(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 4)
I went out of town a few years ago to teach technical skills for maintaining computers, printers, and other devices. After a few days of sharing and teaching, the local practitioners improved very quickly. Upon leaving, a practitioner in her 70s bade me a touching goodbye, “Over these past few days, I now understand that you have not just come to teach us knowledge. You are also here to encourage us to improve as one body in our region. Thank you so much!”
I said, “That's right, if we don't break our mental barriers and improve our mindsets, it is difficult to acquire the knowledge that validates the Fa and saves sentient beings. After all, this is cultivation!”
Phase 3. Good at Techniques and Skills
Keep a Humble Heart When Showered With Praise
One day a practitioner said to me that he had a hard time improving in cultivation. I asked him why. He said that in the process of repairing machines, other practitioners would compliment him and inundate him with praise. He did not have any conflicts with others, so he had a hard time improving.
I told him that Master once taught us:
“For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests.” (“A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
When others compliment us, it is a chance to cultivate. If we are not affected by the compliments, we have passed the test. Just like what was said in “Reminders for Practitioners Involved in Technology Support,” some technical practitioners are very much attached to themselves and do not accept other people’s opinions. Moreover, some practitioners regard the project as their own and insist on having the final say. They act as if they were the parents of fellow practitioners.
Tech-Savvy Practitioners Should use Good Judgement on When To Teach Others
Several years ago, a fellow practitioner named Lin asked me whether I had time to go out of town with him. He said that he wanted to set up satellite dishes for people who wanted to watch Shen Yun performances. Of course I had time. We left the next day, traveled more than 300 kilometers, and visited four fellow practitioners. I discovered that we were not setting up dishes for them, but adjusting their signals. These were just minor issues of repositioning and setting new parameters.
Whenever we arrived at a practitioner’s home, Lin began working right away and did not ask the owner to learn anything. The owners also showed no interest in learning. The last one we visited was a practitioner couple. The wife greeted us.
“Oh, it is you again,” she said. “After you set up the dish last year, we were only able to watch for one day. It did not work after that. So glad you are back!”
What I saw along the way made my heart heavy. It was a good thing, but our fellow practitioners did not realize there was something here for them to cultivate. They were not able to be considerate of other people’s time and effort, and learn what they could. If they did, they would find it was not hard to learn for themselves.
I asked Lin, “Why not give them a printout of the installation manual, and call them over to learn during the installation? This way if there are some problems, they can correct the problem right there with your instruction. You don’t have to travel all this way to fix the problem next time.”
Lin replied, “I've tried that before, but they don’t want to learn at all. For example, there are 50 practitioners in a village but none of them want to learn. I am tired because I have to go to many places to do maintenance for them.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, “You are not installing dishes, you are actually repairing them. You could make it clear to these practitioners that installing a dish and maintaining it is their own business, that it is part of their own cultivation path, because it is their own Fa tool. In fact, installing the dish according to instructions on the manual is very simple. Even if they do not want to learn, you can still teach them and leave them the manual. When there is a problem, they might open the manual and figure it out themselves. They are, after all, cultivators. When they improve later on, they might catch up and solve the problem. So none of those 50 practitioners want to improve and elevate? Maybe we should change our mindset as well.”
“No, they really do not want to learn,” explained Lin.
“Are you treating this project as if it were your own? Is that why when others do not ask you to teach, you won’t do it? Do you feel more fulfilled if you fix the problem?”
“But it is true. They do not want to learn,” Lin said.
“If you keep doing this, there will be countless dishes for you to fix,” I said.
After we fixed the last one, we were on our way back at around 8 p.m. After driving less than ten kilometers to another practitioner's home to fix his printer, the practitioner with the last satellite dish caught up with us on a motorcycle.
“Please come back. As soon as you left, the signal went dead,” he said.
Because it was too late, we had to postpone his repair. I felt awful inside. Fellow practitioners, you all are so busy every day, what are you really doing?
Practitioners With Skills Should Encourage Others To Learn and Improve
I encountered such an incident some time ago. I met a few non-technical practitioners one day from other regions and exchanged ideas for our project. They mentioned that the coordinator in their area was also a technical practitioner, and that she was in charge of everything. Whether it was the technology or the funds, she alone had the final say. For example, those practitioners didn’t know how to mass-produce USB flash drives.
I said, “Do you want to learn? I can teach you if you want to learn, because it’s very simple. There are ready-made tutorials on the Tiandixing forum.”
“No, we wouldn’t dare,” one of them said. “If our coordinator finds out, she will be very upset.”
“We went to her a while ago and saw that she had learned the technology from other regions. She was already mass-producing USB flash drives at home. But she closed the door when she saw us. She won’t even let us see how she operates, let alone teach us,” another person explained.
I felt very sad to hear that. Our coordinators and technical practitioners, what are you doing? Do you have a patent on our Dafa projects? Usually, it is so difficult to get other practitioners to want to learn, and yet this coordinator is holding on to everything herself. This was something that the old forces could easily take advantage of to intensify the persecution. How could we do things like this? Maybe the attachment to reputation was too strong?
Master said,
“Falun Dafa is for cultivation practice—it is not a job. All of our volunteer workers must first be genuine cultivators with high-level xinxing, as they are role models for xinxing cultivation. We do not need the types of leaders like those among everyday people.” (“It is not a Job, but Cultivation Practice,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I hope that the fellow practitioners who behave like this can change. What are we cultivating for? Shouldn’t we be selfless towards our fellow practitioners? After all, as coordinators and technical practitioners, we should be responsible for the consummation of other cultivators.
Fellow practitioners who are good at technology, please do not encourage others to wait for us, rely on us, and depend on us. Also, please do not be too attached to our own skills. We should be humble and teach others in order to help us all improve as a whole.
Phrase 4. Practitioners With Many Skills Should Focus on Teaching and Guiding Others
Practitioners like this are often too busy to study the Fa and exercise, and they may fall asleep while sending forth righteous thoughts. They could be full of praise from fellow practitioners and get carried away. They may refuse to accept criticism and fight to be the main coordinator.
I remember when a fellow practitioner asked me a question: “How do you feel about the title of general coordinator (of a region in mainland China)?”
I asked, “Which divine being in heaven is called the chief coordinator? What is the ultimate goal of our cultivation?”
She smiled and never mentioned that title again.
Whenever logging into our Tiandixing technology forum, I was always impressed by the profound knowledge, modest and prudent attitude, and the responsible spirit of our fellow practitioners. I sincerely feel lacking in terms of the techniques that I have learned. There is still so much to learn—the breadth of the projects to clarify the truth and save sentient beings is boundless. What gives us the right to be attached to ourselves? It is Master who has given us everything so that we can have the opportunity to cultivate today.
Master said:
“Therefore, in cultivation you should follow a higher and higher standard for yourself.” (Lecture 6, Zhuan Falun)
I believe that fellow practitioners at this stage should not focus on simply repairing and fixing things. We should not accommodate the mentality of other practitioners to wait on, rely on, and depend on us. Instead we should focus on teaching other practitioners and encouraging them to walk their own paths of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. This way, we can free ourselves from the many jobs we have to do, and each of us will be able to walk out our own path of cultivation. We will all have more time to study the Fa, exercise, and send forth righteous thoughts. The truth will be spread further and more beings will be saved. During this process, we may need to build on the skills we have already mastered to develop more truth-clarification projects and more tutorials.
To sum it up, no matter what stage we’re at, we must study the Fa well and with our full attention in order to better fulfill our mission!
The outbreak of the CCP virus plague has been a reminder to many material printing sites that have been relying on technical practitioners for a long time. Many sites with machine problems were paralyzed because they could not find technical help due to mobility restrictions. Actually, some fellow practitioners have seen that in another dimension, the evil factors were focused on attacking practitioners’ computers, printers, and other tools. After the plague subsided a bit, how many of these practitioners have looked deeper into their own problems? How many of them have started to take the initiative to learn technology, stop relying on technical practitioners, and truly take the right path to prevent the next attack by the old forces?
In the process of cultivating, I discovered that many practitioners in mainland China are deeply poisoned by Party culture. The attachment to self is serious and widespread. I even found that many coordinating practitioners and technical practitioners have never admitted to their own mistakes.
Master mentioned in his Fa teachings:
“But when a student from mainland China hasn't done something well and others point it out to him, he will immediately say, "You don't know what happened. The situation at that time was such and such." (Teacher chuckles) (Audience laughs, applauds) He knows that it's not good for a cultivator to directly rebut what is said. So he tries to shirk responsibility in a roundabout way, to defend himself in a roundabout way. When you've made a mistake, you've made a mistake. Be straightforward. If you have done something wrong, you have done something wrong. Only those who dare to admit their mistakes are viewed in a positive light by others and admired by others. Even gods admire them. (Applause) [Imagine this,] if you reach the very end of this journey and gods ask you, "Were you always able to handle it correctly when others criticized you before? Show us," you will have nothing to show. (Audience laughs) And if you say, "I never did anything wrong, and no one ever criticized me," will anyone believe you?” (Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles)
My understanding is that this phenomenon is caused by not looking within. If we can remain humble and take acknowledgment of our mistakes as a mechanism for improvement, that will solve this ego problem. Fundamentally speaking, that is caused by not studying the Fa well, and not using the Fa as a guide for our behavior.
Please take a moment to look at the situations described in this article and see if they have existed for you or your area. If so, please correct things as quickly as possible, and encourage the whole group in your area to follow the right path of cultivation.
Look Within and Find Our Gaps; Walk Our Cultivation Paths Well
After reading the above examples, some fellow practitioners commented that they knew what they should do now, but it was too difficult to get started.
Master taught us:
“As a truly determined cultivator, one is able to endure everything and give up or care less for any attachment in the face of various self-interests. As long as one can do this, it will not be difficult. People who say it’s difficult are those who cannot let go of these things.Cultivation itself is not difficult, and neither is raising one’s level itself difficult. It is because they cannot give up human desires that they call it difficult. This is because it is very difficult to relinquish something in the face of practical gain. The benefits are right here, so how can you abandon these attachments? It is actually because of this that one will find it difficult. When an interpersonal conflict occurs, if you cannot contain yourself or cannot even regard yourself as a practitioner in dealing with it, I would say that is unacceptable. When I practiced cultivation in the past, many great masters told me these words, and they said, “When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it.” In fact, that is how it is. Why don’t you give it a try when you return home? When you are overcoming a real hardship or tribulation, you try it. When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible. If you can actually do it, you will indeed find, “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!” (“Lecture 9, Zhuan Falun)
I highly recommend the next few sharing articles. They show how some elderly practitioners broke through various barriers and blazed their own cultivation paths. Please take a look when you have time; there's a lot we can learn from these fellow practitioners.
A Woman in Her Fifties Masters Computer Skills to Support Others
Older Falun Dafa Practitioners Become Very Computer Literate
China Fahui | An 82-Year-Old Practitioner Helps Master with Fa-rectification (Part 1)
China Fahui | An 82-Year-Old Practitioner Helps Master with Fa-rectification (Part 2)
Final Remarks
Whenever I open Minghui and see that many practitioners in mainland China are being persecuted every day, and that the trend of persecution is continuing unabated, I feel overwhelmed with pain.
At a historical moment when Master’s Fa-rectification is nearing its end, why can the old forces still exploit our loopholes? We need to discuss about how to rectify our actions and walk our paths well. Evil forces are still poisoning the world, and the CCP virus is still raging. That means we must hurry to correct ourselves and follow the path of cultivation that Master has arranged for us.
I hope that Master can stop worrying for Dafa disciples in mainland China. Maybe one day we will truly reach the point where everyone has a materials printing center, everyone is a technical practitioner, and everyone is a coordinator. Only then will we truly be following the path that Master has arranged for us to cultivate into divine beings. We can also then save more sentient beings.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
(The end)
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Category: Improving Oneself
