(Minghui.org) Advancing together as one body is an issue that weaves throughout Falun Dafa practitioners' entire cultivation progress. Recently, a few small incidents helped me gain a deeper understanding of this issue. I would like to share this understanding with fellow practitioners.
The first incident happened during the Shen Yun performance in Melbourne. I watched six performances and felt that I had gained many new insights. One practitioner asked me which programs in the show I liked the most. I didn't have any particular preference, but given human nature, I mentioned a few programs. I then felt very uncomfortable, because I truly had no preference to any of the programs at all. I felt that all of them were very good.
When looking within, I found some issues. If a person says that he likes a program in the Shen Yun show, it is because that program matched this person's preference or a certain notion. Teacher gave guidance to practitioners when developing the show, and it is part of Fa-rectification. Therefore, it is inappropriate for a practitioner to judge the Shen Yun performance. Falun Dafa will not lower standards to meet individual notions.
If a non-practitioner judges the Shen Yun show, it's different, because everything is to save people. But a practitioner should not do it at all. However, at that time, out of human nature, I picked a few programs. Actually, this amounted to my not taking the Fa seriously. Each program could save different people, and these programs met the Fa's standard, so I should have said what I thought without using human notions to judge Shen Yun.
Elation Is an Attachment
The second incident arose when I was involved in two new truth-clarification projects established by Melbourne practitioners. One night, both projects' primary coordinators called me separately, asking me to work on their project full-time. I was very happy and even laughed out loud. Then, I felt it was not right. Besides attachments of showing off, zealotry, competition, and fame, there was something deeper. That was whether a person can completely let go of self and assimilate himself to the Fa.
I was happy for a moment. Why was I happy? It was because I had been recognized and had validated myself, not the Fa. This elation separated me from the Fa. Not seeing things from Dafa's angle meant that I had not really assimilated myself to the Fa.
Looking at it from a deeper perspective, if I was happy because the Fa could be validated and the project could grow so that it could save more people, then I had fully assimilated to the Fa and completely let go of self. (However, even that elation could still be an attachment.)
These two incidents actually resulted due to my not letting go of self, not assimilating myself to the Fa, and thus separating myself from the Fa with a single thought or during a single incident. It's an indication that I haven't let go of selfishness, which is a component of the old universe. Carrying this, a practitioner can't reach consummation in Dafa cultivation.
Given these two incidents, I also started to think about the issues of Fa-rectification cultivation and upgrading together as one body.
Leaving Behind the Old Cosmos's Requirements
As a particle of Dafa, I must hold a viewpoint of how good Dafa is and how the whole cosmos meets Dafa's standards during Fa-rectification. Teacher has repeatedly told us about holistic cultivation and holistic enhancement. If we set that as the basis of our viewpoint, instead of individual cultivation and individual enhancement, then we can come out of the old universe's individual cultivation and meet Fa-rectification's requirements.
Applying this viewpoint to the media work that I was involved in, a few issues are exposed. For example, a hand has five fingers. The thumb and index finger are relatively thick and the little finger is slim. But if the thumb and index finger just pursue being thicker and ignore the little finger, which becomes slimmer and slimmer, then at the end, the hand would be disfigured. An even better example is using wood pieces to make a basket. The shortest piece and not the longest piece is the key that determines how much water this basket can hold. If the longest piece just keeps making itself longer and does not care about the shortest piece, it is useless to the entire basket. The entire basket is like the whole universe, and the wood piece is like a Dafa practitioner.
Then, what is the best, as seen from the angle of practitioners' holistic cultivation and the whole cosmic body? When looking at media work, those who have better skills should help people who do not. Then we can get things done well as a group. If the longest piece stops thinking about how to make itself longer, and instead breaks a part off and gives it to the shortest piece, the basket's capacity will increase. So, during Fa-rectification cultivation, if someone only thinks about how to improve himself, it's a sign that this person hasn't assimilated himself to the Fa and does not meet Fa-rectification requirements. Non-practitioners pursue how to make more money, artists pursue how to develop better skills, and cultivators pursue how to accumulate mighty virtue. If a thought is about what to get for oneself, including how to improve one's level, it's fundamentally the same as it is based on the old universe's selfishness.
Actually I have seen that even collaboration among media has this kind of issue. We all want to collaborate and save people during the Fa-rectification process, so media should decide how to collaborate well. Competition is just to maintain and harmonize the Fa at the everyday people's level. It does not mean, as some practitioners demonstrated, protection of information from others. Also, we should not hold a thought such as “support this media, don't support that media.” They are all to save people and thus all should be supported. As to which media we should support more, it should be the media that is relatively weaker. This is an issue that affects the entire group.
Every practitioner is a particle of Dafa. Every project to save people is a part of the entire mission. If all practitioners can measure their thoughts with the Fa, considering Dafa's standards and the needs of the whole cosmic body, then we can upgrade together as one body. Then, the new universe will not have a flaw. Among the wood pieces in a basket, will the longest piece break off a part and give it to the shortest piece? If it does, it is cultivating in the Fa-rectification; it is upgrading as one body. Maybe you are not the highest, but you help the universe reach its best.
Please kindly point out any gap you perceive in my reasoning on the above subject matter.