PureInsight | April 7, 2014
[PureInsight.org] In the past I always enjoyed visiting fellow practitioners’ homes even if there was no serious matter to discuss. This was especially so for practitioner A whom I would visit every ten days or so.
A few days after practitioner A was arrested illegally by the evil police, we suddenly realized that the arrest had something to do with us. This is because when the evil police released fellow practitioner A they specifically warned her: “Were it found again that groups are gathering at your home or you always keep in contact with other people, you would definitely be arrested again.”
Fellow practitioner A is a veteran disciple and is very popular. She was a good influence for fellow practitioners and there were always people dropping by her home. Sometimes when one group dropped by, another group would come knocking at the door. Whether or not there was something worthwhile to talk about, people liked to gather there. Fellow practitioner A was really warm-hearted and she always served tea and fruits no matter who came, and if it was near meal time, she would invite everybody to have a meal.
But what did people talk about in these gatherings? Although cultivation matters were discussed, it was more about right and wrong subjects. For example: “So and so failed to pass family tribulations, so and so has strong human thoughts, so and so was wrong in their understandings. Is there any local news, etc?” Most of the topics were negative thoughts of fellow practitioners, or matters of ordinary people. Though some fellow practitioners felt this kind of gathering was useless for cultivation improvement, everybody just couldn’t help going back there the next time.
When the majority of the people were in such a state, a field would be formed a field of strong human thoughts. The characteristics of this field were: a) the one who spoke liked to talk and the one who listened liked to hear, b) everybody has his/her own topic to talk about, to seek satisfaction. The atmosphere of this field would in turn affect you and involve you causing you to become worried, mentally attached or even uncomfortable. When talking about other people, the hearts of the ego were all strong, as if one’s own understanding was right and that one was not lagging behind.
Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students”:
“With a lot of things, when everyone cooperates with each other they'll go better. I hope that you can focus less attention and energy on who has done well and who hasn't, who's good and who's bad, or how this or that person is--focus all of your attention and spend all of your energy on validating the Fa. (Applause) When all of you can cooperate with each other and do well in the things to validate the Fa, that's when you establish your mighty-virtue. When you are commenting on who's good and who's bad, gods won't even look you straight on.”
When cultivators come together, of course there will be cultivation topics, or sending righteous thoughts together, or people would talk about their experience in studying the Fa and going through tribulations. This should be a Fa conference environment where people can focus on how they study and cultivate. Though people would send righteous thoughts if reminded, but the ordinary people’s chat would still go on and on.
As time went by, how could the old forces not exploit the gap? They found the justification: Why was it that so many people gathered there, gossiping about trivial matters happening in different households. They said nothing useful and can this be cultivation? Ordinary people’s topics outweighed cultivation topics, can this environment go on? Therefore they would find an excuse and arrest fellow practitioner A. Another fellow practitioner who went there regularly was also arrested. A policeman asked afterwards: “We have been monitoring you for over a month, is it possible that there is something we don’t know?”
We realize now our attachments after sharing: the fear for loneliness and the love for joining the fun. It wasn’t focusing on sharing with thoughts to improve. Hardly anyone thought, “Does Practitioner A have time to study the Fa with so many visitors? Do we have consideration for others?
Translated from http://www.zhengjian.org/node/126050
