My Understanding of "Do but Pursue Not"

By Practitioner Meilian

(Clearwisdom.net)

Before I obtained the Fa, when I worked with other people on a project, we would first talk to each other to reach a common understanding on how to cooperate. We wouldn't start the project until we had a good plan and felt comfortable beginning. After I began to practice Falun Dafa, I had a feeling from talking to some veteran practitioners that some practitioners didn't seem to think making well conceived plans or arrangements before starting Falun Dafa projects was necessary. They thought that we could just go ahead and do it with no need to think about the potential outcomes. They called this way of acting "do but pursue not." (Hongyin, "In the Dao") I was persuaded by this way of thinking and considered the experiences that we have accumulated from our everyday people's jobs to be just everyday people's notions or attachments.

Two days ago, I attended a teleconference in my local area. The voice of the practitioner who hosted the conference was very slow and weak. I was shocked. How can we work with the media well with such a speaking style? How can we hold a professional news release in such a speaking style? How can it be possible to convince people in such a speaking style? I shared my concerns. The feedback that I got was, first, that kind of speaking style was a test for my tolerance. And secondly, we should "do but pursue not." However, I wasn't convinced. Does trying to work with everyday people in a way that everyday people think professional really contradict following the Fa principle of "do but pursue not?"

After this experience, I gave more thought to "do but pursue not." I came to realize that my previous understanding was superficial. It was just an understanding of the words. We took "do" as "just do it" and "but pursue not" as "no need to think about the potential outcomes and no need to learn from previous lessons." Now I have a deeper understanding of "do but pursue not." I think this principle actually has very profound and multiple meanings.

"Do" includes all the things we need to know in order to act. We should know the background of an event, why something needs to done, what out goal should be, what our attitude should be, how we should do it, what are the procedures, when to do it, where to do it, who is going to do it, etc. When we truly try our best to finish all the things that we should "do" with a righteous mind, we shouldn't pursue any results for our efforts. This is because we will achieve the best possible results. So I think that when we work on Falun Dafa projects, we shouldn't abandon all the methods or ways recognized by everyday people since we are still living in the everyday people's society. The Fa is harmonious. Just because we are lucky to become Falun Dafa practitioners doesn't mean we should ignore the issue of quality or standards that everyday people care about. Rather, we should pay more attention to these issues in order to improve the quality and the standards for doing things in this everyday people's society. By doing this, we can prove to everybody that we are not only good people, but also better people among the good people. Each one of us will be able to fully utilize his talents in the Fa-rectification process.

The above is my personal understandings. Please correct me if I said anything inappropriate.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/7/16/33408.html

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