Getting Rid of Jealousy and Doing Well on the Path of Cultivation

(Minghui.org) During the process of doing Falun Dafa practitioners’ three things well, I have often had xinxing conflicts with fellow practitioners, but I have been able to improve quickly through looking within. I know that these conflicts were arranged by Master to help me get rid of my attachments and improve in my cultivation. At my cultivation level, I see that jealousy is everywhere. It brings great danger and harm to cultivators, and I want to share my experience of looking within in regards to this with fellow practitioners.

Jealousy Is Everywhere

Human attachments have their origins. I find that the attachment to complaining and hatred, looking down on others, feeling something is unjustified, criticizing others, and complaining about others are all attachments that originate from jealousy. Many practitioners have these attachments, so we can see how evil jealousy is.

When local practitioners have encountered all sorts of persecution, they could find some attachments, but why were they unable to overcome their sickness karma tribulations for so long? One part of the reason stems from not emphasizing getting rid of their jealousy. This is because this attachment is buried very deeply; it merges into one’s thoughts and becomes natural, so one cannot detect it. In another dimension, it is a very solid matter like marble. Cultivators are easily manipulated by it, and they even treat it as their own thoughts. In recent years, I’ve paid more attention to my cultivation in this respect. The more emphasis that I place on it, the more I am able to find its display everywhere.

Jealousy obstructs us from assimilating to the universe’s characteristic, as it is directly opposed to the universe’s characteristic. Many attachments, such as the attachment to lust, desires, and fear, are related to jealousy. This attachment is very stubborn. As long as we have not completely eliminated it, it will keep showing up, but it will become weaker and weaker. I’ve kept emphasizing getting rid of this attachment, which is the worst attachment, and my mind has become more peaceful unknowingly.

I am an introvert. I received a healthy traditional family upbringing from a young age, and most people who have interacted with me have said that I am a cultured person. My occupation is also related to traditional culture. However, after I began practicing, the negative aspects of so-called “cultured” behavior were revealed to me. I belong to the group of people that Master has said have “Asian jealousy.”

My personality displays the negativity of feeling resentful. When I do not cultivate myself, and instead look outward, I even harbor hatred and find it hard to be tolerant. I know that this is jealousy, which has merged with my thoughts. In my cultivation, I need to look within unconditionally and keep a very strong main consciousness to eliminate it.

Looking Within and Getting Rid of Jealousy

In the first half of this year, I heard that a practitioner I am quite familiar with was going through a sickness karma tribulation, so I wanted to go and visit her. I hoped to help her increase her righteous thoughts so that she could overcome the tribulation as soon as possible. I went to visit her with another practitioner. We did not know her address, so we found a practitioner to lead us there. In the end, the practitioner did not want to see us and sent someone to tell us that someone had already studied the Fa with her.

Actually, before I went there, I had also thought that the practitioner might not want to see us, because I had heard that this practitioner did not want to let many practitioners know that she was going through an illness karma tribulation. We could thus only head home. On our way home, I rode my bike very quickly. Suddenly, a green protection net by the roadside got caught in my handlebars, and I fell down along with my bike. After getting up, I brushed off the dirt and continued home.

That night, my ankle started to ache, so I had no choice but to look within for problems in my xinxing: “Did my heart move when that practitioner did not want to see me?” “At first, I did not feel that my heart moved, but why did such an accident happen?” “Why did I ride so fast that I could not stop in time?”

I was very familiar with this practitioner, and we had done many Fa-validation things together. We sometimes also studied the Fa together, and Master had arranged opportunities for each of us to improve in our cultivation. However, I did not cherish the chance to get rid of attachments. I had looked outward instead of cultivating myself. I always saw that she had this or that attachment, and I always pointed out her problems to her in a harsh tone, which sounded like I was criticizing and complaining about her. What she felt was not compassion but discomfort. Of course, she would not be willing to accept my words.

Neither of us cultivated ourselves, missing the opportunities that Master had arranged for us to look within and improve. I often looked outwards, and that had caused negative matter to form. I know that this negative matter was jealousy. After she met with this illness karma tribulation, I felt that it happened to her because she had kept holding on to her attachments so stubbornly. Actually, I was the one who had kept holding on to my attachments, being so conceited and thinking that I could help her.

The power of the Fa is what can help her overcome her tribulation. When fellow practitioners are going through tribulations, we should stand together with them to purge the evil’s persecution. My looking outward and going against the Fa was actually a display of jealousy.

Having found these hidden attachments, my heart became very clear. While I rejected these attachments in a steadfast manner, I knew that the degenerate matter I had created had reduced.

Looking within, I realized that I should no longer look at her problems. Master taught us,

“What a cultivator works on is always him or herself.” (A Congratulatory Letter to the Fa Conference of Europe).

I thus started to cultivate myself and look within. I discovered that I had many attachments, such as the attachment to self, looking down on others, showing off, and not cultivating my speech. My feeling that something was unjustified was also something centered in selfishness and was a manifestation of jealousy.

I knew that the incident with my bike happened because I still had jealousy that I needed to get rid of. Due to my attachments, the evil had an excuse to interfere and had caused me to fall. After changing my notions, my inner heart brightened up a lot.

During the process of sending forth righteous thoughts to get rid of jealousy, I understood that only by cultivating myself well can I save sentient beings. If I do not cultivate myself well, I will not be able to help fellow practitioners either. I thus need to strengthen my cultivation to form a whole body with fellow practitioners.

Further Getting Rid of Jealousy and Replacing it with Gratitude

More than two months have passed, and my attachment to that practitioner has also diminished. I no longer keep thinking about her going through an illness, karma tribulation. One day, a practitioner said to me, “No matter what, don’t go to extremes. When a fellow practitioner is going through an illness tribulation, we should go if we need to. In the past, she did not want to let many people know, but now everyone knows.”

After the practitioner left, I started to feel resentful again: “During the initial phase, it was such a good opportunity to cultivate herself. The more she was afraid of letting people know, the more she should have faced it. The more she cultivated herself through actual practice, the more she might have been able to overcome her fake illness symptoms earlier. Isn’t cultivation about going against the tide?”

In the afternoon, another practitioner came over and I shared my thoughts with her about this matter. This practitioner said, “Although things seem to be like that, we should still be tolerant of our fellow practitioners. Who can cultivate well all at once?” It was only then that I realized that I had no tolerance, which is not being compassionate. Feeling resentful and complaining about the practitioner, wasn’t this a display of jealousy again? Jealousy had stopped me from assimilating to the universe’s characteristics.

That night, I calmed myself down and thought about why I did not have tolerance. Recalling my cultivation path over the past decade, there were practitioners who had come to help me at different periods of time. They accompanied me to study the Fa and helped me pass through all those rocky roads. Especially when I went through bigger tribulations, I was only able to survive those ordeals under Master’s watch and with the selfless help from other practitioners. They were so selfless and compassionate. I never heard them blame me or complain. They were all cultivating themselves.

Thinking all this, tears flowed down my face. Tears of gratitude welled up in my heart like a tide. The practitioners’ goodness and their compassion appeared before my eyes one after another. Aren’t they all mirrors? They showed me the distance that I lag behind them. At this moment, I was humbled and at peace. I no longer saw the negative side of that practitioner. Instead, I became full of compassion and gratitude.

Cultivation is hard in itself. Why do I still complain about the practitioner? Tribulations exist in our cultivation in the Fa-rectification period due to disturbances caused by the old forces. Only by not creating any barriers among practitioners can we prevent the evil any excuse to cause interference. That is what Master hopes to see.

Thank you, Master, for bestowing me with this ladder to heaven. I must cherish it!

The above are some portions of my cultivation experiences with regard to getting rid of my jealousy. I know that there are still many aspects in which I have not cultivated well, and I must practice actual cultivation diligently in the future.

Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.