Looking Inside Ourselves

By a practitioner in Taiwan

(Clearwisdom.net) Cultivation is unconditionally looking within to find where we ourselves fall short. For example, even if the other party in the conflict is 99% wrong or is 99% responsible for an omission, while you yourself are responsible for only 1%, you must look within to find your 1% first. Then you may kindly bring it up to the other party, if necessary. If certain problems arise within our one-body, everyone needs to look inside without any reservation, so as to form a good cultivation environment wherein everyone looks within to find his or her own problems.

Recently, I was very moved after reading several experience-sharing articles written by fellow practitioners on this topic. Last year I focused on doing the three things well and attending events and activities to validate Dafa. When I noticed some practitioners fall behind, I never brought it up to them. I realized that I must talk to these practitioners about this with compassion and kindness. Although I know that I should thank them for giving me these opportunities to improve myself, I still feel there is separation between us. Moreover, this attachment that is deeply hidden in my heart is still not completely abandoned. I have now realized that I need to help those practitioners who are not very clear-minded in cultivation yet. Eventually, they will understand that they must step forward to clarify the truth as a Dafa disciple and that the very first thing in doing a Dafa project is to study the Fa and get rid of the mentality of an ordinary person. They are bound to catch up. I should communicate with them if needed. At the same time, I must get rid of my own negative attitude when helping my fellow practitioners. Only when my mind is righteous can the outcome be positive.

Our personal cultivation has melted into the progress of Fa-rectification. Perhaps many fellow practitioners don't yet understand what passing a tribulation or test is about. Passing a test does not only refer to encountering a major problem or major sickness karma. My personal understanding of this issue is that in family life, the work environment and among people in general, every trivial detail encompasses opportunities for us to cultivate. Every cultivator has his or her own cultivation environment and process. Cultivation is serious; we must cultivate ourselves solidly and remain steadfast. Only then can we achieve good results when clarifying the truth. If we have not yet cultivated ourselves well, we may not realize it when we bring shame on Dafa with our inappropriate conduct.

We Dafa disciples must handle ourselves well and not miss any of the tests in our cultivation. If we fail to pass the minor tests, it will be even more difficult to pass them as time goes by and they accumulate. Our levels may even drop down due to our failure to pass a major test.

We cultivators should not attach any importance to ordinary sentiments (qing). There is no need for us to strive to save face. Upgrading xinxing is the key issue. When we encounter anything, we must treat ourselves as a cultivator and understand it on the basis of the Fa. Only by doing so can we increase our cultivation energy (gong) and do well in saving sentient beings. When we see our problems or when others point out our problems, we must respond with a cultivator's attitude and not find that the fault lies with others. If we all conduct ourselves this way, practitioners all over the world will be more completely united as one-body. The environment for persecuted practitioners in China will improve and the evil Chinese Communist Party will naturally and rapidly be disintegrated.

May 22, 2006

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/5/23/128553.html

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