Moroseness

[PureInsight.org] Let me start by telling a story that gave rise to an ancient Chinese idiom, "A man suffering from a terminal illness will eventually wear out any filial piety in his child." Once upon a time there was a family where the elderly father had passed away and the elderly mother had become paralyzed and bed-ridden from a geriatric illness. After a few years, her children became mentally, physically and financially exhausted. They wallowed in moroseness and became less attentive to their mother. Many people outside the family started reproaching these children, "Will you look at these children! They have absolutely no filial piety!"

I saw a lot of sadness and gloom in this story. Those who did not know how much these children had done for their mother jumped to a conclusion, and their criticism magnified the children's disconsolateness.

The story reminded me of my own moroseness towards fellow practitioners. Because I am cultivating in Falun Dafa, I have become impervious to everyday people's [negative] criticism [or slander.] But I easily brood over fellow practitioners' criticism. When practitioners reproach me for refusing to cooperate with others on Dafa work, I would immediately become sullen, thinking, "I have done a lot more Dafa work than you. You have no business lecturing me on what I am supposed to do." Sometimes I also brood about the volunteer assistants at our practice site, thinking, "You have not fulfilled your duties as volunteer assistants and you have the temerity to criticize me?" Or I am surly towards those practitioners who haven't stepped forward to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution. All in all, in my view, everyone seems to be full of flaws. Each time I study the Fa, I tell myself that from now on I will try harder to look inward; but my sullen and gloomy disposition always gets the better of me when other practitioners express different opinions on tangible issues that require joint decisions. I do not try to understand fellow practitioners, tolerate their flaws or be more aware of their merits. That is why I have been in a bad state for a long time, where I lose my temper easily and don't behave as a cultivator.

Once, while I was sending forth righteous thoughts, I thought I saw several practitioners appear in front of me. While their bodies appeared to be white, some areas were covered with black spots. Next, I saw tiny white flowers blooming on their bodies. Soon their bodies including the black spots were completely covered with tiny white flowers that became large screens of white flowers before my eyes. It was a wonderful and beautiful sight.

From this, I became to realize that I must be more receptive to and think more about fellow practitioners' merits. All of us who are cultivators carry gong (cultivation energy). [I think that] when we think more about fellow practitioners' merits, our own gong will help them eliminate their dark substances. When we think of nothing but other practitioners' shortcomings and constantly brood over their shortcomings, we will reinforce or aid in perpetuating their dark substances. It is like the experiments on water crystals conducted by the Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto, Chairman of the International Hado Membership (IHM).

Dr. Emoto conducted an experiment where music was played to water. Crystals frozen after hearing Beethoven's "Pastorale," one of his most famous symphonies, were beautiful while crystals frozen after exposed to modern heavy metal music were distorted, imploded and dispersed. He also conducted a similar experiment on rice. "An interesting experiment undertaken by an amateur who said 'Thank you' and 'You fool' to some rice every day. This experiment involved placing cooked rice in two identical glass containers. Two primary school children talked to the rice every day for one month as soon as they came home from school. As a result, the rice that the children had said 'Thank you' to was nearly fermented and had a nice, mellow malted rice aroma. The other bowl of rice that the children had said 'You fool' to turned black and had become rotten. They said that its smell was disgusting beyond description." (From "PureInsight.org: Water, the Origin of Life(FSC-042)") Everyday people's thoughts and feelings have such an enormous effect, not to mention cultivators.

Brooding yields all sort of negative feelings and attachments. My own experiences have taught me a hard lesson; therefore I wanted to share my experience today so that other practitioners can avoid making the same mistake.

Finally, let's review Teacher article "Realms" from Essentials for Further Advancement :

A wicked person is born of jealousy.
Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself.
A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion.
With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.
An enlightened person has no attachments at all.
He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/1/29/25594.html