Turn the Mirror Around

[PureInsight.org] One day, I was thinking about another practitioner; it was as if I was watching them in a mirror, and seeing their many mistakes. I tried to help them, but wasn’t very successful. I decided one day to stop looking at them, but instead turn the mirror around to look at myself. Here is what happened:

A female practitioner was worried that her husband and her son were not very diligent. She criticized them since they did not meet her expectations. Her husband was silent but her son talked back, and there was hardly any change afterwards. I told the practitioner that the situation did not improve due to her attachment of sentimentality. I continued thinking about this for the next few days. Finally I remembered Master’s words in “Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia,” “I have told everyone in my Fa lectures that when a conflict arises between two people and it’s seen by a third person, even the third person should think to himself, ‘Oh, a confrontation is happening between them, so why is it that I was there to see it? Is it because I have certain attachments? Is it because I have that kind of problem as well?’” I was shocked and came to understand that the reason I saw the conflict was to enlighten me. Since I may have similar attachments, I need to look within when encountering these situations.

My recent cultivation state was not very good. My mind was not very clear when studying the Fa and I did not gain new understandings from the Fa either. In “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa,” Master said, “When some people read Zhuan Falun they are not concentrating, but rather, thinking about other things, and not able to focus their attention on cultivation. It thus amounts to wasting time. And not just wasting time—instead of it being the time when they are to be elevating, they are using their minds to think over issues and things that they shouldn’t concern themselves with, and thus, not only aren’t they elevating, but on the contrary, they are often dropping in level. If you don’t study the Fa well, there are many things you will not be able to do well.” In addition, I could not keep a pure mind when sending forth righteous thoughts and instead was often sleepy or thinking of many other things. I wrote an article and submitted it to the Pureinsight.org website, but I regretted sending it since the article was not well written and would waste the editor’s time.

To try and rectify the situation I went to join the group Fa-study. Practitioners there pointed out places where I did not read correctly and when my hands fell down during sending forth righteous thoughts. I was very moved and became clearheaded when studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts. In this good state I looked inward. Practitioner A had family tribulations a while ago and she was so worried that she cried. She asked me about it and I shared my understandings. She followed my suggestion and it worked. Then she had another conflict and my idea worked again. After this repeated several times, I had the attachment of zealotry. When seeing practitioner B stuck with an illness tribulation for a long time, I shared my understandings and gave her some ideas, but they did not work. The same thing happened to practitioner C and practitioner D. I wondered why was this was happening.

When I discussed with practitioner A, my mind was pure and the Fa-study effect was good. It was the power of the Fa that helped her solve her problem. When talking with other practitioners, however, I had sentimentality and arrogance. That was why it did not work. I learned from this that I need to spend more effort looking within and paying attention to practitioners' merits as well as learning from them.

In addition to this, my mind is still influenced by the CCP party’s culture and human notions from the old cosmos. That was why I tried to change other practitioners and focus on their shortcomings instead of focusing on myself. I need to let go of this as well as other attachments including showing off, selfishness, struggling, vanity, and more.

In “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Master said:
“Whatever day history is to end on, that day cannot be delayed no matter what. There can only be changes made to specific things or what unfolds in the process. Things that are not done well will impact things later on, but this overall time frame cannot be extended. This isn’t a matter of Master being compassionate or not. The reality is, in the end, if anything that has been saved or re-formed is not what I want or does not reach my standard, it will have been for naught since it will have to be destroyed. This time cannot be exceeded. So, for the beings that cannot be saved, that’s just how it is.”

“Under the effect of righteous thoughts, everything around you, as well as you yourself, will undergo changes. Yet you have never thought to give it a try. The old forces as well as the interference from the evil elements are precisely exploiting the gaps in your thinking. That’s what they have been doing all these years. All along the old forces have been directing rotten spirits and the factors of the evil Party to do this, causing you to fail in your efforts to save people. They do this because they don’t have the ability to defeat you in a direct fight.”

At this stage of Fa-rectification, there are still many people who are yet to be saved. We need to do better in doing the Three Things and save more people.

Above are my personal understandings. Please point out anything inappropriate.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/111381