Looking Inward and Cultivating Ourselves Is the Best Way to Help Fellow Practitioners

(Minghui.org) During the past few decades of cultivation in Falun Dafa, Master has always been protecting us. At the same time, help from fellow practitioners is also crucial to ensure that we stay on the path arranged by Master.

I would like to share my understanding of how practitioners should help one another and improve as one body. 

The Story of How We Lost a New Practitioner 

A new practitioner in our area had her diseases cured soon after she began to cultivate in Falun Dafa. She was very grateful for Master Li and Dafa. 

When her understanding of Dafa cultivation was still at the surface level, some practitioners always attempted to help her “enlighten to the Fa.” 

Without a genuine understanding of the Fa, she blindly followed what those practitioners told her. Eventually, the diseases that she suffered before recurred, which caused her family to misunderstand her and Dafa.

After her relapse, those practitioners worked even harder to “help” her. They often had long conversations with her which always ended with, “This is my understanding, and you decide what you want to do.” 

Since their opinions varied, this new practitioner was completely at a loss as to who was right and what she should do. She was led by everyone else’s opinion but her own. Muddle-headed, she was unable to gain enlightenment from Dafa’s teachings on her own. 

In my opinion, those practitioners who constantly gave her suggestions deprived her of the chance to cultivate and enlighten in the Fa for herself, which ultimately led to her being unable to cultivate anymore. 

Those fellow practitioners believed that they were negating the old forces’ interference when helping her. But when they read the Fa themselves, they often dozed off and did not know what they were reading. They were severely interfered with themselves and encountered many ordeals in their own cultivation.

Looking Inward and Cultivating Ourselves

I believe the right way to help fellow practitioners is to gather practitioners together to study the Fa and send righteous thoughts. We can encourage one another to strengthen our faith. We also need to better collaborate with one another. This isn’t only an exercise in helping fellow practitioners, but also helping ourselves.

Dafa practitioners’ levels are different, which means that our understandings of the Fa are different. In fact, our understandings are strictly limited by our levels and may not even be correct. That being said, it is normal for us to have disagreements. No one should force one’s own understanding on others, and doing so is disrespectful to others.

Some practitioners become very anxious when they see “problems” in other practitioners, and become eager to help these other practitioners fix their problems. If the other practitioner refuses to accept their help, they become even more anxious to correct him or her. In many cases, this has led to conflicts among practitioners, which have interfered with our validation of the Fa and saving sentient beings. 

Nothing happens coincidentally. When we see others’ problems, we must first look inward to find out if we have similar problems, and then examine ourselves further to search for our attachments. We should ask ourselves this question, “Is it my own attachments that cause me to believe this fellow practitioner has a problem?” 

Human beings have the tendency to find faults in others because they cannot see their own mistakes, while Dafa practitioners should think in the opposite way.

Master says it clearly in “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong” (Hong Yin III):

“As a cultivatorOne always looks for one’s own faults’Tis the Way to get rid of attachments most effectivelyThere’s no way to skip ordeals, big or small[During a conflict, if you can remember:]“He’s right,And I’m wrong,”What’s to dispute?”

If a fellow practitioner indeed has a problem, we should dig deeper in ourselves to find our hidden attachments. Master gives us the opportunity to encounter these problems via fellow practitioners so that we can remove our own attachments. 

On the other hand, we can still point out fellow practitioners’ problems, but in good faith and without being attached to their attachments.

A fellow practitioner in our area always searches within herself and cultivates diligently. When collaborating with others, she looks for her own problems earnestly to improve herself. Others around her also do the same, and as a result of that, practitioners in that area are able to “compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin).

Growing Our Own Righteous Thoughts

I also noticed that some practitioners lack confidence in themselves. They feel that others have cultivated well and gained better enlightenment, but they themselves are incapable of enlightening to Dafa, and thus must seek help from others.

The lack of self-confidence and pursuit for external support is very dangerous as it opens the door for unnecessary interference from the evil forces in other dimensions.

Master told us, 

“Of course, as your Master, what kind of people do I have the highest regard for? Actually, gods see it the same way: someone whose thinking is clear—and I’m not referring to people who are cunning or clever in a trivial way, that’s not what I mean. [I’m talking about] someone who has his own righteous thoughts, has his own thinking, who thinks with his mind, and isn’t influenced by any foreign messages. His head isn’t foggy, and he’s not [like some people], where when others say something is good, they say it’s good, and if others say something is bad, they say it’s bad, as if they have no identity.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Practitioners,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VI)

Dafa practitioners should study the Fa and gain enlightenment on our own. What others tell us to do may not necessarily help us improve. Cultivation is the process of constantly letting go of our own attachments, so we should not be afraid of making mistakes. Get up when you fall, persevere in Dafa cultivation, and trust yourself—you will succeed in the end. 

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)