Why Do I Always Focus on Others' Faults?

(Clearwisdom.net) I recently discovered a problem I've had for a long time. There are times when I am very sensitive to other people's faults. No matter whether it is a cultivator or a regular person, it builds up and I come to detest that fault more and more, to the point where I detest the whole of that person's being. I always remember to look within in case the fault I am seeing also exists in me, but I've felt more and more that this problem isn't so shallow, that I need to find the deeper cause.

At first I didn't take the problem too seriously. I felt that I shouldn't be so attached to people's faults and should look more at the positive side of people, while fussing less about people's shortcomings. But in the process of cultivation, I apparently had not rid myself of this stuff, to the point that while suffering in a persecutory environment it was still there, and then after that when the environment had relaxed and I was coming into contact with people, it would still manifest in a very strong way. At that time I thought it was normal to look at people's faults, but it's not necessary to loathe other people's hearts. We shouldn't be that way, right? When a cultivator is extremely pure, he will clearly be able to grasp another person's every thought, but his own heart will definitely not move, and he definitely won't be amidst "intention." I have already experienced this state in my path of cultivation, and to look at other people's faults and be unable to tolerate them is definitely not a normal state.

As I became more aware of this kind of thinking, the next time it surfaced I analyzed it carefully. What came to mind was Master's words regarding the state of the old forces,

"But the old forces saw that many beings had committed numerous sins in history, they thought that those beings shouldn't be saved and shouldn't be kept, and they felt certain that they're in control of my Fa-rectification, so they arranged for the weeding out of those beings during my Fa-rectification."

Their goal is to eliminate certain people of the world and students that they don't think highly of." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")

Then why was it that I always looked down upon others? Why was I always so sensitive to other people's faults? I wasn't at all wanting to look at other people's strengths, and the source of this was my hardly ever looking at other people's good sides. Isn't this type of thinking a reflection of the old cosmos' concepts after it had warped? Look at today's everyday people, the way they relish in other people's faults. You're good, he's bad. This is right, this is wrong. Isn't this how lives behave in a period of degeneration and destruction? How could I save people by always looking at other people's faults, to the point of looking down on everyone? Under the influence of this kind of notion, one can't truly be tolerant, and conflicts will be created and stirred up, to the point of interfering with the things that we need to do. When I think about it, many conflicts between fellow cultivators were born of this mentality. Isn't this giving the old forces an excuse to persecute us?

Teacher has said that when He first started spreading the Fa, there were people in the audience cursing him as they listened, but He still looked at the good points of each life, as He just wanted to save us. How well have we followed His example? This isn't a kind of tolerance that can be easily explained or described. I have come to a deep understanding that pure, upright compassion doesn't have a thread of one's own personal factors. Looking inward another step, this old, warped notion should no longer exist in my body. The old forces disrupt the Fa-rectification due to being attached to what they want, while weeding out many other lives including ultimately themselves. Everything flows from the pursuit of self, and acting for one's self. I came to clearly realize that this way of thinking was due to a selfish heart and the attachment to self. We're not only cultivating the Great Law, we're doing it during the time when the universe is being rectified. While shouldering the important task of validating the Fa, how could we let this old, rotten substance from the old cosmos appear in our bodies? What would we be validating then? Regardless of time or place, Dafa's pure and upright energy should be emanating from our bodies. At this time I understood that this bad thinking must be rectified without any omission. There's no logic at all to keeping it in my body.

During the Fa-rectification everything is being created anew. While we are still in the cultivation process we should compare our thinking with the Fa's requirements and deeply investigate our thoughts. We should ask ourselves if our thinking really is the kind of pure, upright thinking that is in line with the Fa.

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