PureInsight | November 17, 2008
[PureInsight.org] Below are some things I enlightened to after attending a small-scale Fa sharing conference hosted by a practitioner from another area.
(3) Treat fellow practitioners compassionately
We are very worried about our current situation of local practitioners not cooperating well and not behaving as one body, and we are trying to find ways to address it. We all know that we cannot improve the situation by adopting ordinary people’s methods.
Why do local practitioners have such big misunderstandings between them? Most of the time it’s because we treat “doing things” (i.e. Dafa related work) as cultivation and we do not pay attention to xinxing cultivation. This can lead to big conflicts over small matters. Some practitioners who follow other practitioners instead of the Fa can inflate matters and make things even worse.
One practitioner said something that really impressed me. She told me that some local practitioners groundlessly talked about her in a negative way, but instead of complaining to those practitioners, she kept calm, and sent forth righteous thoughts for them to not allow the evil to interfere with their righteous thoughts.
When she mentioned this, I remembered what Master said in his “Fa-Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners” (August 4, 2007): “Master acknowledges the things you have done, so who else do you need recognition from?” [unofficial translation]
However, with my limited level, I had no choice but to leave my hometown after the conflicts with local practitioners got too intense. When the train pulled away, I cried for about half an hour. I thought that no matter what kind of gratitude or resentment there was among local practitioners, we should cooperate well because we all cultivate in the same Fa. I clearly realized at that moment that I would face a lot of difficulties after I left, but I kept in mind that everything would be arranged for the best if my mind was upright. However, at the moment, I saw that a lot of Gods burst into tears. They thought I didn’t do well what I was supposed to do and that the local practitioners had now lost one more person to help validate the Fa.
Later, I also learned more about the local situation from practitioners’ online experience sharing. I realized there were problems with the way we treated other practitioners who have shortcomings. I had suggested we should treat them compassionately and that it would be best if they could correct their mistakes when they realized them. However, some practitioners were only able to see those practitioners’ wrongdoings, which prevented them from talking openly and cherishing one another no matter what kind of misunderstandings existed between us. This allowed rumors to spread around, making the evil happy.
Afterwards, I looked inside and asked myself why the local practitioners had so much resentment toward me? I saw that the fundamental reason was because I still had the attachment of pursuing fame! I had experienced similar discontent when traveling to other areas earlier that year and realized it was also because of this attachment.
Later, I completely relinquished this attachment by studying the Fa continuously and truly became a part of the whole body. Now, I am in a very good state. I always look inwards no matter what other practitioners say about me, good or bad, and I am not interfered with by those factors that do not conform to the Fa. I am steadfast in accomplishing my mission!
The following are some enlightenments after I shared with several practitioners on the second day of the conference:
(a) Treat fellow practitioners in a righteous way and do not follow others blindly
During the course of cultivation, some practitioners would judge others with a human mentality and blindly follow those who have good understandings of the Fa and who have done a good job on certain projects. This was very severe in our local area. Actually, a cultivator should not have the attachment of fame and should not be looked at specially no matter who they are. Everyone is a practitioner of Dafa and we should treat everyone the same.
We have gone through great trials and tribulations and should not treat other practitioners who have some special ability with a human notion. We should continuously find our shortcomings and cultivate diligently. That is the righteous way!
(b) “Prominence” does not mean one’s cultivation state is good
A coordinator may not be the most diligent cultivator, and this has been addressed by Master. As a fellow practitioner, we should remember this. Some practitioners might have made a vow or they have some abilities in some aspects, but you cannot tell how well they cultivate. We cannot see the truth while in delusion, so we should not look at practitioners in a position of responsibility specially or follow them blindly.
(c) About minding our speech
I remembered that a practitioner from another area mentioned their coordinator during the Fa conference. It occurred to me that it might not have been the most responsible thing to do, and I think we also need to mind our speech in this respect. After all, the persecution is still going on and we should be cautious. We should be responsible to our cultivation and check to see if there is an attachment behind our speech, such as showing off how much we have learned and how much we have done.
(d) A cultivator should not be attached to reincarnation
During the Fa conference, one veteran practitioner said that she would search for an article of mine about reincarnation on the PureInsight website. Another practitioner shared with me that she specifically likes articles about reincarnation. Then, I pointed out that yesterday there was an article on the Clearwisdom website discussing not being attached to reincarnation and our previous lives.
In previous articles, I had shared that reincarnation is simply the way human lives carry on. We talk about it only to help others break away from the influence of atheism. From another point of view, we also talk about it to tell people that they have all come here for this Fa, and that they suffered a lot and accumulated a lot of karma in coming down to obtain this Fa. But if practitioners become attached to this out of sentimentality, it will become an obstacle in their cultivation. That would be following the old forces arrangements. How could we reach consummation with an attachment to history or our human lives? Even when we clarify the truth, we just choose those stories that can help people to understand the truth. In my articles, I only use them to validate the Fa, not for talking about them for their own sake.
One thing I would like to mention is that we should have Fa conferences under the premise of safety no matter how much benefit the fellow practitioners may obtain from them. We should not have large-scale Fa conferences in Mainland China, and this is also being responsible to our fellow practitioners.
The above are only my personal understandings. Please kindly point out if anything is inappropriate.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/10/12/55292.html
