PureInsight | August 19, 2002
A veteran practitioner once told me a story in which two practitioners, X and Y, went shopping together. Practitioner X thought he saw a woman leave a store without paying for the merchandise, and said to Y, "Look, a shoplifter!" Y, with his Celestial Eye open, saw that a piece of white substance from X went to the woman. They went to talk to the store's owner, only to find that the woman had paid for her purchase and that X had indeed misjudged her. However, X forever lost to the woman that piece of white substance, de, which could not be returned.
The story struck me with a horror that lasted for several days. We are unaware that we acquire much too much karma without meaning for it to happen. That is why we all have come to this point with karma rolling on top of karma. When I began to study the Fa, I understood better what Master requires of us, "During the process of transforming karma, to keep yourself under control—unlike an everyday person who would mess things up—you should always maintain a heart of benevolence and a mind of kindness. If you suddenly bump into a problem, you will be able to take care of it properly. When you always maintain a heart of benevolence and compassion, you will have time or room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly. If you always think about competing with others and fighting back and forth, I would say that you will start a fight with others whenever there is a problem—this is guaranteed. Thus, when you encounter a conflict, I would say that it is to transform your black substance into the white substance, de." (From "Transformation of Karma" in Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun.)
How do we maintain a benevolent and serene state of mind? First, we should never judge others with biases. A Falun Gong cultivator's thoughts carry a considerable amount of energy, which impacts both his own and others' dimensional fields. Within his dimensional field, "transformation follows with mind intent," or there is "demonic interference from his own mind." The more you judge someone negatively, the more you become attached to your judgment and the more you will find faults in other practitioners. Actually, you imagined those faults in others because of your own negative assumptions. They are not what you think. In addition, when we send forth negative thoughts toward another Dafa practitioner, the enlightened side of the practitioner in another dimension will receive the negative information and will resist or even repel your feedback. Therefore, enlightened beings are always merciful. They always encourage compassion rather than criticism.
When a conflict arises due to differences of opinion, we sometimes midjudge others' intentions unconsciously and further intensify the conflicts. When we start to judge others negatively, we are already absorbed in the state of "transformation with mind intent' and "demonic interference from one's own mind." The practitioner you are arguing with is not as indolent in his cultivation as you have imagined. On the other hand, you are not as arrogant as he believes. We frequently form biased opinions of others because of our own sentiments. What on earth is this thing called sentiment? How does a sentiment come into existence? A sentiment originates from selfishness. Everybody wants to protect himself whether he is right or wrong. The goal of pursuing cultivation is to eliminate our attachments to selfishness.
The daily manifestation of mercy may be that we put ourselves in others' shoes, that we respect others' pride, and that we speak to others with a gentle consulting tone. For those of us who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, we all acted as the Little Red Guards and were taught to criticize and verbally attack Lin Biao, Confucius, private ownership, etc, etc. [Lin Biao is a communist politician who lost a political battle during the Cultural Revolution in the early 70's in China.] In this political environment, we learned to speak only in the form of attack and write only in the form of criticism. In retrospect, the education we received in China was of a combative nature and of an evil spirit. This is why today many Dafa practitioners who grew up in China have to try very hard to cultivate compassion in their speech. During the Cultural Revolution in China, everyone assumed others were potential enemies, so one had to be on guard at all times. The purpose of sending forth righteous thoughts is to eliminate our bad thoughts, to enrich our Buddha-nature, and to eliminate our own evil spirit.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/7/31/17026.html
