(Clearwisdom.net) For a long period of time, different practitioners have brought this same issue up to me. Namely, they felt that the things I said were for the good of others, yet, when they heard what I said they just felt uncomfortable.
I searched and searched for the cause and still did not know why. One time while reading Teacher's Lecture at the First Conference in North America, I came across the following paragraph:
"Everything that happens to you is a test to see whether you can regard yourself as a cultivator, find your own wrongdoing and mistakes, and conduct yourself as a cultivator. Remember these words of mine: No matter what trouble you encounter, no matter what makes you feel unpleasant inside, and no matter whether on the surface you're right or wrong, if you are to truly regard yourself as a cultivator you should always examine yourself for causes. Ask yourself whether you have a wrong, hard-to-detect motive that's related to the problem. If you, as a cultivator, only part with things superficially while deep down inside you still stick to something or cling to your own vital interests that you don't allow to be undermined, I'd say to you that your cultivation is fake! If your own thinking doesn't change, you cannot advance even one step and are deceiving yourself. Only when you truly improve from within can you make real progress. So be sure to remember this: Whenever you come across anything such as troubles, unpleasant things, or friction with others, you need to examine yourself and search within. You will find the cause of that insurmountable problem."
I checked it against myself and discovered that at the root there still was a hard-to-detect motive that was wrong and selfish. I still had something unrighteous in me that I was not aware of. Actually, out of kindness, I sometimes told practitioners my understandings of the Fa (1). However, when I dug more deeply into this issue, I discovered one thing. It was as if I had realized something and I told you about it, trying my best to help you; and yet, I still was unable to separate myself from my own self-interest. Amidst my trying to express what I realized, there still were elements of showing off and boosting of self; therefore, others felt uncomfortable. I could not resolve others' problems completely based on their situations, nor did I face their problems or solve their problems together with them. Since my understandings [of the Fa] were reached while I was still attached to my personal behavioral patterns and my own self, they were not pure.
My "helping others" was only "helping others" based on my own perspective and not completely based on the perspective of Falun Dafa or what Teacher taught us about putting oneself in others' shoes. Hence, there existed selfishness and gaps and there were many problems that could not be fundamentally resolved.
When facing everything, if we truly don't have any personal notions or self-interest in mind, then we are considered selfless and are assimilating to the characteristic of the cosmos, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Others are capable of sensing this. The things we do under such conditions will naturally have a good effect. That is indeed letting go of one's own self and being responsible for one's self and others. I deeply realized that only by being truly selfless can we be clear away obstacles and resolve everything.