(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners are one-body, and every particle of us represents the image of all practitioners. Therefore, we must safeguard Dafa and harmonize with each other under all circumstances. We all have shortcomings, and when problems arise we should point it out face-to-face with good intentions. I would like to share a few examples.
Because of the unprecedented persecution, some assistants or coordinators have written the so-called guarantee statement against their will. While trying to transform me, the evil would say veteran practitioners so-and-so didn't behave like practitioners.
The evil's goal is to take advantage of resentment yet to be let go of by practitioners, and they strengthen it by badmouthing fellow practitioners. That not only adds bad substances to the practitioner(s) being talked about, but also creates karma for those who say it. I said, “The Buddha Fa is boundless. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has different standards at different levels. Master knows whether one is a practitioner or not, and no one else's words count.”
When several of us had to live in exile to avoid persecution, a fellow practitioner led evildoers to take away the printer and several boxes of printing paper for making truth-clarification materials that we had hidden in a relative's home.
As soon as we heard the evildoers had surrounded the relative's home, we sent a thought asking Master to strengthen us, “Let the printer break if it is fallen into the evil's hand.” Indeed, the printer broke of overheating as soon as they ran it.
Several months later, we were arrested. While listing our charges, the evildoers said that a particular practitioner had given our names. I said, “When tortured, a confession is false, and nothing is true. The printer had been broken, so we did nothing.”
We held no resentment against that practitioner, and the evil ran out of ideas. Under Master's merciful protection, we walked out of the detention center with righteous thoughts a month later.
A fellow practitioner was “transformed” at the detention center in 2001. She had written a guarantee statement, but the evildoers made her re-write it because they didn't think it was a true statement. One morning, after I finished the sitting meditation, I saw her lying prone on a bunk bed writing something with great difficulty, so I walked over and had a whispered conversation with her. I learned that she was a college student from a different place, she was brought here because she refused to be transformed by the school authorities.
She missed her home very much. She wrote the statement against her will because she wanted to go home soon. She planned to start over with cultivation practice after she got home. I shared my understandings with her, and told her it was wrong to betray Master and Dafa, even if it's against one's will. I told her the sentiment that she couldn't let go of would cause sinful karma for her family too, and only by steadfastly believing in Master and Dafa could she bring blessings to her family and walk out of the evil den openly and nobly.
She said, “I know what I should do now after you have shared this with me. I will not discredit Dafa.” I said, “You must think it over. Don't write a guarantee statement anymore.”
Being controlled by the demons of feelings, she was in quite a dilemma and somewhat lost herself. An inmate who once helped her write the guarantee statement leaned over to me and pointed at her, “Look, she hardly looks like a Dafa disciple.”
I stopped her immediately, “Stop blaming her. She is already in a lot of pain. She knows very well Dafa is good, but she couldn't perform as well in the persecution, therefore her heart is in pain.” No one has blamed her since then.
I was able to break out of the evil den with righteous thoughts under Master's merciful protection. Practitioners that were released later said, “After seeing you leaving with righteous thoughts and righteous actions, so-and-so (referring to the college girl) refused to be transformed and started over with cultivation practice.”
In our area, a practitioner is reputed to have the worst temper. He has blamed and even yelled at almost every practitioner. But he is very capable. He can do almost anything - be it buying consumables, making Falun Dafa truth-clarification materials, or fixing machines.
One day, I went to fetch materials in another practitioner's home. The male practitioner and his wife happened to be there too. As we were talking about the persecution in the living room, the male practitioner suddenly came out of a room yelling and pointing his finger at me.
I knew his wife very well, and wondered why she didn't stop him, how could this be? But on second thought, perhaps it was time for me to get rid of my attachment to losing face and vanity. I remained quiet.
I shared this with my husband after getting home. My husband is also a practitioner and generally agrees with me. This time he said, “This person is trustable. He speaks what he believes and plays no politics.” I understood that everything happened to help me raise my xinxing. When I ran into that male practitioner again, he talked delightfully as if nothing had happened, and even praised me from time to time.
Master said:
“Some people always insist, "My, how come that person always has such an attitude? Why is he like that with everyone?" And there are some people who say, "Well nobody thinks too highly of him." But if you ask me, your master, you're all wrong. When none of you are attached anymore to wanting to hear pleasing things, when none of you are affected when you're insulted, see if he'll still be like that. Exactly because you people have those attachments, there exist factors that hit on your attachments; and exactly because those attachments of yours are stirred up, you get irritated; when all of you have those attachments, the situation where everyone is irritated by the person who hit on their attachments comes about. If you can all keep a calm and steady state of mind while being assaulted by strong words, and you're not at all affected, then see if those factors still exist.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference”)
One afternoon, on our way back from making Falun Dafa books, a fellow practitioner said to me, “Ride faster! Charge!” She didn't look like a 60-year-old woman, which made me giggle. She told me while riding her bicycle very fast, “In fact, you won't feel tired riding fast, instead you feel tired riding slowly.” The next day, she told me she had gotten home 10 minutes earlier than usual.
I think if we could persist and charge forward every day in cultivation practice, we may be able to spare some work and add some relief for Master.