(Clearwisdom.net) After reading the article "Golden Buddha", I was very touched by the practitioner's heart. To me it felt as though the author really cared for his fellow practitioners and made a conscious effort to address very sensitive issues with the heart of being responsible to Dafa.
That night I joined an English group study and after studying the Fa we read and discussed the article "Golden Buddha." The next night I joined the discussion portion of a Chinese group study, where they also discussed their understanding of cultivation, one body and Fa-rectification. A lot was shared and I learned a great deal in both groups. Here, I would like to sum up what I felt was the most significant.
In the article "Golden Buddha" the practitioner touches on many serious principles, but the two points that hit me the strongest were the point about "hierarchy" and the issue of "people of responsibility." In regards to hierarchy our fellow practitioner wrote:
"These types of problems also exist in those practitioners who are not in positions of responsibility, for example envying or blindly admiring certain "famous people". This in turn fostered their impure mentalities, but because they were not in positions of responsibility, they didn't feel that it was so important. In reality, this is a reflection of their own everyday people's mentality of hierarchy, because cultivation in Dafa only looks at a person's heart and not the surface, it doesn't matter if you are a "famous person" or not."
I liked this example because it addresses the larger group of practitioners. There are certainly fewer practitioners in positions of responsibility, and those who are, know very clearly that the issue of hierarchy is not correct. Yet the acknowledgment of hierarchy by the larger body of practitioners is also a very serious matter and seems to be more subtle and harder to see. I was grateful for this point being made clear from this perspective, as it can then address and in turn help the larger body of practitioners.
This is particularly important, as the improvement of Dafa's over all form in society is something Master pays attention to very carefully and how we, as a body of practitioners, mature or fail to do so has a truly great effect on both the salvation of sentient beings in the cosmos and how we rectify things here before Master's all powerful and massive changing force reaches this dimension and finishes this phase of things.
Master made it clear to us what happened when we became attached to the past premier of China. Master also told us how our thoughts brought about certain results in the United Nations. Now, what is it for us to have thoughts about our fellow practitioners being special, other project teams, or practitioners in this region or that region.
I will illustrate with a real story. A practitioner took a very bad fall, damaged many internal organs and was rushed to the hospital. His life was in grave danger. Practitioners rushed to his side to read Fa to him and send righteous thoughts. He became stable and his heart surgery was aborted half way through. Afterwards the doctors kept him unconscious so he would not move around. We continued to read to him and send righteous thoughts for him in the critical care unit. When he would gradually become conscious, he would begin to pull out all the tubes attached to his body, including the one that helped him breath. So the doctors would rush to save his life and then use heavy drugs to sedate him so he wouldn't move.
This happened a number of times and we tried to tell him to stay calm, to have faith in Master, and that he did not have to leave the hospital yet. Yet every time he became a little bit conscious he would pull everything out again. I, along with other practitioners, began to discuss his shortcomings as a practitioner, for example that he was too stubborn in human ways, that he needed to have more faith in Master, etc... Others sharply corrected me after a short while and said not to judge him, that this was unacceptable persecution from the old forces. Later the other practitioners and I became more clear like the rest of the group.
Some people never questioned one bit, just stayed by his side no matter what, while others talked amongst themselves. He is now awake and regaining his strength at a rehabilitation center. I went to see him and he shared some things he saw during his weeks of unconsciousness in the critical care unit. This is only what he saw in other dimensions and may not be the true manifestation, but I feel the principle is quite clear.
He said, for those practitioners who never questioned him and helped unconditionally, he saw their gongzhu's shooting up. And he saw me (in another dimension), one of those who doubted him, being deceived by the evil to think he was a killer and part of a bad group. He could see all those who doubted him talking and mixing with evil elements, and this began to elevate him on a cross without nails above those judging him. He was raised higher and higher until the whole world was judging him. Later, he said he broke through this when he felt compassion for those who judged him. We agreed that he broke though at the same time as the group of practitioners in this dimension who doubted him, and needed fellow practitioners to help identify their old forces' way of thinking. Although I doubted him, I thought I was thinking with "concern" about his cultivation and how to help him, but what was behind those thoughts of "concern"?
This helped me to see very vividly how our thoughts will affect practitioners. Then, what about having thoughts of hierarchy in our one body? Or thoughts about this team or that group or region of practitioners? And the surface thought is not even the real problem.
Master said: "A lot of the cosmos's Gods said to me, "I wish you success." Those words, you know, they have profound meaning. They thought that it would be absolutely impossible to overcome it..." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")
They wished Master success but what was behind their words was that they didn't believe in Master and thought that he couldn't do it. When I send righteous thoughts the effect is significantly different when I just recite the phrases with my mouth and heart to eliminate evil, or with a heart that I am Master's disciple, and my elimination of evil is harmonizing the things that Master Li Hongzhi wants and is for the good of all sentient beings. The effect is the difference between and the rotational power of the earth to the rotational power of a cosmos.
So, what is behind our words, actions, intentions etc. will also play a large role in influencing the integrity of our Dafa body, either in positive ways or in negative ways. I hope practitioners can try to be honest with themselves to see what is behind their words, actions and intentions. What is at the root of our words, actions and intentions?
Master has given us the "Great Way Without Form" and how well we can follow this "Great Way" without form and human notions will also have an effect on how well Dafa will be able to harmonize the things we do as a Dafa body and the Dafa body itself.
This brings me to the second point I felt the article "Golden Buddha" talked about very clearly--that being the issue of "people of responsibility." The article seriously cautions practitioners of responsibility not to get lost in fame and gain in the environments of Dafa work and Dafa practitioners. Yet it puts a great emphasis on the responsibility of all other practitioners to cultivate well so as to support and help our "practitioners of responsibility" to walk a righteous path. That is, we all have a great responsibility and regardless of our positions in the human world, with genuine cultivation in the Great Law we can follow the Great Way and with letting go of these "positions" of others or ourselves, then we can follow the "Great Way Without Form."
These points stand out for me the most, as they address the entire Dafa body. The existence of the Dafa body itself is unprecedented. Cultivators in the past cultivated themselves and at most existed in a group but never as one body. Just like the practitioner in critical condition's cultivation was connected to the group of practitioners in his local area, so are we all connected. The old forces persecute us as one and attack the projects at their sensitive times with more evil. They use practitioners' omissions as their excuses, but they plan their attacks to protect themselves from the Dafa body eliminating more and more evil. It's like our sending righteous thoughts that we do together. The power comes from us together.
In Chicago Master said: "So you should cooperate well with each other. Right now Dafa disciples are becoming more and more clearheaded because they've experienced so much and they're becoming more and more rational, so when you work together you're much more in harmony than before. The better you cooperate with each other as a whole the more powerful you are, and the more powerful you are the greater your impact." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")
It's just like the development of our truth clarification. We had different projects and campaigns in the past like SOS and Family Rescue. We have TV teams, radio teams, website teams, etc. Yet now we are all faced with bringing Jiang to justice, clarifying the facts to the world's people and helping them to at the same time gain a better understanding of Dafa. This is a worldwide effort with communication and coordination that we are doing, but not yet completely.
Master said in Chicago, "It's just like bringing that evil, head scoundrel to court this time, it requires everyone's cooperation, and you have voices echoing from all around the world. So looking at it that way, your cooperation has been quite powerful. I think it's been pretty good recently, but there are still areas to improve on." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")
This is not a just a legal case or campaign or the business of one or a few teams, it is the manifestation of the righteous forces eliminating the most responsible and significant factors behind the persecution of the Great Law of the universe. This, too, is a matter of great significance for the Dafa body. From my understanding, this is directly associated to the maturation of our Dafa body.
Master said in Vancouver; "The Fa has existed for a long time; I came with this almighty, this harmonizing and all-encompassing, this unprecedented, and this best Fa. (Warm applause) But for Dafa disciples who came to validate the Fa and for beings in the greater cosmos, it's just a matter of making the Fa's salvation a concrete reality." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")
How we mature, ascend, cooperate and improve as one body is our responsibility to Dafa's over all form and a great deciding factor in how we disciples are able to make "the Fa's salvation a concrete reality."
