Forming a Whole Body Should Start with Ourselves

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) For a long period of time, we saw some fellow practitioners being persecuted and other fellow practitioners not being able to step out and catch up with the Fa-rectification process. We also encountered deceived people who could not be saved, some practitioners showing indifference to the persecution of fellow practitioners, and misunderstandings arising among fellow practitioners. Yet we did not do much to change the situation even though we all recognized it as a problem. There are reasons for this. The current situation for Dafa practitioners is very complicated, and the persecution is testing the character of every one of us. However, an incident I encountered recently made me realize that forming a whole body should start with me, in my own cultivation.

One day fellow practitioner A came to my home asking if I had made any more truth-clarifying DVDs. I told her I had been busy for the past several days, so I did not have any new DVDs for her. She said, "If you are busy, why don't you give the machine to me, I could make some more. Many fellow practitioners in remote areas like the DVD, they are waiting for more to distribute."

I was upset as soon as I heard that, and replied loudly, "I only stopped for four days, why can they not wait any longer? If they like the DVDs, they could have people take turns watching it. If I made too many, they would not treasure them as much. It is easier to watch DVDs so everyone wants them. We printed so many books, yet no one wanted them and returned them in boxes. How many more DVDs do you think you could make in several days anyway? Is it safe to move the machine back and forth?"

The fellow practitioner was quite embarrassed and left. Yet I was unhappy with her and started to complain about all the issues I had with her since I knew her. At that point, I completely forgot that as a Dafa practitioner, I need to do everything according to the principles of "Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance." I felt upset about it and that I was misunderstood.

The next day I went to fellow practitioner B's home to deliver some Dafa materials, where I ran into fellow practitioner A. She seemed to be suffering a great deal of pain. I learned that she came to B, asking for help to send forth righteous thoughts for her. A said that starting the previous night, her eyes were extremely painful, whether they were open or closed. We knew immediately that it was persecution from the evil. All of a sudden I realized that we are a whole body, and the persecution a fellow practitioner suffers must be related to me also. I remembered complaining so much about her the day before, and the misunderstanding between us was a loophole used by the evil to persecute Dafa practitioners. I felt regretful for what I did the day before and decided to do my best to help her eliminate the evil. I calmed down to send forth righteous thoughts. Several hours later, practitioner A felt much better. We started to communicate openly, and I apologized to her. She told me that not only was she refused by me the previous day, but later she visited several other practitioners who also disagreed with her. It seemed that everyone was complaining about her.

There must be reasons why A ran into such troubles. But I recognized that fellow practitioners did not take her opinions and suggestions from the standpoint of validating Dafa and being responsible for Dafa. I did not maintain the basic forbearance and kind heart of a cultivator. Master told us many times that we must be tolerant to each other as fellow practitioners, and we must have boundless benevolence. How could I forget about Master's teaching as soon as I ran into conflicts?

Though we do different kinds of work to validate Dafa in this Fa-rectification period, we are one whole body. No matter which one of us has omissions, the evil will take advantage of these omissions and persecute us individually or as a whole body. This incident also reminded me that in addition to being more tolerant and understanding, we need more open communication in order to better coordinate with each other. During the past six years, due to the persecution we are suffering, the security issue is very important for fellow practitioners making truth-clarification materials, and because of this they rarely have chances to communicate their difficulties with fellow practitioners. It is hard for fellow practitioners to understand them. This requires coordinators to be more considerate when coordinating with these practitioners. They should try to communicate with them rather than simply giving orders. I believe we should start by improving the coordination between coordinators and materials centers, in order to better work together as a whole body.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/5/103399.html

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