(Clearwisdom.net) Not long ago, in an experience-sharing meeting, a fellow practitioner said, "Although some practitioners have spent over 100,000 yuan on truth-clarifying materials over the past several years, it cannot substitute for solid cultivation." These simple words got my attention, making me think deeper.
Since July 20, 1999, many fellow practitioners have suffered financial persecution. The situation regarding the persecution has been very serious, and we have needed a lot of money to clarify the truth. My husband and I live on our monthly salaries. We took out almost all of our savings to clarify the truth. No matter how cold or hot the weather, my husband would rather ride his bike a long way to work than take the bus so that he can save some money. For years, I have seldom bought new clothes. My colleagues think my dresses were out of fashion, and my manager has suggested that I dress more fashionably when I visit other businesses. I accept their comments with a smile. I know I spend the money on something far more righteous. My money has gone to the printer, copiers, PC's, informational materials, and VCD's. It has told those that have been deceived, "Falun Dafa is good," "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good" and made them aware of how much Dafa practitioners have suffered to let them know the truth.
I know very clearly that our fortune is not for us to enjoy life in this dimension. This money doesn't belong to us. We have it because we are here to assist Master in Fa-rectification in the human world. Hence, my attitude is that it is not a type of "loss" in cultivation because we are supposed to do it without any conditions attached.
Here I want share some of my thoughts on that practitioner's comment.
1. If the practitioner that made the comment specifically pointed to a fellow practitioner that does not have a problem with this, then the one that made the comment should pay attention to the cultivation of speech.
2. If someone indeed has a problem with this issue as pointed out, he should become more clear-minded. Cultivation is serious. Money is not a substitute for cultivation. We cannot evaluate cultivation with human thoughts. We should spend money on truth-clarifying projects and do it without any conditions attached.
3. If a practitioner knows a fellow practitioner who has such an issue, he may talk to that practitioner privately and help him to correct his thoughts and improve on understanding the Fa. We should assist but at the same time not blame.
4. In thinking about the fellow practitioner's righteous actions with righteous thoughts: Maybe some who spend money on truth-clarifying projects have had inadequate thoughts and need to improve their xinxing, while others did it with a pure mind but were misunderstood. We must understand that it is truly a righteous act--in such an evil and cruel environment, one can take out one's savings to validate Dafa and to help fellow practitioners in difficulties.
I am also guilty of not having righteous thoughts about fellow practitioners' righteous actions. As with fellow practitioners' righteous actions, I often ignore it but pay much attention to the issue at hand. When I see a fellow practitioner's shortcomings, I am liable to treat that practitioner with a human mind set of prejudice and misunderstanding, which eventually will cause gaps among fellow practitioners and affect our ability to cooperate during Fa-rectification. We should strengthen our righteous thoughts in our ignorance of fellow practitioners' righteous actions. Master pointed out the issue to me through a fellow practitioner's careless words, which I have not acknowledged on the Fa before.
Master said,
"Since today I'm going into greater depth about the format and state of cultivation and spelling things out, when you cooperate with each other [from now on] you shouldn't have the attachment of putting up your guard against others anymore. (Applause) Whether it be your blaming each other, using human attachments to push each other away, or all kinds of states--I can tell you, all of those are new attachments that appeared due to your not understanding the format of [Dafa] cultivation. Isn't that the case? Yes, it is! So, don't develop a new attachment as a result of not understanding the state of cultivation. That attachment would itself be a giant impediment to progress in your cultivation, so you need to get rid of it, too." ( "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")
If we all can think about fellow practitioners' righteous thoughts with righteous minds, we will have fewer gaps among us and the evil will not be able to take advantage of them.
