(Minghui.org) Recently, my husband started criticizing many things I did. I didn't like hearing his criticism and thought that I would just do fewer things to avoid being criticized.
On another occasion, I told a practitioner, Lian, that she didn't treat clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings seriously enough. She made excuses and tried to avoid taking responsibility. Later, she avoided me, and I became upset by her reaction to my criticism.
There was also an elderly practitioner who often went out to clarify the truth. She suffers from long-term leg pain and, one day, she said she couldn’t take the pain anymore.
I told her to look within, elevate her xinxing, and cleanse her dimensional field. When I also advised her not to use a human mindset to save people, she reacted very defensively.
She later complained to Mei, another practitioner, about my criticism. Mei also asked her to look within; she again didn’t take the criticism well.
Mei then told me about her interaction with her. I thought that maybe I should no longer point out others problems when I see them and just cultivate and elevate myself.
When I calmed down, I asked myself, “why did I encounter these issues?”
Teacher said:
“… when running into a conflict, everyone should search inside themselves. Yet some people still can’t seem to search within when they encounter a conflict. Some people can become aware of it, while some aren’t even willing to consider it or even completely forget that they are cultivators. I would say that’s not doing well enough. Whether it’s between you and another student, whether it’s at the workplace, or whatever the circumstance in human society, in those conflicts among students or between a student and an assistant these persons have not thought about searching for the reasons within themselves.” (Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference)
In fact, I hadn’t truly looked within! I was focusing on other people in order to hide my own attachments. Without even realizing it, I was turning myself into a sly person. When I looked within, I found that I was afraid of criticism, and it made me feel regret. I found I still had a strong ego and needed to let it go.
Master wants us to look within when we encounter problems and kindly point out fellow practitioners' problems to them. If they don’t want to listen and they react negatively, we need to be able to let it go.
There were also times I didn’t want to point out practitioner’s problems because I was afraid of offending them. Wasn’t that also being selfish? In cultivation, we need to follow Master's guidance.
I sat down to cleanse the negative influences between fellow practitioners and me. I sincerely hoped that we could all elevate and get rid of elements that make us not want to hear criticism.
When I met Lian again, she said that her husband (a practitioner) also said that she was not taking clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings seriously enough. She said she will pay more attention to this problem in the future.
After I discovered my own shortcomings, there have been no divisions between fellow practitioners and me. Even my husband has stopped criticizing me. I realized all these incidents were reflections of my own attachments that were being exposed for me to elevate myself. I almost missed the opportunity arranged by Master.
Looking within enables a practitioner to truly discern good from evil, enlighten to the Fa, and elevate him or herself. I sincerely thank Master for saving me.
Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Category: Improving Oneself
