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Refusing to Accept Responsibility

March 05, 2020 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Minghui.org) I went to a fellow practitioner’s home one day, and noticed that he was using the wrong type of ink for printing. I told the coordinator about it, and she asked me to replace it with the correct one.

I was unhappy, “Do you always handle things this way? Isn’t there a practitioner who is responsible for the ink? If you continue to do things this way, who will want to report it in the future?” I went on, “I won’t do it. Why don’t you find someone else to do it?”

The coordinator was also unhappy. She said something to the effect that the sky won’t fall without me.

I saw another practitioner later and mentioned it to her. She said they couldn't find the practitioner originally responsible for the ink, implying that I should go and buy the ink. I felt that it was not my job and stood my ground.

The issue just dragged on. No one bought the ink. One practitioner even used it as an excuse, and stopped printing their Falun Dafa informational materials. It became a big deal.

I went to another practitioner’s home to fix their equipment. I was still upset, “Don’t they know what my job is? They ask me to do everything. People just want me to think for them. No one thinks for me.” I complained about the person in charge of the ink, thinking that he was being irresponsible.

That practitioner waited until I finished, and then she said, “Who will have the most trouble if each of us pushes things outward and deals with things this way? It is Master.”

I felt she was very wise. She did not criticize me, but she woke me up in a kind way. Her one sentence made me look at the issue from a higher level.

I thought about it later, “Indeed I could focus on what others aren't doing and say it is their responsibility, and I might have good reasons to do so, but someone has to get the job done. Master has to arrange for someone else to do it if I don’t do it. Then I would be adding a burden for Master.”

I recalled Master’s poem,

“I close my eyes and dose offto sever all troubles hereUpon waking, endless things come alongNeither heaven nor earth canblock my road of Fa-rectificationBut disciples’ human hearts can” (“Troubles”,Hong Yin III)

I was unwilling to cooperate because of my attachments. Master has too many things to worry about, and I added trouble for Master. I was wrong.

This issue was originally not a big thing. It grew because of my attachments. It exposed my attachment to selfishness, unkindness, laziness, and being indignant. Had I followed the coordinator's direction and gotten the ink, it would not have dragged on for so long.

Master said:

“Now when we clarify the truth to others you all feel that we should treat sentient beings with compassion, then all the more so should you be compassionate among our Dafa disciples. You're all disciples in the same practice, and you're giving your all for the cosmos' Fa-rectification, so you should cooperate well with one another. Don't approach things with too many human attachments, and don't cause unnecessary conflicts and arguments by interacting with each other with human attachments. In these situations your conduct should always show Dafa disciples' tolerance, kindness, and niceness. The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things. We don't talk about the "unity" everyday people do, which is a forced, superficial thing. You are cultivators, and your realms are higher.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference”, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)

If we actively cooperate with each other, don't look for whose job it is, and always think about others needs first, everything can be resolved quickly. I want to sincerely apologize to the fellow practitioners who were involved in this matter, and thank them for helping me improve according to the Fa.

Master said:

“You have gone through so much in all these years of cultivation, and yet many people have really done poorly. They constantly make all sorts of mistakes, and have even grown used to it, and consider it nothing; even when ordeals come they don’t realize where the problem lies, as they have become accustomed to it and consider [their attachments] just little things. But it’s cultivation—whatever happened to being “free of gaps” (wu-lou)? There are no little things.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)

If we can think about things from the Fa when we deal with things, and know it is Master’s arrangement, we would know their significance and treat them as we should. Things we do now will all become references for the future. The proper way is to cooperate, be diligent, and think of others' needs first.