(Clearwisdom.net) As Falun Dafa practitioners, we often need to share experiences with each other in the process of cultivation and Fa-rectification work. Many practitioners in China have a very responsible attitude towards Dafa, and they make it their responsibility to improve the local cultivation environment as part of Fa-rectification work. Yet sometimes our experience sharing doesn't achieve good results. Sometimes the same issues appear repeatedly among practitioners. I think it shows that the practitioners who point out other practitioner's problems also have attachments that must be removed, and it also indicates that we all need to pay more attention to the way we share our experiences.
1. The process of sharing experiences with others is the process of cultivating oneself
First, as cultivators, when we see other practitioners' problems, the whole process of realizing another practitioner has a problem, bringing the issue up, and solving the problem is a process of purifying and cultivating oneself, instead of a process of simply changing others. When the effect is not good, practitioners who point out other practitioners' problems need to look inward for impurities and remove the obstacles created by them.
There are many examples of this described in articles from the First Falun Dafa Written Experience Sharing Conference in China. The article titled "Doing Without Pursuing " (not translated, Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/10/18/86248.html), talks about a young person and their mother who are both practitioners. In the beginning, they make demands on each other and protect themselves. Slowly, they are able to treat each other's criticisms with righteous minds. In another article (Not translated, Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/10/13/86513.html) the author writes, "I saw such attachments as focusing only on doing work, wanting to be a leader, and feeling jealous of other practitioners who work at truth-clarifying materials production sites. Some practitioners acted in the same way as leaders in ordinary people's society; some made truth-clarifying materials using only their personal preferences. In my mind, I felt some disagreement with those practitioners. From the standpoint of myself, I shared my views with the practitioners. The result was not good, as the practitioners did not accept my views at all. Without elevating my xinxing (1), my words did not carry the power of Dafa, and conflicts formed between us. I felt extremely sad, and I said to Teacher in my mind, "I will never understand their behavior; they are so attached to themselves." (In fact, I was also being very attached to myself.) I suffered because I could not improve my xinxing, and I wandered around within the framework of my own notions (which was a trap arranged for me by the old forces). Finally I made up my mind: rather than trying to change others, I would be better off changing myself first. I took 14 days to memorize Zhuan Falun, read experience-sharing articles, and look inward. Finally, I was able to see the notions that I had been unwilling to let go.
The two Minghui articles inspired me greatly. I think they are worth reading for all practitioners who want to improve the results of their experience sharing, so that we all improve through the experience sharing process.
2. Carefully examine the situations of other practitioners with good intent
I think we need to base our sharing on the whole of Fa-rectification, while carefully examining the [difficult] situation of the practitioners we talk to. Without understanding the overall situation and ways of thinking that derive from one's understanding, it is very difficult to clearly see the crux of the matter from within the Fa [Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa], and achieve a good result by sharing our experiences.
Every practitioner wants to improve and solve his or her problems. The problems exist because the practitioners have not studied the Fa well. They have not put enough emphasis on looking inwards, and as a result, have not been able to remove some long-standing notions and attachments (such as the attachment to self). If they could understand the Fa from within the Fa, the problems would no longer exist. So pointing out problems to them is important. Yet just pointing out the problems is not enough: we need to think about and work on the problems in depth, which requires good intentions and complete understanding of the situation. I think these elements manifested in the Minghui articles. There is also my own experience.
In the past few years of truth clarifying, two fellow practitioners caused some damage to the overall Fa-rectification work in my neighborhood. As a result, ten practitioners were arrested, detained, sentenced to jail terms, or forced to flee their homes. After the incident, the two practitioners still did not show any fundamental improvement in their understandings. I felt some resentment towards them even though I realized that this state of mind was not right. I know that Teacher ignores all the mistakes sentient beings have made in the past and only judges them by their attitude towards the Fa-rectification. Anyone is allowed to make mistakes as long as he or she can remedy the damage they caused. Teacher doesn't treat people that make mistakes any differently. Even though I knew all of this, I still could not get rid of my hard feelings towards those practitioners.
On this particular issue, I was unwilling to change for a few years. Recently, I saw one of the two practitioners again. Hatred and agitation rose up in my heart. Even though I knew this was not right, I still couldn't face the practitioner with a calm mind and forget about their previous mistakes. I brought up the issue to another practitioner, who reminded me of some Dafa principles and shared with me their righteous understandings. I completely agreed, yet I still could not remove the resentment I felt. The fellow practitioner said he could understand how I felt, and briefly talked about his experience when facing the same attachment. As soon as he became determined to change himself, he started to repel the negative feelings [towards other practitioners] whenever they surfaced. Soon after, all the bad thoughts and feelings disappeared. Upon hearing this, I suddenly realized that I had not paid enough attention to this problem, and I accepted the feelings I had at the time of conflict as my true feelings. As a result, I hadn't repelled the bad thoughts. When I realized this, I decided to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate those bad thoughts whenever they appeared, knowing that those thoughts and feelings were not what I wanted. Instead, I knew that they were interference from rotten demons and dark minions, utilizing my attachments to reflect bad thoughts into my mind. By doing this, I was able to basically solve the problem right at the time the thoughts occurred.
I have met similar situations while sharing experiences with other practitioners. Some practitioners work very hard and are willing to suffer when doing Dafa work, yet their minds were somewhat rigid and they appeared to be quite numb on many issues. It was as if their biggest goal was to persist in doing the Fa-rectification work. After I talked with them, I found that their understanding of Dafa principles about the related issues was very clear, yet they fell short on understanding one issue; they thought that once the persecution ends, the Dafa work they do would also end. So they thought that as long as their work had the effect of ending the persecution and clarifying the truth, it was good enough to just persist in their work until the persecution ended. When they realized that their work needed to be passed down, so that people in the future would continue to benefit from it, the state of mind of these practitioners immediately changed; they became very proactive, thought about how to improve the quality of their work, and they coordinated with other practitioners. I witnessed the mighty virtue of Dafa from their subsequent righteous actions.
In the above example, if one simply says, "You are not doing it the right way; Teacher's requirements are not like this; I am very worried about this." Then the effect would not be good, because whoever has the problem also knows about their own problems, it's just that they can't overcome them. If other practitioners help them with good intentions, patience, and understanding, then they are more likely to look deeply inward and find their hidden attachments. Dafa will manifest its power in those practitioners. As Master has told us, when a practitioner truly wants to cultivate himself on a specific issue, Dafa can solve the problem and change the person as easily as a furnace of molten steel can dissolve a piece of sawdust.
Of course, many times it is impossible to talk face to face and share experiences in depth, yet the mentality and ways of doing things are the same.
3. Not being attached to others' mistakes or one's own ideas and opinions
Some practitioners' "sharing experiences" with others are not truly cultivator's experience sharing. Instead, they are ways to convince other people to agree with them so they can achieve some goal. Some practitioners think that other practitioners are wrong, so they talk to fellow practitioners with the mentality of negating or changing them. While they are talking, one can see that these practitioners are trying to negate and change others. Judging from the standard of Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance, this kind of "sharing" lacks truthfulness and sincerity, and does not demonstrate good intentions or thinking of others, let alone consideration and understanding other people's opinions. These practitioners demonstrate more ordinary people's ways of thinking and doing things, so the effect (if any) is superficial and short-lived. The deeper effect of everyone improving fundamentally is very hard to achieve with this kind of "sharing."
Although the practitioners didn't have much time to prepare, the First Falun Dafa Written Experience Sharing Conference in China still provided many positive cultivation experiences and processes of improving xinxing and understanding Dafa. The process of carefully reading all these articles is an opportunity for all practitioners to share experiences and communicate with each other. I hope more practitioners will take time to read through these articles. Doing so will benefit everyone's cultivation, the local and overall cultivation environment, and the work of validating Dafa and saving sentient beings.
(1) Xinxing: mind or heart nature, moral character
11/03/2004
