Is the Cultivation Environment Overseas Truly Relaxed?

(Minghui.org) I used to think that the cultivation environment in China was too harsh whenever I read persecution cases on the Minghui website. I had an opportunity to take a trip abroad one time, but it didn’t work out for various reasons. After experiencing the persecution in person, I thought of moving to another country. I found a lot of justifications, thinking I could let go of attachment to family affections and do better in my cultivation overseas. Thinking back, I found that my wish had been tied to my attachment to comfort, fear, evading my responsibilities and attachment to doing projects.

However, is the cultivation environment overseas truly relaxed? It appears to be relaxed because there is no brutal persecution as in China. As a matter of fact, genuine cultivation is hard and serious. Where is the so-called “relaxed?” We have to solidly cultivate ourselves as long as we have attachments, and it has nothing to do with where we live.

I recently asked myself why our cultivation practice has experienced such ordeals overseas. Could it be related to some fellow practitioners’ misconception that the cultivation environment overseas is relaxed? It’s fine if one or two practitioners think like that, but what if many practitioners think so? Especially those who have personally experienced the persecution? Have the old forces taken advantage of this general loophole?

Master has taught us,

“...matter and mind are one and the same.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

When most of us have this incorrect thought, do we end up diverting the persecuting forces overseas? On the other hand, the old forces probably want to show us how “relaxed” the cultivation environment overseas is.

I hope all fellow practitioners who have this misconception will eliminate it on time. The only difference between China and overseas is the location in the human dimension. We are actually one body. We shoulder different responsibilities with a common mission: helping Master in Fa-rectification to save sentient beings. We can only form one unbreakable body after we make corrections in our thoughts.

Articles in which cultivators share their understandings typically reflect an individual's perception at a point in time based on their cultivation state, and they are offered in the spirit of enabling mutual elevation.