Think More of Others

[PureInsight.org]

Greetings Master. Greetings fellow practitioners.

For Shen Yun 2013 in the Netherlands, I coordinated the door-to-door leaflet mailing like I did in previous years. I searched for rich areas, drew maps and divided them among practitioners. On the weekends I took practitioners to those areas in my car to deliver flyers. When they were finished with that area, they would call me, and I would take them to another area.

One morning when I gave a new map to a practitioner, he took it. I suddenly remembered that he had gotten an area map last time, so I asked him if he had finished the area on that map. He said he did not. I then told him to go and finish the previous map first, but he said he did not bring it with him. I turned around and asked another practitioner. However, he had also left his previous map at home without finishing it and took a new map. I began to complain, “Why don’t you tell me that the previous map is not finished before taking a new map? If no one reports back to me, how would I know whether it is finished? It will be a big mess.”

When it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, I could not let go of this negative thought about these practitioners. I knew this was an attachment. I tried to reject it but could not completely eliminate it. After sending forth righteous thoughts, we went to the car to deliver the flyers. When I was pulling out of my parking place, another car came and could not pass because I was in the middle of the road. I quickly reversed and then suddenly heard a big “bang”. I realized I had hit an object behind me. When I went out to see the damage, strangely enough there was none even though the bang had been quite loud. I knew this was a warning that I should stop complaining. After I realized it, all the bad thoughts vanished immediately.

This reminds me of an accident last year that showed me the importance of not complaining. During last year’s Shen Yun, another practitioner who coordinated promotion in shopping malls asked me to send him all the maps for the areas to which we had delivered flyers so that he could arrange shopping mall promotions in the same areas. It appeared that this coordinator printed all the maps and gave them to another practitioner without letting me know. When I talked to him about it, I felt angry. I started to complain in my mind, “Why don’t you coordinate your own department and let me coordinate mine?” I totally failed to look within and did not recognize my bad thoughts towards him. The old forces now had an excuse to persecute me.

One morning when I woke up and went into the kitchen, I suddenly felt dizzy and passed out. After a few hours, I woke up on the cold floor. When I tried to get up, I was shocked when I saw blood all over the ground; I must have fallen down and hit the back of my head on the floor. I quickly realized that I am a practitioner and everything should be fine. I only had the strength to lie down in bed the whole day. I listened to Master’s lectures and sent forth righteous thoughts. During these days, many bad thoughts, including lustful ones, came up. It was like a big fight in another dimension. The whole leaflet mailing project was delayed because I was at home and could not give new maps to practitioners. One practitioner even called me and wondered when I would come. I started to complain again, “I am so weak. I cannot walk, yet you still ask me to come!”

The next day my mother suddenly visited me. She was shocked when she saw me. “What happened to you? You look like you are dying!” she said. I did not tell her about the accident and just said that I was sick and would recover in a few days. She insisted that I go to the doctor, but I refused. If it were not for compassionate Master who saved me, I would have lain there and not gotten up. I recovered after one week. I strictly told myself to not complain no matter what. This was a grave lesson for me.

I tried my best to drive practitioners around to deliver flyers wherever they needed. Sometimes they called me to pick them up and take them to a nearby station so that they could get home. A thought flashed in my mind, and I wanted to complain, “If you go by yourself to the station, it will be very quick. Right now I am on the other side of the city, so it would take me twice the effort and time to pick you up.” I corrected my thoughts immediately and reminded myself that I must think of others first. I still went there and took them wherever they needed to go. They were very happy to see me, and I could feel the happiness from deep down inside when I made others happy. We were harmonious like one big family.

Because we do not have many cars available in Holland during Shen Yun, the shopping mall coordinator asked me to help transport materials for the shopping malls. It seemed difficult to go back and pick up the shopping mall materials while practitioners were still busy delivering flyers and could call me at any moment. Strangely enough whenever that was about to happen, practitioners called me and said they would go back by themselves or did not need me anymore. This way I could go back on time to pick up the shopping mall materials. Master has really arranged everything perfectly.

We often had three or four shopping mall events per day. The shops close at 5 o’clock, and I had to pick up two different sets of shopping mall materials at the same time. Some shopping malls are outside and very cold. I tried to do so as fast as I could so that practitioners did not have to wait for me too long in the cold weather outside. When I was at the first shopping mall, one practitioner was very slow with packing up. He probably did not realize that there were more shopping malls waiting for me. The faster I wanted to pack things up, the slower he got. I began to get irritated and complained that he should hurry up. I realized that this was also an attachment. I should not force anyone to do something and should only do my best with a calm mind. After I finished with this mall, I went to the other shopping mall one hour late. I thought they would complain, but to my surprise, they were very happy to see me and greeted me like an old friend they had not seen for a long time. I am again in this harmonious field. Falun Dafa is indeed a pure land.

During Shen Yun, we realized how important it is to have group Fa-study regularly, so the association arranged a national Fa-study every Sunday morning. We have tried before to have it on Saturday evening, but most practitioners do not have a car, and it would be too late to go home via public transportation. There were two groups that had different opinions about this Fa-study on Sunday morning. The first group thought that time is precious. Some people came just to pick up the Shen Yun materials and would not join the group Fa-study, while others from the same group would join the Fa-study but would rush out soon afterwards. They did not want to stay any longer to discuss and share. However, the second group thought that group Fa-study is really important and would stay the entire Sunday to study the Fa and share instead of going out to do things. I belonged to the second group, thinking that if we did not study the Fa well as a group, the things that we did would not turn out so good. Soon I realized this was also wrong because I only had time on the weekends for Shen Yun. Staying the entire Sunday meant that half of my weekend was gone, and a lot of actual work needed to be done.

The first group suggested that we have the Fa-study earlier so that they would have more time to stay longer and share. The second group did not agree. Some practitioners came from far away and would be late for the Fa-study, while others had family to take care of, which made it inconvenient for them to come so early. Both groups complained to each other without resolving the issue for a while.

I regularly go to my parents’ home to eat, and they often have arguments with each other. They always push their ideas on each other and always think that they are right. They complain to each other and convince me to join their side so that they can prove they are right. Since I am a practitioner, I try to let them know about the Fa principles that I have learned. I told them that if they both think they are right, then who is actually right? If neither of them can take a step back, they will never be able to resolve the problem.

The next morning when I did the standing exercises, suddenly my parents’ arguing and the issue with our Fa-study group flashed through my mind. I started to compare the two. Weren’t they the same issue? How could we as practitioners act the same way as my parents who are ordinary people, fighting over who is right or wrong? Tears ran down my face for almost an hour, and I felt really bad that we practitioners could not get over such a petty matter. I decided to send an email to certain practitioners and share my understanding. Later the Fa-study changed to an earlier time.

Master said in “Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature” from Essentials for Further Advancement:
“I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.”

Some practitioners in Holland, including myself, are also in the Marching Band. When a parade approaches, we must register on the Internet in advance so that the coordinators of the Marching Band know how many people will need a hotel, food, etc. Because some practitioners are somewhat older and do not know how to register on the Internet, they would often ask me to do it for them. They are difficult to reach by phone, and sometimes I have to call back and forth to ask for more details. Most of the time I am unhappy when they ask me to do it for them. It is easy to do, and I think their children can also help them, so why always ask me? They should not depend on other practitioners. Master said in Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference: “Some people are unhappy when they meet with unpleasant things. Then aren’t you a human being? How are you any different? When you encounter unpleasant things, it is precisely time to cultivate yourself, to cultivate your mind.”

I knew I was unhappy and should be considerate of others, so I tried to help them anyway.
One time the coordinators of the Marching Band announced that we all needed to order new hats. At first I hesitated to ask these older practitioners because I knew they had also received the announcement via email, so they could arrange it by themselves. However in the past, they either did not read their emails or did not understand them and often relied on other practitioners to do so for them. I thought I should not be selfish and should let them know; otherwise, if they missed the order, they would still be wearing the old hats, which would bring losses to Dafa. After I asked them and explained the hat sizes, they asked me to order for them. In the evening I immediately placed the order for them.

The next day, they called me and told me that they wanted to change the hat size because they had just read the email and had a different understanding about the hat size. I became annoyed but tried to suppress it, and I told them I would send another email to change the order for them. All my complaining thoughts showed up, “Why do you always make trouble for others? If you had read the email earlier, you could have arranged it by yourself. Now I have to change the order, which brings a lot of trouble for the coordinators who arrange this.” I realized I had a problem and started to look within. I let go of all the negative thoughts about them and only thought from their perspective. Tears ran down my face, and all of the bad thoughts just vanished. I became very happy and really wanted to help them from the bottom of my heart.

Master said in Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun: “We require you to be a completely extraordinary person, to completely give up your own interests and to be entirely for others. What do those Great Enlightened Beings live for? They’re entirely for others.” Oftentimes on the surface, it seems that we are right. However, when we look deeper, it is still for ourselves rather than for the other person. I hope that we can all resolve our conflicts with our fellow practitioners since it is precious to have fellow practitioners around us. We are all Master’s disciples.

Thank you all.

(Speech at 2013 European Falun Dafa Experience-Sharing Conference in Copenhagen)