PureInsight | October 15, 2018
[PureInsight.org] Last May, I published an article on "Eliminating the imperceptible attachment of Jealousy" and shared it with other practitioners. It has been more than a year since then. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "There is this rule: If in the course of cultivation practice jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Right Fruit—absolutely not." Therefore, I have been paying very close attention to watching my behavior in order to completely eliminate this attachment.
A few days ago, a local practitioner came and criticized several practitioners one by one. He pointed out all the shortcomings that were harbored by each of these practitioners over the last few years and even a dozen years ago. This practitioner had been close to some monks in Buddhism for seven or eight years. He had done a lot of things with the intention of accumulating virtue, including a large donation to the temple; purchasing Buddhist books to promote Buddhism; and some donations of fish. Many practitioners have tried to persuade him not to do it, but failed.
On one occasion he came to my house and criticized me very seriously. He said that my teeth were not good because I didn’t cultivate my speech and that my body was skinny because I was a narrow-minded and sensitive person. He also pointed out a lot of shortcomings in my cultivation over the last ten years. As I listened quietly while he was talking, in my mind I was thinking, “What attachment should I eliminate? Why has this practitioner been like this for a few years?”
When he was about to talk about the inadequacies of other practitioners, I immediately stopped him, “Don't talk about the others; I won’t listen. I don't want to talk about other people’s shortcomings behind their backs.” He asked me if I knew what shortcomings one practitioner had. I said, “I don't know, I don't care. I only care about my own shortcomings.” I used to listen to practitioners talking about others, although I didn’t talk. After this year’s cultivation, this attachment has been eliminated to a large extent. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "There are conflicts among one another, such as ‘you’re good, but he isn’t good,’ or ‘your cultivation is good, but his isn’t.’ These are conflicts themselves." It reminded me not to talk about others and to cultivate my speech.
Although I have not been very diligent in my cultivation over the years, I have at least looked inward to find my shortcomings. Since a practitioner came to my house to talk about this, I must have some attachments related to this to eliminate, or Master would not have allowed it to happen.
I thought about the attachment of jealousy. I only paid attention to practitioners’ inadequacies and mistakes and ignored their advantages and strengths. I could even remember some people who had pointed out my shortcomings ten years ago. It was the attachment of jealousy. Instead of trying to eliminate it with more Fa study, I had tried to hide it by looking at other practitioners’ shortcomings without noticing their positive attributes. How strong jealousy can be! The other practitioners’ advantages couldn’t be seen; I would only see their bad side. How could I measure them in this light! Why did it happen? Master said in Zhuan Falun, “And so traditionally it’s been said that those who don’t believe in the invisible have, as religious believers put it, little faith—for they have been misled by the false appearances of this world and become lost here. People of faith have long seen it this way, and it makes sense from our perspective.” My understanding is that I was misled by the ordinary people’s world and couldn’t see our practitioners being forged by Dafa. Everything of theirs had undergone a huge change at the microscopic level. However, as I could not see the practitioner’s improvements in the microcosm, I treated it as ordinary people would.
I have noticed that I have a fixed thinking pattern because of the Communist Party education in China. It makes me take a static view of people without noticing their changes. In the Mainland Chinese education system, the analysis of an article or historical figure(s) has an unchangeable view. They always believe a person has a rigid personality without any changes. People get used to looking at things around him with rigid ways of thinking because of Communism’s cultural environment. In reality, people change according to time, place and their experiences. One reason why cultivation is so hard is because it is hard to see how much we Chinese people have been eroded by the Communist Party’s poisonous culture. As Master said in Zhuan Falun, “You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened to the Tao. This is how one goes through cultivation practice.”
Another way Jealousy arises is when you see the merits of others and you want to do better than them. It is usually not to counteract each other's efforts (but can be), but to work hard for a better result. It can be a kind of unrealistic comparison. Jealousy - a vanity for seeking fame and fortune “You can do it, I can do it better.”
Everything follows the law of nature and everyone is different – people have their own attributes. I have my own attributes created by Master. Master has also arranged a specific way for my cultivation. I do the three things diligently in my own way; but not to compete with others.
Thinking in this way, I try to not look outwards but cultivate myself naturally. I have found that I am less lonely and cannot detect any attachment of jealousy. I don’t care about applause, flowers or friends. I do what I should, quietly and naturally. It does not matter if anyone gets close to me or not because I am in a self-sufficient and rich world. My heart is filled with boundless Dharma when I study the Fa.
Translated from http://www.zhengjian.org/node/245992
