Letting Go of Self is the Only Way to Build up a Dafa Disciple's Mighty Virtue
By a Falun Dafa practitioner
(Clearwisdom.net) One day, I was reading one of Teacher's lectures: "... since I last met with you we've had a lot more people enter the
Dao and obtain the Fa. The fact that this Fa can develop so fast and spread on
such a large scale is due, I believe, to the power of Dafa." (Falun
Buddha Fa: Lectures in the United States) As I read this passage, I suddenly felt that some kind of restraint was
removed from my mind. Before the evil persecution began, Falun Gong spread quickly by word of
mouth, and from heart to heart. The way it spread looked exactly like an
ordinary people's way. We all felt the Fa was great and wanted to
let more people benefit from it, and we were all enthusiastic about spreading
the Fa to more and more people. On the surface, it looked like it was the result
of each individual practitioner's achievement. I suddenly realized today,
however, that it was not so, not at all. It was a cosmic phenomenon and what has
really been at work was the Fa itself. It was the power of Dafa, not our
individual ability. All we were doing was just harmonizing, and what was really
at work was Dafa. Why had so many people come to learn Falun Dafa? It is because Dafa is great
and pure and righteous. It is the Fa, not we practitioners, that brought people
to the Fa. In the delusion of ordinary society, we felt it was because of our
effort, but it wasn't at all. It's like someone having his Celestial Eye opened
and seeing something, he thinks it's his ability and feels his practice is going
pretty well: "I'm doing so well. I'm better than everybody else. Look! I've
had my Celestial Eye opened." Actually it wasn't like that at all. If it
were not for Master, who transformed the Celestial Eye for you, you would not be
able to see anything even if it were open. "My Celestial Eye is open, my
gong grows, and my level rises." It's all because Master is doing it for
us. Even though Master said, "One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing
level," (Zhuan Falun) if Master hadn't transformed the
gong for us, we wouldn't develop one bit of gong by ourselves. "Cultivation
depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's
master." (Zhuan Falun) At that moment of realization, I remembered what Master said in "Lecture
at the Australian Fa Conference": "Sometimes when you do things for
Dafa, the attachment of defending and protecting your own role appears, as
well." The words "your own role" impressed me deeply and dealt me
a heavy blow. To defend and protect what role of our own? It's not our
role; what is at work is the Fa! Don't even think about how amazing we are or
how capable we are. We should instead put our hearts into assimilating to the Fa.
Once we think highly of ourselves, we have no power at all; once we think highly
of ourselves, we do not comply with the Fa anymore, we are separated from the Fa;
once we think highly of ourselves, demons will take advantage of our gaps. Isn't it true? With this attachment, one will always think his understanding
is higher than others, and that he can instruct others. Even though what he says
may sound modest, in his mind he puts himself above others. Sometimes, in order
to convince others, a practitioner might fake sincerity and superficially admit
his shortcomings, but his real purpose is to change others. Cultivation is
really a serious matter. Why is it that somebody always wants to "play the
main role" while communicating with fellow practitioners? Why does he
always have a subconscious "leadership" notion when trying to solve
problems? If it were not for Master, what could we achieve? We should let go of
the selfish attachment of showing off. It's not us who changed others. It's only
because I complied with the Fa that the power of the Fa could manifest. It's the Fa
that changed people. What really saves people is the Fa, not our human
attachments during the course of cultivation. As cultivators, we should let go of all human attachments. The stubborn
attachment to "superiority" is something we have to let go of. We
can't skip this part of cultivation. Some practitioners are more attached to it
and others are less so, but everybody has it to some degree. If everybody feels
that he is better than others, feels he is the smartest, especially those
practitioners who are outstanding in some areas among ordinary people, they have
a stronger attachment to it. It doesn't matter how well you cover it up on the
surface. You may deceive others but you can't deceive yourself, let alone
deceive Master. Whenever I look inside myself when problems arise, I find a lot of times on
the surface I was helping others, but I actually truly raised my level only when
I was really looking inward for problems. I suddenly realized that everything is
arranged to remove my attachments. It was in fact others who were helping me! Whenever I run into problems, if I truly look inside my heart and let go of
myself, I can learn to think from the point of view of others, understand fellow
practitioners' human hearts and tolerate fellow practitioners' attachments. When
I try to understand others with my whole heart and do things for others with my
heart, I find it is in fact such a beautiful thing! Everything I do for others
is actually for myself. When I was learning the principles of Falun Gong, I read the following
passages: "Of course, some people, when they first founded religions, did not
intend to become the demons who undermine orthodox religions. They reached the
state of Unlocking Gong and became enlightened at different levels. They saw
some principles, but they were far from the enlightened beings who can save
people. They were at very low levels, and they discovered some principles.
They realized that some things among everyday people were wrong, and they
would also tell people how to do good deeds. At the beginning, they were not
against other religions. But people would eventually believe in them, thinking
what they said was sensible; in turn, people trusted them more and more. As a
result, people would be devoted to them instead of to religions." (Zhuan
Falun) "Even if they do not harm people, they are still evil practices
because they have interfered with people's faith in orthodox religions."
(Zhuan Falun) Suddenly a thought came to my mind. "Isn't this the same situation, in
which the interfering effects of some fellow practitioners' attachment to
themselves influence other practitioners who do not have a deep understanding of
the principles of Falun Gong? They are only different in severity." I then
thought about the issue that a fellow practitioner had. But immediately I
realized that I was wrong. Why do I always use the Fa to judge others and not
myself? When Master pointed out a principle of the Fa to me, why did I always
think that it was other people's problem? It has occurred many times, that only
after I stumbled did I realize that it was my problem, and that I needed to wake
up. Everything around me is like a mirror and can point out my attachments. I
stopped looking at others and started to look into my own mind for attachments.
Sometimes it looked like I was validating Dafa and I was doing Dafa work.
However, what I did, I did with "I" in mind, and I emphasized
"I"; actually I was validating myself unknowingly. Master gave us all
of our capabilities, and he gave us these capabilities in order for us to
validate Dafa selflessly - not to show off. Actually, when others praised me,
when others asked me for my opinion and when others asked me to make a decision
over an issue of disagreement, I clearly sensed their mentality of
"worship," "dependence" and "pursuit." At the same
time, I can also see my attachment of "being fond of being another's
teacher" to direct others, and my attachment of being above others.
Especially when I was writing down my experiences, this attachment manifested
most strongly, but in a different way. In "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students,"
Master taught us: "Validating the Fa is cultivation, and what you remove in the
cultivation process is none other than the attachment to self." My understanding is that in the personal cultivation process and in the
cultivation process while validating Dafa we must remove the attachment to self.
When validating Dafa, we must let go of the concept of "What I want
to do ..." Personal conduct is only personal behavior and it should not be imposed on
others or interfere with others. One must be considerate of others and should
not interrupt another's cultivation path arranged by our Teacher. Furthermore,
one must consider the whole situation and Dafa. There is nothing wrong with
wanting to establish one's mighty virtue. Master told us, "And where does your mighty-virtue come from? Doesn't it come from
letting go of self and being selfless in this grueling environment, and being
completely responsible to the Fa as a Dafa disciple?" ("Teaching the
Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students") What Master wants us to establish is the mighty virtue of Falun Dafa rather
than personal virtue. We are each particles of Dafa and we should be validating
Dafa, not ourselves. Master mentioned that the external forces will never be able to
plunder the Fa; the ones who can truly undermine the Fa are the disciples
themselves. As a practitioner who cultivates Falun Dafa, none of us wants to
damage and undermine Dafa. But when driven by our attachments, one could indeed
damage the Fa and interfere with Fa-rectification unknowingly. It is the same
situation as when the old forces are damaging Dafa, saying, "We are helping
you." With an intense mentality of validating oneself, a practitioner will
undermine the Fa and interfere with the overall Fa rectification and
cultivation. Falun Dafa has no person in charge. "The coordinators among Dafa
disciples are in fact just coordinators, points of contact, and people who relay
information." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific
Students") In every situation, one must make judgments based on the Fa;
nobody can be responsible for you, and you cannot be responsible for others. The
coordinators are also human beings who cultivate. How can a practitioner not
learn from the Fa but learn from and depend on a human being instead? When
Master talked about Reverse Cultivation in Zhuan Falun, he said, "Nowadays there are a lot of these reverse cultivation people whose
levels have dropped. Only a few of them are still around. Why? That woman did
not know that it was provided for her to practice cultivation, and she
mistakenly thought that it was for her to make a fortune, earn fame, and become
a qigong master." (Zhuan Falun) During cultivation in the current Fa-rectification, the fact that I can act
as a coordinator and as a point of contact is because Master made the
arrangement for me to have the desire to do so. It is for me to contribute more
for fellow practitioners, not for me to be a person in charge of fellow
practitioners. Even if I have some capabilities in some aspects and I can do
something for Dafa, it is also arranged by Master. Master giving me the
capabilities is for me to contribute to the Fa-rectification, not for me to show
off, and not for me to pursue fame. All the capabilities are given by Master,
but I took them as my capabilities and I thought myself extraordinary. I
developed an attachment that I was above fellow practitioners, and I failed to
place myself among them. The above are my personal understandings. March 27, 2005
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/27/98245.html
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