PureInsight | September 22, 2003
[PureInsight.org] I noticed a problem in myself a while ago. Although I have done a lot of Dafa work with great dedication, I often put emphasis on myself, thinking that my time was the most precious, my project is the most important and my input the most curtail. I consider all things that stand in the way of reaching my personal goals as interferences. I decided that many things, such as teaching fellow practitioners to better utilize technology and use e-mails, or reading fellow practitioners' suggestions and experience-sharing, were a complete waste of time because they yielded no tangible result I could perceive.
Now I have realized that I only felt that way because they interfered with my project, and interrupted my work and delayed my goals.
Recently, I remembered a story from Buddhism I read when I was little, which inspired me:
One day, Sakyamuni was walking on the road when he met two children playing with sand. When the two kids noticed Sakyamuni, one of them earnestly scooped up a heap of sand with both hands, and offered it to Sakyamuni, saying: "This is for you." The other stood by Sakyamuni, but he offered nothing. He simply gave Sakyamuni a sincere smile. In their next reincarnation, both kids appeared to have good fortune because of this encounter. The child who offered Sakyamuni a heap of sand became an emperor and the child smiling at Sakyamuni became prime minister.
In Buddhism, the credit from offering Sakyamuni a heap of sand is called virtue of providing, while the credit from smiling at Sakyamuni is called the virtue of following a good cause. In Buddhism, there is a term called "following a good cause", which means to hold a happy thought in one heart for other's benevolence or good deeds. The virtue of "following a good cause" is also great. My understanding is that although one does not do anything, his heart is at the same level as the one who does the good deed.
When we over-emphasize ourselves, we are actually counteracting the Fa-validating effect of other practitioners. If everyone is concerned only about themselves and concentrates a lot on their own work goals, eventually practitioners will stop supporting Dafa work as a whole body. The extreme would be not even caring about Dafa work because one only focuses on his own things. This work for Dafa is very important to the whole body of Dafa practitioners. But, sometimes it does negate our own personal goals. Even if each individual Dafa practitioner does his own line of Dafa work well, the Dafa project as a whole will still suffer a significant loss if we only focus on our own things.
Translated From: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/8/29/23223.html
