1. Search Inside More Deeply, Increase the Breadth of Mind, and Shape One's Own Resilience
First, let me start by sharing two small personal stories.
One day, my brother and I were casually chatting with each other. I mentioned to him that I had met fellow practitioners in Beijing who were very attached to the pursuit of fame. Whenever they did anything, they would stress that "they" did it. They seemed to be very afraid of their accomplishments going unnoticed by others. Even though the things that they did were very good, I told my brother that I felt all the practitioners should be content with being anonymous Dafa particles. My brother replied, "While it is true that our fellow practitioners have sides that have not cultivated well, we must always search inside of ourselves." He said it casually, but after a while I realized that I too was attached to the pursuit of fame. After realizing this, I told myself to get rid of that attachment and become an anonymous Dafa particle.
On another occasion, I told my brother that I still could not get over a personal conflict with a fellow practitioner. When my brother told me to search inside of myself, I felt that he was being unfair. He later told me, "No matter what you said, the fact that you still cannot forget about this matter proves that your mind is not broad enough. Your heart is not big enough, and you never search inside of yourself."
At that point, I thought to myself, "Is it true that I have never searched inside of myself?" I thought it could not be true. But then I remembered the first story that I mentioned earlier. At that point, I suddenly realized why a clear understanding of the principles of the Fa is so very important. "Fa can reveal all attachments." When we have different opinions, sometimes we allow ourselves to focus on the issue in question exclusively and hide our own attachments. Sometimes we do not see the problem from the other person's point of view, so we cannot help each other and unintentionally cause conflicts among ourselves. If we all start from the point of view of the Fa, we will realize that the principles of Fa can solve any problem. At the same time, I realized that the reason I could not search inside of myself the second time was because my mind was not broad enough. I also enlightened to one principle of the Fa in the human world, namely that the Fa has the power to create resilience in our own lives. Whenever I felt that others had misunderstood me or treated me unfairly, whenever I started to argue with others or cry over the behavior of others, I was demonstrating to myself that I was not resilient or strong enough.
We need to search within ourselves more deeply and increase our breadth of mind. Let us think about our great and benevolent Teacher! That thought should encourage us to become stronger and more resilient.
2. Obtain Righteous Enlightenment from the Fa, Get Rid of Our Attachments, and Make Ourselves Even Purer
Even though it is painful to self-reflect and examine myself, once I come to understand new principles of the Fa, get rid of my attachments and purify myself even more, I am genuinely happy.
In his scripture "Toward Consummation," Master Li said, "Studying the Fa with attachments is not genuine cultivation. Yet during the course of cultivation a person may gradually become aware of his own fundamental attachments, rid himself of them, and thus meet the criteria for being a cultivator. Then what's a fundamental attachment? Human beings acquire many notions while in the world and are, as a consequence, driven by these notions to pursue what they yearn for." In the past, when I studied the article, I always thought only those notions that made practitioners "first come to Dafa" were considered "fundamental attachments." But I enlightened to the fact that all the notions we acquire in the human world are fundamental attachments. They prevent us from understanding the Fa from within the Fa, becoming more diligent, and reaching consummation. They also try to shake our rock solid, righteous beliefs in Dafa.
I have realized that all Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples must eliminate attachments to this human world. But when we notice fellow practitioners having those attachments and try to force them to eliminate these attachments, it is actually an indication that we do not have enough faith in our own cultivation. Cultivation is not "following the crowd and its momentum." If all the other people have eliminated these attachments, I want to follow suit and do the same thing. But if I have eliminated certain attachments and others have yet to do the same, I start to feel uncomfortable. How deep this attachment of mine hides!
"In fact, other than a person's innate purity and innocence, all notions are acquired postnatally and are not a person's actual self." ("For Whom Do You Exist")
Let us understand the Fa from within the Fa, eliminate our attachments and purify ourselves even more. When my heart is in Dafa, I feel so happy.
3. Remove Self-Pity and Lack of Self Confidence through Cultivation, and Reconsider Personal Consummation and Fa-Rectification Cultivation
Because all of the practitioners I know are involved with distributing truth-clarifying materials, when we get together, we like to ask, "How many times have you been to Tiananmen Square (to appeal for Falun Gong)?" or "Have you passed out any truth-clarifying materials lately?" Never mind what those who asked the questions felt. Those practitioners who were asked these questions often replied with a deep sigh, or felt very sad and regretful. Sometimes they thought to themselves, "I am going to pass out more truth-clarifying material today" or "I will go to Tiananmen Square tomorrow."
I have enlightened to the following: the standard of what constitutes a good practitioner is not how many things or how many types of things that he has done. The key is whether his understanding of the Fa is clear or not. Some practitioners have cultivated for a long time, but still have yet to develop any personal understanding from righteous enlightenment. Some practitioners did a lot of things for Dafa in the past but surrendered themselves to the evil the moment they got arrested. That is not right. If we judge a practitioner by how many things he has done, there is no way the mainland practitioners could compare with the practitioners outside of China. If we judge a practitioner by the tribulations he has faced, there is no way the practitioners outside of China could compare with practitioners in China.
A couple of days ago, a practitioner who worked with me said that the truth-clarifying material we put together was very convincing, and that the evil beings in other dimensions would be intimated by it and be eliminated. But a couple of days later, she told me, "Does what we are doing now constitute stepping forward? We have not gone out to distribute this material."
At that point, I started to think about what really constitutes stepping forward. To me, the key is to step out of humanness and human thinking. Why is it that when we hear about what other practitioners have done, in addition to admiring them, we also tend to develop self-pity and feel ashamed of ourselves? This is a kind of interference. We need to do what Dafa needs us to do. Every practitioner should have already obtained a certain level of righteous enlightenment from his progress in cultivation. We need to believe in ourselves. If we have done something that is not right or imperfect, I personally feel that we should not think about it too much. Just like Master Li said, "Get rid of any attachment you might have, and don't think about [such] things. Just do everything a Dafa disciple should do, and everything will be covered."
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