(Clearwisdom) I remember when I first started cultivating some practitioners said that I "wouldn't let sand be rubbed into my eyes." I knew my problems, but I couldn't understand why this would distract me from cultivation. I thought, "Sand is sand, how can I let other people rub it into my eyes." A few years have passed since then. Recently I've seen some practitioners taking sides while some try to bring justice to the matter when they see other practitioners going through Xinxing (moral character, mind or heart nature) tribulations. Here I want to share some old matters with fellow practitioners for the benefit of striving forward together.
I think the idea of "wouldn't let sand be rubbed into my eyes" is an ordinary human's reaction. Practitioners shouldn't view matters like this. Back then when I faced arguments with someone else, all I could see were the inadequacies, attachments and mistakes of the other party. I felt I was seeing things extremely clearly. When I was studying Fa, I would use the Fa to judge the other party. "See, he didn't act like a practitioner at all. Didn't the Teacher tell us to do so and so." So I was confident in my judgment. I was always outspoken and said who was attached in this or that way. As a result I was trapped in a similar problem and couldn't solve it. It was not good for the situation in general either.
One day I was studying Zhuan Falun, Chapter 1, "Why Doesn't Your Gong Increase with Your Practice?" Suddenly I realized, "The Teacher is actually referring to my problems!" For the longest time when I faced that same problem I felt things were unjust and I had many wandering thoughts. Wasn't this a reflection of staying for a prolonged period of time in a certain stage of cultivation? Why was I looking for problems in other people instead of in myself? I needed to search within and upgrade my Xinxing. In a classic example of searching on the outside, I didn't upgrade my Xinxing and hoped instead that the outside circumstances and other people would change. The Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, Chapter 6, "It is waiting for you to upgrade your Xinxing--only then will you make a holistic change." This was not just for other people, this was for me, too!
When I understood this, the long-term problem I faced started to dissolve. My attachments were discovered one by one. I began to understand that, for practitioners, it has nothing to do with sand. It's more to do with how we see ourselves as practitioners when problems occur. When a fellow practitioner's attachments move us, we should calmly find out why we are moved, find out what kind of attachment moved us and eliminate it. As for the imperfections of others, we should compassionately point them out with the mindset of helping the other person. We shouldn't be attached to their attachments. We shouldn't get upset, or use our own understanding of the Fa to request them to speak or to think in the same way we do. In another words, we are cultivating for ourselves, not for other people. If we look for others' problems and get mixed up in our own emotions instead of controlling ourselves, we forget that we are practitioners and let ordinary people's views control us. Teacher has said that we must "fundamentally change our conventional thinking." CLunyu. This Fa is all-encompassing!
Of course, cultivation is the purification of our bodies and minds, and all the particles from various dimensions of our bodies. Everything has to be pure. A problem may have been eliminated in one dimension, but other dimensions still have to achieve the standard of the newer universe. Later I encountered similar problems, and I went through them by cultivating my Xinxing and being righteous.
For a practitioner, one instance doesn't represent how high the practitioner is on his cultivation path. One can't conclude anything from one instance if a practitioner does something wrong because the dimensions that have achieved the standard have been separated. We can't see those dimensions. Only the areas needing improvement will show themselves.
If we don't feel good about something it's because we are moved by it. Those matters on the same level are leaving us stranded. This is the moment for us to eliminate more attachments. Even those standards and views that are considered good in the human world have to be eliminated, too, because they are very low compared to Dafa's requirement of practitioners on various levels--not to mention that those are standards and views from the old universe. It is not allowed to bring them to the pure new universe.
It's fortunate that since my cultivation, whenever I encounter matters that bother me I know that it is time to let go of whatever I was attached to physically and mentally and study the Fa. It has been proven that Fa study can calm me down. Fa study can purify the mind. The process of Fa study eliminates various attachments, barriers and mentalities. Fa study is the process of receiving enlightenment and instruction from the Teacher. Of course, Fa study is also the process of achieving the standard of Dafa. It's a process to gain without pursuing. I have learned again and again that a practitioner's Xinxing cultivation is the same from the beginning until the end. To upgrade our Xinxing we will encounter matters that move our hearts. Why do we run away from the compassion and gifts of Dafa when they come to us? Cultivation doesn't count unless matters move us. Why do we try to see how the other party is wrong instead of looking at how we are moved? When I think differently, change my mentality and upgrade my Xinxing, the things that used to come between me and fellow practitioners disappear and problems feel distant. Then I can complete my duty as a Dafa particle. Of course, as long as cultivation is not finished there will be matters that touch us, and it all depends on how we react to them. Cultivation is simple yet supernatural.
From my daily Minghui (Clearwisdom) reading it seems that many news and persecution cases from China are very similar. Take, for example, the news that spies are participating in the persecution in some areas. The practitioners send out this news because they want to reduce the damage from these situations. But sometimes it is clear that they are searching outwardly [for assistance.] Some hope that practitioners can use some ordinary human means to distinguish the problems and eliminate and prevent them, or they hope that other citizens with a sense of justice, or even human rights groups, will come out and help, etc. Of course I am not talking about those practitioners who try to bring salvation in the human world by using methods that comply with the human world and who try to bring out the kindness of fellow citizens.
Regarding local practitioners who do not behave according to the Fa, practitioners around them sometimes feel that they are not persuasive enough to change them, and they become desperate and search outwardly. Consider the case in which truth-clarifying materials sites were being destroyed. Local practitioners discussed how the practitioners that got arrested were not working in accordance with the Fa; they hoped that fellow practitioners would learn from this. Reading this news, one side of me felt the urgency of the time to clarify the truth and reveal the persecution. On the other hand, I felt that this news and the elements of cultivation mixed into them should be taken seriously; these were very fundamental problems. A problem for one area is a problem for every practitioner from that area. Everyone's involved and everyone gets damaged.
A spy's persecution of practitioners is the same situation. If we change our mentality upon discovering a spy, increase our Fa study and view the situation with a righteous mind instead of getting excited and worried, then those spies will either be assimilated or run away on their own. They wouldn't be able to persecute us. So I think that if we can firmly believe and remember the Teacher's words, if, everyday, we can calm ourselves and study the Fa, and let go of our attachments and mentalities when problems come and upgrade ourselves instead, then the conflicts and the damages won't be the same. Often the conflicts and persecution don't have any foundation to begin with. Cultivation is supernatural, the evils in the human world's persecution of practitioners comes from other dimensions, and they are not just a human issue. So if we want to eliminate the problems from the ground up, we cannot view the problems from our human perspective, or by the methods by which everyday people view and solve problems.
The path of cultivation is simple and easy. Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance cover everything. Every word and principle in the Fa that the Teacher has given us has everything. And we can cultivate to the level that no human word can explain.
Of course, practitioners have to study the Fa well and always search within. This is not just for personal improvement, it's also for bringing salvation to the human world. It's the manifestation of a practitioner's responsibility for validating Dafa, and it's the Teacher's requirement of us. It is to connect to the future of the new universe. It's not a standard that we follow when we need to upgrade ourselves, and slacken when we want to stay in the human world a bit longer. We are the ones that decided to come to the Three Realms voluntarily, and willingly adapt to these standards. And in this lifetime we chose the path of cultivation, and we willingly bringing salvation to ourselves by assimilating with Dafa through the Teacher. So cultivation is a 100 percent voluntary act. We can't deny our own oaths. If we do, then it's a manifestation of low enlightenment quality. We have to regulate ourselves using Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance all the time. Then we can fully emanate the power of our righteous thoughts, and the whole body will perform well.
It doesn't matter what we do in the Fa-rectification process, the Teacher's words are the best reminder to us to search within. Every practitioner is part of this. I hope that no practitioners will upset Teacher's hard work.
September 2, 2003