(Clearwisdom.net) Under persecution, in a complex and difficult environment, it is possible that one can be misunderstood, wronged and even hurt by fellow practitioners, especially in the current situation of the brutal persecution in China. For example, you do Dafa work with a practitioner and the wicked people do not have any information about you. If the practitioner gave out information about you and as a result, you were arrested, your home was ransacked and you were sentenced, could you still keep a calm mind towards that practitioner? Take another example: say you break out of detention in a dignified and upright manner, yet some practitioners say that you have given in to the evil and have been sent out to do things for the police, and fellow practitioners also treat you with caution -- could you maintain your xinxing and know how to do well? Take another instance: In your effort to validate Dafa, you need fellow practitioners' help and cooperation, yet you cannot tell the details to all the practitioners involved. Hence some practitioners suspect you and some even criticize you, and this makes practitioners who used to be supportive waver and misunderstand you. Or, the group you work with pays enough attention to security, yet some other practitioners' lack of careful consideration or their attachments cause the Dafa work environment that you carefully maintained to be damaged and losses are incurred. When encountering these circumstances, one cannot do well without a clear and rational understanding of the Fa and a cultivator's magnanimity. It is very easy to fall into the traps arranged by the old forces and have conflicts intensify among practitioners, which causes separation between practitioners or even a knot to develop in their hearts.
Everyone's path of cultivation is different. My path includes enduring the hardship of being wrongly treated by fellow practitioners.
I have been illegally detained three times, and every time it has had something to do with a fellow practitioner giving out information about me. After I broke out of detention, practitioners mistreated me. However, I did not have any resentment or deal with it with everyday people's thoughts. I treated those practitioners as if nothing had happened.
As an example, a practitioner and I went to Beijing together and I came back safely. My employer did not know about my going to Beijing, but the other practitioner was arrested and he gave information about me. As a result, I was in detention for nearly 2 months. Other practitioners all blamed this practitioner and refused to contact him. After I was released, the first thing I did was to visit him and tell him to definitely not fall into a mindset of self-blame and regret, and to not keep lying there without getting up. Seeing that I was happy and so considerate of him without any resentment, he cried. He held my hands and promised that he would cultivate until the end.
I treated the two other practitioners in the same way. We are cultivating instead of doing things like everyday people. Is there anything we cannot endure?
After breaking out of detention, I, together with several others, focused on distributing truth-clarifying materials, and we did an extensive job of it. Soon a practitioner started to spread rumors, saying that I was "sent by the police to do things for them" and that I was "a spy who will sell out practitioners." I kindly asked to talk to her but was refused. I had to ask fellow practitioners to pass on my words to her. During that period of time, which was nearly 8 to 9 months, she reacted very strongly to this issue and it affected us quite intensely. Nonetheless, I treated her with compassion and looked at her good side in cultivation and her being responsible to Dafa. Meanwhile, I realized that I should eliminate the interference from the hidden evil factors. Eventually she realized that she had made a mistake, but sadly, by then she had been detained and persecuted.
There are some similar examples, and some are even very serious, yet I do not want to give more examples. I endured these hardships without any grievance. Looking back at my path of cultivation, I have the following feeling and understanding:
First of all, the most important thing is to search inward. When conflicts occur, especially at the time when other people mistreat you, one still has to search inward for one's own problems. This is very painful and very difficult to do, but it is very necessary. The major characteristics of a Dafa disciple's cultivation is that the practitioner will search inward upon experiencing conflicts. The major weakness of the living beings in the old cosmos is that they only want to change others, rather than to change themselves. When experiencing conflicts, I always check myself to see if I have mistreated others, or if I have attachments related to the conflicts occurring, such as an attachment of pursuing fame, attachments to getting everything done perfectly, or an attachment to not allowing others to find fault with me. We know from the Fa principles that there is no coincidence in our cultivation when conflicts occur, and there must be some attachments that we have to let go. By deeply planting this Fa in our mind and searching inward, one can see "the shade of willows, the bloom of flowers, a place to rest my head"!
Secondly, we must forgive others. Possibly driven by some attachments, other practitioners may treat you badly or may find fault with you. You have to use a calm and quiet mind to deal with these conflicts, and never fall into the situation of quarrelling with others like an everyday person. If we do not handle the conflicts this way, the conflicts will not be resolved, and might turn into even messier situations. Nor should we deal with conflicts in unrighteous ways. It is very difficult to deal with these issues calmly in our cultivation. One thing we should be very clear-minded about is that when other practitioners say that you are a spy and that you are damaging Dafa, you have to maintain a very clear mind about your own conduct. If you can distinguish right from wrong from the perspective of the Fa, then you are rational and will not be swayed by qing (sentimentality). You can even see the practitioner's good intention of being responsible for the Fa from a practitioner's wrong words that criticize you. At this moment, your heart to accommodate and tolerate other practitioners will develop and emerge. Then you will realize that it is only a display of some of his or her attachments, and you will allow other practitioners to continue cultivating themselves gradually. You will also believe that other practitioners will cultivate themselves well in the end.
Thirdly, we must eliminate the interference and damage that are caused by the old forces lurking behind the scenes. Actually, things on the surface are always the result of factors behind the scenes. When practitioners do not practice their cultivation according to the Fa or develop some attachments, the dark minions of the old forces will exploit their attachments and keep increasing their attachments. Eliminating the evil behind the scenes does not mean that we treat other practitioners this way or that way. What is eliminated is exactly the barrier built by the old forces. When the factors behind the scene are eliminated, the situation on the surface will also change accordingly.
For practitioners who are mistreating you, they are cultivating themselves as well, so we should not easily and quickly draw conclusions about them. During the year when I was detained in the labor camp, thirteen practitioners who were enlightened along an evil path and who were referred to as collaborators, took turns trying to brainwash and convert me. Some even tried to brainwash me several tims. The words they said were very evil and despicable, and I seriously reprimanded them.
Now I know that many of them came back to continue their cultivation and some of them have cultivated very well. I knew a practitioner who had enlightened along an evil path and served as a captain in the labor camp. Many practitioners knew that she had done many bad things. Whenever they talked about her, practitioners would get very angry and upset. However, during a conversation I had with her, she recognized and corrected her mistakes. She looked at Teacher's photo and loudly and full of regret began to cry. She sobbed and said, "I have done wrong. What have I have done? Teacher, will you still take care of me?" I said to her, "Teacher will take care of you. Teacher is very kind and compassionate. Teacher will certainly take care of you." I cried as well. I studied the Fa with her, and provided her with truth-clarification material. It has been two years since, and she is truly cultivating herself very diligently.
The conduct of the collaborators are despicable and criminal, but we should not hold on to too much of everyday people's mentality. Under the severe pressure, many practitioners followed an evil path, did bad things and were labeled as traitors, ones who damage Dafa, and even as evil people. After returning to free environments they recognized their mistakes and problems, and continued to cultivate themselves in Dafa. We should not draw a conclusion about other practitioners from their conduct under severe tribulation. We have to look at them from all perspectives, and their conduct in the end. As for those people who have created irreversible damage and losses to Dafa and Dafa disciples, they will be handled by the principles of the cosmos, and we should not be angry with or hate them with an everyday person's mentality. Because what Falun Dafa requires us to cultivate is pure compassion and kindness, this is Dafa's standard for the level of our purity.
Teacher said:
"He didn't do well today, but aren't you old forces still persecuting people? I'll have him do things over tomorrow, and definitely have him do them well! (Applause) Hasn't what's happened proven that Dafa disciples have become more and more rational, become more and more clearheaded, and done better and better? Aren't they more and more determined?! (Applause) When you ultimately really do become determined, then all of what you did in the past can only be the cultivation process playing out. That's really how it is."
("Explaining the Fa during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
If practitioners can truly meet the standard of Teacher's Fa and use "compassion that can melt steel" to deal with everything, the conflicts that arise due to mistreating other practitioners will not occur. Even if it occurs, it can be easily resolved as well.
This is my personal understanding; please correct me if it is incomplete.
