On Helping Fellow Practitioners and Cultivating Ourselves

(Minghui.org) When fellow practitioners are arrested or suffering from sickness karma, we take different approaches to help them. We send forth righteous thoughts, look inward, point out their problems, study the Fa, do the exercises with them, and even provide assistance in their daily lives. However, when helping other practitioners, we should be clear about the following aspects.

Removing the “I'm Here to Help You” Mentality

Many of us have a very purposeful thought when helping fellow practitioners suffering from sickness karma, “I’m here to help you.” The implication is that we remove ourselves from the situation instead of treating helping fellow practitioners as part of our own cultivation.

Some practitioners simply and blindly ask those in tribulations to look inward, or they tell them that it is because they have this or that attachment that led to the tribulation. If many practitioners who help someone have this kind of thought, it puts a lot of pressure on the practitioner who is experiencing the tribulation. This invisible field suffocates the practitioner and makes the tribulation even more difficult to overcome. In the end, the practitioner tells everyone not to come anymore.

We must think about ourselves when helping fellow practitioners in sickness karma. We can’t blindly ask fellow practitioners to look inward without looking inward ourselves. This so-called help has no positive effect at all.

Master said,

“If you can examine yourselves with everything you come across, then I’d say you are really remarkable, and nothing can block you on your path to Consummation. Yet when we run into problems, we often look outwards—Why are you treating me like that?—and feel that we’ve been treated unfairly, instead of examining ourselves. That’s the greatest and most fatal obstacle for all living beings.” (Teachings at the Conference in Singapore)

We should look inward first and then help fellow practitioners better understand the principles of the Fa. Only the thoughts sent forth this way are righteous thoughts and truly helpful to fellow practitioners.

Helping Fellow Practitioners Is Cultivating Ourselves

Everything we encounter in our cultivation is related to our own cultivation. Thus, at no time should we consider ourselves outside of it. Even if a practitioner is displaying the illusion of a terminal illness, we should not think that the practitioner is different from us, but rather treat the practitioner the same as us. We should first eliminate the idea of terminal illness karma in our own minds, then study the Fa, do the exercises, send forth righteous thoughts with the practitioner, and even step forward to clarify the truth to save sentient beings. In the process, we constantly rectify ourselves and find our shortcomings. Only when we cultivate ourselves well and rectify our own fields can we be of real help to our fellow practitioners.

Many practitioners tend to use Master’s words to judge fellow practitioners and ask them to look inward during experience sharing or when helping those suffering from illness karma. The Fa is of course the most upright, and it’s not wrong to have fellow practitioners look inward. But why can’t it produce good results? It is because our compassion is not enough and the energy we emit is not pure enough. If what fellow practitioners receive is our own attachments and bad substances, they would feel uncomfortable.

Even if we see fellow practitioners’ shortcomings, we should remind them kindly instead of blaming them for one thing or another. This will definitely be more effective. If our energy field is pure, the practitioner will gradually get out of the illusion of illness karma.

Tone of Voice, Kindheartedness, and Reasoning Are All Important

Master said,

“I have not only taught you Dafa, but have also left you my demeanor. While working, your tone of voice, your kindheartedness, and your reasoning can change a person’s heart, whereas commands never could!” (“Clearheadedness” in Essentials For Further Advancement)

When I first read the above, I wondered why Master put “tone of voice and kindheartedness” before “reasoning.” Later, I began to understand that only when our tone and kindness are pure and good will the field we emit be the most righteous. Otherwise, if our tone is not good, although the reasoning is correct, or even if we use Master’s original words to judge fellow practitioners, we may not necessarily achieve good results.

When we help fellow practitioners, our intention must definitely be good. We must look inward to find out why we make them feel uncomfortable or stressed.

Master said,

“I often say that if all a person wants is the well-being of others and if this is without the slightest personal motivation or personal understanding, what he says will move the listener to tears.” (“Clearheadedness” in Essentials For Further Advancement)

Let’s think about it: What kind of mentality do we have when we help fellow practitioners? Can our words move fellow practitioners to tears?

In fact, when we make a fellow practitioner feel uncomfortable, we must be protecting our own things. The old forces only want to change others but not themselves. Is our thinking similar to that of the old forces at that time? If we don’t change ourselves but only want to change fellow practitioners, the old forces think that we have conformed to their way of thinking, and they will manipulate us and create gaps among practitioners, thus interfering with what needs to be done.

In fact, as long as we can always keep in mind the magic weapon of “looking inward” that Master has given us and quietly harmonize the shortcomings of fellow practitioners, there will be no loophole for the evil to take advantage of.

Anything we encounter is our own matter and cannot be separated from our own cultivation. Our first thought must be to look inward. Then all problems will be easily solved.