“Capacity”

(Minghui.org) Practitioner A and I have worked together on Fa-validating projects for many years. We have felt Teacher’s care and help every step of the way. I am sharing about a recent incident through which I elevated my xinxing and hope it will be beneficial to fellow practitioners.

One morning after I finished the sitting exercise and sending forth righteous thoughts at 6:00 a.m., because of the attachment to comfort and laziness, I lay down and fell asleep again. An hour quickly passed—it was past seven when I woke up. I felt regretful and a bit upset, thinking that I had wasted precious time sleeping. I decided that I would finish my breakfast quickly so I could study Dafa, but to my chagrin the coal stove had gone out. Practitioner A tried to use dry sticks to re-light it, but to no avail, even after a long time trying. With things not going as I had planned, I unwittingly shifted the blame onto Practitioner A. “Why did he shut off the stove last night? How come it went out again?” I tried my best to suppress my anger.

Practitioner A said to me, “Why don’t you just do whatever you need to do. I’ll let you know when breakfast is ready.” I accepted his offer since I needed to go to my room to cool down. I sat on the bed with my hands in the jieyin position, looked inward and cleared myself, and tried to find out why I had gotten angry so easily.

I had recently gone home. Because I did not maintain my xinxing well enough in dealing with some matters, I left an unfavorable impression on some relatives. I felt bad after I came back. Sometimes I could not help but compare my poor life with the lives of my friends and relatives, and I felt sorry for myself. I knew I was being interfered with by all the attractions in the human world. The attachments that I have not yet given up were the root cause of all my troubles. I myself sought these troubles due to my attachments. Now with the “May 13 Call for Papers” accepting submissions, we all need to cooperate to accomplish it. We should not let any attachments distract us. In the meantime each of us has our own local responsibilities. We should not add pressure to fellow practitioners because of our own attachments.

After doing about half an hour of clearing myself, I felt my resentment and anger disappear, and I became calm. When I went to Practitioner A’s room, he was writing. The pot was on the stove. I gestured to him to continue with his work and I would take care of breakfast.

From the beginning to the end, it took about three hours to finish preparing a breakfast of just bland noodles. I was hungry and ready to have a good meal. But when I put noodles into my bowl, I saw a big mosquito in it. The weather was still chilly. Such a big mosquito was unusual. My appetite was spoiled. I picked up the mosquito and realized that nothing was accidental. It occurred because my heart was not pure. It was for my cultivation.

Practitioner A came out to have breakfast, and began to tell me a story he “accidentally” thought of, which an older person had told him when he was young:

There was an immortal that came to the human world and was born as a human. He worked as a general laborer for a rich family. One year the landlord sent him to thin out the sorghum plants. He asked the landlord, “Shall I thin them out a lot or just a little?” The landlord said, “Thin them out as much as possible.” (If sorghum plants grow too close together, the wind can blow them down more easily.) The laborer went to the field and cut down all the sorghum plants until only one plant was left in the entire 18-acre field.

When it was almost time to harvest the sorghum, the landlord went to the field to check on the crop. He was shocked to see only one sorghum plant left. He asked the laborer, “How come you cut down all the sorghum plants but one in an 18-acre field?” The laborer said, “You said the thinner the better. I was just following your order.” When he heard that, the landlord said to himself, “I indeed said that. I cannot blame him.” He thus did not blame the laborer.

On the day of the harvest, the landlord asked the worker to go and harvest the single sorghum. The laborer began to set up a horse and cart. The landlord thought, “It is only one plant, why does he need the horse cart? Whatever the case, I will just let him do what he wants to do and see what he can bring back.”

The laborer drove the cart to the field. He piled rocks around the field and used a stick to beat the sorghum stalk. The sorghum seeds kept falling like rain. He kept banging the stalk, and the seeds kept falling, as though they were never going to end. The worker loaded one cart after another and brought them back to the house. The landlord and his family were stunned with joy. The crop they got that year was twice as much as previous years.

Practitioner A took his time telling the story. It was like a dose of good medicine and healed my “illness” immediately, ridding me of my last trace of unhappiness.

I thought it was because Practitioner A had seen that I was unhappy that he told the story, and I said to him, “The story you told was exactly what I needed to help me. I can still feel the mild ache in my chest from the anger I had just now.” I told him of my emotional ups-and-downs that had just occurred before.

Surprisingly he said, “I had no idea of your emotions at all. My story had nothing to do with you. I just thought of it accidentally.”

At this time, both of us sensed that it was our great Teacher who was helping and encouraging us. He reminded us once again: Even a landlord can have such a great capacity to be kind, generous, and tolerant, and know to “look inward.” He ended up reaping a big harvest. A different person might have beaten up the laborer and thrown him out. Then he would have only harvested the crop from one plant.

How can a cultivator not be as good as an ordinary person? The difference in loss or gain between being narrow-minded and broad-minded can be huge. Practitioner A said thoughtfully, “It has been so many years, but this story just suddenly came to mind. It is indeed a reminder from Teacher.”

Teacher said,

“Dafa disciples, all the way until their last step to Consummation, will be tested as to whether they can make it. There could be very, very critical tests for you all the way until you are just one step away from finishing. That is because every step becomes more and more critical to your cultivation and your tests, especially toward the end. You know, those lawless gods of the old cosmos will try to maneuver things until the very end, as long as they are still around. When you are not up to par, they will surely try to find a way to bring you down. They know that Li Hongzhi won't abandon you, so they will use all kinds of methods to make you fall. Having just one single thought be off will make a person falter. So the closer it is to the end, the more serious and crucial the tests will be.” (“Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles”)

So that we don't waste Teacher’s effort in saving us, let us work together and follow Teacher to finish this last segment of the Fa-rectification journey. We need to utilize every possible way to save sentient beings and walk every step well.

Please point out my deficiencies.