(Minghui.org) I’ve noticed a few issues that exist among our local practitioners, and they share one thing in common: the attachment of one group of practitioners feeds that of another group.
For instance, some are obsessed with making more and more Falun Dafa books, which are then bought by practitioners who only want to collect more Dafa books, instead of studying them more.
There are also those who think their mission to clarify the truth can be accomplished by just donating money to sites that make literature exposing the persecution of Falun Dafa. Not surprisingly, certain practitioners who work at those sites complain that they don’t have enough money to run the sites.
I hope my sharing starts the conversation on how we should work together to address the problems.
Some practitioners are very enthusiastic about making Falun Dafa books. They often ask around among practitioners whether they need a new set of Dafa books and advertise how good their books were.
Though they only charge just enough to cover the cost, I believe that they stimulate and/or aide the growth of certain attachments among practitioners who buy books from them.
Many practitioners don't take care of their Dafa books. They put them just anywhere, touch them with dirty hands, or flip the pages too hard and tear them. Even worse, some turn in their books when threatened by the police or burn their Dafa books to show the authorities that they no longer own any. What these practitioners had in mind was that they could easily get new, inexpensive Dafa books later, and hence did not cherish their old ones.
There are other practitioners who like to collect Dafa books, not to study but to possess them, like they were collectables. Dafa is precious, but we should not treat our books like ordinary people treat their treasures.
Some practitioners give a lot of cash to other practitioners to make truth-clarification literature. I often wonder why they are so passionate about giving money to make such materials. I believe that these practitioners subconsciously want to accumulate merit or virtue by doing so.
Teacher says in Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia, “No money or possessions are kept.” My understanding is that he didn't want cash transactions to ignite a person’s attachment.
Some practitioners didn't do well in clarifying the truth and came up with the idea to donate money to truth-clarification projects. That way they are also part of the project and can accumulate merit, or virtue, when people are saved by the materials made. I think that Teacher commented on this behavior in Zhuan Falun: “How could you buy a Falun with a few dozen yuan?”
Years ago my parents, who are also practitioners, went back to their hometown. Some practitioners there gave them money before they left and told them to use it to make Dafa materials. “This way we have done part of the work you do,” they said. In my eyes this is the same as bargaining with gods or Buddhas, and asking for good fortune by burning incense or donating money to the shrines. Teacher has told us,
“Doing, but without pursuit—So constant, abiding in the Dao.”(“Abiding in the Dao” from Hong Yin)
These practitioners are being foolish, believing that cultivation and truth clarification can be achieved through just money. How could cultivation be turned into a financial transaction?
There is an attachment to pursuing virtue. When a material-making site produces a great deal of literature that saves many people, a lot of practitioners then prefer to donate money to this site. It's almost like choosing to invest in a venture that sees a high rate of return. The practitioners who give money to these sites need to look within and see if their motivation is pure and righteous.
On the other hand, some practitioners who make such materials often complain that other practitioners are reluctant to donate funds. A practitioner's state of cultivation should not be judged by how much money he spends. One of our local practitioners used to carry around a lot of cash that other practitioners had given him. Although he only spent the money on Dafa projects, he still ended up with severe health problems.
A family or an individual can set up a material production site. What they do depends on what needs to be done. How they run their sites should differ depending on their financial situations. It they don't have the financial resources to operate a site, they should look within and improve themselves first, or clarify the truth in another way. Such sites should not be run based on donations and encourage attachments.