(Clearwisdom.net) The chaos present at the DC Fa Conference was obvious to all, not to mention the false fire-alarm in the afternoon, which interrupted the conference for half an hour. It is abnormal that these things should happen. Does it have something to do with the overall cultivation state of the DC area?
The Phenomenon of Fa-rectification Activities in the DC Area Being Out of Step with Cultivation
It is well known that DC practitioners have strong abilities to get things done. But the DC area has long had the problem of Fa-rectification activities being out of step with cultivation and improving xinxing.(1) In the weekly big group Fa study and sharing meetings in the DC area, the main activity after Fa study is the discussion of different projects. Very little time was spent on sharing cultivation experiences, although this has improved a little recently. Very often, the order became quite chaotic after Fa study.
Cultivators should not take the scale and number of activities held to be equivalent to cultivation. It is said that some DC practitioners thought that they played leading roles in some Fa-rectification activities and therefore they felt pleased with themselves. Some project coordinators developed a desire for fame and success. It became obvious that sometimes certain project coordinators, persons in charge of assistance centers, or "celebrities" could not take criticism at all. When in conflict, some local practitioners had no respect for each other and failed to look inward. When questioned by practitioners from other areas, they often said that others didn't know enough about the situation and that they were right. When things didn't end up according to their wishes, some persons in charge and coordinators allowed resentment to build up towards others instead of looking at things objectively. Some practitioners developed the mindset of validating themselves as their number of public appearances increased or the number of activities they coordinated increased.
We were scheduled to participate in this year's July 4th Independence Day parade until it was canceled. This was unprecedented. But how many DC practitioners have learned a lesson from that?
As the number of activities increase, some practitioners just follow along blindly to do things, but they are not clear why they want to do it, or they do not have a pure mindset while doing Fa-rectification work. They seemed to be satisfied with just "participating" without caring about the quality and results. This problem may also exist in other areas.
Some DC Practitioners Exhibit Relatively Strong Everyday People's Notions
During the discussion process for the preparation of this Fa conference, some practitioners had strong everyday people's mindsets and forgot to cultivate xinxing. Some practitioners treated the projects that they coordinated as their own projects and adhered stubbornly to their own opinions. They couldn't listen to others' opinions and were resistant to people who had different opinions.
Everyone thought that this year's Fa conference in Montreal, Canada was quite good. The practitioners in the DC area wanted to learn from it and they organized a local sharing before the Fa conference. Looking back, it became a formality to a certain extent. After the DC conference, some practitioners pointed out that a few experience sharing speeches left the impression of being accomplishment reports instead of cultivation experience sharing. This is likely a reflection of desire for fame and success. Some experience sharing articles looked like they were talking about passing tribulations while in fact they were constantly self-validating themselves and self-justifying, and at the same time hid or did not touch upon the real problems at all.
According to feedback, a few Falun Dafa Association members (including DC's) and project coordinators didn't pay attention to maintaining order at the conference site. They had small group meetings at the back of the conference hall which interfered with the conference. Some practitioners in charge of maintaining order at the conference site had everyday people's notions of hierarchy, as they dared not intervene with the group meeting of Falun Dafa Association members, or they were afraid of making their practitioner acquaintances feel embarrassed.
During the time when practitioners were reading their experience sharing articles, the big screens on both sides of the hall constantly posted notices such as looking for so-and-so, etc. This diminished the solemnity of the Fa conference, and also distracted practitioners from attentively listening to the experience sharing. Some practitioners pointed out the impropriety of this, yet the practitioner doing the posting refused to listen.
At the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference, Master pointed out clearly that besides Dafa books, we cannot sell at Fa conferences any materials, any audio or video materials, etc., that aren't part of the Fa itself. Yet after only a few months, materials other than Dafa books were sold at the Fa conference. This is what we should not do.
Some Practitioners' Incorrect Understanding of Attending Fa Conferences
Due to the special conditions in this human world, Master often comes to the large-scale Fa conferences held in the U. S. and lectures on the Fa to guide practitioners in cultivation. These are certainly very precious opportunities. After several years, attending Fa conferences in some practitioners' minds is almost equivalent to listening to Master's Fa lecture. After Master finishes the lecture, in their minds, the Fa conference has ended. This is reflected in the following phenomena during this DC conference:
After Master finished the lecture and left, some practitioners in charge of maintaining order at the conference site immediately slacked off. They felt that the security task was basically finished and did not put enough effort in subsequently maintaining order.
Some practitioners felt that the purpose of attending the Fa conference had been achieved. A very obvious phenomenon was that right after Master left the conference, some practitioners left their seats, and the order at the back of the conference hall started to get chaotic. With the slackened maintenance of order, some practitioners started to buy food (I am not sure if it was breakfast or lunch) inside the conference hall although it was only about 10 a.m.
Some practitioners brought to the Fa conference the notion of everyday people's conferences, such as "socializing" with others inside the conference hall. Some practitioners' human sentimentality was a bit strong; they were very excited to see friends and practitioner acquaintances and they chatted a lot regardless of the occasion, which interfered with the order of the conference hall.
All of these are manifestations of faded awareness about cultivation and lack of establishing strict requirements for oneself.
My Personal Reflection
As a staff member for the Fa conference, I certainly carry part of the responsibility for what happened. For myself, I slacked off mentally and did not persistently fulfill my responsibility from the beginning to the end, which allowed the evil to take advantage of the loophole.
In fact, shouldn't all practitioners who attended the Fa conference self-reflect to see if they have shortcomings? The problems occurred at the DC Fa conference, but possibly the local practitioners unconsciously provided such an environment for it to occur. However, for a large-scale Fa conference with 4000 practitioners in attendance, the problem cannot be said to be limited only to DC practitioners. Only when we all pay attention to our xinxing cultivation, can we prevent these kinds of problems from happening repeatedly. For practitioners in mainland China who are placed under the harsh environment of persecution, omission in xinxing cultivation may easily cause one to be subject to direct persecution. We practitioners outside of China have a relatively comfortable and relaxed environment; however, whether we can persistently and self-consciously strive forward diligently in cultivation is also a very serious issue.
As I wrote this article, I had some worries, such as that some practitioners with a strong attachment to self¨Cprotection may be unable to take criticism from others. Nevertheless, from the stand point of being responsible to the Fa and to fellow practitioners, I wrote down my thoughts about some inferior cultivation states in the DC area. The purpose is to let us all realize our shortcomings and improve together.
Above is my limited understanding on this. Please kindly point out anything improper.
July 28, 2004
(1) xinxing: mind or heart nature, moral character