There Should Be No Sentimentality, Just Righteous Thoughts Among Practitioners

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I have always wanted to write this article. Relationships among practitioners should be very pure, not maintained by human sentimentality.

I would like to express my views in relation to several incidents I have experienced.

1. A fellow practitioner was arrested at home. I had recently received a call from him, asking me for urgent support. I was very far away and unable to give him financial aid in the short-term. It was a very urgent situation, as the evildoers were working hard to try to capture him. My cell phone was a business number with no safety controls. Therefore, I contacted a practitioner in a city close to him and asked her to help.

We have communicated a lot and she trusted my knowledge of the individual, so she supported him based on my word. She played a very major role at the time and helped a great deal, but I felt uncomfortable. Our relationship went back many years, indeed, but can Fa-rectification period Dafa practitioners decide any one thing based on relationships? Assisting Teacher during Fa-rectification to save sentient beings is our great historical mission. We are bound to aid a practitioner in escaping persecution in prison. How can we do Fa-rectification work well with human notions and sentiments?

2. A fellow practitioner went elsewhere to help another practitioner run a business. He said he went there to help, and regarded him as a brother. They actually had some misunderstandings and conflicts soon after he arrived. The person thought, "Since I came here to help, surely I can be slack and deal with things in my own way." The other thought, "Since you are here to help, you need to help according to my way of thinking. Otherwise, you become more of a hindrance than a help." They did not work things out when the conflict started, so they could not cooperate to do the work together. The practitioner who was the boss invited the other to come and treated him as a brother. He thought they could easily figure out their work hours and cooperate, but the conflicts intensified. Instead, neither could look within and they parted ways on bad terms.

3. A fellow practitioner I know is quite wealthy. Another practitioner's relative lacked the money to open a business, so he asked the rich practitioner to lend him some money to start this business. It was only a temporary loan, just to get started. The amount was huge, about several hundred thousand, and moreover there was no official loan contract between them. Later, the relative's business failed and the practitioner could not return any money. In the end, he didn't call, he changed his phone number and broke off the contact with the rich practitioner to whom he owed the money. It caused a great deal of trouble for the wealthy practitioner, whose spouse is a regular business person.

Speaking openly, the practitioners needed to follow normal legal procedures and sign contracts. Later entanglements can undermine cooperation in the future.

Fellow practitioners in China have experienced so many ordeals over so many years and have come through them. On Fa-rectification matters, practitioners basically cooperate with each other to save sentient beings, and even gods admire this. However, when it comes to cooperating on regular work and business matters, there are many conflicts. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to develop a business successfully when you mix sentiment and cultivation together with business management and operational needs. Clarity and analysis is then difficult, making realistic solutions hard to reach.

Recently I watched Teacher's "Fa-Teaching Given to Australian Practitioners." There is mention of treating Dafa projects as work and working earnestly. I feel deeply that work is work and business is business. We, as practitioners, have to display the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in our work. However, professionalism and coordination at the human level are very necessary. I hope every practitioner can do well applying human principles, so they don't cause unnecessary interference to themselves or others during cultivation.

If there is anything inappropriate in my understanding, please forgive me.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/2/6/171854.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version