(Clearwisdom.net) Before I started to cultivate Falun Dafa, I was one of those typical people who are extremely serious about being right or wrong. When I noticed that I had made a mistake, I would admit it, but when I felt that somebody else made a mistake, I would feel extremely uncomfortable and hold a prejudice toward that person and moreover, I never wanted to talk to that person again.
After practicing cultivation, although I have taken this issue lightly and gotten rid of my human notion of hating people as if they were my foes, I would still keep my distance from anyone who had a conflict with me. This distance was very obvious and made me uncomfortable. I wanted to remove this attachment, but it was not that easy because the people who had conflicts with me often were fellow practitioners.
After studying the Fa today, I suddenly realized why I was unable to break through my attachment before. When I used to see a fellow practitioner doing things without considering others first, my heart could not remain calm. When a fellow practitioner didn't point out my shortcomings in time, as I wished, and because of this omission I strengthened my attachment. I was then unable to do Dafa work well. Especially afterward when I realized my mistakes, I would even hold more resentment towards the fellow practitioner. I thought: "How can I regard you as my fellow practitioner? When you see that I, your fellow practitioner, have an attachment, why don't you sincerely help me and point it out? Instead, you let my attachment arbitrarily interfere with me, thus wasting my precious time and making it impossible for me to do Dafa work, as well as the three things well that Teacher requested. "
Now while calmly thinking about these thoughts, I realized that they were still based on selfishness. I didn't truly look inward to find my shortcomings and let go of self. Teacher said:
"So what is character? Character includes virtue (which is a type of matter), it includes enduring, it includes awakening to things, it includes giving up things-- giving up all the desires and all the attachments that are found in an ordinary person--and you also have to endure hardship, to name just a few things. So it includes a lot of different things. You need to improve every aspect of your character, and only when you do that will you really improve. That's one of the key factors in improving your potency." ("Lecture One" in Zhuan Falun, 2003 translation version)
In fact, my resentments were still based on personal cultivation and that was why I felt I did not improve in my cultivation. Actually, during the period of Fa-rectification, we Dafa practitioners are one body and each one of us is a particle of Dafa, and the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." If a person is interfered with, it not only affects his or her personal cultivation but also affects saving sentient beings. Doesn't this actually affect and interfere with Fa-rectification? How can I resent fellow practitioners for not pointing out my shortcomings? I now realize this and am able to rationally think about this issue. This is not only about loss or gain or for individual improvement in one's cultivation, but rather it relates to the evil interfering with a practitioner and taking advantage of the practitioner's existing attachment. Therefore, the evil was able to achieve its purpose of interfering with the practitioner doing the three things. That is the fundamental issue!
When I truly understand the Fa from the Fa, when I am truly devoted to Fa-rectification, when I truly realize the value of the benevolence of the intrinsic lives in the universe, when I realize how much Teacher has sacrificed in order to save people, I find the volume of my heart has unconsciously increased. While I clearly started to understand the difference between individual cultivation and cultivation during Fa-rectification, my resentment toward fellow practitioners also disappeared.
Above is my individual understanding. Please point out any mistakes I made.