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Cultivate Well and Cooperate Harmoniously to Become One-Body
By a Dafa practitioner from Mainland China
(Clearwisdom.net) Several local coordinators recently studied Master's
lecture "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles." We recognized
the importance of cultivating well and cooperating harmoniously to become
one-body. We would like to share the following several points. Practitioner A: The issue of not being able to accept criticism, not looking
inward, and not cultivating oneself well has become more obvious. Recently we've
experienced great interference in our area when exposing the facts about
Sujiatun. There are many reasons this has occurred. However, I personally think
there is a very important factor: the local coordinators sometimes are not able
to accept criticism and do not look inward. They complain about each other,
which created dissension among them. Our field is not pure anymore; so the evil
has opportunity to take advantage of our gaps. If our field is in harmony as
one-body and everyone has cultivated well, everyone would sincerely cooperate
harmoniously as one-body and protect our field. Even if there is some conflict
or dissent, we can do things better as long as we are all tolerant. The evil
wouldn't be able to approach us and would be immediately eliminated. Practitioner B: I have the same thoughts. I'm not doing a good job in this
area myself. Practitioners blame each other and are not tolerant of each other
on even small matters. This has caused dissent among practitioners. Dafa's field
should be a harmonious field. Sometimes, when others bring up different
opinions, some practitioners blame others and complain about others instead of
looking inward. Only if we all look inward will we be able to create a
harmonious field. Looking inward is a magic weapon in cultivation. Practitioner C: Master said, "If you always reject reproaches and criticism, always point your
fingers at others, and always refute others' disapproval and criticism, is
that cultivating? How is that cultivating? You have grown used to focusing on
other people's shortcomings, and never take examining your own self seriously.
When others' cultivation one day meets with success, what about you? Isn't
Master hoping that you are cultivating well? Why won't you accept
criticism, and why do you keep focusing on other people? Why not cultivate
inward and examine your own self? Why do you get agitated when you are
criticized? How many of you seated here can keep at ease when someone points
at you out of the blue and berates you? How many of you can stay unruffled and
search for the reason on your part when faced with others' criticism and
chiding?" ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles") Isn't this referring to me? In doing coordination, I always want to
manipulate others. I always think my opinion is right and is in line with the
Fa. If practitioners have different opinions, I never accept them
tolerantly. Instead, I always try to change others and have others follow me. If
others don't agree, I feel irritated. When encountering interference, I always
try to blame others instead of looking inside. Isn't this a pure
non-practitioner? The attachments and mentalities of showing-off, jealousy,
fighting, hatred, complaining, self-defense, and validating oneself are all
showing up. A cultivator shouldn't have these! Practitioner D: Where is this coming from? Our inability to accept different
opinions and our not looking inside? It was developed postnatally from acquired
notions. People in Mainland China are all brainwashed by the CCP culture. The
evil party never looks inside and never admits to any of its mistakes. It claims
that its always right. It's never tolerant of different opinions. Some of our
practitioners also like to hear praise. When looking at oneself, one always
tends to look at the good side. When looking at others, one tends to look at the
deficient side. As a practitioner, one should change one's acquired notions.
Recently, I haven't been nice when talking to fellow practitioners. I sometimes
look inside, but never deeply enough and never sincerely. Practitioners are
different than non-practitioners. We should always look inward and cultivate
ourselves. Now that Master has taught us this Fa, I realize that I should really
make up my mind and cultivate myself well. Practitioner E: I think cultivating oneself well is not just an issue of
personal improvement. It is also an important aspect of saving sentient beings.
If one doesn't cultivate oneself well, then one is not sufficiently tolerant and
kind, and one wouldn't be able to do a good job in clarifying the
truth and saving sentient beings. Practitioner A: After initially studying Master's Fa, we felt we should
change this state. But how do we change? It wasn't very clear to us yet. Through
continuing to study the Fa, we now know we should look inside. Not letting go of
oneself makes the one-body inharmonious. Attachment to oneself is selfish. In
the past when others said something, one would think, "Are they talking
about me?" The speaker might not mean anything specific, and the listener
may have a different interpretation. After one listens to the different
opinions, one feels bothered and wants to defend oneself. When defending
oneself, one may get impulsive and possibly hurt others. One should think,
"When others talk, why do I think they are talking about me? Why do I feel
irritated or bothered? It must have been my attachments." Practitioner F: After studying Master's "Teaching the Fa in the City of
Los Angeles," I looked at myself carefully. I felt responsible for the
dissension among practitioners. For example, whenever there was a high demand
and a tight time line in coordinating truth-clarification materials, I often
ordered practitioners to do it. When it wasn't done the right way, I forced
others to do it well. I knew that was not right, but I couldn't discover what
drove me to do that. I now know that it was the attachment of showing-off.
Blaming others or not being satisfied with others is the same as feeling better
than others and thinking that I do a better job than others. Not talking nicely
is a reflection of not being compassionate. It causes distance between
practitioners. On the other hand, we are all Master's disciples. What right do I
have to command or blame others? Sometimes, on the surface, it shows that I was
very active in doing Dafa work. It was, in fact, because of the attachment of
showing-off and the attachment to focusing only on doing work. When one has the
attachment to focusing only on doing work, it is just like an ordinary person
doing Dafa work. Sending forth righteous thoughts won't be effective if one
doesn't study the Fa diligently and calmly. Sometimes one's health might become
worse as well, which will affect the overall feeling about the Fa, and nothing
will be in line with the Fa anymore. Practitioner E: I had similar experiences when distributing
truth-clarification materials. When I had the attachment to focusing only on
doing work, on the surface I was very busy and tired. In fact, I was not in
cultivation any longer. Sometimes I was just in a hurry to get the materials
done and distributed. I wouldn't even read through what was in the materials.
Fellow practitioners sometimes voiced their opinions. Not only did I not accept
the criticism, I also turned it around and complained about the fellow
practitioners: "You didn't do it, but yet you comment on what I've done.
Why don't you give it a try?" In fact, I was purely focusing on doing the
work. I didn't focus on cultivation, and I didn't cultivate myself. Once, I
reviewed the contents of the materials very carefully and shared about the
importance of the materials with the recipient practitioners. Fellow
practitioners paid special attention, too. We got very good results when
distributing the materials. Practitioner C: I realized that is why Master is so strict about cultivating
oneself well. Master views it as a critical issue in determining whether one is
a practitioner and if one can reach consummation. Consummation is determined by
the cultivation attainment status and the realm standard achieved by a Dafa
practitioner. If one can't even meet the requirements of this fundamental
standard, then one won't be able to reach consummation. We all would eventually
like to become enlightened people. The realm standard for enlightened beings is
having immense benevolence, compassion and great tolerance. Dafa practitioners
are in cultivation practice. As they improve, they are closer to the standard of
the universe's highest characteristic, "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance."
As the standards become higher and higher, the requirements are stricter. If one
reaches that realm, one must have pure truthfulness, great compassion, and
immense tolerance and benevolence. Practitioner D: Cultivation is looking inward without any conditions. For
example, if your partner was 99 percent wrong and you were only one percent
wrong, you should still look inside for the one percent on your side. Then you
can kindly point out the rest for your partner. If we have issues as one-body,
everybody should examine themselves first so we can create an environment of
looking inward. Master asked us to do this: "...everyone looks within, and everyone cultivates himself
well,..." "Now that Master has spoken about this in today's teaching of Fa here,
from this point on you must start to take this matter seriously."
("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles") Practitioner A: We used to have a great one-body in our area. Due to the
coordinators' cultivation flaws, our one-body is no longer harmonious. The main
reason is because we didn't pay enough attention to cultivating ourselves. When
one doesn't do a good job cultivating oneself, one will naturally look outside
and pursue outside goals and blame and complain about others. This will cause
distance between each other. When coordinators don't do a good job in
cultivation, it will have a negative impact on other practitioners, which in
turn negatively impacts the whole body. If we all look inside and try to find
our own shortcomings and correct them, Master will help us eliminate to the bad
substances. Practitioner C: I think we used to have a huge hole in our area in the past.
We all think (especially the coordinators) that the environment in our area has
been corrected for the most part and has improved. When we shared experiences
with practitioners from other areas, we also mentioned this. The mentality of
showing-off and complacency then started showing up. Especially recently, such
attachments as indifference, the pursuit of comfort, and slacking-off have
surfaced as well. Master taught us in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los
Angeles," "I hope everyone will do better and better at the end. Be sure not to
become lax. You must not slack off, and you must not become apathetic." The coordinators carry a lot of responsibility. We not only need to cultivate
ourselves well. we also need to help other practitioners improve as one-body so
we can keep up with the rapid progress of Fa-rectification and fulfill our great
mission. So cultivating oneself well and cooperating harmoniously as one-body
are must-dos. The above are my personal understandings in the experience-sharing. Please
correct me if I have said anything inappropriate.
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