(Clearwisdom.net) One of our fellow practitioners is still being persecuted. She is very noble. To allow other practitioners to focus on clarifying the facts fact to face, she has done a lot of work without letting others know about it. Consequently, she did not keep up with Fa-study and was left behind in cultivation.
We all wanted to help her, so why did her situation take a turn for the worse? We all need to look within. Perhaps our entire body is under attack due to our shortcomings. I have been looking within during the past few days and found some problems, and I’d like to share my understandings.
In the early stage when the practitioner was being persecuted, I did not pay much attention to sending forth righteous thoughts for her because I thought she would have no problem being rescued with help from so many practitioners, in addition to her own sufficient righteous thoughts. So when I was busy, I thought, “There are so many practitioners sending forth righteous thoughts for her, it will make no difference if I do it or not; I’ll send forth righteous thoughts tomorrow.” My thoughts were not on the Fa. Would I be the same if it were my own matter? It would not. Master said:
“The next person's things are your things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference” 2002)
“That is not to say that simply wishing to do some good counts as compassion. When someone is seized by a whim and acts on it, that doesn’t count as compassion. Rather, in that case it stems from the person’s likings. Or put more bluntly, it’s out of attachment.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
I failed to conduct myself according to Dafa’s requirements, but instead was trying to justify my selfishness, thus delaying rescuing her. I felt really guilty.
During the process of sending forth righteous thoughts for the practitioner, my body felt very uncomfortable, and thought karma kept appearing in my mind that did not conform to the Fa. Realizing those thoughts were not good enough because I failed to thoroughly improve my understandings on the Fa, I told myself to pause sending forth righteous thoughts until the discomfort in my body disappeared. As a result my body kept developing abnormal states, and other practitioners on the rescue team developed abnormalities in their bodies, too. We all halted our rescue efforts. Looking back, I see my selfishness—caring about my own interests and ignoring others’.
The evil does not self-destruct. It will continue to exist if it’s not eliminated. In addition, it will persecute other practitioners. I heard gossip, such as “So-and-so lacks compassion,” “How could So-and-so help others when he lacks righteous thoughts himself?” “So-and-so stopped sending forth righteous thoughts fearing interference,” “So-and-so’s enthusiasm will only last a few days.” How could fellow practitioners help her when they lacked righteous thoughts themselves?
At first I followed the finger-pointing, but soon I realized something wasn’t right—isn’t this wanting to change others but not ourselves? However, I found it hard to turn the mentality around towards myself.
I was shocked at learning that the fellow practitioner was hospitalized. I did not expect things to deteriorate so fast. Master had given me many hints to help her, but I did not do much. I felt guilty before Master and my fellow practitioner. I had a dream where a big lecture hall was filled with practitioners. That practitioner was sitting there by herself, leaning back, helplessly suffering a tribulation. One practitioner said something criticizing her and walked away. Other practitioners were busy with their own things and no one helped her. A thought was thrown at me: “The evil wants you all to fail in this matter!”
In fact we all wanted to help her and dedicated some efforts, but our coordination was interfered with by all kinds of human thoughts. This is the old forces’ tactic, which interferes with our working together to prevent fellow practitioners from being rescued. It manifests in conflicts among us that we cannot overcome, interference during sending forth righteous thoughts, the practitioner-in-tribulation’s lack of righteous thoughts, and setbacks with regards to confidence.
I’m not saying every one of us must participate in the rescue efforts, but since we have decided to do it, we must do it without human thoughts. We should all have righteous thoughts to support and help our fellow practitioner. We do what Master wants us to do, Isn’t what we do today a reference for the future?
This concludes my sharing. Please kindly point out anything improper. Thank you.
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Category: Improving Oneself
