Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- I Learned How to Quietly Harmonize for the Good of the Whole
- Practitioners Should Not Feel Vexed
- Moving from Humanness to Divinity
- My Sharing on Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
- Every Thought Needs to be Righteous
- Let's Eliminate Our Selfishness Completely
- 1. Welcome
Wish you a great 2011. Hope in the New Year we will work harder to gain a better understanding of the Fa and be more steadfast in our cultivation and carry out our assigned responsibilities.
In this issue, we have a compilation of experience-sharing Articles gleaned from Clearwisdom that always shine through because of their insights and fine quality of sharing. It is important to read the Clearwisdom, Pureinsight and other Dafa sites. We make an effort to select Articles from the Archives which people don’t go back to and are relevant even today. Contributions are welcome from practitioners.
Heshi! Hope, you like the selection of Articles and gain some new insights!
Note: "All the contents in this newsletter - except for quotations and excerpts of writings of the founder Mr. Li Hongzhi - are only ideas and experiences of practitioners and do not represent Falun Dafa in itself."
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- 2. What’s Happening?
Practitioners in Bangalore participated in the World Human Rights peace march and distributed flyers and truth clarifying materials.
Some colleges who participated in the march have invited practitioners to introduce Falun Dafa and conduct workshops within the 30 hour credit allotted to students.
Practitioners in Hyderabad introduced the practice to the tourists in Dindi resorts in West Godavari District and to members of rotary club.
Practitioners also introduced the practice and distributed flyers daily in the evening hours to visitors at the book fair.
The manager of MORE super markets in Hyderabad gave permission to distribute flyers from January. This will help many customers to know about the practice as it will be kept at the entrance.
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- 3. I Learned How to Quietly Harmonize for the Good of the Whole
By a practitioner from mainland China
(Clearwisdom.net)
It took me half a year to comprehend what Master said:
"Actually, though, as a Dafa disciple, if in such cases your thoughts are righteous, and what you are thinking about is cultivation, about being responsible, and about how it's something that should be done well, then you should quietly take whatever it is that you feel is lacking and do it well. That is in fact how a Dafa disciple should handle it. If all Dafa disciples could manage to handle things in this manner, everything out there would go extremely well, for sure." ("Be More Diligent")
When a colleague took sick leave, two others voluntarily took over her tasks. As a team leader, I told them, "Let me know if you are too busy to cover it, and I will help." After some days, they began to complain that I gave them unreasonable assignments. I did not argue with them, but I felt hurt. They voluntarily took over the work because of their friendship and their own interests. They blamed me because they were tired and did not want to continue, but were too embarrassed to take back what they said.
I came to the realization that when there is a conflict, I should not get stuck arguing over who was superficially right or wrong or try to change others, and wonder what I should do. Master's words came to my mind,
"...what you are thinking about is cultivation, about being responsible, and about how it's something that should be done well..." ("Be More Diligent")
It was like a light that was turned on in my head, I understood what I should do. Instead of being attached to who was right or wrong, I should not argue with them to validate or defend myself. I should remember that as a practitioner, I should look within, detach from unjust thinking and looking down on others, which is my duty as a team leader. As soon as my mind changed, my heart became clear and light. I began to work on her task and felt the incident never touched my heart. I realized that I should no longer pay attention to their words and manners towards me.
Practitioners may consider this ordinary, but it is a huge improvement for me. I used to be very worried about others' opinions of me. I used to hold a grudge against someone forever if I knew he had badmouthed me behind my back.
My heart changed after this incident. I used to concentrate on how I should correctly do things. I now pay more attention to "what the whole needs me to do." The difference is that I used to only do what I thought was right. If I thought that I was right, I did not accept others' "wrong" actions and tried to change them. As a result, I fell into constant arguments with my colleagues and fellow practitioners. I am now concerned with the needs of the whole. To get the work done well, I do what needs to be done. I will quietly do what I feel is lacking.
Looking back at my past behavior, I cannot help but chuckle a little bit. When I concentrated only on myself, it was like "digging into a bull's horn" (Zhuan Falun). I brought hardship onto myself, and it was done so foolishly. By changing this mindset, we can cooperate well with no conflicts while validating the Fa. The "right" that I was attached to is wrong, and I was wrong from the Fa's perspective. I will do better.
This is the understanding at my current level.
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- 4. Practitioners Should Not Feel Vexed
By a practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
I live in a very dusty and dry city. My furniture and floors always have dust on them. As a result, I have to clean my home every day, which has always bothered me a lot. Today, I did it again. I suddenly realized that practitioners should not feel vexed. I should not feel bothered by the dust in my home.
I thought about it further and realized that I am annoyed by many things. When telemarketers leave messages on my answering machine, I delete them impatiently. I am depressed if my child works slowly when I help him with assignments. When having a discussion with someone who is very talkative, I become annoyed. I was bitten by a dog when I was young, so I don't like dogs at all now. But there are many people who have pets in the city, and the pets also relieve themselves on the street. I get angry about this. Whenever I saw other children's urine in the elevator, I became very upset. I was very upset by these things and this certainly had a negative influence on my life and my cultivation. I didn't realize this however, during the first ten years of my cultivation.
Teacher said,
"If you always keep a compassionate heart, and a peaceful state of mind, when you run into problems you'll handle them well because it will give you space as a buffer. If you are always compassionate and friendly to others, if you always consider other people when you do things, and whenever you have issues with other people you first think about whether they can take it or whether it will cause them harm, then you won't have any problem. So, when you cultivate you should follow high and even higher standards." ()
As a cultivator, I did not do well with respect to forbearance, nor did I do well with compassion, both qualities which are essential to the characteristic of the universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
The moral standard of society these days is sliding down a thousand miles a day. So many people act irrationally and selfishly, without any consideration for others. I know now that as a practitioner, I should not complain when people are being unfair. Instead, I should use my compassion to help them realize their wrongdoing so that they may correct themselves.
Because of my limited cultivation state and education, I find it hard to express my feelings when talking about such a profound Dafa. Please kindly correct anything inappropriate.
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- 5. Moving from Humanness to Divinity
A Practitioner from Boston
(PureInsight.org)
When we look at the thinning ranks of our practitioners in the greater
Boston area, leaving us short-handed for all the pressing projects we
are doing, when we hear news about practitioners abandoning their
cultivation, or when we encounter new obstacles in our
truth-clarification projects that don't make any sense on a surface
level, it is easy to slip into periods of weariness, uncertainty, and
discouragement. I have had these feelings to varying degrees and
perhaps some of you have too. This is all part of cultivation and when
we experience lows like this, I think it is because we still have some
humanness left to cultivate away.
Of course, our cultivation practice takes the format of cultivating
while in ordinary human society. And it is precisely because we live in
ordinary society that we not only have an environment in which to
improve our xinxing, but that
we can carry out our mission of saving sentient beings. The two go hand
in hand. And we are in a process of moving from humanness to divinity.
As such, we have both human and divine thoughts.
In "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005" Master said: "Under the
tests that the human mind is put to, a state will come about in a
cultivator when understandings born of both divine and human thoughts
are present and collide. When human thinking gains the upper hand, that
person heads toward humanness; when divine thinking and a person's
righteous thoughts gain the upper hand, he heads toward godhood."
In the same lecture Master also said, "You are now in the last stage of
heading towards Consummation" My understanding from these words
is that our own righteous thoughts and divine thinking should be
gaining the upper hand by now. We should be able to distinguish between
human thinking and divine thinking and not remain in the dark on this
all-important matter.
Humans have human thoughts and gods have divine thoughts. That has
always made sense to me but at the same time it has also been most
challenging. What differentiates the two kinds of thinking? How can I
know if I am thinking like a human or thinking like a god? There
certainly isn't any magic formula that can be followed, nor are there
any role models for me to emulate. Some of my thoughts are very human
and thus easy to identify. Some of my thoughts border, and maybe cross
over, into the realm of divine thinking. Yet there's a wide range of
thinking that goes on inside me that is not so easy to evaluate, at
least not on the surface.
However, all my human thinking, even my "good" human thinking, is
rooted in one thing, selfishness. If what I am thinking about stirs
uneasiness in my consciousness, no matter how slight, when I pause,
take a step back, and look inside myself, I will inevitably find its
selfish root. Perhaps I have been afraid of taking on something I
consider uncomfortable. Perhaps I am really trying to show off, or brag
a bit. Maybe one of my pet notions is challenged or I am reluctant to
let go of an opinion I formed about someone. Sometimes I find myself
day dreaming. All these mental activities are rooted in selfishness, an
all too human characteristic.
Perhaps a recent experience of mine will illustrate what I am trying to
convey. The News Department of New Tang Dynasty Television held an
impromptu experience-sharing conference a couple of months ago. With
less than two weeks notice, around two dozen experience-sharing reports
were read and the atmosphere was charged with wonderful, positive
energy. As I listened to the practitioners giving their reports and
looked around at many familiar faces, I was thinking about how far
these practitioners had come and how quickly the NTDTV news department
has grown in such a short span of time. That thinking revolved around
surface, technical things such as improvement in the techniques of news
editing and reporting. I was caught up in this thinking and was even a
little complacent for being a small part of such a great team.
After dinner, we broke into an English News group and a Chinese News
Group in adjoining rooms for more sharing and planning of future
projects. During the course of our English meeting, one of the editors
quietly shared her understanding that our English News team's most
important role is to direct Western public attention to Xin Tang Ren -
that we should shine the spot-light on them, so to speak, and make it
easier for them to do their job reporting truth to the Chinese people.
I was blown away! Her words were so clear and powerful, full of
compassion, with no trace of selfishness. This was such a contrast to
the way I had been thinking all day. I was ashamed of myself at that
moment. But I was also thankful for having my human thinking exposed so
quickly and compassionately.
Human thinking has selfish roots, that's for sure. There is also a
tell-tale characteristic about human thinking that I have noticed in
myself. When encountering a tribulation, if I am not thinking
righteously and unselfishly, I find that I am self-conscious. By this I
mean that I am thinking ABOUT the tribulation more than I am FACING the
situation. When I look at the tribulation directly and see the loophole
that needs to be closed, then there's no time for being self-conscious.
I just immediately do what needs to be done. This is part of what
melting into the Fa means to me. If we are afraid, if we hesitate, if
we look for the tribulation to be removed by Master or if we handle it
only with righteous thoughts, then I think we miss the opportunity to
move up another notch in divinity.
It has been my experience that cultivating a heart of kindness and
compassion creates a fertile ground for thinking more like a god and
less like a human. I find that maintaining a heart of compassion and
kindness, as Master has taught us in lecture 4 of Zhuan Falun,
is a very good thing to do. Why? Because, when we are genuinely
thinking of someone else, the focus is not on "me" but on the other
person. This applies equally well to working on a project with other
practioners. If I consider how the project will be affected by what I
think, say, or do, again the focus is not on "me" but on the success of
something much greater and outside of the strictly human realm.
Isn't the key to being One Body unselfishness?
This is a constant challenge for me and although I know I have made
some progress, I often lose sight of the phenomenon in our cultivation
that Master expounded upon in great detail in his most recent lecture,
"Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital:"
"So as parts are continually being fully cultivated, they are
continually partitioned off. As parts continue to be fully cultivated,
they are continually partitioned off; the part that hasn't been fully
cultivated, meanwhile, constantly undergoes cultivation until the point
where nothing remains and everything has been successfully cultivated.
That is the cultivation path you are to take."
Because the divinely cultivated part that is cultivated is immediately
"partitioned off by a huge amount of space and time" ("Teaching the Fa
at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital"), we find ourselves pretty
much unchanged at this human level. The afterglow of having
successfully passed a xinxing
test lasts about as long as the flicker of firefly's tail light. But
there's no need to get discouraged, because we know what's happening.
We are not fireflies but true gods in the making. We glow with the
Buddha light that illuminates everything and rectifies all
abnormalities around us. By diligently applying ourselves and
continually studying the Fa, we have the best inertial guidance system
possible along our cultivation path. Let us think more and more like
enlightened beings and less like humans as the pace of Fa rectification
quickens. This period will be over in the twinkling of an eye.
How wonderful it will be!
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- 6. My Sharing on Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
By a Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net)
A few days ago, after finishing Fa study, our Fa study
group talked about the best way to take part in sending forth righteous thoughts
as a group. Each of us had a chance to talk about his or her understanding on
the subject.
One practitioner said that there was an organized city-wide sending forth
righteous thoughts and that a lot of practitioners were participating, but the
result was not very successful. She said that having a greater number of
practitioners participating is not as important as having the coordinators make
sure that the practitioners involved understand the Fa principles related to
sending forth righteous thoughts.
Another practitioner told about how she goes about sending righteous
thoughts. In addition to participating in group sending righteous thoughts, she
does it whenever possible, including while on public transportation, passing out
Dafa fliers, when coming across police and while taking care of miscellaneous
things. Each time, she recites the formula to disintegrate the evil and to bring
the goodness of Dafa and benevolent thinking to people's minds. Basically, she
has integrated sending forth righteous thoughts into her daily routine.
A third practitioner spoke about how to achieve mighty power while sending
forth righteous thoughts. He said it comes from concentrated thoughts and a pure
mind. Having distracting thoughts and an unclear mind make sending forth
righteous thoughts unsuccessful, even though it may look good. Distracting
thoughts come from incomplete elimination of attachments, so we have to look
within ourselves and continuously eliminate all attachments, so that we can
raise our xinxing, manifesting a Dafa practitioner's
righteous power. This practitioner sighed, "In fact, the process of doing
well in sending forth righteous thoughts is cultivating ourselves. Paying
attention to sending forth righteous thoughts is the process of continually
finding and eliminating our attachments."
While listening to fellow practitioners discussing their understandings of
the Fa's principles, I was both surprised and impressed. In the past, I felt
that I did pay attention to doing the three things as Teacher
requires. Although sometimes I wasn't diligent, I could keep up when fellow
practitioners reminded me and I could also remind other fellow practitioners
about it. I thought this was doing the three things well. However, after
thinking about it, I realized that I've been treating the three things as an
ordinary thing, thereby forgetting what Teacher said about focusing strongly on
the three things in the process of our cultivation in this Fa-rectification
period. Due to the fact that I was treating this sacred thing as an ordinary
thing, I kept putting it off or doing it off and on, especially when I was busy,
without realizing its important nature. And every time I was doing the three
things, I felt as if I was fulfilling my duty in a rush. I always felt tired,
and the result was unsatisfactory, and yet I failed to look carefully within
myself.
I felt inspired and thankful for the mutual sharing among fellow
practitioners. It helped me to have a better understanding of the Fa and to
improve in doing the three things, even though what we talked about was mainly
on the subject of sending forth righteous thoughts. Oh yes, as Teacher says,
doing the three things is certainly not an ordinary thing. It fulfills unlimited
expectations, our sacred historical mission and responsibility, and sentient
beings' entrusted hope for salvation. How could we not do it right? How could we
not handle it with a divine state of righteous thoughts? How could we allow our
human attachments to interfere? How could we not be diligent? How could we be
influenced by ordinary society's appearance? If we could only do Teacher's
required three things as mere formality, how could we call ourselves "Fa-rectification
Period Dafa Disciples?"
With a better understanding, now when I think of doing the three things, I
remind myself that I am a Dafa disciple. I am a divine being rising with
righteous thoughts and doing divine things. I think of studying the Fa well,
looking within myself, cultivating away all attachments and assimilating to Dafa.
I think of steadfastly sending forth righteous thoughts to disintegrate the
evil, safeguarding Dafa. I think of truth clarification, bringing the goodness
of Dafa to sentient beings, and enabling them to assimilate to Dafa. I think of
becoming selfless to coordinate well with fellow practitioners, going hand in
hand to fulfill our prehistoric vows in completing our consummation.
Now that our sharing on the Fa's principles has ended, I hope that all
participating fellow practitioners had the chance to raise our xinxing
level and better understand the Fa so as to wholeheartedly understand Teacher's
arrangements for us so that we can do the three things better on this last leg
of the path of Fa-rectification. I suggest that all fellow practitioners in our
small Fa study group should write whatever they understood from this special
conference. My sharing here is intended to be "casting a brick to attract
jade" in the hope that every member in our group will write an article
expressing his or her own understanding, raising our level as one body. Please
kindly correct anything incorrect in my understanding.
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- 7. Every Thought Needs to be Righteous
(PureInsight.org)
Recently
when another practitioner did not do well with a very serious test, I
foolishly had the thought "I wonder if I could pass such a test." Even
before the thought finished, I realised it was not a righteous thought
and dismissed it as wrong thinking.
Within a day, however, I felt my jaw ache so much that my eyes were
watering. I understood this manifestation was an infection and I knew
it was due to my incorrect thought, so I sent righteous thoughts and
tried to dig out the notion of fear and doubt that created this
loophole.
The next day, however, it was not gone. The pain was severe now, as
this seeming "infection" was taking hold. I knew it could be serious
since my mother had a tooth infection which moved to her liver and her
doctor told her this sort of infection can be fatal.
Master says in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles in February 2006:"
"Dafa disciples, all the way until their last step to Consummation,
will be tested as to whether they can make it. There could be very,
very critical tests for you all the way until you are just one step
away from finishing. That is because every step becomes more and more
critical to your cultivation and your tests, especially toward the end.
You know, those lawless gods of the old cosmos will try to manoeuvre
things until the very end, as long as they are still around. When you
are not up to par, they will surely try to find a way to bring you
down. They know that Li Hongzhi won't abandon you, so they will use all
kinds of methods to make you fall. Having just one single thought be
off will make a person falter. So the closer it is to the end, the more
serious and crucial the tests will be."
Even though I had to work, I sent righteous thoughts throughout the day. When I got home I tried to read Zhuan Falun
but the pain was blinding and I could not see the words on the page. I
tried to listen to the lectures or do the exercises but I could not
focus or calm my mind. I tried to recite "Lunyu,"
but could only struggle to repeat the first few words. The physical
part of the pain was excruciating, but what was worse was that the pain
completely filled my mind and was utterly debilitating. So I just kept
repeating the few words of "Lunyu" that I could manage.
At night I could not sleep from the pain, so I just sent righteous
thoughts (with great effort) and recited the few words of "Lunyu"
I could form in my mind. I also kept trying to dig out any attachments.
But I couldn't focus enough to dig or think, so I did the only thing I
could: I thought of Master. I felt like I was inside a furious storm of
pain which was blowing around all my thoughts except this one thread of
thought that I held on to tightly. I could not even focus enough to
form the thought of asking Master for help, I just had the feeling that
I was reaching towards Him.
The next day, the pain was still severe. I realised that I viewed this
situation as a problem, which acknowledges the old forces. So I let go
of this notion and replaced it with a full acceptance in Master and His
path for me. I laid all my faith in Master, let go of all other
thoughts and believed with all my heart that it didn't matter what
happened, since I was on His path and His path alone. As this day
progressed, I could feel a tiny centre of calm growing ever so slightly
in my mind. I did not pursue wanting to be "better" but just accepted
things as they were. The pain was still severe, though, and every
moment felt like an eternity. Unfortunately, I then had the thought
that "it was ok, so long as it was just pain which I could hide from
the ordinary people around me."
The next day however, my face was badly swollen. Of course, this fear
had manifested and I realised my loophole. My fear was that my husband
would want me to go to the doctor or take medicine, and I knew that
this situation was not about the physical manifestation, but about the
old forces taking advantage of my incorrect thoughts.
So I just let go of this fear and considered my swollen face as "not a
problem." I forced myself to read as much as possible. By this time, I
could read a little, so my mind was able to focus more. The more I read
the more I could focus. However I had previously promised my husband
that I would sand the upstairs and downstairs hallway so we could
decorate. The sanding machine vibrations aggravated the pain, but I
accepted it and continued sanding for many hours. I still only thought
of Master and as much of Lunyu as I could struggle to form in my mind.
The fourth day was still severe and my face was still swollen, but I
continued with my righteous thoughts and thinking righteously that this
was not a problem. I had surrendered to complete faith that no matter
what, Master would make everything right and there was nothing at all
to worry about. At one point my husband looked me straight in the face
and said "Are you ok?" he paused looking me over intently and said "you
look a little tired." I wanted to laugh, though, as my face was swollen
like chipmunk cheeks filled with nuts and even though my husband was
looking directly at me, he didn't even see the swelling.
From Zhuan Falun, Master says:
"The other day I said that the Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and
rectifies all abnormalities. In other words, the energy scattered from
our bodies can rectify all abnormal conditions. Therefore, under the
effects of this field, if you do not think about these things, you will
unintentionally restrain your spouse as well. If you do not and will
not think of them, your spouse will not think of them, either."
After a few more days the pain and swelling finally went away. From
this experience, I learned that by letting go of my fears and just
having strong righteous faith in Master, there can be no loophole for
the old forces to bring me down and no test I cannot pass.
Master says in a comment on a student's article in July 2005:
"for cultivators, fear or lack thereof proves [one's] humanity or
divinity, and it is what differentiates cultivators from ordinary
people. It is something that a cultivator must face, and the biggest
human attachment that a cultivator must remove."
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- 8. Let's Eliminate Our Selfishness Completely
An Overseas Falun Dafa Practitioner
(PureInsight.org)
Teacher said:
A Dafa disciple should put the Fa first in everything he does--whenever you evaluate something you have to consider the Fa first. You probably remember something I've said to you often: a Dafa disciple should consider others first in everything he does. Whenever something happens or whenever a situation comes about, even if it's a minor thing, my first thought is of others, for it's already become natural for me--I just think of others first.
(From "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")
When practitioners are exchanging insights on cultivation, everyone talks beautifully: "We must follow what Teacher has taught us, and attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." But may I ask how many of us have truly attained such a realm?
I'd like to share with everybody a few things that I have witnessed lately which I have found rather shocking.
One day, we came to practitioner A's school dormitory at 6:00 P.M. to study the Fa together. This was the first time for us to study the Fa together in his dormitory. He said to us when we arrived, "Please go ahead and start without me. The cafeteria is now open, so I'll go have dinner first and join you later." Then he left [without asking if we already had dinner]. I felt A was rather inconsiderate and selfish. It occurred to me that a practitioner had come from a different city this morning, and had spent a whole day doing Dafa work. Therefore, he has not had the chance to have dinner yet. But practitioner A just left for dinner without asking any of us if we already had dinner. I produced some snacks from my bag and offered them to this practitioner from out of town, but he wouldn't take it. He said politely he was not hungry yet. When practitioner A came back in a little while, he joined our group Fa study without saying anything. I couldn't help remembering how I had treated my friends years ago when I was not even a practitioner. If people visited me at lunchtime, I would bring my lunch from the cafeteria and share it with my visitors. If there wasn't enough food for us, I would buy additional food from outside. But practitioner A just went to have dinner without asking if anybody else needed to eat, not to mention bringing some food back to share with us. His lack of consideration truly shocked me.
During the lunch break of a recent large group Fa study, many practitioners took out their lunch and started eating. I shared the food I had prepared with everybody. The practitioner next to me was having green bean fried rice. I noticed his lunch box was small and exquisite, so I praised its design and said it was practical and cute. After I returned from a stroll, I saw that he was eating a bigger lunch box. I asked him if it was the same box that I saw earlier, he said no, it was another one. I was shocked to see him eating the second lunch box because I knew practitioner B sitting next to him had driven practitioners from his area that morning to attend this group study and had not eaten anything yet except the couple of snacks that I offered him. How could that be enough for lunch? I couldn't hold myself back and told the practitioner who was eating his second lunchbox that practitioner B had not eaten anything yet. Instead of sharing his lunch box, he explained that he only prepared vegetarian food in a rush this morning so he thought that it was not good enough to share with others. In my humble opinion, it's not important what he had to share with others. What's important is whether or not he has thought of his fellow practitioners or others. What's important is whether or not he has thought of asking if other practitioners had lunches before thinking about himself. What's important is whether or not he is willing to share his food with others.
These two things clearly exposed egoism in these two practitioners. I asked myself if I had the same attachment. Looking at myself, I knew I was no different from those two practitioners. When sharing cultivation experiences with fellow practitioners, I often started each sentence with "I believe", "I feel", or "I want to do this and that." I rarely had the patience to hear anyone out, thinking everyone was full of human notions and at a very low cultivation level. I rarely tried to put myself in their shoes, or tried to silently complement and harmonize their ideas, not to mention thinking of us as one-body and validating the Fa cohesively. I was mostly concerned about showing off my talents. When I called fellow practitioners, I would tell them what to do and how to do it. Sometimes I would even order them around, such as ordering them to come pick me up the next day for some Dafa work. I seldom thought about other practitioners' schedule and availability. I acted really bossy. It might appear that I was trying to enhance the Dafa work in our area, but in essence I was using Fa-validation work to prove my talents and capabilities. Despite trying to improve my cultivation practice, and having the intent of doing Dafa work well, everything I have attempted was actually done selfishly.
After I noticed the selfish mentality in my fellow practitioners and me, I suddenly became aware that we have been most fortunate to obtain the most precious, fundamental Dafa of the cosmos. Having thought about Teacher's forbearance for our sake, His infinite grace, and His teachings in the recent years to untie the knots in our hearts and to encourage us to improve, I wanted to cry for I knew I have failed to live up to his expectation. On many occasions I had conducted myself inappropriately although I knew what Dafa required of us.
I have been studying the Fa, yet why am I unwilling to assimilate myself into the Fa wholeheartedly? I know everything Master says is true, but why do I still follow my own notions stubbornly? I will enter tranquility each time I study the Fa, yet why do I behave like an everyday person as soon as I walk out of the door? Teacher said:
If you hold on to humanness with one hand and won't let go, and you hold on to Buddhahood with the other hand and won't let go, just which one exactly do you want? When you can truly let go the situation will definitely be different.
(From "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
Judged from every aspect, I am attached to selfishness.
If every Dafa practitioner truly respects Teacher and Falun Dafa in a sense that we all conduct ourselves with Teacher's Fa and discipline our speeches and actions strictly according to the Fa, the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China would have ended a long time ago. Every problem we encounter is the result of our attachments, especially selfishness. It is precisely because of their stubborn attachment to selfishness that the old forces continue to persecute Falun Gong and its practitioners.
I have learned from these two incidents that the attachment to egoism is a giant obstacle on our cultivation path. I believe that as we are eradicating our attachment to selfishness, we are completely denying the law of the old universe and helping to create the new universe. We mustn't let our Teacher down repeatedly or fail his compassionate salvation and immense sacrifices for us. I really have to strive to meet the standards of the Fa from now on in order to help guarantee the absolute purity and righteousness of the new universe.
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