Going through the Formalities or Thinking of Others?
By a Dafa practitioner from Taiwan
(Clearwisdom.net) A passage from the Clearwisdom article "Something from May 13’s Concert in Taipei for Everyone to Think About" left a strong impression on me. "Her non-practitioner friend said that invitation letters or cards to attend our activities were always sent to invitees in high positions at the last minute before the activity, an impolite and unprofessional way of handling things… They should have been sent out a month before…" This non-practitioner even added in the end, ‘Anyway, you Falun Gong practitioners are all like this!’"
I personally think that examples of practitioners just going through the formalities are seen quite often. For instance, Although they participate in group practice, some practitioners are sleepy, do not do the movements correctly, or do not follow the pace of the exercise music. This makes group practice not look very serious, and can even leave a bad impression for non-practitioners.
Although they don’t forget to send righteous thoughts at the required times, some practitioners' minds drift elsewhere or they fall asleep. As a result, not only is the evil not cleared out, but all three things are affected.
Some practitioners do Dafa work with the intention of finishing tasks, and although much time, manpower, and material investment are used, it results in limited effectiveness.
When some practitioners take time to do personal things during group activities abroad, this causes other practitioners to wait a long time for them. They are still unable to address this problem after others remind them.
Banners can look too sloppy in the parades. People then can’t see the words on the banners clearly, and the whole scene looks untidy. Sometimes, one banner is carried so close to another that the two almost touch. On one occasion, when fellow practitioners reminded the practitioners carrying the banners that the crowd and cars were all to one side, instead of looking from the perspective of saving sentient beings, they argued that the banners should be held the way they were.
Some practitioners talk a lot at group experience sharing and look diligent in their cultivation, but their words are often ambiguous, seemingly right but actually wrong, or even do not conform to the Fa. Thus, the short, precious meeting time for Dafa practitioners is wasted. Also, some practitioners make rambling, long speeches at meetings on specific Dafa work. The real sharing ends up being rushed. Perhaps some sentient beings will lose their opportunity to learn the Fa or be saved due to our neglect. Perhaps some ordinary people, who once had positive attitudes toward Dafa, develop negative thoughts about Dafa when we don’t do well. Perhaps some of our sacred tasks don’t look so sacred because of our ordinary people's attachments, which will end up leaving us with regrets.
If we can view things from the perspective of being responsible for Dafa, for ourselves and for sentient beings, maybe ordinary people won’t have thoughts like, "You Falun Gong practitioners are all like this!"
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/13/130201.html
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