The Mentality of Comparing Oneself to Others

(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners must follow the Fa principles in all their actions.

Any attachment of a cultivator that does not adhere to the Fa will be seized upon and taken advantage of by the old forces. Thus, a cultivator needs to proactively search for and eliminate any attachment.

Yet, attachments are most difficult to discover and to let go of unless one studies the Fa, looks within, and truly cultivates.

Difficult to Detect Attachments

A recent incident made me realize that I had the tendency to compare myself to others.

I often read the Fa online with fellow practitioners. One practitioner often made mistakes, needed others to remind her whenever it was her turn, and was a slow reader.

This irritated me, while another practitioner asked her to stay and read another lecture with her at the end of the session. This compassionate way of handling this issue showed me my shortcoming and I felt ashamed. Others displayed righteous thoughts and action, while I was annoyed.

I began to look within and realized that my attachment could surface unannounced, and thus was difficult to detect.

Sometimes it may show itself through words or deeds. However, it often is an attitude or viewpoint, which is only known to oneself.

For example, when I took my granddaughter for a walk in her stroller, she kept pointing at other strollers. I told her that nothing could compare to our stroller, which was fancy and had all the bells and whistles. As soon as I had said that, I realized that this thought was wrong. Not only did I compare myself to others, but I also had the mentality of showing off, vanity, and jealousy.

This attachment also displays itself when I see that fellow practitioners' exercise movements are not accurate, or they are not proactively distributing Falun Dafa informational materials. I feel that I am better when I compare myself to fellow practitioners' actions and behavior.

Assimilating by Following the Dafa Principles

In retrospect, I realized that I have compared myself to others as long as I can remember. As a student, I disliked it when my name was not among the top ten in academic achievement. This feeling was also prominent in my work life during performance reviews. In fact, throughout my life, I have compared my income, house, my child's achievements, and so on, to those of others.

Everyone wants to be better than others and struggles to be number one. Such is the nature of the attachment of pursuit. They pursue a happy life, and do not realize that they are living a very tiring one.

A cultivator, who lives in this big dye vat, may be contaminated unwittingly if he or she does not pay attention.

I realized that there are many attachments hiding behind the mentality of comparing oneself to others.

As a cultivator, one needs to pay attention to each and every thought, follow the Fa principles and assimilate to the teachings of Dafa. Master warned practitioners about becoming careless and ignoring the Fa that he taught.

Master said :

“If you are being careless for a moment, you may stumble and become ruined at once. Therefore, one’s mind must be right.” (Zhuan Falun)