wish fulfilled. We also know that worldly wealth has to be traded with virtue.

Master has told us,

“I’ll tell you, the Dafa disciples from the early period, those who formed ties of destiny with me during history, or who came here following Master—each and every one of you—if you had wanted to accomplish something in ordinary society, every one of you could have been a billionaire, every one of you could have been famous, and every one of you could have been among society’s elite. But this lifetime you came here to be a Dafa disciple, and you passed up all of those things. If you had wanted to be rich, you could have long since been rich. Don’t let your soul’s long-cherished wish be extinguished over a few petty, worldly temptations.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day,” Collected Fa Teaching, Vol. XII)

The rich and powerful today built up virtue in their previous lives. If they had the choice before coming to the world, they probably would have chosen to cultivate themselves. I heard that a famous movie star traveled around seeking the Way and endured a lot of suffering in vain. What a pity! This person might have run into the genuine Way without knowing it.

Falun Dafa practitioners can happily say that we are truly well off, but not all of us realize it. For example, I grew up in poverty and have a job with an ordinary salary. I’m frugal and even look for discounts. Though I saved some money, I had to spend a lot of time and energy, which could have been spent on studying the Fa and doing the exercises. It’s actually due to my attachment to personal interest. I didn’t actually save much money, I ended up going to too much trouble and wasting too much time.

I was too attached to superficial losses and gains, thinking the money I saved could be used later, but I wasted money on some other things. The amount I saved wasn’t worth the time I spent and the karma I accumulated.

As we know, one’s total wealth in life is predetermined. The more that comes early, the less that comes later. If we strive to make more money now, we’ll probably make less in the future. The extra we make could cause others to lose out, and we would have to compensate them with virtue.

It’s easy to get money by exchanging it for virtue, but impossible the other way around. Who would be willing to trade virtue for money? However, I foolishly did that. I thought I would make more money and save more, but money flows like water, and I can’t turn running water into dead water.

Rich people in the past never used up all their money. If their children weren’t destined to be rich, they wouldn’t be able to keep their inheritances. Quality of life seems to be determined by wealth, but it’s actually due to blessings. That’s why some people lead good lives without much money, but some others have bad lives with a lot of money.

We will make what we should from our jobs and businesses, and we don’t need to rack our brains about making more money. When we spend our time and energy studying the Fa and offering salvation to more people, what we deserve will come naturally.

If someone would pay you 10,000 yuan (~USD$1450) to skip a round of exercises, Fa study, and sending forth righteous thoughts, I believe none of us would take it. However, some practitioners, including myself, can’t study the Fa or do the exercises every day but are willing to get up a couple of hours earlier to make an extra 10,000 yuan. Could we say that we have treasured the opportunity of cultivation?

Demons must think it’s easy to waste our time without spending a penny, because we’d rather spend our time browsing on cell phones, sleeping, and chatting.

The Earth, and even the solar system, is a speck of dust in the eyes of superior beings. How could we lose our opportunity to return to Heaven for petty interests on the speck of dust? How much does our wish to cultivate cost?

Ordinary people can certainly sacrifice a lot for worldly things. However, as cultivators, we must not follow the crowd or forget our mission. Sentient beings are waiting for our actions to get salvation. Though we cultivate ourselves and help Master with the Fa-rectification while living ordinary lives and holding ordinary jobs, we can’t be disturbed by fame and fortune. We need to validate the Fa with our graceful bearing while among ordinary people and validate the might of Falun Dafa.

Some fellow practitioners are truly impoverished, and sustaining a normal way of life has become a problem. I personally think that in these scenarios we have to look within, eliminate our human thoughts and disintegrate the old forces’ financial persecution. Those who have had their precious time and energy wasted due to the persecution should all the more so stay alert and negate the persecution with righteous thoughts.

Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.