Thoughts on How to Cultivate Ourselves During the Pandemic

(Minghui.org) When Wuhan City was first locked down, I was thinking that Dafa practitioners are one body, so if we can cooperate well, we would be able to save more people. But, I also thought that I was not in Wuhan, so it was not up to me to tell practitioners in Wuhan what to do. I have recently read many articles on the Minghui website in which practitioners have asked what to do, so I decided to share my thoughts. 

“Falun Dafa Is Good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Is Good”

At the outset of the outbreak, I believed that practitioners in Wuhan probably should put down the issue of life and death and step forward to give rides to health care workers and patients (since public transportation is shut down) and tell them to recite, “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” 

If practitioners in Wuhan can help those who need it most and tell them that Falun Dafa is good, then the truth will spread mouth-to-mouth and the effect will be great. Of course, we need to do it rationally and wisely—we can tell the patients about the cases in which the people recovered by reciting those words. 

This would be a life and death test for practitioners in Wuhan—they would need to put down all their attachments in the human world. However, I am not sure if my thoughts are too extreme.

Actually, when the pandemic first started, many everyday people gave free rides to people. They don't do that now, because many volunteers got infected. If everyday people can do it, why can’t practitioners? Of course, I don't know the details of the situation in Wuhan, so I am not sure what kind of help we can offer. I am just giving an example, which hopefully can give practitioners in Wuhan some ideas. 

For practitioners in other areas, we should send forth righteous thoughts for fellow practitioners in Wuhan. We cannot allow the evil to use the pandemic to interfere with and persecute practitioners. Our righteous thoughts can help practitioners in Wuhan save people. If we have righteous thoughts, we will not be infected. 

Notions and Attachments at Fault

In an article published on Minghui a few days ago, the author told his family that he was a practitioner, so he would not get infected. Thus, he did the grocery shopping for the family every day. But he got infected. 

He believed that it was caused by his show-off mentality, so the evil took advantage of this loophole. That is, of course, correct. But from my viewpoint, the origin of all our notions and attachments is our ego. We should be completely altruistic and do everything we can for other people. We may be veteran practitioners, as Master once talked about, so we are not afraid of the cold and don't wear gloves to do the exercises in the winter. But we should consider what new practitioners would think. 

It is the same facing the pandemic. You are a practitioner and you won't get infected, but other people don't know this. If you don't take some everyday protective action, other people may think you are a patient and you are trying to infect other people. 

Taking wearing a face mask as an example. Everyday people believe that a face mask can protect them. So, we should wear one, too. This will help other people's understanding. We should always consider other people's feelings and do everything for others. 

Another understanding of mine when it comes to righteous thoughts is that, if we only have one thought—saving people—in our minds all the time, the evil will have no excuse to attack us. So, we should always be “...thinking about eliminating the bad thoughts, karma, bad notions, and external interference in their minds.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference,” Guiding the Voyage). This is very important. 

Of course, if we could forget about ourselves completely and only keep one thought—saving people— in mind, we would not have any fear or selfish thoughts, so the evil would not be able to interfere with us. 

Practitioners in Wuhan can also help fellow practitioners who cannot go home due to the lockdown. We can deliver food and other daily supplies to them.

During the pandemic in Rome, Christians put down their fear and helped others, and eventually they were accepted. Dafa disciples should do even better. After all the Fa is great, and we have great missions and tasks.