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Letting Go of Dependence on Others

April 17, 2013 |   By a Falun Dafa Practitioner from mainland China

(Minghui.org) As a practitioner with technical skills, I would like to discuss dependence on others, and how it is related to our cultivation.

Attachments of Zealotry and Showing Off

Generally speaking, practitioners with technical skills face many difficult problems, and after they solve them, other practitioners are always very grateful and say some words showing human emotions. If the practitioner with technical skills doesn't have a righteous state of mind, over time, human emotions will grow and foster the attachments of zealotry and showing off. In the meantime, this will cause practitioners with technical skills to be trapped at the technical level and to ignore improvement through cultivation. Gradually, the practitioners with technical skills will think they are too busy for cultivation and get lost in the words from other people such as, “ You worked so hard”, and “Thank you so much!” They will think their level is high and everyone needs them.

Everything we do is directly related to our cultivation from beginning to end. Without the element of cultivation, everything else is just the bustle of ordinary people. Practitioners with technical skills must be able to control themselves. Reflecting on our cultivation paths, we find many times that as long as our thoughts are grounded in the Fa, everything will be very smooth. If we have been busy for a long time, we must take a break and study the Fa with a peaceful mind. We should readjust our mentality before doing things.

Everything we do is actually what we should do, and should just be as natural as eating and drinking every day. If it is like this, we won't even care too much about the compliments from our fellow practitioners. However, if we don't handle this correctly, there will be problems.

Cultivating While Teaching Technical Skills to Fellow Practitioners

Often we are afraid of things we haven't been involved with. Of course, this is normal for ordinary people, but it does not apply to practitioners. But practitioners are more or less affected by this, so when they encounter problems, they might feel very worried and immediately ask practitioners with technical skills for help. Once a practitioner with technical skills comes, they will calm down. Their hearts were obviously moved.

Then as a practitioner with technical skills, in addition to solving the technical problems, more importantly, once should teach some very simple and practical techniques and help practitioners get rid of the attachment of fear. Through very simple steps, they can let fellow practitioners know that it is not difficult at all. When teaching techniques and methods, try to use the simplest words to explain how to help fellow practitioners master the skills easily. In addition, it is not recommended to teach many skills at one time. Instead they should be taught very slowly for those complicated areas.

They should help fellow practitioners to get rid of the excuses of ordinary people and to experience the great power of Dafa. Once, a practitioner said when teaching another practitioner: “If you can't learn and understand, it must be my fault as I failed to use the simplest way to teach you and make you understand.”

At that time, the student was moved to tears and a thought came to his mind: “I will be able to learn!”

I think as a practitioner with technical skills, how we can support our fellow practitioners is not just in technical matters, but more importantly in improvement in cultivation and in helping fellow practitioners to operate the material sites independently.

We should not have the attachment of selfishness, thinking the techniques belong to ourselves alone and shouldn't be taught to others. In addition, we should not differentiate in our minds when teaching, thinking this practitioner is too old to communicate so it will be hard for him or her to learn. Think about it in the opposite way – is the attachment of dependence on others caused by the practitioner with technical skills himself? If more and more practitioners learn the technical skills, then the burden on the practitioners with skills will not be so big.

The Safety Factor

In many areas, practitioners with skills will go anywhere when needed. Some practitioners with technical skills run stores to provide material supplies to other practitioners. Therefore, those practitioners must be very careful about safety. Once, a practitioner who owns a store told me: “Many practitioners come to my store. Sometimes, they also choose my place to meet. It really bothers me. This could easily put the practitioner with technical skills in danger and also affect other practitioners at the materials sites.”

The practitioners with technical skills must consider the safety factor when they choose this path, and not let fellow practitioners develop the attachment of strongly depending on others. If they notice that the behavior and conversations of practitioners who visit their stores is beyond that of normal trading relations, they should inform them solemnly.Feelings and the attachment to reputation are all human thinking. Developing human attachments can result in great loss. In the meantime, they should spend more time studying the Fa, sending righteous thoughts and eliminating this interference.

This is my understanding. Fellow practitioners, please point out anything that is inappropriate.