Cultivate Ourselves in the Midst of Conflicts

By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) One time when a practitioner was in conflict with a fellow practitioner, a new conflict arose between she and a third practitioner. She could not bear it any more and came to talk with me. Looking at the surface it was a cultivation issue. Fundamentally, though, it was the old forces' interference and sabotage. When a problem arises, the standpoint from which we deal with it is very important.

Disregarding the problem itself, I don't think we need to comment on who's right and who's wrong, or judge the case as it stands. Nothing (including conflicts) we encounter in Fa-rectification cultivation is a coincidence. This is also the old forces' arrangements. The wicked old forces take advantage of our human attachments to create conflicts. This is another form of old forces' interference and sabotage, in which they attempt to split us up from the inside. We need to clearheadedly and rationally recognize this. Who would be happy to see practitioners stick to their own views and argue in disagreement with one another? The evil. At critical moments, we should not uphold everyday people's feelings or a certain mentality; we should instead calm down and measure our words and actions with the Fa. If we treat the conflicts from the standpoint of the Fa, we would not blame each other.

Master told us, "when conflicts arise between two people and it's seen by a third person, even the third person should think to himself, 'Oh, they're having a conflict. Why is it that I was there to see it? Is it because I have certain attachments? Is it because I have that kind of problem as well?'" ("Lecture at the Australia Fa Conference"(1999)) If that thing happened to me, was I able to take the Fa as the Master and face it with calm mind? Maybe my mind would be moved also, or even more than the other practitioner's. I further looked inward and realized that I, too, have competition and show-off mentalities, and lack virtues such as modesty. Sometimes I argue over a petty thing, or even don't let others off when my opinion turns to be right, all of which are everyday people's postnatal notions that uphold "self" and "selfishness." We cultivate in a human society and have various extents of human attachments that have not been well cultivated. Usually we think that we can let go of all attachments, but when encountering conflicts, the attachments will be exposed. With different extents of attachments, we manifest different states of mind. However, as long as we truly regard the Fa as Master, we will be able to see clearly the essence of things from the standpoint of the Fa and upgrade ourselves.

Of course, when conflicts occur, the people involved feel uncomfortable in mind and cannot calm down. When our reputation, interests and feelings are provoked, we feel "bitter." That is the moment that "Cultivating one's heart is most excruciating." ("Tempering One's Mind and Heart", Hong Yin), and meanwhile a test of our mind capacity to see whether we follow Master's teaching to use "tolerance, an extremely immense tolerance" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A".) to deal with fellow practitioners and the conflicts encountered.

Recently I read again, "Practicing Cultivation After Retirement". Master said, "What will you cultivate without any troubles? How can you improve yourself?" (Essentials for Further Advancement) My heart was again shaken by Master's words. Conflict may not be a bad thing, it all depends on what state of mind we use to deal with it and how we cultivate in the midst of a conflict.

In our cultivation, especially in the current Fa-rectification cultivation, we should be rational, clearheaded and serious in dealing with problems we encounter. "It is not like that, as it is something beyond the level of everyday people. You will thus be expected to follow supernormal principles. What's required of you, then? You must cultivate your inner self and not pursue things externally." (Zhuan Falun, Lecture One). If we search inward while facing the conflicts among practitioners, we will find our attachments, where we fall short, the gap between us and fellow practitioners, and the words and actions deep in our minds that do not conform to Dafa. In this way we fundamentally oppose the old forces' arrangements, eliminate interference and sabotage from the deeply hidden old forces, and rectify everything that is not righteous. Searching inward when encountering conflicts and cultivate oneself in the midst of conflicts are the fundamental differences between practitioners and everyday people, and also a powerful way of eliminating the evil.

July 9, 2003

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