November 7, 2002
(Clearwisdom.net)
In order to better let people know the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, practitioners are keeping close contact with each other to discuss how to do better and share new ideas.
We communicate through email on many matters. Sometimes when I couldn't agree with other people, I felt out of balance in my mind. I often ran into this situation. Because I did not truly understand what other people meant or I felt that their words were not good, I started to have a mentality of resisting and criticizing them. As time went on, I even started to develop a notion against such a person. I might think that this practitioner was irresponsible to himself, or I felt that he had an incorrect understanding of certain matters. Over a period of time, I quickly delimited every practitioner, setting fixed boundaries and valued them according to what I could observe.
Master Li again mentioned in his new article "Righteous Thoughts" that we should "in a timely manner purge the evil and your own problems." The term "timely" really stood out for me. I discovered that if I was not clear about other people's thinking, I could have immediately asked for clarification. There was no need to wait for so long while the notion started to form within me. During the past few days, I have seen that if I can immediately solve the problem by working together with the other party, I would not have develop the mentality of resisting them. Every such problem could be resolved quickly. I have learned to look within, and to find the other party to talk to them kindly. The most important thing is to be considerate.
If I can maintain such a mindset, then "you will have time or room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly." (Zhuan Falun)
Now I pay even more attention to what often seem to be simply small things. If I need help, I ask politely and express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart. I pay attention to respecting the people around me. I reply to my emails as quickly as I can even if the reply is short. Maybe I will never find out the real reason why I sometimes do not receive a reply, but I strive to remember the "time or room to buffer" and our principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." They keep me company.
I thank all the fellow practitioners who help me everyday to recognize and eliminate my attachments.