Thoughts on Gift-giving Among Fellow Practitioners

(Minghui.org) It has been a while since I wanted to draw attention to the problem of gift-giving among fellow practitioners. In our local area, this problem has gotten out of hand. Some problems have arisen because of this, so I would like to write about it to serve as a reminder, to avoid unnecessary losses and troubles in the future. 

Several years ago, I provided technical support to practitioners in our local area, fixing their printers, computers, and other office machines. They were grateful to me and some of them gave me small gifts such as fruit or snacks. 

I could refuse the gifts sometimes, but I was not always successful. Some fellow practitioners were very persistent and I had no choice but to accept the gifts. One incident was hard to forget. I went to install a satellite dish for a fellow practitioner in a rural area. After I finished the job and was ready to go, he gave me a bag of rice. I refused the gift and started my car, but he threw the bag into my car! I did not feel so good on my way home.

A few days before I wrote this article, many practitioners in our area were arrested. Of course, there were certainly many factors related to this, but one of the issues I saw was gift-giving. One of the arrested practitioners was very diligent, and many fellow practitioners approached her to coordinate things. And they always brought gifts when they went to see her, as if they were embarrassed if they did not. Everything we do is sacred, but their actions just made things ordinary.

The gifts might be small, but with so many fellow practitioners talking to her, didn’t they put her in a dangerous place? Wasn’t that a major loophole in our cultivation?

I know another practitioner who only gives gifts but never accepts gifts. If one insists on giving her a gift, she returns it in one way or another, which means she knows well that gift-giving among practitioners is not good.

Ordinary people talk about being courteous – you give me a gift and I give something to you. This is the most basic etiquette of human civilization. If both sides accept each other’s gifts, that is a matter of ordinary people.

The relationship among fellow practitioners is a holy one. Before we descend to the human realm, we might have made the promise to help each other in the human world while assisting Master in rectifying the Fa. We are disciples of the same school, and we should help each other cultivate instead of wasting time on ordinary people’s gift-giving and other things. We don’t need gift-giving to enhance friendships. 

Master told us in the Fa:

“Gradually, this person would accept small gifts. Later, he would also accept big gifts. In the end, he would even be offended when he was not given enough.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)

When we keep giving gifts to fellow practitioners, aren’t we worsening their attachments?

As fellow practitioners, we do not need to give each other gifts, as we just need to help each other with the purest heart, cultivate diligently together and elevate on the basis of the Fa. That is the most valuable thing. Everything we do is for ourselves. What Master gives us is the best – that is something that cannot be exchanged with gold or silver; that is the everlasting virtue in the universe.

I just want to remind fellow practitioners to take the issue of gift-giving seriously and to be considerate of fellow practitioners' cultivation. Do not sink into the behavior of ordinary people. 

This is my understanding at my level, please kindly point out any shortcomings.

This article represents the author’s understanding at their current cultivation state, meant for sharing among practitioners to “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)