(Clearwisdom.net) A few days ago my sister told me that she had heard from other practitioners that my mother, over seventy years old, was romantically involved with a sixty-year-old male practitioner. I told my sister, "We absolutely should not casually believe anything that is not confirmed. We should verify it first."
When my mother returned from the New York experience-sharing conference, I asked her gently what was going on. My mother said that the male practitioner had had a stroke, and was a drifter, living on the street and eating raw vegetables. Out of sympathy, my mother gave him some food. My mother does not understand mandarin, and can only speak a local dialect. This fellow practitioner would go to my mother's house and read Zhuan Falun in mandarin with my mother. But each time, they were always in the presence of other practitioners.
My mother said that this fellow practitioner limped as a result of the stroke, and could not take good care of himself. His body, because he did not wash regularly, often gave off an unpleasant odor. Other practitioners at the practice site didn't like him, and asked him to do the exercises somewhere else by himself. When my mother helped him, it caused gossip.
When I heard what my mother said, I thought of a new practitioner in my office. She'd had two operations to remove brain tumors before she obtained the Fa. Unable to look after herself, from time to time, she too gave off a smelly odor. Her colleagues, who disliked and ridiculed her, didn't want to get close to her. I am the only one who would study the Fa with her at noon. Now she has learned to take better care of herself, and her body no longer smells bad.
I approve of the way my mother treated this practitioner. Cultivation practice is not about superficial things such as a person's social status; it's all about whether or not one can regard oneself as a practitioner.
Master taught us in Zhuan Falun,
"When we open our mouths to speak we should speak in line with a practitioner's character, we don't gossip, and we don't say negative things. You're a cultivator, so to decide whether or not you should say something you should see how you measure up to the standards of the Law. If it's something you should say, it's no problem as long as you're in line with a practitioner's character standard as measured by the Law. And besides, we have to talk about the Law and spread the Law, so not speaking wouldn't work. When we talk about minding speech, it's about the ordinary things like reputation and profit that you can't let go of and that aren't related to a cultivator's actual work in the world; it's about disciples in the same practice talking about pointless things with each other; it's about stuff that's done to show off because of attachments; about spreading rumors heard through the grapevine; and talking about other things in the world with a lot of excitement and interest. I think these are all attachments an ordinary person has, and we should mind our speech when it comes to these things."
All practitioners know that in cultivation practice it is necessary to mind our speech. But when faced with tests we do not always do well in this regard. Sometimes practitioners pass on unconfirmed news, spread rumors, and believe hearsay. When they hear something they don't even verify it. Will an enlightened being listen to and believe a one-sided story? The poem "In Dao" from Hongyin, reads, "Hearing but hearing not--A mind hard to disturb." Another poem, "Solid Cultivation" reads,
"Study Fa, obtain Fa,
Compare in studying, compare in cultivating,
Examine each and every deed,
Accomplishing is cultivating."
We should really keep these words in mind.
The above is the understanding I would like to share. I kindly ask fellow practitioners to point out any inadequacies.
