(Clearwisdom.net)
A while ago, an elderly practitioner told me that she was embarrassed about not being able to study the Fa on her own because she was illiterate. I did not take this to heart immediately. However, a few days later she mentioned it again when she saw me. When I noticed her anxious expression, I immediately understood.
Wow! She wanted me to teach her to read so she could study the Fa! Of course, I should have promised my help right away. Unfortunately, I hesitated, thinking that Fa-rectification had already progressed this far and that it would be difficult to teach her starting at point zero. I started wondering how long it would take me to teach her and how much of my time it would take. With these doubts on my mind, I went home without saying anything to her.
After I returned home, my mind was still on the incident and I wondered why I had encountered it. Therefore, I started to examine myself and looked inward. I discovered that the real culprit was a big attachment of selfishness, namely, I had been worrying that teaching others Falun Dafa would hinder my own cultivation--wasn't this a display of selfishness? It was completely self-absorbed. Why didn't I think of others? Why was I so indifferent when I saw others in need of help?
In the "Lecture at the Australia Fa Conference," Teacher says,
"In everything you should think of others -- first think about others, and then think about yourself. I want you to cultivate to reach the kind of Consummation that is of a righteous Fa, with righteous enlightenment, and is one in which others come before yourself. This is then removing selfishness, being able to remove 'self.' " [Unofficial translation].
As I checked myself by referring back to Dafa, I discovered a big gap. Isn't enabling a fellow practitioner to study the Fa so she can cultivate and improve herself part of improving ourselves as one whole body? If she cultivates well, the countless beings in the cosmic body she represents will be saved, and the losses will be diminished. This also constitutes saving sentient beings.
Having enlightened to this, I took the initiative of going to her home and starting to teach her to read Zhuan Falun word by word. In the beginning she had a hard time keeping up with me. Afterwards, as she kept reading, her reading became smooth and natural. After all we were studying the Fa! She also put a lot of work into it.
Within less than a month she was able to read through Zhuan Falun once. Following that, she kept reading Zhuan Falun every day. Finally she was able to read the book on her own. Now she can also read other Dafa books. I'm also very happy because of this. Not only have I helped another person, I've also improved myself through this act. In our daily life we should handle each and every one of our thoughts well and rectify ourselves. We should try hard to make sure that each and every one of our thoughts is concentrated on the Fa.
Fellow practitioners, please kindly correct me if I have said anything improper.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
