(Clearwisdom.net)
1. Eliminating any thought that is not righteous
When dealing with fellow practitioners, because every one of us is a human who is walking on the path of cultivation, it is inevitable that various things that have not been discarded will surface. It is important that when fellow practitioners see the manifestation of these deficiencies, they should point them out to the practitioner, rather than keep quiet for the sake of not offending him. Understanding of this issue actually differentiates a practitioner's benevolence from a non-practitioner's face saving. The practitioner who receives such feedback may respond intensely however, or even say something that is unpleasant like an ordinary person. This type of response shows that both sides need to improve together in their related aspects, so it is a good thing. One aspect is that when removing impure matters, the practitioner may feel uncomfortable and thus respond intensely. Another aspect is that the practitioner who is pointing out the deficiency should be aware of his manner and tone. In addition, both sides should expand the capacities of their minds and not be impelled by any extraneous factors. Under these conditions it is a good thing.
2. Rescuing the fellow practitioner first, then summing up the lesson
When facing the evil's persecution, we should not first point out the fellow practitioner's insufficiencies. We also should not passively react to the effort of rescuing the fellow practitioner, thus negatively affecting sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. We should rescue the fellow practitioner first with active initiation. We should try to alert the fellow practitioner at the earliest possible time, when the evil is just starting to persecute the fellow practitioner; in other words, before the evil factors are completely formed. We should communicate and form a local integrated group in order to disintegrate the persecution with all possible methods, including exposing the heads of the evil and sending forth righteous thoughts (There are many successful examples of rescuing fellow practitioners at the earliest possible time. These examples are not listed here).
After the fellow practitioner is rescued, we must then sit down calmly and rationally to sum up the lesson we should learn. We should not be satisfied with just being able to rescue the practitioner. We should look for reasons, for insufficiencies, and we should expose our ordinary people's mentalities and various concepts. From learning the lesson, we should achieve improvement as a group, turn the experience into a good thing, and turn passive-reaction into active and positive initiation and thus become more mature with our rationality.
