PureInsight | November 17, 2008
[PureInsight.org] Yesterday, with the help of fellow practitioners, we attended a Fa conference. A practitioner from one area shared their experience about how to cultivate oneself well and do the three things (i.e. cultivate oneself, send forth righteous thoughts, and clarify the truth) better. I agreed with his understandings, and have compiled a summary of experiences here to share with all practitioners.
(1) Doing things well and cultivating well
A while ago, practitioners in our area were persecuted severely. Eventually, we calmed down and analyzed what went wrong. I also wrote several articles to share my thoughts. However, based on the feedback gathered by our area coordinator, it looked like many of our local practitioners continued to treat “doing things” as “cultivation.”
For example, when practitioners shared experiences, they often said, “Look at him! He did Dafa work so well!” Yes, it is very good if one does a lot of Dafa work. However, how well does he cultivate? Isn’t this the question we should ask?
In the ordinary world, a person believes that if he builds many temples and donates lots of money, then Buddha will enable him to reach consummation. Can cultivators think like this? An ordinary person will be rewarded with blessings if he does good things for Dafa. If we don’t cultivate ourselves while we do Dafa work, aren’t we just like ordinary people?
Therefore, “doing Dafa work well” and “cultivating well” are totally different things. On the other hand, only when you cultivate well can you do the things for Dafa well and achieve the goal of safeguarding the Fa and saving sentient beings.
(2) Rectify every single thought
We all study the Fa, but why is it that we don’t know what to do when we run into issues?
For example, I read experiences where some practitioners put 10 yuan (RMB) with a collection of truth clarification materials in order to more easily enable ordinary people to know the truth. But what ended up happening was that the people took the 10 yuan and threw away the materials. I also heard that a practitioner bought a house for the woman her husband was having an affair with so that the woman would know the truth about Dafa.
Every time I heard such stories, to tell you the truth, my heart was crying. I was thinking, “Did our practitioners really help people know the truth? Isn’t this encouraging people’s greed and moral decline? To put it a little more seriously, weren’t those practitioners pushing people down to hell?”
I remembered in an article titled, “In a Few Words: a Good Person,” the author said, “A good person is not a person whom everyone can bully.” My understanding is that practitioners’ kindness manifests while harmonizing the righteous principles in the human world. We are not the type of people who don’t distinguish what is good or evil; neither are we the people whom others can bully and take advantage of as they wish.
Only when a human being respects Dafa and Dafa practitioners can he have a righteous understanding and be saved. If we don’t understand the Fa well and we have ordinary people say that “Dafa is good” only after we satisfy their greed, do those ordinary people really mean it from their hearts that “Dafa is good”? Isn’t this being disrespectful to Dafa?
“Saving sentient beings” manifests divine beings’ compassion in the human world! It is absolutely not divine beings piteously begging human beings to know the truth! Compassion is the sacred realm where divine beings are, not an excuse to satisfy ordinary people’s greed. Compassion and solemn dignity coexist! We all safeguard the Fa, so don’t we need to safeguard the solemn dignity of the Fa? We clarify the truth to ordinary people by following the logic of their attachments, but this is absolutely not an excuse for us to satisfy their attachments.
One day a female coworker said, “Don’t talk about any belief with me. Give me five million dollars, and I will believe whatever you tell me.”
At that time, I remained calm and said to her, “Without a healthy body, you won’t feel happy even if you have five million dollars. So, the physical body is fundamental for us to live well and work in this world. If we don’t have much virtue, it would be hard for us to make five million dollars because if one is selfish and only cares about himself, no one would like to work with him. So it is very important for one to have virtue. Practicing Falun Gong won’t bring five million dollars to you. However, you will have a healthy body and a good mindset. This is actually the best kind of foundation for you to make five million dollars. Also, I need to point out that it depends on whether the five million dollars has been arranged to be part of your life. If not, you wouldn’t make that money. Or even if you have the money, you wouldn’t be able to hold onto it.” She understood what I meant and didn’t talk back offensively.
In fact, when we run into issues, if we only consider ourselves, or only consider doing things, we won’t have the wisdom to clarify the truth. On the contrary, various interferences might come. Especially now that it is the final stage of our cultivation, we must rectify our way of thinking.
A practitioner gave an example. When practitioners saw a policeman (while clarifying the truth), many of the practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts, “Immediate retribution in this lifetime,” to that policeman. Some practitioners sent righteous thoughts with hatred. Some had developed the notion that all policemen were evil, and they didn’t want the policeman to persecute them and other practitioners. Actually, this type of thinking all stems from selfishness. When some other practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts towards policemen, they thought about eliminating the evil that controlled the policemen so that they could know the truth and be saved. This is compassion without any selfish elements. Of course the results would be different.
To share another example, when I sent forth righteous thoughts today, I saw something blocking me in front. So I said with compassion, “It is not important whether I consummate, lose or gain. I am the guardian of this universe. My existence is for the sentient beings in my world!” Once that thought was sent out, all obstructions were gone. The scene became magnificent, and I burst into tears!
We are the future enlightened beings with great wisdom. So, we can’t look at things from only one angle and persist from that angle. We need to meet the standard that Master set: “With broad knowledge of the laws and principles, he is able to unravel uncertainties” (Essentials For Further Advancement, “Sage”).
For example, the water pump of the boiler in my company sometimes didn’t pump water, which wasted a lot of my time. In the beginning, I sent righteous thoughts to clear away the interference. But later on when I sent righteous thoughts, I thought, “Everything is an intelligent entity. I hope you can remember that Falun Dafa is good. Don’t make troubles so that I can leave the office on time to do Dafa work.” My heart at that time was really compassionate. I also let go of the fear of overwork and fatigue. Moreover, I didn’t get deluded by the false appearance of things. I truly believed that the water pump would work! After I enlightened to this principle, I could fix the water pump within minutes if it wouldn’t pump water.
Many times when we get stuck in situations, it is because our standpoint is not righteous. That, in fact, caused all the troubles! On the other hand, we all know it is a complicated process to remove human thoughts. When we say, “My doing this is to validate the Fa better,” we should mean it from the bottom of our hearts. We shouldn’t use it as an excuse. Otherwise, we are just fooling ourselves.
(To be continued…)
Translated from: http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/10/8/55259.html
