Taking Care of One Thing Yet Losing Another
(Clearwisdom.net) Over the past several days, I saw some fellow practitioners whose behavior
constantly swung from joy to worry as the news from Iceland changed. Some practitioners called upon
everyone to concentrate only on sending forth righteous thoughts and not to be distracted by other
things; others worried that we weren't able to reach the supposed depth and width of truth
clarification in the constantly changing Fa-rectification process. Therefore, I could not help
thinking that modern people are often attached to their busy lives. It is easy for them to be
controlled by their activities and to take care of one thing at the expense of another. They can't
behave in the way gods originally planned for them to behave or do what they should freely do. In
this life style, people gradually became used to unilateral thinking. This in turn made their
thoughts, behavior, and daily lives lack harmony. Such thinking also affects practitioners, since
practitioners all have human notions that have not been eliminated. For example, we all know that currently we need to do well in studying the Fa, clarifying the
truth, and sending forth righteous thoughts. But we often feel that we must take one of these three
as being most important, so that the other two are put on the back burner or even not done at all.
Actually, Dafa is perfectly harmonious and thorough. Only when we study the Fa well can we clarify
the truth and send forth pure and firm righteous thoughts. Clarifying the truth can solve the
conflicts and resistance we encounter during Fa-rectification. Therefore, we must realize the
importance and urgency of studying the Fa. Sending forth righteous thoughts also enables us to
better clarify the truth and requires daily Fa-study and cultivation as the foundation. At the same
time, studying the Fa, clarifying the truth, and sending forth righteous thoughts all serve Fa-rectification
and help the sentient beings to correctly position themselves during this time period. Therefore,
these three important things that we must do complement each other and should not be carried out
separately. Otherwise, we will feel exhausted and distracted, and take care of one thing but neglect
another. During the Eastern European trip, the overseas practitioners manifested more of an holistic
consciousness. We used powerful righteous thoughts and clarified the truth face-to-face in the
cities and counties that we passed through and achieved a very good effect in Fa-rectification. In
the meantime, we also saw many of our shortcomings. The Icelandic crisis especially made many of us
realize that the depth and width of our truth clarification in the past were by far insufficient and
some of our words and behaviors were quite far from the requirement of
"Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." Many Western government officials and people in society did
not have a sufficient understanding of Falun Gong for them to consciously distinguish and resist the
evil. We also realized that our various human notions had been mixed in with sending forth righteous
thoughts. All these originated from our insufficiency in studying the Fa. In my own experience, when
I study the Fa well, I am clear and effective in everything I do. The process is a very righteous
and natural cultivation and Fa-rectification process. It does not press other things that also need
to be done. I do what I should do. I feel free and pleasant and experience the joy of cultivation
and the uniqueness of a cultivator. However when I can't study the Fa well, the situation becomes
very different. Unlike a Dafa practitioner, I am a human who is exhausted by the outside pressures
and information, and lack firmness and confidence, or like to judge subjectively. In the future, we will still be very busy during the Fa-rectification and still be facing
numerous lives that are waiting to be saved. How can we do better? Teacher says in "Lunyu,"
"The Buddha Fa is most profound; among all the theories in the world, it is the most intricate
and extraordinary science. In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its
conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to
humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own
ignorance." Only when a cultivator completely gets out from ordinary people's thinking can he
or she prevent the phenomenon of taking care of one thing but losing another, reach the realm of
"Being Calm in Tribulation" (Hongyin), not be controlled by any form of external
matter, and do everything that one should do without being disturbed. This is what I realized recently during the Eastern European trip. I wrote my thoughts down in
the hope of helping other practitioners. Posting date: 6/20/2002 |