Cultivate Away Selfishness to Upgrade As a Whole Body

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Japan

(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share my shallow understanding of the relationship between the individual and the whole body. All Dafa practitioners make a whole body, yet each is merely a particle of the whole. The grace of Dafa is manifest in each particle of Dafa. From this point of view, it is vitally important that we each cultivate well. It relates directly to our ability to save sentient beings effectively. If each practitioner cultivates well, then the whole body will have mighty power, and the effect of saving sentient beings will be good.

All the Fa validation projects done by practitioners are done as a whole body. Each project requires a different delegation of duties. No project is better or more important than another. We should do all the projects well. We should not discriminate between them. Our media is a whole body; it is divided into the areas of radio, newspaper and broadcasting. Although the job delegations are different, the goal is the same: it is to save sentient beings. I used to distinguish between different media projects, always thinking that mine was the most important and the best. I felt complacent. I used my project priority as an excuse not to cooperate on other important projects needing coordination. It caused losses during my Fa-rectifying cultivation.

Teacher said in the First Talk of Zhuan Falun:

"In this universe, human life, as we see it, isn't generated in the ordinary world. A person's true life is generated in the space of the universe. The reason being, there are many types of matter in this universe that produce life, and these types of matter can generate life through motion and interaction. What this means is that a person's earliest life originates in the universe. The space of the universe is inherently good, and its nature is to be True, Good, and Endure. When a person is born he has the same nature as the universe. As more beings are created, community-like social relationships form. Some of the beings might grow selfish and gradually lower their levels, so they can't stay at that level and have to drop. But then at the next level they become not so good again, and again they can't stay there, so they keep dropping down and down, until at some point they finally drop to this level of human beings."

Therefore, selfishness permeates the old universe from top to bottom, and is the root of all other attachments. Once my attachment was identified, I often expelled and denied those thoughts and sent righteous thoughts to remove it. The selfishness became weaker and weaker. I feel that Teacher constantly helps me remove selfishness. I feel the excellent quality and blessed dignity of cultivation. Nowadays, in most circumstances my first thought is about other people. This is a great change for me. I no longer discriminate between projects. I am willing to cooperate with others. I send righteous thoughts to support some projects I cannot participate in.

There is no denying the strong abilities of most overseas practitioners. However, we are reluctant to coordinate with others. I believe the reasons come from selfishness, which plays tricks on us. Subconsciously, we want to handle things by ourselves because of our attachment to ego. Consequently, the power of the whole body is weakened and our ability to save sentient beings is affected adversely. Indeed, upon reflection, we will understand that our minor abilities are given to us by the Fa and are for use in saving sentient beings. They are nothing compared to the boundless Dafa. Why are we so attached to them? We cannot remain this way! Let's all of us dig out selfishness from its deepest place. We can then assimilate to the universal law of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Then we can cultivate into selfless, altruistic, enlightened beings. Let us improve and ascend as a whole body. We will form a whole body as solid as a diamond and immutable enough to disintegrate all the evil old forces and save sentient beings to the greatest extent possible. We will then be able to meet the standard for Teacher's disciples

This is merely my shallow understanding. Please, kindly point out anything inappropriate.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/2/1/148021.html

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