(Clearwisdom.net) The article "Refrain from Praising Fellow Practitioners at Will" is succinct and clearly points out the central point of the issue. Since the practitioners still have human thoughts, praise, in the long run, would encourage the practitioners to expand their attachments such as being overjoyed, competitiveness, vanity, jealousy as well as validating themselves. I also like to praise other people and sometimes I would say jokingly, "In my praise there are elements of cultivation." Although it served as a reminder, if I do it regularly it might still create an adverse effect.
People in general do not like to be criticized and want to be praised. Resistance to criticism has become a very popular phenomenon, and people often deny and reject criticism regardless of its merit. Not many people today have the magnanimity like the ancients who "responded to criticism with gratitude and no resentment." I know that enjoying praise is a human attachment, but subconsciously I still feel good when I am praised. This attachment would eventually bring out other human attachments. As a result, this exacerbates our attachments and inhibits rationality. As a matter of fact, no matter what achievements we make in certain areas or how superior we are in certain aspects, all this comes from Dafa. It is bestowed by Dafa for the purpose of doing the three things, and it won't do if we fail to meet the requirements ourselves. Otherwise the cultivators could not even protect their own lives. The fundamental factor is the attachment of validating oneself that causes the mischief in our minds.
