(Clearwisdom.net) We all know from constant Fa study that we must cultivate ourselves well during the Fa rectification period. I became aware recently that I still hold on to a heavy discriminatory mentality, which not only bothers me but also works against my validating the Fa.
I have two sons; one is sweet tempered and obedient, and my heart is happy when I look at him. The other son is disobedient. When I look at him I feel frustrated and become easily angered. This preference for one child over another is a manifestation of human emotions and absolutely not the compassion a Dafa practitioner is supposed to have.
Before I practiced Dafa I had strong emotional preferences toward people who were magnanimous and strong. After I learned Dafa, I still analyzed and judged things in the ordinary society with notions formed among ordinary people, to see if they fit with my notions. Sometimes I’m completely trapped within this frame of mind.
I still cannot treat all fellow practitioners the same way and clearly use differential treatment. For example, I enjoy talking and sharing with practitioners I’m acquainted with and am reluctant to share with other practitioners. I talk in a kind and familiar tone with practitioners that I think are nice. I am not so kind toward practitioners whose shortcomings are fairly obvious.
For a while, the same mindset also manifested in my truth clarification efforts. If someone accepted the truth I would feel really happy. If someone refused to listen or could not understand the truth I would get upset. Sometimes I would even think this person was done for and unredeemable. I realized this later through Fa study. I have improved much since then, as now I try to treat everything and everyone with compassion and kind thoughts.
The Fa teaches us that the old forces treat sentient beings with really extreme methods. Teacher spreads Dafa far and wide. He wants to save all beings with boundless compassion, while the old forces do everything possible to eliminate those beings and Dafa practitioners they deem unfit to stay, to prevent them from entering the new cosmos. The old forces' actions constitute interference and disruption during Fa rectification, which shows the wickedness of the old forces from another perspective.
We know of the common phenomenon that some practitioners clarify the truth well to strangers, but the opposite is true with their family members. A main reason could be that they are unable to treat their family with the same compassion they show other people. Instead, they mix in familial love; that, coupled with their own flaws produces a poor outcome. I learned this lesson firsthand.
The discriminatory mentality also shows up among certain practitioners and through some other aspects. For example, some Taiwanese practitioners developed preferences toward the Nationalist Party or the Democratic Party, which made salvation of sentient beings more difficult. Teacher said "...every person in the entire world was at one point part of my family " ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference") so how can we treat Teacher’s family members differently? Of course, Fa rectification poses certain standards, and we can only rescue people.
During the anti-persecution efforts and rescuing of fellow practitioners, certain practitioners are active in rescuing local practitioners or practitioners they know. They are somewhat indifferent toward practitioners they’ve never met or practitioners in other areas who are being persecuted. In the latter case, they easily slack off in exposing the persecution, clarifying the truth, and demanding the release of incarcerated practitioners.
A number of practitioners abroad feel that the CCP's persecution of practitioners in China is remote. They do not personally experience it, so they don’t have a clear and urgent sense of opposing the persecution and rescuing fellow practitioners in China. They react slowly. Instead of understanding what to do and what not to do from the standpoint of the Fa, they rely on the coordinator or ask for instructions. This is a common occurrence.
After the exposure of the existence of CCP secret concentration camps where organs are harvested from living Falun Gong practitioners, many practitioners appeared numb and therefore lost the opportunity to rescue people and fellow practitioners. The evil took advantage of this gap.
After the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) was established in April 2006, we switched from exposing CCP secret concentration camps and other places where organs are harvested to thoroughly exposing detention centers, labor camps, prisons, and other facilities where practitioners are detained and persecuted. My sense was that many practitioners overseas ignored this. Many overseas practitioners don’t read Clearwisdom articles that expose the persecution. Doesn’t this prevent them from clarifying the facts about the persecution in depth and further prevent the international community from gaining an in-depth understanding of the truth about the persecution? Shouldn’t overseas practitioners truly look inward?
We know that all Dafa practitioners are one whole body; therefore, the persecution of any individual practitioner is persecution of Dafa and of our whole body. The main body of practitioners is in Mainland China; therefore Mainland practitioners’ cultivation, truth clarification, and opposition to the persecution, as well as their personal safety, is critically important and cannot be interfered with or disrupted.
As practitioners we have many common goals, some of which are to validate the Fa, offer sentient beings salvation, and at the same time cultivate ourselves. Because of national, geographic, and ethnic differences and problems with interpersonal relationships, preferences for different projects could create partitions among practitioners and weaken our power as a whole body. By eliminating the discriminatory mentality, we will naturally coordinate well and be better able to form a whole body. Then our efforts to oppose the persecution and rescue fellow practitioners and sentient beings will be more powerful and effective.
