Understanding with Kindness and Tolerance Are Needed in Cultivation and Fa-Rectification

By a Disciple in China

(Clearwisdom.net) In "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston," Teacher spoke of Kings in the Heavens as an example, saying that "Of course, they can see the truth and they can see the best way, but often they, too, have certain differences in some of their views. But they would never argue. They are in a state of immense tolerance, of mercy toward all beings, and of being able to understand everything with kindness. To put it in human terms, they're always able to be understanding of others." This was to help us see how we should handle different opinions in our cultivation, that is, "a state of being able to understand everything with kindness."

In an experience-sharing article, a fellow practitioner said, "Principles of the universe stress the idea of 'containing.' A high-level being contains all the beings in lower levels and a higher-level being contains high-level beings. There is no logic here. It is the capacity of containing." Why does a being in the universe fall down? In my understanding, it is because this being had a thought in his mind that he should not have at his level. If a high being is carried along by lower-level beings, he has indeed lowered his standard to that of those lower-level beings and mixed himself up with them. Therefore, he will fall down. The principles of the universe restrain everything.

Being at different cultivation levels and having enlightened to different principles of Fa, practitioners will hence have different understandings and opinions. Other people may not agree with you on what you have enlightened to and you may not agree with other people on what they have enlightened to. Furthermore, "higher-level principles can only be understood in cultivation, but not expressed in words." ("Lecture at the Conference in Singapore") As soon as you say it out loud, it sounds different. It is really not easy to be understood completely by other people.

We are all in the process of our cultivation, still with a human being's mentality. We shouldn't hold on to what we ourselves have enlightened to or measure everything and judge everybody by the understanding from our own level, or even regard whatever is in agreement with our understanding as right and what doesn't as questionable. Otherwise, in viewing other people, we would say that "you have this attachment and he has that attachment," and so on. There are many quite stubborn practitioners, who often subconsciously consider themselves the most enlightened and solid cultivators. They seemingly can see clearly through other people's problems and this makes them feel that they are at a higher level than others. Indeed, all principles enlightened to at a certain level only guide cultivation at that level. If you hold on to them or stick to them you may have set up a barrier keeping you from catching up with the process of Fa-rectification. This is because the principles of the Fa elevate continuously and the progress of Fa-rectification is pushing on unceasingly. It is a temporary phenomenon that one may hold on to his own understanding for a while during his cultivation, but it would be a problem if this is done for a long time. Since the principles we have enlightened to, no matter how high we think they are, are only from our understanding at the present level, there will be higher-level principles to serve as our guide when our cultivation is going towards higher-levels.

Let's view the issue from an individual perspective. If your level is high, why should you be carried along by lower-level matters? Why are you unable to be understanding of others with kindness? How could you be upset by those phenomena that you think are from a lower level? If your level is lower than others', you may not consider right the principles understood by others. How could you measure others' understandings at a high level by using your own understanding at a low level? You may even think that you have a better understanding and try to look for others' problems.

Dafa disciples came from different origins and have certainly enlightened to different things. Sticking to one's own understanding is being attached to the principles at a certain level. The old forces will take advantage of one's attachment to hinder the cultivation process and, at the same time, have us consume our energy in endless debates, undermining our powers. Being understanding of each other with kindness among disciples and being tolerant to different understandings with great compassion and mercy are certainly needed in the process of our cultivation and Fa-rectification. We really should take it more seriously.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/6/25/31967.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version