Being Mindful that Practitioners Cultivate at Different Levels of the Fa

(Minghui.org) As a Westerner, I’m concerned by how many practitioners talk about the fact that Party culture and egoism has damaged the one body of practitioners. They write articles to repent in their ways, and when they are genuine in their realizations, the compassionate teachings of Master allows them to perceive that they are saving the lives of the cosmos, that the effects of their mistake are not permanent, and that if they cultivate well, they can change it.

With this reality playing out at different levels, we know that we have to vanquish the old forces by manifesting the Fa through our actions, and validate the Fa.

As I read the Fa about eating meat the other day, I had a realization about the fact that we cultivate at different levels and how we can be taken advantage of by Party culture and create troubles among us.

Master said:

“This whole time you have been studying the Fa, we have not required everyone to stop eating meat.”

“Here we don’t ask you to do this, but we are also concerned with this issue. Then, what do we require? Because our practice is one in which the Fa refines practitioners, this means that some situations will arise from gong and the Fa. In the course of practice, different levels produce different situations.”

“You are not forced by anyone, and neither do you force yourself not to eat it.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)

My current understanding is that the way in which our different states manifest brings about a situation. What is true for a cultivator at a certain level is absolutely true for him until he cultivates up to a higher level, because it is manifested in his reality and even his body.

This means that even though we cultivate in the same Fa, what manifests as true in our reality, and can make us elevate higher, is very personal and can be very different from person to person.

I think Party culture uses that absolute aspect to create distance between practitioners, because instead of cherishing each other, that culture conditions us to look down on those who don’t share our understandings.

For example, someone who has reached a level where he simply can’t eat meat without throwing up may look down on those who do eat it and believe that he is at a higher level.

This is an easy example to give, but I’ve noticed that this tendency, looking down on others, can manifest in many areas of everyday life. This serves to limit the interactions between practitioners to their human sides and forces the two people to interact based on what they have not yet fully cultivated.

In my understanding, it is an omission to not be able to cherish the differences that exist in the cosmos. Such an attitude can be linked to jealousy. Did Master come here to do Fa-Rectification with the wish to save all lives because he thought that the lives of the cosmos were the real riches?

Moreover, all these differences in our understandings are states manifested by the Fa for us cultivators. Isn’t that also something sacred, and something that we should view as a great resource?

I think the fact that we all have different perspectives is a great resource in defeating the old forces, because all these states contain truths that come from the Fa. Wouldn’t it be better if we could accept others’ differences and use their strengths instead of fighting to impose our views?

I came to this understanding because I deal with a lot of artists and peculiar people in ordinary society. Regardless of their individual flaws and the ways they manifest the fact that we are in the last phase of destruction in the cosmos, I have a clear sense that their genuineness is a precious thing because you can see their hearts seeking goodness and acting upon what they believe to be true.

When people don't have Party culture, they cherish one another based on what’s genuine in one another. I couldn’t help but realize that in this regard, even some ordinary people act better than some fellow practitioners.

When they shared with me their inner wealth, they offered it without being guarded, only asking me in return to listen with the same genuineness and cherish what they had realized on their paths. They didn’t try to impose anything, and didn’t feel threatened if someone had taken another path in life based on similar problems and arrived at different understandings.

Discussions like that become sharings from the heart, not just two people trying to fight it out over who’s understanding is better and should be imposed on everyone.

When Master talks about the attachment to meat, he says:

“You are not forced by anyone, and neither do you force yourself not to eat it.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)

This helped me to understand that the attitude of forcing one’s understanding on others is contrary to how our elevation manifests in our own cultivation because the way the Fa manifests what we shouldn't do comes from within ourselves and not from outside pressure. By contrast, when the old forces see an attachment, they will persecute us into “enlightening” to something. I can’t help but see a parallel with how some practitioners try to impose their point of view with Party culture, because it’s like they want to impose from the outside in—instead of how the Fa operates, from the inside out.

In my understanding, most interpersonal tensions that hinder cooperation come down to this approach of imposing one’s understandings because it also has the effect of making people guarded with each other.

In my experience, whenever we interact with another practitioner, it is likely that the other practitioner’s perspective can help us elevate, and vice versa. How we share becomes important because we are human beings and still have qing, and if we don’t look down on others, it’s far easier to share and see where we fall short, see where the other has strengths that we should cultivate, acting as a mirror to one another in helpful ways.

Maybe some practitioners would say that qing should be eliminated anyway, so there is no need to pay attention to this issue, but I think that’s just an excuse to hide their own qing. It’s just that qing can be manifested in the desire to be right as well as in the competitive mentality, and some practitioners may be too scared to look at their attachment.

Master said that we will have qing until the last step of our cultivation. In my understanding, it means that we should be aware that we are human beings cultivating, and that affects how we should consider and view other practitioners as well.

If we’re all human beings cultivating, instead of looking down on one another, shouldn’t we realize that what we do is hard and cherish one another, share in ways where we truly see our fellow practitioners’ strengths, and encourage each other to do better by using a positive approach?

In my limited understanding, I think that’s what Master would hope for us.