(Minghui.org) Life is enormous and every life has its own characteristics. A person's uniqueness can be positive, but can also separate one from another. This can happen when one person disagrees with another person's understanding, their way of doing things, or their habits.
Practitioners can avoid this separation by looking inside unconditionally, whether one is right or wrong. They can share understandings rationally from the standpoint of the Fa. If they can exhibit tolerance and use the understanding of another practitioner as a reference, then the separation is just a stepping stone to elevation.
If one is not rational, one may look outward instead of inward. When looking outward the separation can escalate to a conflict. This results in losses among practitioners and can be used by the old forces. Practitioners can then commit bad deeds.
Practitioners possess mighty power. If we could all work together, we would shock the evil. Think about it: If all one thinks about is how bad a certain practitioner is, one could even attack this practitioner by saying evil things. Then how would we use the power of sending forth righteous thoughts? Would we use it to fight one another? Eliminating the separation among practitioners is key. I often add the following when I send forth righteous thoughts: "Eliminate all the evil factors separating practitioners" and "Return this separation to the old forces and let them fight among each other."
Last year, I visited my hometown. I stayed with my mother, who had been held in prison for a period of time. When I first arrived, I didn't want to be around her. I considered her very stubborn and unable to listen to others. She would only go to bed at 3 a.m. When I asked her to go to bed earlier, she would refuse, saying that she wasn't tired. When I used the bathroom at midnight, I would see her sitting in the lotus position in the living room, looking very sleepy. She would lean way forward and often fell over still holding Zhuan Falun. She had done this a few times. She just wouldn't listen to me.
I felt very sorry for her but also a bit upset with her, so I asked my grandma to talk with her. My grandma advised her to follow a regular schedule, go to bed when she needed rest, and to be alert when she reads Zhuan Falun . My grandma said to my mother, “Look at you. You don't sleep well or read well.” My mother said that it was none of our business. We both were very upset with her.
Only later did I discover that in the evil den were two collaborators, practitioners who renounced their belief, watching her around the clock. They never slacked off in watching her. She was not allowed to sit in the lotus position, nor to look outside. She was forced to watch TV all the time with the volume turned up to the maximum to make her forget about the Fa.
Only between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., in the dead of the night, could she quietly sit up and recite the Fa, and do a bit of meditation with her legs folded up. If she was caught doing this, she would be tortured. During her most difficult time, she received a copy of "Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference" in small font. She would get up between 2 and 3 a.m., bend over, and recite the entire article under a dim light.
Do I still bother her for not resting before she reads the Fa? Do I still ask her why she doesn't go to sleep before 2 a.m.? I now understand. In order to read the Fa in prison, to strengthen righteous thoughts, and not surrender to evil, practitioners have been in a state of "upholding" and "dispelling" for a long time. In their minds, they say to their persecutors, “I will recite the Fa. I will sit in the lotus position. I will shout 'Falun Dafa is good' no matter who you are, whether you are guards who pretend to be nice or betrayers. It's my turn to talk and you have to listen. I will not listen to anything you have to say.”
In such an evil environment, they are on the Fa for not cooperating with the evil. However, the old forces don't want to lose this battle. They still take advantage of this "firmness," infusing one's thoughts with "stubbornness" and have one obsess over himself being right and everyone else being wrong.
Through Fa-study, we all came to understand the importance of looking inward and getting rid of the attachment of not wanting to be criticized by others. For practitioners who have just come out of captivity, it seems as though they hold on to their own opinions and refuse to change. Even though others criticize them, they still refuse to budge. They don't seem to look inward, but appear to be very agitated.
Practitioners with them would remind them that Dafa practitioners should be able to take criticism. Then, if this practitioner still holds on to his or her own belief, they are considered to have poor enlightenment quality and other practitioners form a bias against them. Others begin to feel a communication barrier with this practitioner, and they stay away from him or her. When other practitioners discuss this practitioner, they make comments such as: “He is too stubborn” or “She can't be criticized,” or “He doesn't look inward.”
Not being able to accept criticism is a taboo in cultivation. It is certainly a shortcoming that needs to be eliminated. However, the old forces make a trap if one forms a separation from practitioners who have just left prison. It is not that these practitioners don't care about xinxing, but rather their firmness under the long-term persecution was taken advantage of by the old forces, so as to make them a bit stubborn.
I remember when I first bought my car, my wife only paid attention to the front wheels and ignored the back wheels, so she ended up making sharp turns. To help her practice turns, I put some blocks on the road, then had her practice doing a left turn for a few hours. Later, I found that I couldn't drive very straight on the road, as the car kept veering to the left. This problem wasn't fixed until I took it to the shop and got a four-wheel alignment done.
For the same reason, a practitioner in prison isn't able to assess who is right and who is wrong from what they say. He strengthens his righteous thoughts and dispels external interference over a long period of time, so as not to be taken advantage of by evil and so forms this stubborn mentality. This mentality needs to be rectified later through doing more Fa-study.
For the practitioners who just left prison, we should care for them a bit more. Do not keep pointing fingers at them, but have them study more Fa, as the Fa can rectify everything. Do not pay too much attention to the fact that they don't take criticism or are a bit stubborn. Be a little more patient. This was the persecution from the old forces impacting practitioners' thoughts. As long as they study a bit more of the Fa, they will surely adjust themselves for the better.
Practitioners who are in this situation should rectify themselves quickly as well. They should not allow the old forces to interfere with them by putting obstacles in their thoughts. For one who has left the evil environment, one has already obtained the Fa. One should follow what Teacher says and let go of the attachment of not being able to take criticism.
Please point out anything inappropriate.
Category: Improving Oneself
