PureInsight | April 24, 2007
[PureInsight.org] Among
ordinary people, perhaps two people who like to talk about similar
things can become very good friends, and call each others brothers or
sisters. These are not too bad. But friends that are based on drinking
or playing cards are pretty bad. There is saying "birds of a feather
flock together", and ordinary people are just like that. How are
ordinary people divided into groups? To my personal understanding, it
is usually based on their personalities, their notions and attachments
with the world. Often people with similar personalities, similar
notions, and similar hobbies (which would be attachments from a
practitioner's point of view) become friends. They are nice to each
other and like each other.
However, as practitioners we know that people's notions, attachments
and bad characters are usually what one needs to give up and eliminate.
If several practitioners (or with ordinary people) stay close and
become friends because of these, isn't this not quite right? These are
not good things and are what we need to cultivate off during the
process of cultivation. If there is no improvement for long periods of
time, shouldn't we consider it? Shouldn't we think about why we like to
be with some practitioners or some practitioners like to be with us? Is
it because we can help each other on cultivation or because of other
factors?
"Since people have emotion... being angry is emotion, being happy is
emotion, love is emotion, and hatred is emotion, enjoying doing
something is an emotion, not enjoying doing something is an emotion,
your thinking someone is nice or someone isn't nice, your loving to do
something or not loving to do something - everything is emotion, and ordinary people just live for
emotion. Then if you're a practitioner, a higher person, you can't use
this logic to evaluate things, and you need to break out of this
stuff." (Zhuan Falun, Translated by North America Practitioners, 2003)
In my personal understanding, one's inborn nature is pure, simple and
good. As practitioners, we really should treat others with compassion,
but not ordinary people's emotions. We should not treat people
differently, but treat everyone with compassion and kindness. Then,
those practitioners who are friends and like each other because of
ordinary people's notions, attachments, and not-so-good characters,
shouldn't you consider whether it is the "real you" or those
"attachments and notions" that are attracting each other and thus you
like each other? Or you can think about it in the other direction,
"who" really is that person who likes me? If it is because of the other
person's attachments or notions, etc., shouldn't we remind each other
that we must be more diligent?
In my personal understanding, I think those practitioners who are nice
to each other, who like talk to each other, and, as a result, are
always together, but who have not really gotten to the point where they
are able to help each other in cultivation or warn each other and
improve together, and who have been like this over a long period of
time, really need to think about the reasons behind it. Why do we like
to talk to certain practitioners and like to be with them? There must
be reasons behind it and, within these reasons, perhaps there are
things we need to improve on.
For myself, I also had some attachments and, as a result, I became
friends with some ordinary people. After I began cultivation, I
gradually eliminated those attachments. But for a while, due to my
notions, I always felt some practitioners were more pleasing to my eyes
than others, and so I liked or didn't like certain fellow
practitioners. In the process of cultivation, I gradually saw this
problem and realized that that is not the real me. That is not the
right mind we should have and the right thing we should do as
practitioners. That is all a reflection of emotion.
These are my personal understandings and here I would like to share
with fellow practitioners. Please kindly point out my shortcomings!
Translated from: http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/4/14/43307.html
