(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share my thoughts after reading two articles on Minghui (these are published in Chinese only at this time http://search.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/8/14/55640.html, http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/8/19/55302.html). I honestly feel that these two articles all seemed to look outward C blaming one or a single type of practitioner for problems in the whole body of practitioners, rather than seeking inside for problems. The authors failed to seek inside themselves and their tones were full of scorn for the practitioner(s) who had "problems".

I also have had contact with many practitioners who left home to avoid the persecution and who are dedicated to Dafa work, yet I have not seen the serious problems mentioned in these two articles. In general, everyone is doing well. Occasionally, some individual practitioners may have problems during a certain period of time, but normally they would change upon being kindly reminded by other practitioners. Even some practitioners who are relatively stubborn do not cause much of a problem to the whole body of practitioners. Can these authors be affected by factors of their own minds by assuming the problems are of such magnitude? Of course, I cannot dismiss the fact that there are geographic differences involved.

Here, I would like to share my understanding:

Several months ago, several practitioners including practitioner A and I, found that practitioner B did not do Dafa work according to the Fa. The problem that practitioner B manifested was so serious that I even mentioned this practitioner in an article. In the published article, I saw that the editor had added the following paragraph after mine:

In August of 1998, at the Singapore Fa Conference, someone asked Teacher:

Question: "I don't understand why certain Dafa cultivators do not assimilate to the Fa and lie."

Teacher: "Letting you expose your weaknesses during frictions among one another is how I enable you to improve most rapidly. Nonetheless, as soon as you encounter a problem, you push it aside and point out others' shortcomings instead of examining yourselves. How can you cultivate, then? This is precisely the best way that I enable you to improve. So you must turn your mindset around. As to our students telling lies, there are indeed some people who exhibit poor xinxing. If you can help people like this, then point out [the problems] to them. But I think that it's still up to them to make real improvements. If they don't study the Fa themselves, no problem will be resolved. Put another way, however, improving themselves is their own business. If they fall behind and don't want to improve, it's they themselves who won't make it in cultivation."

Here, the editor pointed out again "you must turn your mindset around" and said, "It is true that one should not see any conflict as an excuse not to cultivate one's own heart, or to not treat others kindly." I think that this practitioner's understanding is correct since we cultivators should cultivate ourselves amidst any conflict. Cultivation is a process of fundamentally changing one's mentality and transforming from a human to a divine being.

I was moved upon reading the article and thought that I must cultivate myself and seek inward. However, no matter how hard I tried, I still felt that "I did not have any problem here, and yet his problem was so obvious." For a period of time, I felt uncomfortable and worried about practitioner B being taken advantage of by the evil.

Practitioner A was then harassed by some persecutors, and although practitioner A eventually escaped with righteous thoughts, the incident affected our Dafa work. Right after this incident, various dangers appeared around me and I was in a very unstable situation. This also negatively affected Dafa work. During this time, practitioner B actively coordinated and had much positive impact.

I had to think deeply afterwards and ask myself: If practitioner B indeed had such serious problems, how come the evil did not persecute practitioner B but rather practitioner A and me, who felt we had no "problems". We also felt stung by practitioner B's problem? I think that this may mean the problems of practitioner A and me were more serious than practitioner B's.

Previously, almost everyone thought that practitioner B's problem was so obvious and inexcusable. Didn't this all come from our own mindset? There are many complicated factors in cultivation, and I cannot draw a clear conclusion from this incident. However, this experience taught me a lesson: no matter what problem I see in other people or how serious the problem seems to be, my heart should not be moved and I must cultivate myself.

When my heart truly changed fundamentally, without apparent reason, practitioner B's attitude changed and was exactly different than before. Practitioner B seemed to fully devote himself to Dafa work and cooperated with me with unprecedented warmth and care. I had a better understanding about Teacher's words:

"It's because there is discord within you, which contradicts the essential nature of the cosmos, that you find everything around you in disharmony with you--that's the relationship. Everything will follow smoothly if you adjust yourself. That's exactly how it is." [1]

It was mentioned in the articles that "problematic" practitioners could cause a bad impact and the result would affect the whole body. I think that we need to look at this issue from two aspects. Any practitioner having problems would surely have an effect on the whole body. But if a whole body could be so easily led astray, or even destroyed by one practitioner who had problems, then this body itself is too fragile and immature. Every member of the body shares responsibility to look inside and improve.

Teacher said,

"Each of you is in the process of cultivation, and it's very likely that you may do some things incorrectly. But you don't play the defining role for other people, especially when other people are also cultivators. Cultivation is every individual's own business. If she had been able to remain unaffected and handle herself well in the face of interference, only then could it be called cultivation!"[2]

"One righteous thought itself subdues a hundred evil things."[3]

The majority of people's righteous fields should rectify the minority's incorrectness, not the other way around. A Lotus flower can be unstained when it is picked out of mud, not to mention us practitioners.

Many practitioners know that the practitioners who have close contact or are within a certain circle often have many similarities, and especially share some shortcomings. Therefore, if the whole body has a problem, usually every member has problems. Any practitioner who does not have problems would be spared since the Fa would not allow him/her to be involved.

Therefore, when we see other practitioners' problems being really serious, we must take a good look at ourselves. Those practitioners are like mirrors held up to ourselves. In rare situations, if we really do not have any problem, our significance in being in this circle may be to calmly and kindly remind and lead the group back to the Fa. If during the process, we do not have any problems within ourselves and have been calmly helping other practitioners who refuse to change, then we are likely to separate from this circle, since we are not in common with it, and could not be connected to a field that is not peaceful.

When conflicts appear among practitioners, they can usually still coordinate well with practitioners "outside the circle", who do not hold prejudices against them or are not involved in their conflicts. It may not be realistic for practitioners involved in the conflict to be talking about "pointing out others' problems in order to be responsible for Dafa," since with messy and unrighteous thoughts, it is difficult for a practitioner to move others' hearts. The result will likely to be "he says he is right and she says she is right" and the dispute may not be settled.

Under these circumstances, the two parties (or at least oneself) should give up seeking for a solution for the problem, put down the issue temporarily, and calmly study the Fa. Once one calms down and studies the Fa well, the situation will surely change.

Reference:

[1] ("Lecture at the First Conference in North America")
[2] ("Lecture at the Australia Fa Conference")
[3] ("Righteous Thoughts")