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Pay Attention to Conforming to the Ordinary Environment When Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in the United States
(Clearwisdom.net) It is very good for Falun Dafa practitioners to
remember to send forth righteous thoughts at set times daily. However, except
for those times when we are in front of Chinese Embassies, I think we should
pay special attention to conforming to the specific environment we are in at
the moment. At the very least, our actions should not cause misunderstanding
or cause the people around us to have a bad impression of Dafa. One day I went to a fast food restaurant with some other practitioners.
When it came time to send forth righteous thoughts, the practitioners put
aside their food immediately. Although they didn't make hand gestures, most of
them closed their eyes. What's more, in the limited space of the restaurant,
we occupied 3 out of the 5 tables. We left the food on the table and sat still
doing nothing for over 10 minutes. Such a scene wouldn't be easily understood
by non-practitioners. In addition, it was not respectful to the other
customers in the restaurant. At a recent large-scale activity held by Dafa practitioners and
non-practitioners, I noticed the same situation when it came time to send
forth righteous thoughts. There were many doing the hand gestures. Those
non-practicing friends know we are Dafa practitioners and some are very
supportive of Dafa. Even so, they were astonished by the sudden and orderly
group action and couldn't help but look our practitioners up and down. Our mission is to help Teacher save sentient beings. If our behavior makes
other people think Dafa is good and therefore they are saved, it's our endless
virtue. But if our behavior makes someone who originally thought positively of
Dafa turn around, it could be that he was supposed to be saved but now the
opposite is true. Did we fulfill our responsibility? Actually, teacher told us the following in his short article, "Righteous
Thoughts": "When you send righteous thoughts, no matter how intense things get, the
surface should be serene. This especially applies when you're at your
workplace or in some other particular setting; you don't need to hold your
palm erect and the results will be the same. As long as you keep your
righteous thoughts strong and focus your mind you can achieve the same
results. But under normal circumstances you should hold your palm erect or
do the lotus hand position." My personal understanding is this: on the one hand Teacher tells us the
results will be the same even if we don't hold our palm erect, and on the
other hand Teacher reminds us to comply with the norm of ordinary society.
Don't cause other people to feel uncomfortable. Regarding sending forth
righteous thoughts, the Clearwisdom editors have published the following
guidelines, "This can be done in any setting -- even if you are walking,
eating, or working, and it is not absolutely necessary to sit in the
meditation position and use hand gestures." In the above-mentioned situation I
think we could have sent forth righteous thoughts while continuing to do the
matter at hand. The results would be the same. To be steadfast and firmly believe in Dafa is an important aspect in our
cultivation. To be rational when doing anything is equally important. This is just my personal understanding, please correct me if there's
anything improper. 2004-3-6 |