(Clearwisdom.net) One day I played a VCD of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party to a co-worker. She was curious at the beginning and finished watching the first two commentaries with me. But later, as soon as I played it, she would turn her head away, refusing to watch. This happened several times. I felt very sad, but thought, "Let it go. It's her choice not to watch it anymore. I have tried my best. Let her do as she wishes."
However, the Fa has told us that we have to "look within."
"In doing the exercises, if you do not think about good things, at least you should not think about bad things. It is best if you do not think about anything."(Zhuan Falun)
Was my mind indeed that pure?
"This is because amidst everyday people, different ordinary human attachments could interfere with her. When she cured a patient's illness, the patient might not appreciate it. When she treated the patient, she might have removed a lot of bad things from this patient's body. Although she healed this patient to such an extent, there might not have been any obvious changes at that time. The patient, however, would not be happy in his mind. Instead of expressing gratitude, he might accuse her of cheating. With these problems, she was undergoing psychological tribulations in this environment."(Zhuan Falun)
I suddenly understood that my thoughts were not based on the Fa, and therefore I developed a feeling of "I cannot help and I have tried my best." It was a selfish way of thinking, and a barrier. It affected my enlightenment quality and is an obstacle in saving sentient beings. Understanding this point, I started to feel better. I continued to use all kinds of opportunities to clarify the truth to her and not be affected by her reaction and whether she was willing to listen or not.
One day, when people were chatting in the office, she suddenly said, "Falun Gong practitioners are all kindhearted people." People asked her why she said so. It turned out that her daughter had just started going to pre-school. In the morning, as she was taking her daughter to the school, her daughter refused to go and made a big fuss out of it and she could do nothing about it. At that moment, a woman she didn't know came over, bent over to her daughter, handed her a colorful folded note, and told her, "Don't cry. Open it after school." Her daughter became very happy, stopped crying and agreed to go to school immediately. The child asked her mom to save the colorful note for her to open after school, then went to school happily. My co-worker was very grateful to that woman.
Later that afternoon, her daughter unfolded the note and found that it was a Falun Gong truth-clarification flyer. My co-worker continued, "There were so many people who saw my daughter cry, but nobody offered any help. Unexpectedly, a Falun Gong practitioner helped me." I asked her if she wanted to quit the Party and the Communist Youth League and she said, "Yes. I also want to quit on behalf of my family."
I came to understand that, because the practitioners as a whole coordinated well and my xinxing and enlightenment quality reached the standard, her chance arrived, and therefore she finally understood the truth.
Teacher said in Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York,
"The cosmos in the past was based on selfishness. Let's take man as an example: when it came to crucial moments he truly couldn't care less about others. When I started Fa-rectification, some gods said to me, "You're the only one who gets involved in others' business." I know, you find this hard to believe, because you are altruistic beings created by Dafa that have roles in Fa-rectification and that have truly enlightened. If I didn't do that, with the end of history all lives would end. When a being is considerate of others in doing things and displays tolerance in the process, it's because his starting point is selfless.
"When Dafa cultivators find selfishness in themselves, they should gradually work to overcome it. Becoming aware of it means that you have taken another step forward in cultivation, because a non-practitioner can't become aware of it and it doesn't occur to him to think about whether he is selfish. Only cultivators make a practice of examining themselves and looking within."
Comparing the Fa with my state and environment earlier, wasn't it an illusion caused by my selfishness and self-centeredness? A practitioner once told me, "I'm going to give up the practice. None of you can change my mind." I wasn't affected. In the following several days, after sharing understandings, several practitioners who had gone off-track have now returned. The barriers and notions that used to separate us are actually nothing.
The following elements have appeared in some areas to some extent.
1. When truth-clarification has reached a certain degree and becomes difficult, one would "follow the course of nature," without looking within.
2. Some former-practitioners have enlightened along an evil way after going off-track. Practitioners have shared some understanding with them a few times but didn't see any effect, so they gave up without looking within.
3. In some areas, the separation among practitioners is very bad, and practitioners fell into the state of "defending self", so the normal experience-sharing environment disappeared and the coordination of one-body was gone.
In doing the three things, the barriers at high levels sometimes affect our minds. If we fail to examine ourselves and don't know what we are thinking or doing, then we have followed the old forces' arrangement, and won't achieve the result of saving sentient beings. Therefore, we cannot just use everyday people's formality in doing the three things. Instead, studying the Fa and cultivating our hearts is the only way to guarantee improvement.
