(Clearwisdom.net) I was very moved after reading "My Cultivation Experience at a Material Site over Seven Years." The article not only spoke about how to get rid of personal desires and attachments, it also spoke about cultivation among fellow practitioners, directly affecting group Fa-study, the materials site, and validating the Fa as one body. All of these contribute to whether we can form an indestructible whole and how far our cultivation can go in Fa-rectification. Our accomplishments during Fa-rectification cultivation guarantee a harmonizing, all-encompassing, and everlasting cosmos. What an important issue it is.
Helping another practitioner who has omissions or helping him or her find them so a conflict can be resolved, is not shifting responsibility and looking externally. I believe it is a healthy attitude toward conflict, and can help others with their shortcomings. However, picking on others' shortcomings is a classic case of looking externally, which does not help solve problems, particularly picking on practitioners who do the work of validating Dafa. This phenomenon has existed for a long time, and practitioners haven't paid much attention to it. It has a strong destructive power to the cultivation of the whole body.
Before the persecution began, I participated in the city-level and district-level Dafa assistant center groups for Fa-study. Participants were all volunteer directors or assistants in charge of practice sites. Through our interaction over a long period of time, I found that as a group, we were diligent in cultivating ourselves--giving up attachments to fame, money, and human sentiments.
How to do a good job assisting other practitioners was a frequent topic. Selfless sacrifice and resolving conflict to create a harmonious environment for Fa-study and experience sharing were the issues faced. It was an essential part of our cultivation. Many volunteer directors and assistants knew that, and they paid attention to cultivating it. Before Master required practitioners to stop buying and selling Dafa books among themselves, the volunteer directors and assistants were the ones to buy books, audio cassettes, Master's photos, etc. for other practitioners. They paid for their own travel and took a lot of their own time to do so. As practitioners, we all wanted to have high-quality printed books. Sometimes, the color pages were not printed clearly, and practitioners complained and spoke ill of it. The assistants traded the badly-printed books with their own good books. Sometimes, after purchasing the books, practitioners found that the books were pirated, which included a lot of words printed incorrectly. Practitioners asked for a refund or exchange. Considering the hardship of printing Dafa books and the financial burden on the practitioners who printed the books, assistants and directors didn't simply return the books to the printer; they used their own money to buy the correctly printed books for practitioners. Facing such conflicts, they tried to be forgiving and tolerant. If there was something they didn't do well, they would be the ones everybody helped out during the next session of group Fa-study. Of course, there were assistants who didn't cultivate well, but when I was with most directors and assistants, it was easy for people to be in a state of looking inside. It was a harmonious environment of experience sharing. Looking at one's shortcomings, one strove forward diligently in this environment.
However, among other practitioners, what's been said most was how lacking the assistants were, especially those assistants who cultivated well. Such complaints were even unkind, picking on the smallest things. The most talked about issue was "[them] showing off, acting like an ordinary leader." This was actually a good thing to assistants. They could use it to improve their xinxing. However, it was not a good cultivation state for practitioners. It was not a diligent state for us as a whole. If everyone was able to be self-disciplined, it would be a good cultivation state as a whole. Nitpicking about the assistants was not an issue before July 20, 1999, because the evil persecution hadn't started. Any conflict was more easily solved in solid cultivation practice, so these aspects of personal cultivation were better handled. But after the persecution began, things were different.
After the persecution began, by holding onto our faith in Dafa, we didn't fall under the wild persecution. Clarifying the truth on the path of Fa-rectification and negating the old force's persecution, we walked through with hardship. As Dafa practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, not only should we work towards Consummation, but the responsibility to keep the colossal firmament's all-encompassing and eternal nature (when the cycle of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction of the cosmos occurs) became an important part of our cultivation. Personal power and mighty virtue can only be obtained through cultivation in Fa-rectification. At the same time, coordination among practitioners is essential. Today's cultivation as a whole body, on a large scale, determines the future.
After the persecution began, the most urgent need was how to get Master's articles and truth-clarification materials. At that time, in many regions, the impact of practitioners who do the work of validating Dafa strongly manifested itself. Although we didn't have directors and assistants anymore, we had coordinators and material site practitioners. Together, we again established a diligent cultivation environment. A Great Way has no form, but we are a one-body, and this one-body works to end the persecution and save sentient beings. Master acknowledged its impact and Master requires us to do so.
However, in these years, coordinators also became the focus of discussion. Other practitioners offered to help them, constantly reminding them, nitpicking, and even blaming them. The persecution itself is severe, yet this group of fellow practitioners faced the pressure, eliminated fear, worked on things that benefited us, our cultivation as a whole, and our mission of saving people. This is something we should feel very fortunate to experience, and cherish it. However, led by human notions, a few practitioners did a series of harmful, even destructive things towards our cultivation as a whole body. As a result, no one helped at the material sites that were busy. Practitioners there had to get rid of fear, strengthen their righteous thoughts, and withstand various forms of pressure, at the same time they were facing fellow practitioners' blame and nitpicking. It was truly difficult.
Coordinators donated their time, money, energy, and faced all kinds of danger. They worked on establishing and protecting cultivation as a whole, and preventing it from being destroyed. At the same time, they cultivated out their own human notions and attachments. But some practitioners' blame plays a big role in interfering with their Dafa work. The most discussed things were "[they] show off and have attachment to doing things." Recently, our region overcame many difficulties and formed a Fa-study group. However, some practitioners nitpicked about the coordinator and did a series of things that they shouldn't have. The Fa-study group dispersed. Our newly started Dafa material work was also affected by it.
Fellow practitioners, the persecution continues. Good and the evil remain in a soul-stirring battle. How did we come up with time and energy to "battle" with those who do Dafa work? After the persecution began, there have been many less-diligent practitioners. The environment is dangerous and difficult. When a gap appears among fellow practitioners, it won't be easily amended as before the persecution began. It seriously affects our cultivation as a whole. Only the evil will be happy about it.
Fellow practitioners, when we encounter problems, we should look inside. "Why does it happen to me? What bad human notions do I have? What kind of positive impact can I impart in this situation?" If it is really the coordinator or material site practitioners' issue, we should kindly help them, instead of adopting the method of picking on them and stirring up conflict. Let us all treasure this fleeting predestined cultivation opportunity during Fa-rectification.
