(Clearwisdom.net, June 4, 2003)
Some fellow practitioners around me often felt quietly angry with their family for their unrighteous words and behavior, and had been enduring it silently. One day, the practitioners couldn't endure any more and broke out with anger. The justified their action, thinking that Falun Dafa practitioners should not only have compassion, but also dignity.
Anger and hatred are nothing but evidence that we haven't broken free of emotion, much less is it the dignity of enlightened beings.
"Once you start hating him, aren't you getting angry? Then you've failed to live up to Endurance. We strive to be True, Good, and Endure. And what's more, your Goodness is nowhere to be found. So you shouldn't act like him, and you really shouldn't be angry at him... You love something, you hate something--everything in society comes completely from emotion. If you don't sever emotion, you won't be able to cultivate. But if you do break out of emotion, nobody can affect you, and ordinary attachments won't be able to sway you. What replaces it is compassion, which is more noble." (Zhuan Falun, 2003 Translation Edition)
In an article published on the Clearwisdom website, a policeman who beat people fiercely was interrogating an elderly Dafa practitioner who went to peacefully appeal in Beijing. The policeman, who had become so accustomed to beating people, was about to beat up the old lady. But the compassionate and dignified manner of this old lady made him check himself subconsciously. His fierce and brutal manner disappeared. He even forgot to curse. We can see that the dignity of a practitioner, who truly cultivates herself, co-exists with compassion, as shown through this elderly practitioner. It gives expression to a more magnificent strength, which makes all that is evil and unrighteous shudder.
If you emphasize your "dignity" while divorcing yourself from compassion, you will lose your temper, glare at somebody, or speak sternly. Your "dignity" won't be the dignity of an enlightened being. It is nothing more than an exposure of everyday people's demon nature. It doesn't show any strength either, but instead could be very destructive. Once it starts to work, it could be magnified and utilized by the evil, and it could seriously hinder and damage our personal cultivation and truth-clarification work.
June 3, 2003
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