(Clearwisdom.net)
(Continued from Part 1, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/9/2/64525.html)
Practitioner B:
Teacher told us in "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference":
"Question: How can we better improve as a whole and elevate as a whole?
Teacher: If you cooperate with each other well then you can do it. Everyone's realm is different, and I'm telling you now, Master has seen that some of the disparities among students have increased. It wasn't apparent before, but now they've increased, and the more it's toward the end the bigger the disparities. So there are bound to be differences in people's understandings. The key is how to cooperate better and coordinate better with one another."
We should truly enlighten to Teacher's Fa in regards to cooperating as a whole.
I would first like to discuss the existing problems with practitioners at the truth-clarification materials production sites.
1. As practitioners mature in the Fa-rectification and become familiar with the jobs at the truth-clarification materials production sites, they are able to operate independently. However, the contact and coordination among the practitioners are reduced. In the few meetings we have, we only discuss how to do things, and do not share on the Fa or cultivation experiences to improve our xinxing. I noticed that practitioners making truth-clarification materials usually fall into two categories: practitioners who have been making the materials or doing coordination for a long time and those who have not done so for very long. The first type of practitioners who have extensive experience with making truth-clarification materials and coordination are not willing to deal with matters outside of their fixed area of concern; while the other practitioners, even though they are very passionate about their jobs, often have a strong attachment to doing things.
For myself, I have found the attachment of complacency. For six years now, I have produced many truth-clarification materials. I feel that I have already done what I should do, and that many fellow practitioners are able to work independently, so I feel satisfied to just maintain the work of practitioners in this area. This is actually very selfish of me. Instead of making truth-clarification materials to meet the different needs of practitioners in the various periods of Fa-rectification, I was only maintaining a kind of psychological balance for myself by thinking, "I am already making the materials, so other types of work can be left to other practitioners." If there was a better way to make the materials, I did not take the initiative to learn it, but just stuck to my original way of doing things even if I was having difficulties. With this mentality, it was hard for me to have the desire to share and coordinate with other practitioners, thus causing the materials being made not to be up to par sometimes.
2. Practitioners should not have the mentality of relying on other practitioners to take care of problems when they occur. For instance, a practitioner from our area was persecuted, but I only thought about sending forth righteous thoughts. Instead of taking the initiative to make phone calls to the evildoers, clarify the truth to the practitioner's family members, expose the personal data of evildoers, or help the family members to request the release of the practitioner, I often used the excuse that I did not know that practitioner or understand the details of the situation. If practitioners do not have the mentality of relying on other practitioners, imagine all the things that can get done besides sending forth righteous thoughts and the effect it can have.
3. Practitioners are not able to study the Fa, practice the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts every day. Sometimes, when practitioners have the attachment of doing things, they'll spend a lot of time doing things and set these things aside until the end. We know that we should ensure Fa study and send forth righteous thoughts on a daily basis no matter how busy we get. Yet, these two most important things get completed most unreliably or not at all. Many of our local practitioners have this problem. It's difficult to imagine that we, Dalian practitioners, have not achieved the most basic thing required by Teacher. Then how can we expect the situation to change in Dalian?
4. Some practitioners are always entangled by family matters. As a matter of fact, the cultivation environment is very important for our improvement. Before the persecution began, Teacher told us the importance of participating in group study and practice. So, during this insane persecution by the evil, it is even more important for us to have this type of environment to cooperate well with one another. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York":
"...because the group study environment is indispensable for your helping each other improve, it is essential. Why, back early on, did I ask people to hold them? Because the form of cultivation that this Fa takes dictates that it be done this way. Why did the people in the past have to leave the secular world to cultivate? They knew there was a problem: when they were back in the secular world and interacted with ordinary people, they became like ordinary people and couldn't stay diligent. Moreover, they cultivated their subordinate souls. That is why they left the secular world and grouped themselves together. The cultivators could help each other improve and see how they compared with others, they always had things to share that were specific to cultivators, and they formed a cultivators' environment.
Without that environment, then... think about it, it's the same with today's Dafa disciples: when you go back out there into ordinary society, you are in the environment of ordinary society. If you don't seize the day [to cultivate], then today you might feel like reading and so you read a little, but tomorrow you might get lazy and read less... so without that environment it's hard to stay diligent. After all, it's human beings who are cultivating. So with human laziness and all kinds of disturbances affecting people in this world, it's very hard for you to see on your own where you fall short. And in particular, if on top of that you aren't diligent, you don't read the book a lot, or you don't comprehend the Fa very well, you won't be able to see your attachments at all. That's why you have to participate in group study and exercises.
Right now we are at a time when the persecution is taking place, so there are all kinds of reasons why students can't, or can't frequently, do the exercises as a group. In the future you will definitely have group exercises."
Our fellow practitioners are like a mirror. We can often find our deficiencies when we observe them. Without this sharing environment, we are not able to help each other improve and see our attachments in a timely manner.
5. In regards to rescuing fellow practitioners who are persecuted (including the persecution in the form of sickness karma), we often use the excuse that these practitioners are taken advantage of because they still have not abandoned their attachments, there are problems with their xinxing, or we give other reasons to not help them. This mentality is incorrect. We have the responsibility to help our fellow practitioners who are being persecuted.
If we discover that a fellow practitioner is not keeping up with the Fa-rectification, we should not only help "pull him up," but also send forth righteous thoughts ahead of time to eliminate the evil that may persecute him. This way the result may be better. Then it is possible that many practitioners would not be persecuted because we did not wait until they were persecuted before putting forth our efforts to help them.
Speaking from another angle, the evil dares to persecute practitioners with the excuse that they have attachments. If we help fellow practitioners improve ahead of time, we are able to completely destroy the evil's excuse in persecuting practitioners and minimize losses.
Our cultivation is not like a race, where we compete and see who can run faster. Teacher is always reminding us to improve together as a whole and elevate as a whole. Teacher is even more concerned for practitioners who fall behind. Then why can't we take better care of fellow practitioners who are in a dangerous situation?
Cultivation is not about practitioners who reach the end first, but is about practitioners who are able to help other practitioners.
6. Practitioners should share their experiences and understandings with people who have "enlightened" along an evil path, as they are people who we should also save. Some of them have gone down an evil path against their will, and were aware of what was right and wrong, but couldn't step out of the tribulation.
Also, there are many persecutors in Dalian and their evil deeds have been extensively reported on the internet, but there are hardly any posters or flyers in Dalian to expose them locally. We had the thought of collecting their photos, addresses and phone numbers to expose them, but as of yet, we have not seen materials in regards to this in depth. There are also lots of practitioners being held illegally. The idea of rescuing them passed through our mind, but very few have truly acted on them. Most of the time, when we mention these fellow practitioners, we appear to be helpless. In actuality, we are waiting for others to take the lead because we lack self-confidence. This notion of "lets wait and see" is very common with Dalian practitioners. I remember a practitioner from another place once said that even though she could only rescue fellow practitioners alone, she also had to do it well. In comparison, Dalian practitioners' actions depended on external factors or the mentality of doing it together. Although we have enlightened on what to do based on the Fa, we are not able to act on it. This then becomes the issue of not using the Fa to guide us, but using the human ways instead.
7. Many practitioners do not pay attention to security. Do they have to wait until they are persecuted to pay attention to the issue of "safety"?
I have brought up many of our shortcomings, and do not want to judge our cultivation by how much we have done, but simply to say that our behavior reflects our xinxing. If we want to do well in validating the Fa, then we must put in efforts to improve our xinxing, and not just do things. Our cultivation environment and improvement of xinxing supplement each other; only with the improvement of xinxing, can we form a favorable environment of coordinating as a whole. This environment will in return help us improve, so we can do even better in validating the Fa and saving sentient beings in our area.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference":
"People's different grasps of and comprehension of the Fa lead to different perceptions of the current situation, and all that's happening is targeting different human thoughts. Those who do well will change the environments around them, and those who do poorly will make the environments around them change according to their states of mind. Dafa disciples have different states of mind, so they have different perceptions of the environment, and that's why the way each person acts is different. The true situation, as I see it, is that the evil old forces want to do what they want to."
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