(Clearwisdom.net) Compassion is expressed differently at different levels. When we face various problems, we should use the Fa to correctly guide us to deal with them compassionately.

Older Practitioners Should Not Be Too Attached to Sentimentality

While it is true that one should love and take care of one's parents and children, it is important not to go to extremes, which could have a negative effect.

A sixty year-old practitioner had been doing well the three things until she started taking care of her mother-in-law full-time. She took care of her until she passed away. Her father-in-law then needed constant care and this went on for years. She became so tired that she wasn't able to read the Fa or do the Falun Gong exercises without falling asleep. This then interfered with her doing the three things well. Although fellow practitioners shared with her about her situation, she insisted that if practitioners aren't able to be compassionate to their own family members, then they didn't even qualify as good people. I felt she had forgotten her greater responsibility of saving sentient beings. Furthermore, her family is well off and can afford to hire someone to help take care of her father-in-law. She also could have asked her husband and son to share the responsibility, but she didn't do any of that. I believe that devoting all her time to care for her father-in-law was going to extremes because it was done at the expense of her other duties. Being imprisoned is a form of persecution. Allowing the sicknesses of others to stop you from doing the three things is also a form of persecution.

Another practitioner with a similar problem hired someone to help her. Thus, everything worked out fine and her father-in-law passed away without any regrets. When practitioners aren't doing the three things, they are following the old forces' arrangement.

Similarly, when we care for our children, it is critical to avoid going to extremes. I know of a practitioner who takes care of all her six-year-old grandson's needs. Her excessive attention to her grandson caused her to not pay attention to her own cultivation.

Master said in "Cultivators' Avoidances," from Essentials for Further Advancement,

"Those who are attached to affection for family will definitely be burned, entangled and tormented by it. Pulled by the threads of affection and plagued by them throughout their lives, they will find it too late to regret at the end of their lives."

As practitioners, we should make sure to closely follow the Fa in our every thought and action, eliminate attachments, and avoid any excessive sentimentality. Otherwise, how can we return home with Master?

Practitioners Should Not be Attached to Their Jobs

Some practitioners who work for government agencies work so hard that they don't take the weekend off. Furthermore, they don't ask for more pay. Thus, their supervisors are pleased and ask them to take on responsibilities which are not part of their job descriptions. For example, they are asked to entertain, drink and play poker with guests. Practitioners in such environments have a tough time avoiding such difficult situations. Isn't this a form of persecution arranged by the old forces? Of course, one should do one's job to the best of one's ability, but again there should be a balance and a limit. How can you remain a practitioner when you allow your job to have a higher priority than your own cultivation? What is your true purpose in life? The job or returning to your real home?

We Should Recognize That True Compassion is About Saving Sentient Beings

In "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference," Master said,

"The greatest manifestation of shan is compassion, and it is an expression of tremendous energy. It can disintegrate all that is not right."

So what is the meaning of compassion in cultivation? Master said in Zhuan Falun,

"Because the cultivation of Shan can generate great, benevolent compassion, and when compassion develops one will find all beings suffering, the Buddha School thus develops an aspiration to offer salvation to all beings."

My understanding is that the statement has an inner meaning that the greatest shan is about saving sentient beings. In Essentials for Further Advancement II Master said in "Rationality,"

"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy..."

In our local area, there are many practitioners who are able to validate the Fa in their own ways and sometimes work as one body to save sentient beings. One older practitioner used to have liver cancer, but it disappeared after he began practicing Falun Gong. He has overcome the attachments to fame, fortune and emotion. During the Fa-rectification period he has done more than many younger practitioners. He often says, "The greatest personal matter is a small matter. The smallest matter in saving a sentient being is a great matter." He has been conducting himself this way for years and has been doing the three things well.

We need to do well in all aspects of our lives, from our families, to our jobs and cultivation. This requires balancing things well and not being attached to any one area. We should be compassionate in all areas of our lives, but above all, saving sentient beings must be our top priority.