(Clearwisdom.net)
I. The Process of Helping Fellow Practitioners is also a Process of Cultivating One's Self
Recently, there have been a number of fellow practitioners who appeared to be interfered with. The most obvious and serious signs are that these practitioners under persecution by the interference cannot study the Fa; they lose their focus while sending forth righteous thoughts and perhaps they even say weird things while doing so. Some of them have symptoms of sickness. Most of these cases are due to the existence of long-term attachments that these practitioners have not given up and about which they are stubborn. In addition, they could not accept suggestions from other practitioners. They did not follow the Fa strictly and yielded to an attachment of some sort or a thought that did not accord with the Fa. They may also be dependent on the environment and factors around them.
Even though fellow practitioners have attachments, as long as they are Dafa practitioners, they should be walking on the road arranged by Teacher. Thus, we definitely cannot allow persecution and interference by the evil, even though the persecution is ongoing. Although the appearance is that we are helping fellow practitioners, in reality all the Dafa practitioners are resisting the persecution and destroying the evil together, and helping Teacher in rectifying the Fa.
In "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005," Teacher has said:
"When students exhibit severe sickness karma, it undoubtedly has two goals. One is to have that person display such a state and then see how people around him or her look at it. It's to see how and whether your minds are moved by it."
"The other goal applies to that person himself: how well has the person who exhibits the sickness karma cultivated?"
My understanding is that Teacher has put "see how people around him or her to look at it" in front of "that person himself." In addition to our helping these fellow practitioners, isn't a very important part looking for our own shortcomings? We should definitely look at ourselves, finding the hidden attachments that are hard to discover.
We should not have the attitude of "I did whatever I could; but he or she is just like that, I really can't do anything." We must really look at ourselves. If we look and look and everything appears to be fine, then that itself is a problem.
There is another phenomenon. After some of us share our experiences with fellow practitioners who are going through problems, that practitioner's troubles repeat themselves, and sometimes they get even worse. We should not blame them for not accepting our suggestions. We really should think about why things went that way. Teacher has said,
"Also, you need to look first to see if you have any attachments. When your suggestion wasn’t accepted, did you first think of the problems with others or did you first look at yourself?" ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in New Zealand")
As practitioners, once we are asked to look at ourselves, we should not argue or get annoyed and leave; that is not the right reaction for a cultivator.
Through studying Teacher's new lectures and writings, I realized that the process of helping fellow practitioners is also the process of letting go of self and assimilating to the Fa. In this process, anything can happen to us or be encountered by us. The fellow practitioners may also experience the recurrence of their problems, but as for each of us, we cannot slack off or give up. As Teacher has said, all situations we meet in our cultivation,
"in which you are to cultivate yourselves, are part of the path you must walk, are what you must handle, and handle correctly at that. None of these should be glossed over." ("Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006")
In this process, what I've learned the most is that, only if we take the Fa as the teacher, remember that we are cultivators at anytime and anywhere, and not forget to cultivate ourselves when helping others, can we walk a good and steady path.
"Cultivation is about cultivating one's self. No matter what kind of state emerges, you need to take a hard look at yourself. " ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")
Only if we have strong righteous thoughts, have clear reasoning, believe in Teacher and the Fa, and firmly believe that fellow practitioners will be able to overcome the difficulties, can we see "After passing the shady willow trees there will be bright flowers and another village ahead" (Zhuan Falun)
When I was helping fellow practitioners, there were other practitioners who kept reminding me that I need to "constantly progress diligently," and they encouraged me to be patient, calm and confident.
II. Dependence
Some of the practitioners who are under persecution show very strong attachments of dependence. When they feel physically ill, they just go to fellow practitioners' homes, instead of thinking independently about how to overcome and pass the tribulations with righteous thoughts. But it should not go to an extent that they cannot overcome the difficulties without being with other practitioners. Sometimes they even give up their responsibilities and obligations to their families.
Teacher has taught us to study the Fa well and walk our own paths. I'm not saying that during difficult times one should not look to fellow practitioners for help. If everybody can understand and share experiences based on Fa, treat everything with righteous thoughts, and behave correctly, then everybody can improve very quickly. There were practitioners that have found their shortcomings through calmly sharing experiences on the Fa and encouraging each other. Within the sharing, each of the two practitioners would constantly look at and correct himself or herself. They also patiently read the Fa, sent forth righteous thoughts; and even read every character carefully to try to correct themselves. By doing this, they improved very quickly. I think the most important things are the state of mind and one's motivation.
The help from and the environment formed by fellow practitioners can help to some extent. But the most important factors are still studying the Fa well and improving xinxing on one's own. When we encounter problems, the first thought that appears should be to believe in Teacher and Dafa, not to depend on other practitioners.
III. Be Respectful to Teacher and the Fa, and Walk the Path Righteously
I have encountered the following while helping fellow practitioners. When some people hear gossip that one can give salvation to relatives that have passed away, they get very attached to it. The more they think about it, the more it makes sense, and they forget about what Teacher's Fa has taught us on this issue. Also some people, when they encounter things they don't understand and don't know what to do, they say, "If we can have a dream, Teacher will tell us what to do." When we have attachments and do not realize them ourselves, sometimes Teacher may give a hint to us in our dreams and remind us about something. But we cannot get attached to this and use these hints as the basis to guide our actions. Instead, we should always use Dafa to judge right or wrong. Teacher has said,
"Some wicked things pretend to be my Law Bodies. Handle yourself well and evaluate things with Dafa. If someone relies on Law Bodies to tell him what to do, that is attracting demons." ("Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Conference")
Also, there are practitioners who have their third eyes open and they always like to look at other people. They look at people who are alive and people who have passed away. They look at people in ordinary times, and also fellow practitioners who are in tribulations: whose body is black, who is sitting on the lotus, who has spirit possession, and so on. When Dafa practitioners do not have strong righteous thoughts, they might get interfered with. But is it possible for a practitioner to get spirit possession? Even if it's for positive encouragement, it is still not very appropriate. Instead, isn't it better if we just let the fellow practitioner improve based on the Fa? Also, we need to see that this obviously is against the fundamentals of Dafa. I'm not saying here that the practitioners with their third eyes open cannot talk about things, but they should not talk about other practitioners like this. It's best not to get everyone's attention on this kind of topic, because one may develop false attachments because of it.
I also ask everybody to remember something firmly: Teacher is different from us. We should not ever think anything like Teacher is number one and we are number two. Although it may not be something that was spoken formally, just something one said thoughtlessly, it still might cause the problem of breeding demons in one's own mind. A cultivator should know that in any context, we cannot be regarded to be in the same category as Teacher.
IV. Don't Let Group Study Turn into a Formality
Teacher has said that one can progress faster in a group, but Teacher has never said that when one comes to this environment, one can improve without cultivating. Teacher has left us with the form of group study, but what Teacher has left us is not just a form. Teacher's words are the Fa and have deep meanings. Fellow practitioners, especially people in charge in different places where group studies are held, please study again, "Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa," "Teaching the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun," "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students," and "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York," and do not let the group studies turn into a formality. Group studies are really group studies, and they are a form of cultivation that Teacher has left for us, not for a group of practitioners to guide other practitioners.
V. Attachment of Suspicion
The attachment of suspicion can cause a lot of distance among practitioners. It can cut off our ability as a whole to an extended degree, and it can be severe. If we do not catch this attachment and get rid of it, the evil would magnify it, make use of it, and even evolve some false images, both in one's mind and in real life.
Once I was calling a practitioner and the number was disconnected. A thought suddenly appeared in my mind: the number has been changed. Later one of his family members told me that this number was not his. The attachment of suspicion immediately emerged, and I got very angry. I thought that as a fellow practitioner, how could he give me a fake number! But I did not realize that this is the attachment of suspicion, because the "evidence" supporting the suspicion seemed convincing.
After realizing this attachment, I have been trying to eliminate it. Even these days now when I send forth righteous thoughts, I always add the thought of eliminating this attachment when cleansing myself. Sometimes when this attachment emerges, I'm able to overcome it. We need to take a step back and consider things calmly in those circumstances, which is possible if we take our responsibilities related to Dafa as the most important things. When I was able to calm myself down, I discovered that things did not look right. After I improved on this based on the Fa, I ran into that fellow practitioner. It was a simple misunderstanding and he never changed his number.
I think that there are currently many issues and conflicts among practitioners that are due to the attachment of suspicion. Obviously, there are few practitioners that do lie to validate themselves, or even use some means of everyday people to do so, and we need to realize this clearly. For example, in the process of helping fellow practitioners, we always hear things like: "other people don't listen to me; somebody has wrong opinions of me; somebody doesn't get along with me because of something; something was going just like that." But things may not always be as we perceive them.
Indeed, when a practitioner gives a lot and takes on a lot, but isn't understood by other practitioners, and may even be misconceived, suspected, guarded against, or even blamed by other practitioners, it really is difficult for that practitioner. But isn't that a human feeling? I know a practitioner who, when he faces these sorts of tribulations, he's always quiet and calm. He doesn't change his normal behavior. He does not argue or complain, and I admire him a lot in this regard. Fellow practitioners, please do not interfere with other fellow practitioners anymore due to the attachment of suspicion. For the practitioners who are misunderstood, please calmly think about why you are suspected by others. If it really is not due to anything of your own reasons, then don't let this interference wear down the will of progressing diligently, and be sure to maintain strong righteous thought on it. We must believe firmly that we will eventually finish our paths, and whatever happens in the middle is just part of the process.
The purpose of writing these thoughts down is to share with fellow practitioners and expose and destroy these impure substances, in order to make our environment more clear and righteous.