To Really Purify Myself with the Fa

(Clearwisdom.net) In the past, I had a bad habit that I would call "Hating evil like an enemy." I was abrasive and intolerant. Because of this, I had offended quite a few people and had no connections in getting a position in any government agency. It wasn't because there were no opportunities but because I could not bear the sight of anything "unreasonable" and loved to meddle in other people's business, causing every opportunity to turn sour. Sometimes even at home I used to argue a lot, nearly causing a civil war within the family.

After obtaining Dafa, in the process of continuously eliminating attachments to fame, profit, and affection, I have reduced my selfishness quite a bit, and yet it still stays with me. I have offended lots of people, especially fellow practitioners. Until most recently I had not realized that my "bad habit" was really a strong attachment.

I didn't realize my problem and thought I was merely severely upright, stopping a downward trend in society! After all, I was safeguarding the Fa and looking after the safety of fellow practitioners! Even while watching a TV program showing bad people doing evil things and good people doing foolishly benevolent acts, I'd get awfully mad. I was even using the principle of Dafa to cover up this attachment. On the one hand I was commenting on the characters in the TV show with principles from the Fa to judge right from wrong, and on the other hand I was mumbling, "This character should go to hell to be punished and that character is a dumbbell..." I was hoping that my family members--and fellow practitioners--would use the Fa principles to judge right from wrong. My family members didn't agree with me, so they said what I had human notions, was without compassion and was generally influenced by human behavior.

However, I still didn't think there was anything "wrong" with me, and I persisted in wanting my family members to have what I thought was a better understanding of the principles of the Fa.

For practitioners that behaved incorrectly, and especially one fellow practitioner who felt mistreated for not taking my advice, I had no interest in dealing with them. When my family reminded me about not being compassionate, I continued to look for justification for my behavior in the Fa. This shortcoming stayed with me for a long time and didn't get resolved until one day...

When a few of us were together studying the Fa, a practitioner raised a question and asked everyone to help him with an understanding. He said that an employee in his company asked for a pay raise even though his record had not been good. The practitioner said to him, "How could you ask for a pay raise when you didn't even finish the business plan that you were supposed to? All employees' pay-raise schedules are based on their completing their work. Therefore, I won't be able to give you a raise." But this employee continued to pester him for a raise, kept bothering him, and even threatened to quit his job if he wasn't given a raise.

Although this practitioner continued to explain to his employee how wrong he was, his own voice gradually got louder and louder. Then the employee suddenly asked, "Boss, are you angry? Or do you have a loud voice?" At that moment, the practitioner said to himself, "Yes, I'm a cultivator, and I'm correcting an everyday person's behavior; as long as his thoughts have changed and he is doing his job well, I wouldn't mind giving him ten or twenty thousand yuan more. Was I angry? Or was my voice too loud? It looked like Teacher was giving me a hint through an ordinary person's mouth. I really was getting mad, because I'm not used to seeing this kind of person." This practitioner asked us to help him in his understanding. Since what he was doing was righteously correcting a human mindset that was going downward and what he said was correct according to the Fa, why then was he still getting angry?

His question helped me to have an immediate understanding from the Fa. I said, "When doing truth clarification, our starting point is always on the Fa, but in dealing with today's reality, we aren't able to save sentient beings with the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. Also, when trying to correct someone, we mix human sentimentality, notions, things we love, and our human characteristics as standards for judgment--I enjoy what pleases me, or reject what displeases me." Teacher said,

"Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it." (Zhuan Falun)

When dealing in business, facing frictions, or seeing everyday people or even fellow practitioners who have shortcomings, we unknowingly make a judgment based on our own notions, character, temperament, hobbies, and dislikes, creating disgust and dislike with our human mentality. What I have done in clarifying the truth was right, but did not move people: I was unable to awaken people's compassion, let alone move them to tears.

Where I went wrong was that I didn't measure everything against Fa principles; instead, I mixed them with impure, personal feelings. Of course there were omissions!

In our small Fa study group, after reading,

"Some people do not have a master and are probably looked after by a passingby master, since there are a lot of great enlightened people in different dimensions. One great enlightened person may take a look at the person and follow him for a day. Then the enlightened person will leave him after finding out that he is not good enough. The next day another great enlightened person may come by, and will also leave him after discovering that he is no good. " (Zhuan Falun)

I began to understand more about the kind of realm a God or Buddha should have! Being unselfish and compassionate are the most important elements for a great cultivator--a future enlightened being. As long as you have a cultivating heart, a great God or Buddha will come to assist you unconditionally. I also thought of two of Teacher's poems from Hong Yin,: Volume II, Version A:

"Nothing

No nothing, no emptiness, no anything
No goodness, no evil--
beyond the extremes
A forward move,
myriad things come into being
A step back,
all turns to nothing,
forever to be a mystery

February 22, 2001

 

The Master-Disciple Bond

Four years has the wild evil surged
A steady helm has assured the right course
The Disciples of Fa have gone through evil trials
And though great the pressure, their wills are unbowed
There is no affect between master and disciple
The Buddha's grace remolds Heaven and Earth
When disciples have ample righteous thoughts
Master has the power to turn back the tide

February 1, 2004"

Dafa disciples, as future-enlightened beings, as masters and kings of their respective worlds in upper dimensions, should be able to judge, selflessly and righteously, right from wrong, benevolence from evil, and good from bad.

Therefore, to do the three things well, we must study the Fa well and eliminate all human notions.

I have finally resolved the problem in dealing with those who have attachments and do wrong deeds. And furthermore, I've learned to deal with the relationships between fellow practitioners as well as everyday people.

Please kindly correct my errors.