(Clearwisdom.net) I started to practice Falun Dafa at the end of October 1998. I finished the book Zhuan Falun from the beginning to the end the first time I read it. Seeing that it was a righteous way, I started to practice Dafa. In the past seven years, I have never given up practicing. My family and relatives and friends all saw how I changed after I became a Dafa cultivator. Therefore, they all know that Dafa is good. I'm very glad for them since they have chosen a bright future for themselves. I never stopped believing in Dafa, but I sometimes slackened a little and I was not diligent all the time. I realized that especially since last January, until recently, I had been seeking comfort and personal interests and I didn't study the Fa well. I couldn't calm down to send forth righteous thoughts. I did little "truth-clarification" work. I knew I wasn't being a good practitioner, but I couldn't get myself motivated enough to improve myself.
Several of my family members are also Dafa practitioners. In our area, most of the workers have lost their jobs, and the local economy has been in a depression. However, all of the adults in my family are either working or receiving social security paychecks so that we don't need to worry about money. Without financial burdens and with so many of our family member practicing, you'd think we would have a good cultivation environment and we shouldn't have a lot of tribulations. However, practitioner A in my family has been attached to the computer for a long time. He was attached to making as much money as possible. He is unkind to our child and rarely studies the Fa. When being criticized, he'd say, "I know I'm wrong," if he was in a good mood. Otherwise, he would start to criticize others and claim that he was actually better than they were. He would argue with others and refused to look inside himself.
Another family member, practitioner B, a young practitioner, doesn't study the Fa enough and seldom does the exercises. When sending forth righteous thoughts, she keeps her eyes open and she is unable to focus her mind. She doesn't dare to clarify the truth to her classmates, and she doesn't do well with her courses. She is attached to playing computer games and watching TV. She is picky about food and clothes. She is not a dutiful child, nor a good student. Yet she claims she is a Dafa practitioner.
Another one of my family members, practitioner C, is an elderly practitioner. He is unable to calm down when studying the Fa, practicing the exercises or sending forth righteous thoughts. He always tries to do these things as much as he could, but he spends too much of his time managing the household and helping his granddaughter with her schoolwork.
As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we cannot take personal cultivation as our path. We must do well with the three things that Teacher asked us to do. We carry the great mission of saving sentient beings. My fellow practitioners, let's be diligent.
"This instant is precious beyond measure." (Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago).
We should not indulge our attachments. The old forces will take advantage of us and enlarge our attachments and eventually ruin us!
As Teacher is making progress with the Fa-rectification and more and more evil has been eliminated, our environment has improved a lot. It is a great opportunity to save people in this relatively easy environment. Teacher said,
"Disciples of Fa, be diligent, with a will that ebbs not. The countless years of hardship were all for this time." (A Will That Ebbs Not (in Song Dynasty poetic form))
Teacher has shown great benevolence and expectation towards us disciples.
Please correct me if I have said anything inappropriate.
