(Minghui.org) I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for twenty-four years. I truly feel the Fa-Rectification period is ending soon, especially during the past few years of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) virus pandemic, and truly hope that no predestined people will be left behind after the plague ends. I wish more sentient beings can distinguish between good and evil, see through the communist specter’s tricks and lies, and be saved. So, I thoroughly distributed truth-clarification materials to the residential communities in my local area. And I often went back the next day to check the results and pick up any discarded materials. I recorded each household’s level of acceptance of the truth-clarification materials. When the local area was in lockdown, I made sure that every household in my local community received truth-clarification materials.
I felt I did what I could. However, when I checked back on the results, I found that one-third of the people had discarded the truth-clarification materials I left for them. Thus, I felt I encountered a bottleneck in my cultivation. I needed to improve my xinxing and purify myself even further to truly break through and save more people. One day when I recited Master’s Fa, “… Compassion brims in our hearts, vast ...” (“For Your Deliverance,” Hong Yin VI), I suddenly realized I did not have a vast heart, and sometimes I used my human notions to measure things, or even complained about things that were not to my liking. This limited my mind and prevented me from being tolerant. When I encountered people who refused to accept the truth about Dafa, I was sometimes affected by them and reacted with negative thoughts, and felt depressed. Those negative thoughts and emotions, in turn, negatively affected my truth clarification and everything I encountered in life.
Another incident I recently encountered also exposed my negative thinking. I helped a fellow practitioner install the Windows 10 operating system. His computer had a very weak CPU and could not handle complex work. Usually, I can install the system smoothly using the toolkit from the Tiandixing forum. However, this computer didn’t recognize the installation flash drive when it was plugged into the USB port. So I had to change to a different USB port. But when the installation was almost finished, the computer crashed and entered into an infinite loop without completing the installation.
At first, I didn’t know what was happening, since there was nothing wrong with my operation steps. Before proceeding to try to repair the computer, the fellow practitioner reminded me to first look inward to find my omissions in cultivation. I looked back at my thinking during the process and realized I had negative thoughts about the computer. I thought the configuration of this computer was very poor, and the booting and copying were very slow. I wanted to convince the practitioner to get another computer, as even a second-hand laptop would perform much better than this one. Because I looked down on his computer, my negative thinking affected the computer and it became resistant to me, as everything is alive.
I realized I was too self-centered and looked down on things that did not meet my standards. In reality, the practitioner only needs to surf the Internet and print some documents, and really does not need to do complex tasks. Although the computer had a low configuration and slow operation, it would be sufficient for these tasks. While this computer may not meet my standards, it may have a predestined relationship with that practitioner. If I scrapped it just because it did not meet my standards, I may be eliminating a being that should not be eliminated or that should be put to use for Fa-Rectification.
Very soon after I found my omissions, I smoothly resolved the problem. I searched the Tiandixing website and quickly found that other practitioners had a similar issue, and I used a solution they posted on Tiandixing. It only took me a few minutes to update the system and solve the problem. The computer then started up quicker than before and ran smoothly. I regretted my negative thoughts about this computer. My child helped me clean the computer to make it look nice, and then I returned it to the practitioner with a fresh new appearance inside and out. It continues to fulfill its mission.
This incident reminded me of another incident I had a few years ago when I treated things with negative thinking and did not look inward at all. I was installing the operating system on another practitioner’s laptop. I saw a bundle of power cords with the laptop when the practitioner brought it to me. But I didn’t carefully check it. When I got back home and was about to install the system, I unexpectedly realized the power cord had two sections to it, and the practitioner had brought only one of the sections. I could not use the laptop at all and started complaining in my heart. I felt that the practitioner was very sloppy and had wasted my time. How could I install the system without power?
At that time, all I saw was the practitioner’s faults; I totally forgot to look inward and find the attachment I needed to eliminate in my cultivation. My mentality of looking outward was the same as a regular person’s. When a conflict occurs and impacts people’s hearts, usually both sides have problems. But regular people typically only look at the other party’s problems instead of their own. The difference between a cultivator and a regular person is whether one can look inward first, instead of getting entangled with the other person’s problems. Looking back at it now, I realize the practitioner would not have been careless if I did not have negative thinking at that time. In fact, this incident was a test for me, a test of whether I’d have negative thinking during a conflict, or whether I could look at things positively and see the other person’s positive side. Actually, this practitioner was remarkable; he managed to establish a family-run truth-clarification materials production site by overcoming many obstacles, including not having any knowledge about computers.
Master taught us in 2003:
“Dafa disciples should handle everything positively. Don’t look at the negative side of other people. You should always look at their positive side.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)
However, it was still easy for me to treat things like a regular person would when I wasn’t paying attention to them. I knew I really needed to look more at people’s positive side, eliminate my negative thinking, and truly handle everything positively.
These incidents helped me realize I must eliminate my habitual negative thinking. Otherwise, I may get into an endless cycle where no matter how many things I do that conform, I will never be able to meet the standard of the new cosmos. In fact, most people like bright and positive things, and dislike negative substances. For example, when we expose the evil nature of the CCP to people, we may get completely different results depending on whether we have a positive attitude toward people, or we speak with a complaining tone of being dissatisfied with the CCP. If we complain, people may feel we are dissatisfied with society and just venting. They may not feel the power of compassion, and it won’t be very effective in saving them. The power of compassion is huge and can truly save people. What we need to do is to discover the kindness of people, affirm and expand their kindness little by little, and eventually let them understand the truth, distinguish between good and evil, and make the right choice. We should try to avoid getting involved in other matters and making conclusions, so we do not interfere with the main goal of clarifying the truth.
After I understood what my omissions were, I paid attention to eliminating my negative thinking and complaining. And I strived to save more people. For example, I was shopping at a grocery store and met a lady who was taking a rest. I started talking to her about the CCP virus pandemic, affirmed and guided her good side, and eventually pointed out the path of hope for her. As a result, she happily agreed to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. She also thanked me repeatedly, “You are such a nice person. It’s really great to meet you!”
Above are my personal understandings. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
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Category: Improving Oneself
