My Thoughts on Two Cultivation Issues

(Minghui.org) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!

I would like to share my understanding on a couple of issues that could help us look inward, so we can better offer salvation to sentient beings.

Admiring Practitioners

Our extraordinary wisdom and capabilities comes from Master and Dafa. Every practitioner's enlightenment to the Fa is only a tiny part of understanding to the vast cosmos. So, how can we admire a person who is in the process of cultivating themselves?

Master said,

“The cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master.” (“The First Talk,” Zhuan Falun)

Our attachments to sentimentality and a human mindset cause us to be happy when we think we are being helped by another practitioner, but only Master and Dafa can truly help us. There are no examples, references or role models for us to follow among Dafa practitioners.

When we see others doing well, it should remind us to be more diligent in improving ourselves. When we notice others not doing well, we should examine ourselves to make sure we aren't making the same mistakes.

If many practitioners admire a particular practitioner, it may put this person in a dangerous situation, as the old forces could exploit this behavior and take the practitioner's life away.

Master said,

“...Dafa disciples are a group that’s meant for serious cultivation, and the old forces will utilize any possible opportunity to make trouble for Dafa disciples, and will use various opportunities to cause some Dafa disciples to lose their lives. Some people like to watch how others handle things and then follow suit. Then you are not cultivating yourself but are just following others. Yet cultivators must walk their own paths to Consummation. In order to teach you a lesson, to make you really think hard about things, the old forces may go so far as to cause trouble for that person you take as a model, and may even cause him to depart early.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day”)

Most of the highly admired practitioners belong to one of two categories: good local coordinators or those who have a good understanding of the Fa.

I used to be admired. One practitioner told me that my sharing articles greatly helped her and that she learned more from them than she did from studying the Fa herself.

When she told me that she planned to memorize my articles, I immediately stopped her. It also made me realize my own problem. I must have had a hidden desire to validate myself and emphasized my own understandings so much that I failed to value others'.

Master went through great difficulties to save us and has shouldered so much, but some of us haven't completely entrusted ourselves to Master. Some even forget who they are after they make minor improvements in their cultivation.

We wouldn't be here today to help with Fa-rectification if it wasn't for Master. We must get rid of the attachment to admiring other practitioners.

Poor Cooperation

The second issue is regarding poor cooperation among practitioners. I believe that this occurs because we haven't done well on looking inward. When we are stuck in our own understanding we may be deviating from the fundamental responsibility of validating the Fa.

The attachment of validating oneself and jealousy have always been obstacles that prevented me from validating the Fa.

These attachments have manifested two ways: arrogance and following my own standards. However, after I gained an understanding of the enormity of Fa-rectification, my arrogance was greatly reduced.

Eliminating the attachment to myself seems to be especially difficult sometimes. I was attached to pursuit, looking down on others and blaming them. When I looked within, I regretted the way I behaved, and saw that I needed to let go of these things and start putting others first.

I realized that my arrogance came from human notions and putting my own standard above the Fa's. I study the Fa a lot, but why have I failed to eliminate my attachment to my own standards?

Master told us,

“Many of you haven’t studied the Fa well enough. The reason you haven’t studied the Fa well enough is not that you haven’t studied or that you don’t spend enough time on studying—it’s that you study with an ordinary human mindset.” (Teaching the Fa at the Assistants’ Fa Conference in Changchun)

Master clearly sees our problems and regularly points them out to us, but we tend to makes excuses so as not to look at them, as they aren't specifically targeting us. Our instinct to protect our attachments is the manifestation of the old cosmos' selfish roots. Master, however, has sacrificed everything for sentient beings.

My jealousy manifest with my looking down on others. When practitioners have family members who have a slow mentality or limited understanding, it's arranged to help us eliminate our attachment.

Master twice gave me hints in my dreams. In one dream, I ranked second in my college class. The top student was called Wang Yonghe. These words mean 'king forever benevolent' in Chinese. I thought it meant that a king should always be benevolent. There's a phrase in traditional Chinese culture which means 'to be harmonious one has to be able to accommodate differences.'

There are different characteristics and behaviors in life. When we fail to place those who differ drastically from ourselves first, we are not being compassionate.

In the second dream, I was taking a test. A person called Li Kai gave me a copy of the test. Kai has two meanings - one is victory, the other is gentle.

I understood that the dream was telling me that it takes gentleness to warm people's hearts and to win them over. Gentleness is part of benevolence. As a practitioner, one should have a big heart, which is how a king in ancient times behaved. His great capabilities and capacities make him great!

Master still treats those who swindle Dafa practitioners out of money or misuse Dafa's resources the same way he treats his good disciples. As long as there is the slightest hope Master will leave the gate open for them to correct themselves.

When I realized this, I stopped looking down on others and rarely judge them by my own standards. The things that used to disturb me became insignificant and I began to place others first.

I'm so grateful for the great Fa Master has taught us! After experiencing ups-and-downs in my cultivation over the past twelve years, I feel extremely fortunate to be a practitioner and I know that Dafa is precious!

Practitioners are at different cultivation levels and have different understandings of the Fa. When we work on a project together, conflicts and disagreements are bound to surface, but they are opportunities for us to improve our xinxing.

We have to understand that practitioners are one body. We can't allow the old forces to take advantage of our human mentality to prevents us from cooperating with each other.

We have to be clear that all practitioners' true selves have come to help Master with Fa rectification. We all have the shared wish to be compassionate and improve.

Whenever we aren't being compassionate it's because our attachments have been stirred. This presents another opportunity to cultivate ourselves.

Ordinary people expect to be rewarded for their work, but we do not. Being a Dafa practitioner is already the greatest reward. We all know the principles of the Fa, and should do our best to play our role in helping Master with Fa rectification.

I hope all practitioners will remind each other and advance together diligently in cultivation. Let's give Master less cause to worry!

Heshi!