(Clearwisdom.net) Currently, practitioners in my local area have done well in paying attention to the issue of cooperation and coordination as one body, and have shared their understandings, from which I have gained some insight. I would like to share some of my understandings.
Master expects Dafa disciples to cooperate and coordinate well
On a number of occasions Master has talked about the Fa principle that Dafa disciples must cooperate and coordinate well. From "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference,"
Disciple: How can Dafa disciples do our part as a whole during Fa-rectification?
Teacher: Cooperate and coordinate with each other. When doing things as a group, by yourself, or as a few people together, you need to cooperate and coordinate well.
Disciple asked: For Dafa disciples as a whole, what are some of the most fundamental areas and shortcomings that need improvement?
Teacher: For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles.
Master also talked about the principle of cooperation and coordination in "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students."
Through studying Master's teachings, I have come to the understanding that there can be local cooperation and coordination and whole body cooperation and coordination. For example, a group of a few practitioners studying the Fa together or clarifying the facts together is part of the whole. If they want to do well in validating the Fa, then they need to cooperate well. If each one of the groups cooperates well, then it will lay a good foundation for the cooperation and coordination as a whole in our group projects in validating the Fa.
Master has created for us a formless cultivation way with loose management. In the process of saving sentient beings, when an individual practitioner has a good idea, it takes a contact person or coordinator to pass this good idea to others, and others need to cooperate and coordinate well to carry out the project well together. This is cooperation as a whole. So we can see that Dafa disciples need to form a cooperative body in validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. Cooperation and coordination are what Master has required us to do well.
Coordinate in a dignified and upright manner
In our area, we are still falling short of meeting Master's requirements, and this can be seen mostly in how we do things loosely and in a disorganized way, each doing things in his own way. To put it more specifically, due to lack of cooperation and coordination as a whole, the persecution is still rather serious in certain areas. Even though many of us have regularly sent forth righteous thoughts, our rescue efforts have not been good, and we have even paid heavily as a result.
Why haven't we cooperated and coordinated well? There are many causes, but personally I think there are three main reasons.
1. Coordinators have not fundamentally denied or eliminated the gaps between them, a situation that was arranged by the old forces. There have been gaps caused by human attachments between some coordinators for a long time, to the point where they cannot work together in coordinating local projects. We often talk about denying the arrangements of the old forces, but from the gaps that still exist between some coordinators, we can see that our coordinators have not completely denied the old forces' arrangements.
2. There are some biased views among practitioners in their understanding of cooperation and coordination as a whole. For example, some practitioners have not gained a proper understanding of Master's teachings and think that those who are doing coordination work are the practitioners who have cultivated well, feel it has nothing to do with them, and think that they are not good enough to be coordinators. Also, a practitioner may already be coordinating a group project, but he says, "So and so (a coordinator) has asked me to tell you this or that..." as if he had been sent by someone who is his superior and he was only passing along a message instead of coordinating the project. Some practitioners are clearly playing the role of a coordinator, but they do not want to admit their role as such. I feel that these practitioners have not gained a good understanding of the Fa principles on cooperation and coordination that Master has taught us, and have not yet taken proper action.
3. Our attachments have hindered us from whole body cooperation and coordination. For example, some practitioners are unwilling to cooperate with a specific coordinator or to coordinate with others. Some practitioners still rely on others, thinking that we can count on a few practitioners in our local area to cooperate well as a whole. Because of these notions, we have come across interference and difficulties.
I believe the fundamental reason why we have not done well is that we have not studied and understood Master's teachings well. Master has long told us that every one of us is a responsible person and every one of us is a coordinator, and coordinators are doing coordination work out of responsibility for Dafa and out of enthusiasm. We should truly do as required by Master and place "coordination" in a sacred position and do it from our hearts; we need to be more willing to step forward and take on the coordination work. If everyone does it and coordinates well with others, we would ultimately reach a state where hundreds of energy channels all open up, and our body becomes one without any energy channels or acupuncture points, with no gaps, and as a whole body we can cooperate and coordinate well. This will have an important impact on validating the Fa and saving sentient beings in our local area.
Doing well with the Fa as our guide, not human notions
How can we do even better in cooperation and coordination as a whole? I think we should keep strong righteous thoughts that Dafa disciples should have, instead of using human notions. This is very important.
We all know that our cultivation way--formless, yet having a whole body--has enabled us to reach a truly perfect unison. We are a group cultivating in Dafa, not an administrative organization in everyday people's society. This means that the cooperation and coordination in Dafa work is not about administrative leadership or giving orders, and coordinators are not leaders in everyday people's society. Therefore, coordinators in Dafa work do not have any administrative authority and they cannot use orders to restrict practitioners from walking their own paths. The coordinators must be clear-headed about this. Using human notions, orders or authority to coordinate is not what Master wants, and would not have good results. For example, there is an elderly practitioner in our area whose family environment is very good, and he has been making truth clarification materials steadily for some years. However, one day the coordinator suddenly decided that this practitioner should no longer do this work. This practitioner could not understand why and was rather upset, and even his family members (non-practitioners) were resentful and wanted to reason with the coordinator. They said, "For so many years, even the police who came to our home to stop us from making materials could not stop us, now your own people stop us!" What the coordinator did has dealt a heavy blow to this practitioner's efforts. It is said that this coordinator has done things in a similar manner in the past to do things that could only please the evil. To eliminate any negative effects of his action, this coordinator must be rational and should reflect upon himself with a clear head and should kindly communicate with the practitioner who has been making materials.
In fact, Master has long talked about such issues. Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students,"
"Actually, long ago I told the regional coordinators to manage things loosely, and that, except when it comes to group efforts, which need coordination, they shouldn't restrict the path that each Dafa disciple takes as an individual who's validating the Fa."
I understand that no matter who, whether you are a fellow practitioner or a coordinator, if you "restrict" or limit the paths other practitioners take in their validating the Fa, you will be in the wrong, because this is not what Master wants us to do. Dafa disciples must absolutely not use human notions to do things if they want to coordinate well.
We Dafa disciples are the greatest beings in the universe, we are the ones walking on the divine path. As for our human side, it is inevitable that we still have some human notions and attachments, and there are still various conflicts and disagreements among practitioners and coordinators from time to time. However, as for our divine side, we should be clear that these human notions and attachments are fundamentally the human stuff that needs to be relinquished and should be suppressed by our divine side. Only by placing our divine side in the leading position can we suppress or eliminate the human stuff. As for the coordination work, each coordinator should be broadminded and tolerant, and should not coordinate projects with human attachments.
Regarding this, Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A."
"Actually, did you know that those Great Enlightened Beings have a lot of things in the heavens that they too need to coordinate and discuss with each other?"
"So what's their state of mind? It's tolerance, an extremely immense tolerance, being able to accept other beings, and being able to truly think from other beings' perspectives. This is something a lot of you haven't achieved yet in your cultivation, but you're gradually catching on and achieving it. When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different--everyone's path is different--and the truths that beings validate and enlighten to in the Fa are different, too, but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things."
Whenever I calmly study this teaching of Master, I feel my heart is washed clean and greatly inspired. I understand that, although we Dafa disciples are still cultivating in the human world, we are future kings and masters of different cosmos. We are shouldering the sacred mission of assisting Master in saving sentient beings. Today, when Master's Fa-rectification is approaching the end, Dafa disciples should use the divine side that we have cultivated to validate the Fa, being tolerant and cooperating and coordinating well, especially among coordinators. We all know that Dafa disciples are validating the Fa, not ourselves, so think about it: What else can't we let go of? What else can't we tolerate? We cannot take our narrow-mindedness and human attachments to Consummation, can we? When we have disagreements among practitioners and coordinators, we should remind ourselves of what Master has told us about how Gods discuss things and truly regard the Fa as the teacher. For those practitioners who hold different views, I think it is absolutely a good thing that they sit down together to coordinate the projects to validate the Fa, to look within so as to improve themselves, to keep doing it this way, and to have immense tolerance. I sincerely suggest that fellow practitioners study well this teaching of Master's, to allow our divine side play an active role and to cooperate and coordinate well as a whole.
Fundamentally, our ultimate goal to cooperate and coordinate as a whole is to do even better so that we can accomplish the historical mission bestowed upon Dafa disciples.
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