The Importance of Supporting Other Practitioners with Righteous Thoughts

(Minghui.org) I’d like to tell you about my recent experiences of supporting other practitioners with righteous thoughts, and the importance of not imposing our negative thoughts on them.

While studying one of Master’s lectures, I read this in the question and answer section,

“Disciple: Fellow practitioners’ negative thoughts about one another are “large gray mountains”—that’s how it was put in an experience sharing article on Minghui.org. I can’t see other dimensions, but when I have conflicts with other practitioners I do feel a lot of pressure and that I am being engulfed by bad substances. I think that others’ bad thoughts toward me are external substances and cannot harm me, and that as long as I rectify myself according to Dafa I can get out of that haze. But I know that it has been a tough process for me.

“Master: Each person’s specific situation is different. For a cultivator, the situations he sees can be a symbolic hint, but those aren’t necessarily how things truly are. So that thing may be like a large mountain; it’s not a demon per se, but it is something negative. If a Dafa disciple wants to break through it, it will take some effort before he can charge through it. And isn’t that in fact how you have made it through these years? Help and cooperate with each other more, be more understanding of one another, and focus more on others’ strong points; then things should be fine.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference” in Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)

After rereading this teaching, I told myself that I must think about other practitioners in a more righteous way, and I should not add extra difficulties to their cultivation and their efforts to help Master save lives.

Thinking Righteous Thoughts for Others

When Bao came to my home, I said, “Several practitioners with technical skills are experiencing interference. You’re very busy helping practitioners with all kinds of technical issues. How about we ask some other practitioners to share your workload? What do you think about Wei?” “He can’t do it!” Bao responded. “He has a strong attachment to fear.” Wei was indeed very cautious about safety. Three practitioners used to go to his home to study the Fa, but when he noticed that they often came and left together, he told them not to come anymore. He also reminded me to pay attention to safety and be considerate of his family members’ feelings.

I was about to agree with Bao when I remembered Master’s teaching, “… that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a compassionate heart, or should look at people in rigid ways.” (“What a Dafa Disciple Is” in Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)

I immediately changed my mind. I realized that other practitioners are all improving and at different levels of understanding. I should support other practitioners with righteous thoughts, and I should believe that Wei can overcome his attachment to fear and participate in projects. I also thought that he might have already improved in this area.

I started thinking about Wei’s strengths. When his relative, who is also a practitioner, was arrested, he participated in the rescue effort. He sent petition letters to Beijing and eventually helped get his relative released. He also printed truth clarification pamphlets and distributed them to people, and he was not afraid. Thinking this way, I started admiring him, believing he would support us with his technical skills.

Feng came and said, “You have to come with me, I need to find Wei but I don’t know where he lives.” Was Master giving me a hint? I went with Feng to find Wei. We found him and I talked to him about our needs, he immediately agreed to help. He knew a lot about computers, but said humbly, “There are still things that I don’t know about computer systems. I will learn from another practitioner and try my best to learn quickly.”

Wei helped purchase printers and computers as soon as other practitioners decided to set up materials production sites. He was also adept in setting up printer and security systems. I didn’t ever hear him say anything about being afraid.

We now have one more practitioner with technical skills. This reduced the workload on Bao and helped greatly with our local practitioners’ effort to save people.

If I had not followed Master’s teaching and simply accepted Bao’s preconceptions, I would have thought about Wei negatively, and Wei might have been influenced by my negative thoughts and lost this opportunity to improve. My unrighteous thoughts may have also hindered the overall truth clarification effort in our area.

The Impact of Negative Thinking

One evening, after we ended our group Fa study, an elderly practitioner said, “I haven’t gone out to talk to people for two or three days. I can’t muster up any energy.”

We all knew that she had been going out almost every day to clarify the truth to people. She told us that she had talked to 60,000 to 70,000 people. So we thought it was strange and asked her what had happened. She replied, “Two days ago, while I was posting materials in a community, another practitioner who lived there said to me with surprise, ‘Oh, you are really daring to post the materials here. This community has security guards, you must be careful, and it will be very dangerous if they see you. Stop posting here and leave.’ I left and went home. I haven’t gone out since then.”

Wasn’t this the old forces trying to scare the practitioners from going out to save lives? The practitioner who spoke negatively about the situation was concerned about safety, the elderly practitioner accepted the negative thought because she believed she was being told to be safe, and neither one of them considered the situation based on the Fa. This incident made me realize that the negative thinking of one practitioner can have such a big impact on another.

Master taught us to have righteous thoughts and actions. If the practitioner who spoke commented with righteous thoughts and said something like, “The materials you are posting are really good. More people in this community will receive Dafa’s salvation after reading them. Please pay attention to sending righteous thoughts and look around to make sure no security guards are in sight before posting. You’ll be safe if you maintain righteous thoughts. I’ll send righteous thoughts to support you.” Surely, the elderly practitioner would feel supported and inspired. I’m sure she wouldn’t have stopped going out.

I wonder if the practitioner who influenced the other inadvertently created karma for herself? I realized that whether we encourage another practitioner with righteous thoughts or influence them with negative thoughts can make a huge difference.

Let us all purify our hearts and support other practitioners with righteous thoughts. Let’s not influence them with our negative thoughts!

My understanding is limited. Please kindly correct me if anything is not in accordance with the Fa.