Finding a Balance Between Cultivation and Work

(Minghui.org) Having participated in a Dafa project for many years, I often witness practitioners in conflict—they vent their frustration and casually air their views. I also sometimes feel helpless while working with other practitioners. I had some insights after a recent conflict.

The supervising practitioner asked a subordinate (also a practitioner) to strictly follow the requirements and to be responsible for her assignment. However, she felt the supervisor had a bad attitude and that he did not accept others’ ideas—she also believed his suggestions weren’t good. She wondered why the supervisor refused to accept her suggestions. Why didn’t he cultivate himself?

They were at a stalemate. Finally, the supervisor said angrily, “Why is it that when I talk to you about work, you talk to me about cultivation. But when I talk to you about cultivation, you talk to me about work?”

Here’s my take on their conflict. The supervisor “talked about work” because he felt the subordinate wasn’t meeting the requirements and he hoped she would correct herself and improve. He wanted the practitioner to become a better worker.

On the other hand, the subordinate kept talking about cultivation because she saw shortcomings in the supervisor’s character and approach and hoped he would correct himself and meet her requirements. She wanted the supervisor to become a better practitioner.

They both wanted the other one to improve, but they did not look inward and examine themselves.

It’s not wrong to treat the workplace as a place to improve one’s cultivation. But the work must be taken seriously. If Christians used Christ’s teachings to demand things from their bosses and supervisors and disobeyed their instructions would that be acceptable? Of course not.

At the same time, each practitioner should measure themselves with the Fa. When conflicts arise, we should look inward, adjust ourselves, and improve our character (xinxing).

In the above example, when the conflict arose, both sides insisted on their own viewpoint. Each believed they were right and both looked outward. Over time, they accumulated resentment, thereby creating a gap between themselves.

As a third party, I saw my shortcomings through this conflict. Because the conflict between them was quite intense, I developed a mindset of self-protection, fearing that they might misunderstand my intentions and form a negative opinion of me. So I persuaded them to reconcile but had the desire to maintain my image. The words I said were mixed with selfishness so in the end, my attempts at kind advice were not effective.

Master said,

“... whenever you run into a conflict, you always push it off to others and find weaknesses and shortcomings in others. Your doing that is not right. You could cause Dafa work to suffer a setback, or cause Dafa itself a setback. You haven’t realized that you are using Dafa and Dafa work to excuse your own shortcomings or hide your own attachments. When you think that another person hasn’t done well, when you can’t get over it in your mind, you should think about it: “Why is my mind troubled by this? Does he really have a problem? Or is it that there’s something wrong inside me?” You should think about it carefully.” (Teachings at the Conference in the Western U.S.)

The ordeals we face are now spreading in the international community, so we really need to take a step back from our own conflicts, learn to cultivate ourselves unconditionally, and become lives that are selfless.

This is my limited understanding at my current level. Please kindly point out my shortcomings.