(Clearwisdom.net) One day, I was reading one of Teacher's lectures:
"... since I last met with you we've had a lot more people enter the Dao and obtain the Fa. The fact that this Fa can develop so fast and spread on such a large scale is due, I believe, to the power of Dafa." (Falun Buddha Fa: Lectures in the United States)
As I read this passage, I suddenly felt that some kind of restraint was removed from my mind.
Before the evil persecution began, Falun Gong spread quickly by word of mouth, and from heart to heart. The way it spread looked exactly like an ordinary people's way. We all felt the Fa was great and wanted to let more people benefit from it, and we were all enthusiastic about spreading the Fa to more and more people. On the surface, it looked like it was the result of each individual practitioner's achievement. I suddenly realized today, however, that it was not so, not at all. It was a cosmic phenomenon and what has really been at work was the Fa itself. It was the power of Dafa, not our individual ability. All we were doing was just harmonizing, and what was really at work was Dafa.
Why had so many people come to learn Falun Dafa? It is because Dafa is great and pure and righteous. It is the Fa, not we practitioners, that brought people to the Fa. In the delusion of ordinary society, we felt it was because of our effort, but it wasn't at all. It's like someone having his Celestial Eye opened and seeing something, he thinks it's his ability and feels his practice is going pretty well: "I'm doing so well. I'm better than everybody else. Look! I've had my Celestial Eye opened." Actually it wasn't like that at all. If it were not for Master, who transformed the Celestial Eye for you, you would not be able to see anything even if it were open. "My Celestial Eye is open, my gong grows, and my level rises." It's all because Master is doing it for us. Even though Master said, "One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing level," (Zhuan Falun) if Master hadn't transformed the gong for us, we wouldn't develop one bit of gong by ourselves. "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Zhuan Falun)
At that moment of realization, I remembered what Master said in "Lecture at the Australian Fa Conference": "Sometimes when you do things for Dafa, the attachment of defending and protecting your own role appears, as well." The words "your own role" impressed me deeply and dealt me a heavy blow. To defend and protect what role of our own? It's not our role; what is at work is the Fa! Don't even think about how amazing we are or how capable we are. We should instead put our hearts into assimilating to the Fa. Once we think highly of ourselves, we have no power at all; once we think highly of ourselves, we do not comply with the Fa anymore, we are separated from the Fa; once we think highly of ourselves, demons will take advantage of our gaps.
Isn't it true? With this attachment, one will always think his understanding is higher than others, and that he can instruct others. Even though what he says may sound modest, in his mind he puts himself above others. Sometimes, in order to convince others, a practitioner might fake sincerity and superficially admit his shortcomings, but his real purpose is to change others. Cultivation is really a serious matter. Why is it that somebody always wants to "play the main role" while communicating with fellow practitioners? Why does he always have a subconscious "leadership" notion when trying to solve problems? If it were not for Master, what could we achieve? We should let go of the selfish attachment of showing off. It's not us who changed others. It's only because I complied with the Fa that the power of the Fa could manifest. It's the Fa that changed people. What really saves people is the Fa, not our human attachments during the course of cultivation.
As cultivators, we should let go of all human attachments. The stubborn attachment to "superiority" is something we have to let go of. We can't skip this part of cultivation. Some practitioners are more attached to it and others are less so, but everybody has it to some degree. If everybody feels that he is better than others, feels he is the smartest, especially those practitioners who are outstanding in some areas among ordinary people, they have a stronger attachment to it. It doesn't matter how well you cover it up on the surface. You may deceive others but you can't deceive yourself, let alone deceive Master.
Whenever I look inside myself when problems arise, I find a lot of times on the surface I was helping others, but I actually truly raised my level only when I was really looking inward for problems. I suddenly realized that everything is arranged to remove my attachments. It was in fact others who were helping me!
Whenever I run into problems, if I truly look inside my heart and let go of myself, I can learn to think from the point of view of others, understand fellow practitioners' human hearts and tolerate fellow practitioners' attachments. When I try to understand others with my whole heart and do things for others with my heart, I find it is in fact such a beautiful thing! Everything I do for others is actually for myself.
When I was learning the principles of Falun Gong, I read the following passages:
"Of course, some people, when they first founded religions, did not intend to become the demons who undermine orthodox religions. They reached the state of Unlocking Gong and became enlightened at different levels. They saw some principles, but they were far from the enlightened beings who can save people. They were at very low levels, and they discovered some principles. They realized that some things among everyday people were wrong, and they would also tell people how to do good deeds. At the beginning, they were not against other religions. But people would eventually believe in them, thinking what they said was sensible; in turn, people trusted them more and more. As a result, people would be devoted to them instead of to religions." (Zhuan Falun)
"Even if they do not harm people, they are still evil practices because they have interfered with people's faith in orthodox religions." (Zhuan Falun)
Suddenly a thought came to my mind. "Isn't this the same situation, in which the interfering effects of some fellow practitioners' attachment to themselves influence other practitioners who do not have a deep understanding of the principles of Falun Gong? They are only different in severity." I then thought about the issue that a fellow practitioner had. But immediately I realized that I was wrong. Why do I always use the Fa to judge others and not myself? When Master pointed out a principle of the Fa to me, why did I always think that it was other people's problem? It has occurred many times, that only after I stumbled did I realize that it was my problem, and that I needed to wake up.
Everything around me is like a mirror and can point out my attachments. I stopped looking at others and started to look into my own mind for attachments. Sometimes it looked like I was validating Dafa and I was doing Dafa work. However, what I did, I did with "I" in mind, and I emphasized "I"; actually I was validating myself unknowingly. Master gave us all of our capabilities, and he gave us these capabilities in order for us to validate Dafa selflessly - not to show off. Actually, when others praised me, when others asked me for my opinion and when others asked me to make a decision over an issue of disagreement, I clearly sensed their mentality of "worship," "dependence" and "pursuit." At the same time, I can also see my attachment of "being fond of being another's teacher" to direct others, and my attachment of being above others. Especially when I was writing down my experiences, this attachment manifested most strongly, but in a different way.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students," Master taught us:
"Validating the Fa is cultivation, and what you remove in the cultivation process is none other than the attachment to self."
My understanding is that in the personal cultivation process and in the cultivation process while validating Dafa we must remove the attachment to self. When validating Dafa, we must let go of the concept of "What I want to do ..."
Personal conduct is only personal behavior and it should not be imposed on others or interfere with others. One must be considerate of others and should not interrupt another's cultivation path arranged by our Teacher. Furthermore, one must consider the whole situation and Dafa. There is nothing wrong with wanting to establish one's mighty virtue. Master told us,
"And where does your mighty-virtue come from? Doesn't it come from letting go of self and being selfless in this grueling environment, and being completely responsible to the Fa as a Dafa disciple?" ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students")
What Master wants us to establish is the mighty virtue of Falun Dafa rather than personal virtue. We are each particles of Dafa and we should be validating Dafa, not ourselves.
Master mentioned that the external forces will never be able to plunder the Fa; the ones who can truly undermine the Fa are the disciples themselves. As a practitioner who cultivates Falun Dafa, none of us wants to damage and undermine Dafa. But when driven by our attachments, one could indeed damage the Fa and interfere with Fa-rectification unknowingly. It is the same situation as when the old forces are damaging Dafa, saying, "We are helping you." With an intense mentality of validating oneself, a practitioner will undermine the Fa and interfere with the overall Fa rectification and cultivation.
Falun Dafa has no person in charge. "The coordinators among Dafa disciples are in fact just coordinators, points of contact, and people who relay information." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students") In every situation, one must make judgments based on the Fa; nobody can be responsible for you, and you cannot be responsible for others. The coordinators are also human beings who cultivate. How can a practitioner not learn from the Fa but learn from and depend on a human being instead? When Master talked about Reverse Cultivation in Zhuan Falun, he said,
"Nowadays there are a lot of these reverse cultivation people whose levels have dropped. Only a few of them are still around. Why? That woman did not know that it was provided for her to practice cultivation, and she mistakenly thought that it was for her to make a fortune, earn fame, and become a qigong master." (Zhuan Falun)
During cultivation in the current Fa-rectification, the fact that I can act as a coordinator and as a point of contact is because Master made the arrangement for me to have the desire to do so. It is for me to contribute more for fellow practitioners, not for me to be a person in charge of fellow practitioners. Even if I have some capabilities in some aspects and I can do something for Dafa, it is also arranged by Master. Master giving me the capabilities is for me to contribute to the Fa-rectification, not for me to show off, and not for me to pursue fame. All the capabilities are given by Master, but I took them as my capabilities and I thought myself extraordinary. I developed an attachment that I was above fellow practitioners, and I failed to place myself among them.
The above are my personal understandings.
March 27, 2005