(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa has been spreading far and wide for more than thirteen years. Every Dafa practitioner who is still steadfastly taking the path of cultivation has become more mature and clearheaded. This has particularly been so during the last five years, during which Falun Dafa has been persecuted. Every Dafa practitioner has taken his or her own path in validating the Fa. The practitioners from our Yanbian area, who have taken the same path, experienced all kinds of difficulties and hardships in the last five years. Among them there were achievements gained with reason and wisdom, righteous thought and righteous action as well as lessons learned and lives lost from an inadequate understanding of the Fa.
Another New Year begins. In summing up the steps we took last year as one body in our area in validating the Fa, we find that there were a lot of shortcomings and things that we did not do well. To take our steps of validating the Fa more and more righteously, I decided to write down our shortcomings and hope the practitioners in the Yanbian area will actively join in and share their good suggestions. In that way our entire group can fully play the role of saving more sentient beings, follow Teacher's process of Fa rectification and make sure not to leave anyone behind.
We Split up into Different Sites But Did Not Divide Our Hearts
1). With the large Falun Dafa printing sites being divided into smaller ones to have them spring up everywhere, our area followed suit. We set up a lot of smaller and family based printing sites. However, some practitioners went to another extreme, thinking that it would be safe only when you work all by yourself. This led to practitioners being isolated.
Personally, I think we are one body. We were split up and worked at different printing sites, but we did not divide our hearts. It is necessary to have safety regulations but we should not go to another extreme with one person distrusting the other. Sometimes when we found the shortcomings of fellow practitioners, we needed to help them improve from the Fa and get rid of the shortcomings. Since we are one body, we must trust each other, cooperate and coordinate more harmoniously so that we can really bring into full play the strength of the "one body," which is indestructible.
2). Some of the printing sites in our area have been operating very smoothly and have not had the slightest loss while experiencing all kinds of difficulties and hardships. However, other printing sites always had trouble. I hope that by learning from the problems and shortcomings of other printing sites, those practitioners who have done a good job can present their experiences and methods for the benefit of Dafa as one body. Since we are one body, we only split up into different sites but we did not divide our hearts. As one practitioner put it: "Looking from afar we are a field of flowers, looking closely we are individual flowers." When you dig into the earth you would find that our roots are closely linked together. The one body of ours is like the roots, which are intertwined. To ensure that Dafa is not damaged in any way and that not a single practitioner will be left behind, we must communicate with each other more and coordinate better in arranging major events for saving sentient beings.
The Role of a Coordinator
In the process of Fa rectification, because of the special situation in China, the coordinator became an indispensable link for contacts among practitioners. Under such circumstances some practitioners took on the work on their own accord in spite of the danger. Most of the practitioners were able to fulfill their coordinating role. However, shortcomings did exist.
1). It is not enough that the coordinators only deliver the truth-clarification materials to the destination. They must take the opportunity to share with the practitioners how we can fulfill the requirements Teacher put forward for us during the process of Fa-rectification. This requires the coordinators to improve from the Fa themselves first, cultivate in a down-to-earth manner and help other practitioners. They must match their words with their deeds and should not indulge in exaggeration about the Fa principles to the practitioners and should not fail to set up a high standard for themselves. "Cultivation is not about taking part in ordinary people's political struggles, and even less is it about fighting for power or gain. The notions, bad habits, and tendencies that you've formed in ordinary society and in political circles and the like are looked down on even among ordinary people, so even more so should they be disposed of in cultivation." (My Version of a "Stick Wake-up")
2). Be able to think of others. Some of the coordinators in our area have families. They are not only involved in coordinating work, but also do house work and study the Fa well. Therefore, they are always struggling with time. This requires the understanding of other practitioners who do not have this problem. These practitioners should think more of the above-mentioned coordinators. In making arrangements they should be as thoughtful as possible. Because of poor arrangements, these coordinators cannot cook dinner at the time when they are supposed to cook or the telephone rings when they need to go to bed. If this happens all the time, the families of these coordinators will be disrupted and this may have a very bad effect. Every one of us is walking on the path of validating Dafa. We must help each other more and think about others first whenever problems arise.
One Must Distinguish between the Fundamental Issue of Self Cultivation and Fa-rectification Cultivation
Teacher said in his Fa lecture that before July 20, 1999, was a period of personal cultivation and the five years after that was the period of Fa-rectification cultivation. Therefore, if we want to do a better job in validating the Fa, it is extremely important for us to keep this "one body" in mind, and to coordinate and cooperate as one body. In the process of validating the Fa as one body, there were also shortcomings in our area.
In the past, whenever we learned a lesson from bitter experience we would always say: "This means that we had a loophole as one body." Did anyone think, "How did this loophole come into existence?" Wasn't it true that one practitioner had the loophole first, but when other practitioners found it they did not help to fix the loophole. As a result the loophole would become bigger and bigger. By the end of the day it became a loophole of the "one body," which was taken advantage of by the evil and caused irretrievable losses to Dafa.
What's more, Teacher said that our nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. We must get rid of all the factors of the old universe and attain through cultivation the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. So if the practitioner only cultivates himself or herself and does not consider others, isn't he or she still tied to the basis of selfishness of the old universe? We hope that practitioner B can leap out of the basis of personal cultivation, take the interest of the whole into account, and quickly remind and help those practitioners who have loopholes. If one persistently sticks to the wrong course, then the replacement of that person in that role should be considered to avoid the greater losses to Dafa.
We Must Be Able to Take on Challenges and Overcome Our Notions
Many practitioners want to actively do some work at the printing site or they want to be coordinators. This is a very good phenomenon, showing that the practitioners are trying their best to save the sentient beings. However, due to all kinds of reasons their wish could not be fulfilled. However, I think we should not limit our thoughts to the concept that "I can only do something when I am at the printing site or become a coordinator." We should be able to take the challenge and not wait or rely on anyone, and we should go ahead with what we should do. We can set up a family-based printing site, which is not hard to do. The main requirement is to buy a portable printer, which will cost around one to two thousand yuan. Each week it's required to get a master copy of the truth-clarification material and print more copies when you come back home, and then distribute them among practitioners close by. In this way we will not only solve the problem of the shortage of funds but also relieve the pressure and burden of those practitioners at the printing sites and of coordinators. This will truly make it possible for printing sites to be everywhere. The other advantage is that smaller printing sites are less likely to become prominent targets for the evil to find and disrupt.
I hope that all the practitioners can realize the importance of the one body in the new year and form that one body. We only split up into different sites, but we do not divide our hearts, We will do a better job in saving the sentient being and keep up with Teacher's process of Fa-rectification.
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