(Clearwisdom.net) A relative recently relayed some bad news to me. My uncle and his son threatened to report us to the police. The reason was that a practitioner had treated him with a poor attitude, which made him feel that Falun Gong practitioners are "bad" people. Actually, the practitioner who had the poor attitude was his wife, who is also my aunt. Having heard about this, I became very upset. If it was his wife who didn't treat him nicely, why did he blame us? The practitioners in our family, including myself, my father, and my other aunts and uncles, have all been respectful towards him. Why was he blaming us? I knew, however, that this didn't happen accidentally, and I understand that if a Dafa practitioner encounters conflicts with everyday people, it must be the practitioner's fault. So for the past few days, I have been searching within.
During our group sharing, my aunt always complained about my uncle's selfishness with contempt. Although we were all polite to my uncle, we had actually accepted the fact that he wasn't a good person. We had just suggested to my aunt, as a formality, that she should guide herself according to the Fa, and not be too harsh with him or his words. It seems that she didn't really take our advice however, and she complained frequently. It was thus clear to us that we hadn't been compassionate to my uncle or respectful of him, and he was experiencing my aunt's harsh words every day.
I initially blamed my aunt for not demonstrating the compassion that a Dafa practitioner should have, which caused us trouble. When I later was studying Zhuan Falun about "energy field," I enlightened that as a group of practitioners, our field should be pure and compassionate towards each other. We should care even more about everyday people around us, and be more benevolent towards them.
Deep down in my heart, I disliked my aunt's complaining and my uncle's selfishness and craftiness. I didn't truly respect them, nor did I sincerely help my aunt to realize her mistakes from the Fa's perspective. When other practitioners talked to me, I didn't take their advice, but instead complained with sarcasm. This shows that my benevolence towards others was pretentious and disingenuous. I didn't accept the suggestions of others with an open heart. This is far from the characteristics of the universe, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance! If we practitioners can't communicate with each other with compassion, how can we form a pure and compassionate field to influence non-practitioners and inhibit their bad thoughts!
Through this, I enlightened that when we talk to people and suggest something, we need not only be kind, but more importantly, we should sincerely take advice from others with an open heart. If we cling to our own thoughts, being self-centered, and don't listen to others, not only will we ourselves have loopholes, but we will also cause trouble for the entire group. Meanwhile, we should sincerely respect all people around us because they are sentient beings who are waiting for us to save them, and not people whom we should despise or make subject to our pent up emotions. If we had suggested to my aunt, with pure hearts, what she should do, and if she had accepted it with an open mind, our entire group would have been treating my uncle with benevolence, and he wouldn't have developed any prejudice against Dafa disciples. Learning from this lesson, with pure hearts we should be more caring, learn from practitioners around us, and truly cultivate ourselves. This will enable us to better cooperate with each other and improve ourselves as one body.
These are just my personal understandings, and I hope practitioners can point out anything that is improper.