PureInsight | August 1, 2005
[PureInsight.org]
1. In Doing Fa-Rectification work, we should cultivate ourselves more and tolerate fellow practitioners
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students", "With the three things being the focal point, you figure out how to do them well and at the same time cultivate yourselves well and save sentient beings--the hardest part is saving sentient beings. Doing things well is actually a matter of coordination. When I say coordination, I'm talking about cooperating and working well together. Validating the Fa is also cultivation, and if you all look within you will be able to cooperate well. Dafa is cultivation, and there's nothing else."
When doing the Fa-rectification Dafa work, practitioners often have different opinions. It is true that everyone has enlightened to Fa principles differently, yet a more important factor is that the parts of us that have not cultivated well play negative roles.
When we were preparing an activity in early June, among 5 of us (4 administrative practitioners and one in charge of media work), 2 practitioners had one opinion, but the other 3 of us had a different one. Each of us tried to talk about what Master said according to our own understandings. Just because we coordinators did not communicate well, the problem grew and manifested in the bigger group of practitioners. The preparatory meeting held 2 days before the event ended with practitioners arguing fiercely. During the chaos, I distinctly heard a practitioner say these words – "It's all because those 3 people talked behind others' backs."
Although my heart was not quite disturbed by the words since I knew she said that when she was upset, her words made me look inward. It is true that we didn't intend to talk behind others' backs and didn't mean to form a little clique and we talked among the 3 of us only because we knew we would have different opinions than the other 2 and wanted to exchange some ideas among us first. But from others' perspective, it was indeed we 3 were talking behind others.
Why did I do it that way? After reflection, I found that I indeed didn't do it very well. Why can I pick up phone to call some practitioners without any hesitation while I cannot do the same with others? Other than the fact that I am more familiar with some than with others, the major reason is actually because I was afraid of facing different opinions. It's an attachment to not wanting to change myself. Deep in my heart, I didn't want to see that what others have to say are indeed true. Master has told us how gods do things. When having different opinions, they first see whether the other party's approach can reach the goal. Reaching the goal or not is one thing, the willingness of considering others' opinions is the most crucial.
Master also told us we can never divide Dafa into branches, schools, sects, or denominations, at any time, in any place, or with any excuse. I then wondered whether the reason those cultivators in history ended up creating different factions and schools and having disputes and fights, is because they all held firmly to their own ways of thinking, only wanted to stick to people with similar thinking and were reluctant to listen to those with different thinking.
After having realized that, I started to communicate with all of the other four, suggesting that we should start doing better by having more communication and removing any gaps among the five of us and that only by doing this can we truly coordinate better in our local area and help foster a better cultivation environment. On the surface, the evil interference manifests as practitioners arguing on a certain thing, but actually it is a profound cultivation issue. Once the cultivation part is solved, there leaves no loophole for the evil to take advantage of. I understand this is like what Master said on the issue of illness: when the evil spirits in other dimensions were removed, the tumor manifested in this dimension would disappear. On the other hand, if like in the western medicine which only deals with the surface symptoms without solving the fundamental problem, the sickness would come back afterwards.
Another thing is – in the first several years after cultivation, I didn't like to see the conflicts among practitioners and only liked to see harmony everywhere. Later as I studied Fa more, I truly understood what Master taught us – it's normal to have conflicts; only by having conflicts can we expose our attachments; the key is to how to quickly improve among the conflicts. If we didn't use the conflicts as good opportunities to improve ourselves, but rather, just strengthened the negative feeling towards each other over and over again, then this would become an excellent tool for the evil to use to interfere us. Sometimes I could see there was long-accumulated negative matters existing among certain practitioners that they didn't get rid of for long time. As soon as A just said some thing very casually, B can immediately have strong reaction. The consequence is the Fa rectification work cannot get discussed as it normally would. Sometimes the complaint that I heard from A included what B said or did a few years ago.
I myself experienced similar things. After I barely went through them, what I feel today what is most helpful for me is to remind myself to put Fa the first and tolerate others more. Early this year when we were preparing for a big activity, one practitioner called to criticize my way of handling something. I couldn't hold my xinxing and argued with her. Eventually she said, "Ever since you came to DC, this area got just so messed up." Then the phone was cut off. I wasn't sure if she hung up or my cell phone lost the signal. I felt so uncomfortable at that moment. I was thinking, "What did I really do after coming to the DC? The good environment was ruined by me?" I so much wanted to call someone to vent my grievance.
After a while, I calmed down. I realized she said only because she was upset at that moment. How can I treat that seriously? Everyone is a person during the course of cultivation and must have the moments when he/she cannot hold his/her xinxing. Should I take it seriously? Didn't Master teach us to be tolerant towards each other? If I allowed some gap to be formed between her and me, wouldn't that be what the evil feels happiest to see? If I vented my grievances with my wife and others, wouldn't that cause a big negative energy field in our group? This negative field may even last for a long time and will affect the Fa-rectification work in the DC area. This must be the opposite of what Master wants. Yet, how to harmonize what Master wants is the biggest benevolent thought that a being in this universe should have. Therefore, I ended up not telling anyone about this incident.
Meanwhile I realized her words were indeed a wake-up call to me – during more than a year in DC, there were indeed things that I could have done better. "Causing a mess" may be an exaggeration, but I truly need to constantly remind myself in the future – in DC, such an important place during the Fa-rectification I should make more positive contributions, not negative ones. Some words in an article published in Minghui Net a few years ago have left deep impression in me. Till now I often recall those words, "One of our obligations for every practitioner is to "bond," which means eliminating crevices among particles so we can form an indestructible particle group."
1. Keep righteous thoughts all the time and not give loopholes to the evil
As Fa rectification has reached to where it is today, the evil is less and less. We also send forth righteous thoughts every single day. But how to keep righteous thoughts constantly is critical to defending the evil's interference.
For some period of time, my cultivation state was bad and I was not diligent. When I read our own media's website, I sometimes can't help reading some of the articles intended to be for everyday people readers, such as those about fashion models and world beauty contests. Of course that enhanced some of my impure thoughts. One day I came across a short story that is said to be forbidden in China. Out of curiosity, I started reading it. It was full of descriptions of dirty things. I knew it was not good to read, yet I continued and finished it. After reading it, I suddenly realized – what book is this? It's nothing but a pornographic novel. I started feeling regretful. In the past, for news and stories like this, either I had no interest or I can easily control myself. How come I lost my defense when I relaxed my cultivation and created an excuse for myself only because this was on our own media?
The second day I traveled to another state to attend an important project meeting. As we neared the destination, I took the wrong exit on highway and it took us one more hour than it normally would. At a gas station, I was told my tire was leaking. After pumping the air, I drove to the hotel. The meeting was supposed to be an important one, but from time to time I had to think about where to get my car repaired. At noon, at the repair shop, a 2-inch long nail was pulled out the tire. It had pierced in from the front. I was really shocked. Even a regular nail causing a flat tire would not be accident, not to mention this was so abnormal. The longer the nail is, the less likely that it can pierce the tire from the front surface. I didn't run over some flat board, which may have had a long nail on it. If it were some bad people's sabotage, piercing from side would be the easiest. I got awakened – it was the loophole that I had in my cultivation those days that got taken advantage of by the evil. As long as the evil sees my loophole, it can use any supernormal means to take me down. The more I thought about it, the more shocked I was.
The next morning after returning home, after I used the bathroom and flushed the toilet, I went downstairs. After having done Dafa work for more than an hour, I went back upstairs to only see the water was still running. I realized the tank's lever got broken which caused the water to leak for more than an hour. It's become even clearer to me – the tire leaked air, the toilet leaked water. They were all leaks, severe leaks. It's all because I myself had big leaks. I was truly awakened. No matter how well I cultivated before, even up to the very moment of consummation, the evil would do everything to take down a Fa rectification disciple. It's not that just because I did so much important Dafa work I can have so much capital accumulated. Cultivating to certain level is difficult, but it takes just a split second to be ruined. I also came to deeply understand that in order to be interfered with, there must be some loophole that the evil can take advantage of. Denying the old forces' interference does include our filling up that loophole. We do a lot of work to save sentient beings every day. If we don't control ourselves well, not only can that affect our Dafa work, but also it can possibly take our lives and we therefore lose the opportunity to save many sentient beings. How disheartening that would be to Master and other beings in the universe!
2. Studying Fa
As early as in article "Towards Consummation", Master mentioned some practitioners doing Dafa work can't concentrate when it comes to reading the books. In the Fa lectures in recent years, Master often talked about the issue of Fa study. My Fa study state has ups and downs. In a good state, I study the Fa with a calm mind and absorb the Fa well. Yet many times I either doze off over the reading, or things happened during the day would come up occupy my mind, or something urgent or a conference call with short notice would disrupt my Fa study. As a cultivator, I feel very painful that for a long time I cannot guarantee the quality and quantity of Fa study. Every time my wife saw me dozing off over the reading, she'd remind me, "You should use your most clearheaded time of the day for the Fa study." Nevertheless I had not made breakthrough in this. Whenever I read Master's words on studying the Fa, or when fellow practitioners share their experiences on Fa study, I know what I slacked off. Yet sometimes I found excuses, "I have a job, and there is lots of Dafa work to do, how can I have so much time like some other practitioners?" Sometimes when I did not finish the planned reading, I 'd have a thought with excuse--Master said even if one does not read that much, keeping a calm mind in reading the Fa is more important.
Finally, at one of the project meetings, several practitioners each talked about their state of studying the Fa and doing the exercises, and realized that none of us have been doing very well in these aspects. On average, we could not finish reading one lecture of Zhuan Falun every day. That was really a warning sign to wake us up. One practitioner suggested that we study the Fa together every morning through the internet so as to supervise and urge ourselves to be diligent.
After several days of morning reading I felt great. My first thing in the morning is Fa study; I am clearheaded, and my mind would not be distracted by other things as I haven't started doing things yet. I truly feel that I am studying the Fa. As I read I comprehend the Fa principles and measure my cultivation accordingly. This is quite different from my previous state of Fa study. I felt as if I have gone back to my earlier years of cultivation before the persecution.
How I regret that I had not started doing this several years ago. I have wasted much of the precious time. Also I had not paid attention to my wife's advice, and sometimes I was even shamed into anger. Now I have continued my morning Fa study for almost two months. With ensured Fa study, my mind is steady and peaceful. It is easier to keep up my xinxing during the day, and I am closer to Zhen-Shan-Ren.
I realize from this that when fellow practitioners (especially spouse practitioner) give advice, we should think it over carefully, as it often turns out to be a problem we neglected or did not pay enough attention that is very important for our cultivation, like the extremely important Fa study issue. When we take the opportunity to search inward, it is we who benefit from it. If we cultivate well, we can do better in saving the sentient beings, and more beings in our corresponding firmaments will be saved. If we don't catch the opportunity then it's just the opposite.
Above are some experiences in my cultivation and doing Fa-rectification work. Please point out if any mistakes.
