(Clearwisdom.net) Several local coordinators recently studied Master's lecture "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles." We recognized the importance of cultivating well and cooperating harmoniously to become one-body. We would like to share the following several points.
Practitioner A: The issue of not being able to accept criticism, not looking inward, and not cultivating oneself well has become more obvious. Recently we've experienced great interference in our area when exposing the facts about Sujiatun. There are many reasons this has occurred. However, I personally think there is a very important factor: the local coordinators sometimes are not able to accept criticism and do not look inward. They complain about each other, which created dissension among them. Our field is not pure anymore; so the evil has opportunity to take advantage of our gaps. If our field is in harmony as one-body and everyone has cultivated well, everyone would sincerely cooperate harmoniously as one-body and protect our field. Even if there is some conflict or dissent, we can do things better as long as we are all tolerant. The evil wouldn't be able to approach us and would be immediately eliminated.
Practitioner B: I have the same thoughts. I'm not doing a good job in this area myself. Practitioners blame each other and are not tolerant of each other on even small matters. This has caused dissent among practitioners. Dafa's field should be a harmonious field. Sometimes, when others bring up different opinions, some practitioners blame others and complain about others instead of looking inward. Only if we all look inward will we be able to create a harmonious field. Looking inward is a magic weapon in cultivation.
Practitioner C: Master said,
"If you always reject reproaches and criticism, always point your fingers at others, and always refute others' disapproval and criticism, is that cultivating? How is that cultivating? You have grown used to focusing on other people's shortcomings, and never take examining your own self seriously. When others' cultivation one day meets with success, what about you? Isn't Master hoping that you are cultivating well? Why won't you accept criticism, and why do you keep focusing on other people? Why not cultivate inward and examine your own self? Why do you get agitated when you are criticized? How many of you seated here can keep at ease when someone points at you out of the blue and berates you? How many of you can stay unruffled and search for the reason on your part when faced with others' criticism and chiding?" ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
Isn't this referring to me? In doing coordination, I always want to manipulate others. I always think my opinion is right and is in line with the Fa. If practitioners have different opinions, I never accept them tolerantly. Instead, I always try to change others and have others follow me. If others don't agree, I feel irritated. When encountering interference, I always try to blame others instead of looking inside. Isn't this a pure non-practitioner? The attachments and mentalities of showing-off, jealousy, fighting, hatred, complaining, self-defense, and validating oneself are all showing up. A cultivator shouldn't have these!
Practitioner D: Where is this coming from? Our inability to accept different opinions and our not looking inside? It was developed postnatally from acquired notions. People in Mainland China are all brainwashed by the CCP culture. The evil party never looks inside and never admits to any of its mistakes. It claims that its always right. It's never tolerant of different opinions. Some of our practitioners also like to hear praise. When looking at oneself, one always tends to look at the good side. When looking at others, one tends to look at the deficient side. As a practitioner, one should change one's acquired notions. Recently, I haven't been nice when talking to fellow practitioners. I sometimes look inside, but never deeply enough and never sincerely. Practitioners are different than non-practitioners. We should always look inward and cultivate ourselves. Now that Master has taught us this Fa, I realize that I should really make up my mind and cultivate myself well.
Practitioner E: I think cultivating oneself well is not just an issue of personal improvement. It is also an important aspect of saving sentient beings. If one doesn't cultivate oneself well, then one is not sufficiently tolerant and kind, and one wouldn't be able to do a good job in clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings.
Practitioner A: After initially studying Master's Fa, we felt we should change this state. But how do we change? It wasn't very clear to us yet. Through continuing to study the Fa, we now know we should look inside. Not letting go of oneself makes the one-body inharmonious. Attachment to oneself is selfish. In the past when others said something, one would think, "Are they talking about me?" The speaker might not mean anything specific, and the listener may have a different interpretation. After one listens to the different opinions, one feels bothered and wants to defend oneself. When defending oneself, one may get impulsive and possibly hurt others. One should think, "When others talk, why do I think they are talking about me? Why do I feel irritated or bothered? It must have been my attachments."
Practitioner F: After studying Master's "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles," I looked at myself carefully. I felt responsible for the dissension among practitioners. For example, whenever there was a high demand and a tight time line in coordinating truth-clarification materials, I often ordered practitioners to do it. When it wasn't done the right way, I forced others to do it well. I knew that was not right, but I couldn't discover what drove me to do that. I now know that it was the attachment of showing-off. Blaming others or not being satisfied with others is the same as feeling better than others and thinking that I do a better job than others. Not talking nicely is a reflection of not being compassionate. It causes distance between practitioners. On the other hand, we are all Master's disciples. What right do I have to command or blame others? Sometimes, on the surface, it shows that I was very active in doing Dafa work. It was, in fact, because of the attachment of showing-off and the attachment to focusing only on doing work. When one has the attachment to focusing only on doing work, it is just like an ordinary person doing Dafa work. Sending forth righteous thoughts won't be effective if one doesn't study the Fa diligently and calmly. Sometimes one's health might become worse as well, which will affect the overall feeling about the Fa, and nothing will be in line with the Fa anymore.
Practitioner E: I had similar experiences when distributing truth-clarification materials. When I had the attachment to focusing only on doing work, on the surface I was very busy and tired. In fact, I was not in cultivation any longer. Sometimes I was just in a hurry to get the materials done and distributed. I wouldn't even read through what was in the materials. Fellow practitioners sometimes voiced their opinions. Not only did I not accept the criticism, I also turned it around and complained about the fellow practitioners: "You didn't do it, but yet you comment on what I've done. Why don't you give it a try?" In fact, I was purely focusing on doing the work. I didn't focus on cultivation, and I didn't cultivate myself. Once, I reviewed the contents of the materials very carefully and shared about the importance of the materials with the recipient practitioners. Fellow practitioners paid special attention, too. We got very good results when distributing the materials.
Practitioner C: I realized that is why Master is so strict about cultivating oneself well. Master views it as a critical issue in determining whether one is a practitioner and if one can reach consummation. Consummation is determined by the cultivation attainment status and the realm standard achieved by a Dafa practitioner. If one can't even meet the requirements of this fundamental standard, then one won't be able to reach consummation. We all would eventually like to become enlightened people. The realm standard for enlightened beings is having immense benevolence, compassion and great tolerance. Dafa practitioners are in cultivation practice. As they improve, they are closer to the standard of the universe's highest characteristic, "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." As the standards become higher and higher, the requirements are stricter. If one reaches that realm, one must have pure truthfulness, great compassion, and immense tolerance and benevolence.
Practitioner D: Cultivation is looking inward without any conditions. For example, if your partner was 99 percent wrong and you were only one percent wrong, you should still look inside for the one percent on your side. Then you can kindly point out the rest for your partner. If we have issues as one-body, everybody should examine themselves first so we can create an environment of looking inward. Master asked us to do this:
"...everyone looks within, and everyone cultivates himself well,..."
"Now that Master has spoken about this in today's teaching of Fa here, from this point on you must start to take this matter seriously." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
Practitioner A: We used to have a great one-body in our area. Due to the coordinators' cultivation flaws, our one-body is no longer harmonious. The main reason is because we didn't pay enough attention to cultivating ourselves. When one doesn't do a good job cultivating oneself, one will naturally look outside and pursue outside goals and blame and complain about others. This will cause distance between each other. When coordinators don't do a good job in cultivation, it will have a negative impact on other practitioners, which in turn negatively impacts the whole body. If we all look inside and try to find our own shortcomings and correct them, Master will help us eliminate to the bad substances.
Practitioner C: I think we used to have a huge hole in our area in the past. We all think (especially the coordinators) that the environment in our area has been corrected for the most part and has improved. When we shared experiences with practitioners from other areas, we also mentioned this. The mentality of showing-off and complacency then started showing up. Especially recently, such attachments as indifference, the pursuit of comfort, and slacking-off have surfaced as well. Master taught us in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
"I hope everyone will do better and better at the end. Be sure not to become lax. You must not slack off, and you must not become apathetic."
The coordinators carry a lot of responsibility. We not only need to cultivate ourselves well. we also need to help other practitioners improve as one-body so we can keep up with the rapid progress of Fa-rectification and fulfill our great mission. So cultivating oneself well and cooperating harmoniously as one-body are must-dos.
The above are my personal understandings in the experience-sharing. Please correct me if I have said anything inappropriate.