(Clearwisdom.net) The issue of respecting Master and the Fa is very serious. I realized this after attending a group sharing with fellow practitioners. I hope that by writing and sharing about it, more practitioners will pay attention to this issue.
Letting Go of Self, Thinking of Master First
We had planned to attend a cultivation sharing in a neighboring township. We said that we would arrive in the morning and call before arriving. However, the coordinator's mobile phone was switched off. We only knew which bus stop to get off at, but didn't know the address of the sharing location. We thought that everything was arranged by Master and that Master's arrangements were the best. We got on the bus even though we weren't able to contact the coordinator.
On the bus, a fellow practitioner, whom we had met only once, recognized us. She told us that she was going to attend the same sharing. We followed her to the sharing location. We arrived at 10:00 a.m. The locals were informed that the sharing would start after lunch. The fellow practitioner who took us to the sharing said that for some reason, she was very early. Thank you, Master! Without Master's arrangement, we would have waited for over two hours at the bus stop.
The main topic of the sharing was the issue of respecting Master and the Fa. Fellow practitioners quoted the following story. One day God was conversing with Satan. They both saw a wealthy man in the human world. He was a very devoted follower of God. Satan said: “Well, your follower believes in you because you gave him a lot of benefits.” God then allowed Satan to test this person.
With a wave of his hand, Satan made the person's money and house disappear. The follower said, “Thank you, my lord! You gave me everything, and now you've taken it back.” His wife and other women left after the money and house disappeared. The person said again, “Thank you, my lord! You gave me everything, and now you've taken it back.” Satan then made his children die. The person said yet again, “Thank you, my lord! You gave me everything, and now you've taken it back.” Satan waved his hand again, and sores emerged all over the person's body. He still said, “Thank you, my lord! You gave me my life, and everything of me belongs to you.” Throughout the time when he turned into a poor old man with sores covering his body, the person's first thought was always his lord. Such a respect and belief he had! Later, God returned everything to him. The moral of the story is to let go of self. The first thought should not be, “What should I do?”
Upon hearing this story, I had a thought. Master created everything from the most microscopic to the most macroscopic. All living beings, including the positive and the negative ones and the old forces, absolutely admire and respect Master. However, have we, the Dafa disciples, placed Master first and foremost?
Let us not talk about our thoughts in our daily lives at the moment. Have we first thought of Master when we encountered troubles? Master said,
“For instance, when I taught a class in Changchun, there was a person with very good inborn quality, who was indeed a good prospect. I found him to be very good and increased his tribulations a little bit so that he could quickly repay karma and become enlightened—I was preparing it this way. Yet one day he suddenly seemed to suffer cerebral thrombosis and fell to the ground. He felt that he could not move and as though his four limbs were out of commission. He was sent to a hospital for emergency rescue. He was then able to walk again. Think about it, everyone: With cerebral thrombosis, how could one walk around and move both arms and legs again so quickly? Instead, he blamed Falun Dafa for making him go wrong. He did not think about it: How could he recover so quickly from cerebral thrombosis? If he had not practiced Falun Dafa at that time, he might have really died there when he fell. Perhaps he would have become paralyzed for the rest of his life and would have indeed had cerebral thrombosis.” (Zhuan Falun)
It is rare that fellow practitioners, when encountering sickness karma, say, “Thank you Master! You gave me my body. Everything follows your arrangement.” Master always gives us the best. Manifestations of sickness karma are good things because Master is taking care of us. In fact, what Master has endured for us is much more than what we bear. We should thank Master. We truly need to maintain righteous thoughts!
Some practitioners say that we should bear our own karma and that we shouldn't push our troubles to Master. When we think of Master, it is not to pursue Master's protection or make things easier for us. Rather, it is to let go of self, overcome our human feelings, and entrust everything to Master.
Let's say that there is an everyday person who sells fresh fish. He kills dozens of fish every day, and scratches the scales off the fish, making them jump in pain. He kills so many lives in just one day. Yet, this is but one of his lives. Who knows how much karma he has created in all his previous lives!
How can we pay back all the karma on our own? How could we ever pay back all the karma? Our Master takes care of us disciples. In fact, the karma of each of us is also our predestined relationship. Master established predestined relationships with us in the human world for saving us. We established kind and unkind predestined relationships with others to better assist Master in saving them.
A fellow practitioner gave an example. Two practitioners had a son. The son's skin was always itchy. When he scratched it, his skin bled and formed scabs. He scratched the scabs, and the skin bled again. The boy was constantly going through a cycle of pain and discomfort. His bed sheets always had blood stains on them.
The parents didn't know what to do, so they asked other practitioners for help. A fellow practitioner visited them and took a look at the child. He said, “This boy doesn't seem to be your child.” The parents looked at each other and said, “Of course he's ours!” The fellow practitioner smiled and said, “He seems to be Master's child.” The parents suddenly understood. A few days later, the boy was free of the problem.
Every thought of human beings is selfish. A lot of practitioners eliminate attachments after looking inward, but don't think of our Master. How can we have anything without Master? Even the universe will cease to exist. Do we place elimination of human attachments, or respecting Master, as first and foremost?
Fellow practitioners gave another example. A male and female practitioner went out to discuss the facts about Falun Dafa, and suddenly the police showed up. The police officer wanted to arrest the woman. The man said, “No. We came together and have to leave together.” The police said to the man, “You leave. This is none of your business here.” The man insisted, but he couldn't help the woman. He didn't know why.
Several years later, they saw each other again and spoke about this incident. The male practitioner asked the woman, “What was on your mind when you were arrested?” She said, “I thought about eliminating the evil factors on the police officer.” The man said that he was thinking, “It is Master who protects Dafa disciples.”
The man immediately realized the reason. He thought of Master first. It was that simple. The old forces wanted to use the persecution to test Dafa disciples and ruin sentient beings. Master doesn't acknowledge it. Master wants us to assist Him in saving sentient beings. The old forces respect Master, but still use human beings to persecute sentient beings and those Dafa disciples who cannot hold Master in their hearts, in order to eliminate those involved in the persecution, and who the old forces consider as not deserving to be Dafa disciples. If we don't think of Master at our first thought, it amounts to not respecting Master. If we don't respect our Master, then the old forces have plenty of excuses to interfere. If we don't respect Master, even if we have achieved something, gods will look down on us.
A fellow practitioner once shared a story about Shakyamuni. While Buddha Dipamkar was giving a lecture, he was walking while he talked. A puddle was in his way. A young boy was listening to the Fa. He didn't want Buddha Dipamkar to step in the water, so he released his hair to spread it on the water. Buddha Dipamkar walked on his hair. The Buddha turned around and said to the boy: It is for your respect of Buddha that you will become Shakyamuni in the distant future. The respect of Master is very important.
Speaking of this, I have noticed that many article submissions to the Minghui website have been published after editing. In the new lecture “Watch Out for Breeding Demons in One’s Own Mind,” Master said, “The only one who can guide Dafa disciples’ progress is Master.” “Otherwise, even if they are doing good things, gods will still look down on them.”
If our first thought is about us or righteous gods, then we are off track. It is very dangerous. Why are righteous gods willing to help? It is because we are Master's disciples. Without this prerequisite, how can righteous gods help us? In other words, gods don't dare to help us without Master's consent. Whoever does so would be committing a crime. Everything is done with Master's agreement. It is all Master's and really all done by Master.
We are Dafa disciples. We are all proud of being Dafa disciples. Yes, it is the utmost glory. However, Dafa disciples are Master's disciples. Even Dafa is Master's. We are all Master's. From the beginning of our cultivation until now, everything of ours has been balanced by Master, not to mention things in our history! How could we, human beings in cultivation, achieve anything on our own?
Harmonizing What Master Wants
Let's talk about Buddha Milarepa. We all know that Buddha Milarepa suffered a lot by building and tearing down houses. His shoulders and back were all festered from carrying big stones. How could he suffer so much yet still persevere in his cultivation? It is because of his righteous belief and respect for his Master. He dedicated his body, speech, and mind to his Master. A lot is said in “body, speech, and mind.” Speech and body are controlled by mind. Mind is our intent and thoughts. There is an issue of whether every single thought of ours is on Master.
Master said,
“If you, as a student [of Dafa], do not follow Master's requirements, it is definitely no simple thing. The old forces have arranged for all Dafa disciples a set of their things, so if a Dafa disciple doesn't follow Master's requirements, he must be following the old forces' arrangements.” (“Be Clearheaded”)
The old forces' arrangements are meticulous. Even all of mankind's every thought has been arranged. However, this arrangement is precisely an obstacle for the Fa-rectification. In our daily lives, if we act based on human thoughts, then our thoughts follow the old forces' arrangements.
Let's take the aforementioned story of the male and female practitioner. The woman first sent righteous thoughts to eliminate evil factors behind the police. If her sending of righteous thoughts was to protect herself from being arrested, then her first thought was herself, not Master. We should be clear about the fact that Master handles the core matters of salvation. When people accept the truth, Master has made it happen. We are simply clarifying the truth following Master's requirements. If we are free of human attachments and have let go of self, then we are not following the old forces' arrangement. Then maybe, the police wouldn't show up.
Once we keep Master in mind, He will take care of us. If our human attachments are triggered, “It has been smooth today. I am in a good state of mind. I have saved several people...” All we think of is ourselves. These attachments were arranged by the old forces a long time ago. The old forces then dare to interfere with us. They dare to use everyday people to persecute us. This amounts to persecuting Dafa. It's a huge sin. So many living beings have participated in the persecution, and they may have lost their opportunities for salvation. This is not what Master wants. Master wants to save as many as possible. He doesn't want sentient beings to be ruined.
I have been thinking of this: When we look inward, what do we look for? We should look for why we cannot think of Master first. Why do we always want to do things according to our own notions? Why do our first reactions tend to be human? Following Master is how to achieve genuine kindness. When we harmonize with what Master wants, then Master can help us. Otherwise, we will be hindering Master's Fa-rectification. It is that serious.
Let's consider another example. A fellow practitioner was arrested. She did Dafa exercises at the detention center. She said that she didn't have anything on her mind apart from, “Master told me to do the exercises every day.” Nobody bothered her at all. If she had thought, “If I do the exercises, then the police will see me. The police will try to stop me, but I will continue. I will firmly do this and that...” Then she might not be able to do the exercises. She didn't think any of that, and no one bothered her. In this way, she also motivated many fellow practitioners to do the exercises with her. If we let go of self and our own notions, devote our thoughts to Master, then we are entrusting everything to Master.
In other words, no matter whether it is good or bad, we don't sense it because once we embark on the journey of cultivation, everything that happens to us is the best. Simply follow Master's arrangements without adding in our own notions. Isn't this the simplest way? “A great way is extremely simple and easy.” (“The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa”).
When we know of any fellow practitioners who are unable let go of their family members or any individual matters, and want to use their human way to handle the issues, we should remind each other to let go of our own notions and simply follow Master's arrangements. Everything of Master's arrangement is simply the best and so much better than what any of our own efforts can produce.
When we see fellow practitioners going through sickness karma, we should think, “Fellow practitioners are the best. Master has chosen him to be a Dafa disciple. We all firmly believe Master's choice as the best. We don't react to the sickness karma illusion. We don't even think about whether this is interference. Master's arrangement is the best. We trust everything to Master.” Master will resolve everything benevolently.
There are many other examples. The key issue is to respect Master and the Fa. When we all trust everything to Master, more people will be saved.
Thank you, most revered Master! Heshi!
