By a practitioner in Taiwan

(Clearwisdom.net) A lot of Taiwanese practitioners have shared their experiences about discovering their attachments to the two major political parties in Taiwan. Everyone realized that it is a problem of personal cultivation, and not a problem between the parties themselves. After that, it was easier to pass the tests in personal cultivation. But I have to propose a question for practitioners in Taiwan to hopefully dig deeper: "Why do so many practitioners in Taiwan have the same problem in cultivation? Is there something wrong with the cultivation environment in Taiwan?"

According to my observations, the overall cultivation environment in Taiwan nowadays is very different from before.

In the past, during group study, practitioners talked about how they felt in the practice. Though most of the sharing was about trivial matters in daily life, the manifestation of steadfast practice was very moving, because most people went through similar experiences. On hearing about how other practitioners pass the tests and ordeals based on the Fa, everyone looked inward for his/her own shortcomings.

Now, group studies have very little experience sharing. As the Fa rectification progresses, more and more truth clarification work is there for Fa-rectification practitioners to do. But don't we need to think about the new practitioners, who occupy a very high percentage among us, and their needs for improving themselves?

In fact, there are many new practitioners gradually joining the environment of group study. If the experience sharing (not the Fa studying) is replaced by work reports, activity announcements, media reports, and purchasing materials, what would a new practitioner think? What's worse, after group study, I see practitioners often giving money to each other for various purchases.

I realized that most of the time, during the group study, it is always the veteran practitioners talking, and new practitioners always kept silent. When the veteran practitioners go on and on about the details of the truth clarification work, how would new practitioners have a chance to join the discussion? When no one talks about issues in daily practice, would the new practitioners feel it easy to ask their "everyday people's questions?"

If Dafa is a pure land, then why can't new practitioners in the group study environment talk about what they really want to say? Here are a few of my observations:

-They are afraid of being laughed at by sharing experiences and asking questions that are "too basic."

-They are afraid that what they say is "not based on the Fa" and they will be told to "go home and study the Fa more."

-They are afraid of talking about a different topic than what everyone is concerned with and receiving a comment like, "That's your personal experience."

-They are afraid of being labeled as "not following the Fa-rectification progress" when other practitioners know they do not participate in Dafa projects.

This environment can not be very helpful for the new practitioners, and their improvement in understanding the Fa.

The practice sites used to be filled with practitioners getting up early to do exercises, and for those who had time afterwards to study the Fa and share cultivation experience. Now, the sharing time is being used to "advertise" for various activities and projects.

Group study and group exercise are the formats Teacher left us for spreading the Fa. The purpose of these formats is for practitioners to have a solid cultivation environment and allow new practitioners to quickly improve themselves. The veteran practitioners today, being steadfast about the Fa and devoted to Fa rectification work, acquired their firm foundation based on their past Fa study and experience sharing. If we take these formats away, where will new practitioners have their environment to improve themselves?

Of course, everyone has different predestined relationships with Dafa; there are also different periods in which people obtain the Fa, which relates to the differing cultivation experiences. In general, over time, we have been putting more focus on doing Dafa work, and have neglected cultivation. Hence, we have manifested this oversight wherein new practitioners kept joining, and we failed to provide an appropriate environment for them. New practitioners do not know any different once they see what the veteran practitioners do in group practice. However, this kind of 'Fa-studying followed by Dafa work discussion' environment will bring difficulties in knowing the Fa and enhancing xinxing for the new practitioners.

Maybe the veteran practitioners hope new practitioners can quickly catch up with the Fa rectification process, since many Dafa projects lack manpower, so they want to quickly push them to a higher level. But how can the new practitioner work efficiently without understanding the Fa? It takes more than a couple of months to have a good understanding of the Fa. Most of the new practitioners, even though they have joined Dafa projects, are still in the state of "everyday people doing Dafa work." Once they encounter difficulties in their work, would they face it and solve it with the attitude of a practitioner?

While new practitioners are still worried about their illnesses, children, difficulties in their daily lives, we need to let them solve their problems based on the Fa and let them see the power of the Fa in rectifying the human heart before they can take cultivation seriously.

I sincerely hope that everyone can pay attention to this issue and begin to restore the real essence of group study and exercise. We need to stick to what Teacher wanted us to do in the very beginning and keep it for all generations to come. This is the guarantee for practitioners to improve in our cultivation environment. We must first pay attention to ourselves, enhance ourselves based on the Fa, and look inward. This way our minds will stay in cultivation. We should be clearheaded when we do Dafa work and not become everyday people without knowing it. At the same time, we need to treat new practitioners with compassion, and we have to be considerate towards them. We can't treat them like 'new workers' but save them in the appropriate environment so they can quickly improve themselves in the Fa.

The above is my personal understanding. Please point out anything incorrect.

Posting date: 7/7/2006
Original article date: 7/6/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/6/24/131219.html

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