(Minghui.org) When Master Li (Dafa’s founder) talked about a heart of great forbearance, he referenced the story of Han Xin. Han, the chief general to the future emperor Liu Bang in the Han Dynasty, was humiliated by a thug. The thug blocked his path, standing with his hands on his hips. He threatened Han, saying that the only way through was to kill him or to crawl between his legs.
How could an ordinary person handle such humiliation? Crawling on your hands and knees in front of so many people in the middle of the street would be utterly shameful. Maybe in a fit of rage, he would draw his sword or, at the very least, argue indignantly. But General Han didn’t draw his sword or argue, he just crawled through the thug’s legs.
Reading this story in the past, I saw Han as incredibly tolerant and the thug as very hateful. But now I see it in a different light. Although the thug was bad, because he humiliated Han, it is possible for us to learn about humiliation and forbearance.
If we, as cultivators, can look in a positive way at the trouble and pain people cause, it becomes an opportunity for us to improve our xinxing, gain mighty virtue, and cultivate to higher realms. The key is whether we are able to draw a positive lesson from it.
When we as practitioners encounter troubles and conflicts, are we tolerant, kind, and calm? Or do we get caught up in the situation, focusing on that superficial self-righteous reason that makes us angry?
My personal understanding is this: Don’t get caught up in justifying who is right and wrong. This will only lead us to complain about how bad others are as we defend ourselves. If we always look at the superficial rights and wrongs, we will always be able to find a reason to feel unhappy and thereby remain trapped in the conflict.
We must let go of superficial reasons, as behind them are resentment, anger, competitiveness, attachments, bad substances, and karma. Insisting on our reasons for who is right or wrong will only strengthen those bad things. Therefore, we must look inward, past the surface, to see what the attachment is. Even if the other party is wrong, as practitioners, we should be tolerant and forgiving and try to solve problems with compassion and rationality.
For example, there is nothing wrong with disciplining our children. However, some people’s idea of discipline means beatings and anger while others educate their children with calm persuasion.
Whenever a Dafa disciple encounters a problem, he or she should let go and measure things in accordance with Dafa principles. What Master covers in the Fa are general principles. No matter what we encounter, we are to measure it against the Fa. Conflicts all boil down to either someone treating us badly or we think they did, thereby causing us trouble, making us suffer, affecting our benefits, etc. This makes us feel unbalanced, angry, or resentful. That is when we should seek out the root of the problem, not its superficial manifestation.
We know from the Fa principles that the first thing to do is to look inward. It’s normal for an everyday person to have many attachments. We, as Dafa disciples, should reflect kindness and show our remarkable side. A disciple’s compassion and tolerance in a conflict will be a historical reference for future mankind. Of course, we can only do this if we study the Fa and put the Fa first, leaving out personal attachments.
Even conflicts between Dafa disciples should be examined by looking inward for attachments such as validating oneself, competitiveness, and irrationality. These can be hidden under the superficial guise of protecting the Fa. We must truly look at things from the perspective of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. In the tight time frame of the Fa-rectification, I hope that we can cooperate and let go of our personal attachments so that we can save more sentient beings.
In the past when I read Journey to the West, I always wondered why, instead of walking on and on, the Monkey King didn’t just carry the Tang monk, do a somersault, and teleport to their destination—the Great Thunderclap Monastery? If that were the case, I realized that there would be no Journey to the West to read. From a cultivation perspective, we know that the 81 tribulations during the journey were tests to strengthen their beliefs, repay their karmic debts, and break their attachments. If they had even one less ordeal, that wouldn’t do.
Even the creatures that many gods and immortals rode were transformed into demons to create tribulations. Because we cultivate in ordinary society, it is impossible for gods to test us directly, so our tribulations will seem ordinary. That means that, when everyday people cause trouble for us, we shouldn’t resent them, because they are helping us improve—they are good things for a true cultivator.
I realized from the Fa that these difficult situations all stem from our own karma, so if we blame others, we are certainly wrong; we can only blame ourselves. The offender is only helping us to eliminate our karma and improve, and we should thank them. We shouldn’t fix our eyes on any specific person, for as long as we have karma and attachments, there will be trouble. If not this person, it will be another one.
I used to always complain about others when I encountered tribulations. But now I remember not to blame anyone because tribulations are a manifestation of my own karma and attachments; I need to look inward. With this mental switch, I feel that I have improved very quickly.
We shouldn’t take the human side of ourselves and others seriously, criticizing others’ attachments with our own notions. Instead, we should take them lightly, because they are insignificant illusions.
We should remember that we are Dafa disciples who came down from heaven to help Master with the Fa-rectification. Ordinary people are the great gods who bravely descend down to the human world to wait for the salvation of Dafa for their own heavenly beings; they are the representatives of various universes, and it is our sacred mission and responsibility to save them. Only when we meet the standard of Dafa disciples are we able to truly help them to be saved.
Even with the brutal persecution taking place in China today, we have Master and the Fa right beside us. The Chinese Communist Party is not destroying us—we are becoming more remarkable beings who put aside life and death in order to save sentient beings. We can walk steadfastly on our cultivation path. Strong grass survives the strong wind, true gold survives the sifting.
Of course, we do not acknowledge the persecution arranged by the old forces. We follow the Fa, cultivate ourselves, and do the three things well. The Fa-rectification has entered the transition period of Fa-rectifying the human world; time is especially precious. At the beginning of their journey, the Monkey King fought with Monk Tang and flew back to Mount Huaguo due to his attachments. But he still re-joined the team and completed his entire journey to secure the Buddhist Scriptures.
I hope that fellow practitioners who took a detour can find their way back and seize the opportunity before it is too late. I hope that fellow practitioners will not get lost in the conflicts and illusions in everyday society. Let’s guide our cultivation with the Fa, save more people, and live up to Master’s expectations.
The above is only my personal understanding at my limited level. Please correct me if there is anything not on the Fa.
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)