Falun Dafa Minghui.org www.minghui.org PRINT

How to Regard the Relationship Between Personal Cultivation and the Whole Body

May 10, 2003 |   By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

Recently, two fellow practitioners that were responsible for making Dafa materials were arrested in succession. When I heard the news, the first thing I thought was that they must have problems, must be having conflicts with fellow practitioners, have not done well in certain aspects of their cultivation, or perhaps have not represented themselves well as practitioners. I did not consider that the problem was linked to the whole body.

Subsequently, I contemplated deeply and wondered if being arrested was just an individual's problem. Wasn't the problem also related to fellow practitioners who were working with them? Why was it that a practice site can have a problem arise one day and a different one on another day? Even though the problem caused by the relevant practitioner was adjusted in accordance with safety and cooperation in doing Dafa work, it did not fundamentally put an end to the possibility of that problem recurring. I think that if a fellow practitioner at a particular site is in trouble, it cannot be denied that there is a possibility that a problem with how the whole body handles the work has existed for a long time. It is not only the problem of this particular practitioner, especially if losses continually happen at that site. Many fellow practitioners thought that whoever was in trouble must be responsible for the problem. Personally, I believe that treating any trouble this way is actually demonstrating a basic problem of the group.

This type of narrow understanding can only limit fellow practitioners to looking at problems from a perspective of individual cultivation. Hence they cannot look into, or consider at a fundamental level, the problems existing in a group or be responsible for their fellow practitioners and the entire body. Isn't this the problem? If every practitioner doing work for the site holds this concept, then how can they bring into play the strength of the whole body and become indestructible like diamond? This happens because they have not stepped outside of their individual cultivation, so they cannot correctly arrange or clearly see the relationship between the individual and the whole body.

An organization is like a human body. If the body has a large amount of karma (existing problems), then the karma will manifest itself in a specific part of the body. When the karma becomes intense, then the symptom of the illness will manifest in that particular part. If it were treated using Western medicine, only the part that has the problem would be dealt with, using such methods as amputation of a limb, or removing part of the liver or a lung. In so doing, it does not only destroy the wholeness of the body, it also forces the karma (problem) deeper into the body. Similarly, when a small group is in trouble, the problem may be that of the group but manifesting only in one practitioner. If the problem were dealt with as the individual's problem, it would be like treating only the part of the body that was manifesting the symptom. If the problem arose from this particular practitioner, it may be that he has not been diligent and was not making progress during this period, or that he may have an attachment that is very intense and is being reflected more prominently amongst his fellow practitioners.

This is like a weak link in the body that the karma can manifest through. Therefore, if the problem of the weak link is solved, has the basic problem really been eliminated? For example, if this practitioner is in trouble (being arrested), the tribulation is in reality being imposed on him by the old forces. But, shouldn't we attribute this to the desire of the old forces to disintegrate the small group in order to disrupt the progress of Fa-rectification, so that the more intense tribulations can become the tribulations of the whole entity? When we fundamentally step out of our realm of individual cultivation and view problems from the perspective of Fa-rectification, then, and only then can we properly eradicate the arrangements of the old forces.

These are my personal understandings. If there are inadequacies, kindly correct them with compassion.