By Ren Zhong, a Falun Dafa practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher talked several times about the responsibilities of veteran assistants (coordinators) before the persecution began. Teacher has also told us more than once of the significant mission and responsibility of coordinators in the process of Fa-rectification.

To use an analogy, our veteran assistants and volunteer directors of Dafa instruction centers are like abbots in temples. Viewed in the superficial human dimension, these veteran assistants had done a lot of work in the period of spreading the Fa and personal cultivation before the persecution. They are well respected and have high prestige in the eyes of practitioners. However, after the persecution started, many veteran assistants did not continue to do things to validate the Fa. Moreover, cultivation in the Fa-rectification period differs tremendously from that before the persecution began.

Thus, there gradually appeared some practitioners in various regions who volunteered to be coordinators. These practitioners were neither elected nor appointed. Instead, they just have the courage and passion to do Fa validation work in hostile and dangerous environments. As they were new practitioners or practitioners who did not attract much attention before, people were not familiar with them and did not recognize them as coordinators in the beginning. Gradually, they became more well known among practitioners. Thus, after awhile, coordinators in the Fa-rectification period had appeared in various regions.

As the Fa-rectification marches forward, some past coordinators who have not stepped forward in the Fa-rectification period have now come out and joined the truth-clarification work. Some of them have just done the three things well without much contact with other practitioners, while others have initiated contact with the new coordinators and joined others in the Fa validation work that they were capable of.

The participation of veteran assistants was supposed to strengthen our Fa validation work. However, some veteran assistants were very late in coming out and joining the Fa rectification process. Also, the activities in the Fa-rectification period are different from those in the personal cultivation period. In addition, some new coordinators have shortcomings of various kinds themselves. As a result of these combined factors, there exist different views and understandings on some major issues among veteran assistants and new coordinators. Sometimes the differences are significant. For example, when a problem became serious, veteran assistants would not cooperate with the new coordinators, and used their past standing among practitioners to divide some practitioners and to not follow the new coordinators' instructions. This issue caused the collective power of practitioners to weaken, exposed loopholes among practitioners, and led to interference in and damage to the local Fa validation work.

So what has caused all these issues? From one perspective, I think it is due to some arrangements by the old forces from ancient times. From another perspective, it is due to practitioners' neglecting personal cultivation while doing Fa validation work. Also, it is due to practitioners' attachment of jealousy, out of which practitioners did things that are not aligned with the Fa.

As Teacher said in Essentials for Further Advancement, "Our students, including our staff, are jealous of each other even in their work for Dafa. Can you become a Buddha this way? I want to have a loose administration simply because you cannot let go of ordinary human things and so will feel uneasy in your work. Dafa belongs to the entire universe, and not to any one, insignificant individual. Whoever does the work is spreading Dafa. It is not important whether it should be done by you or by others. Are you going to bring to a paradise this attachment that you cannot let go of, and contend with Buddhas? Nobody should treat Dafa as his own exclusive thing. Get rid of that thought that you've been treated unfairly! When your mind cannot get over something, isn't it caused by your attachment? Our students shouldn't think that this has nothing to do with them!" ("Further Elimination of Attachments").

Of course, there is more than one reason. But I have realized that the main cause of the conflicts between veteran assistants and new coordinators is the attachment of jealousy not having been eliminated. As I remember, Teacher told a story in one of the lectures about a junior monk and an abbot in a temple. After the junior monk achieves the Unlocking of Gong and enlightenment, all other monks in the temple are drawn to him, which the abbot would not put up with. The abbot then says that the junior monk is experiencing cultivation insanity and expels him from the temple. According to the same principle and reasoning, if the veteran assistants or volunteer directors of Dafa instruction centers have the attachment of jealousy, but have not realized it in time or have admitted it superficially without really getting rid of it, they would do things out of the attachment, such as spreading comments about the shortcomings of the new coordinator. As a consequence, it causes many practitioners who do not know the truth behind it to believe them blindly and no longer cooperate with the new coordinator in the Fa validation work. The excuse for their not cooperating is that the coordinator's actions are not righteous. Therefore, this issue leads to loopholes in the overall coordination in the region.

Why can't we veteran assistants get rid of our selfish notions and make use of the situation as a good environment for us to get rid of our attachment of jealousy? Teacher has warned us in the lectures that we won't be able to complete our cultivation and achieve consummation without eliminating the attachment of jealousy. As a secondary consideration, if the issue of jealousy only affects our own improvement in cultivation, it won't cause too many losses. However, if it causes serious or long-term lack of overall coordination in the regional Fa validation work, it will be interference to the practitioners as a whole and interference to Fa-rectification. Therefore, it would be wise to realize this issue immediately and to quickly undo the impact that has been caused. Veteran assistants should get rid of any notion of self, consider things from the perspective of the whole, cooperate well with the newer coordinators and compassionately point out any problems we notice or silently harmonize things that other practitioners have not done well. And only in this way can we be Teacher's good disciples and good fellow practitioners.

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

Posting date: 5/3/2008
Original article date: 5/3/2008
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/10/176141.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version