(Clearwisdom.net) Many practitioners, including myself, are still attached to power and authority. As a result, we often run into conflicts while working together on truth-clarification projects. I have been working hard to remove this attachment by cultivating my xinxing and sending forth righteous thoughts. During the process, I have gained a deeper understanding of the substance of power itself and various manifestations of people's obsession with it.
As I understand, power is also matter in other dimensions, just like fame and self-interest. If you did a lot of good deeds in your previous lives, you may become a high-ranking official with opportunities to exercise power and authority in this lifetime. In other words, you could trade your accumulated virtue for power.
Once falling to the human world, people are reduced to trivial beings and do not even have control over their own lives, as they are within the cycle of birth, sickness, aging, and death. Therefore, they try to maintain a sense of power in other areas. Such desire for control and authority is exhibited in many kinds of activities people engage in. For instance, when Dafa practitioners work together on truth-clarification projects, many of them feel their ideas are the best. As a result, they can't come to an agreement on how to go about doing things. In my opinion, they are all trying to take control and savor the satisfaction gained from possessing the substance of power and authority.
Power in itself is not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing. However, if people are attached to it, their morality may go downhill. Power is a double-edged sword. When non-practitioners come to power, they may choose to make good use of their power or they may abuse it to harm other people.
Coordinators of Dafa projects face the same temptation as non-practitioners do. If a coordinator is not interested in seeking satisfaction associated with the position itself, but instead focuses on cooperating well with other practitioners to truly save sentient beings, then he has used the power given to him wisely. On the other hand, if he feels superior to everybody or even abuses his power, he is not fully fulfilling his obligation as a coordinator and is not cultivating himself adequately. He is indeed playing a negative role and will face obstacles in his path of cultivation.
Then how about average practitioners who are not coordinators? Are they immune to the issue of power? No, the tests of xinxing are the same. A practitioner once told me, "They asked if I was willing to serve as a coordinator in my local Dafa Association and I declined because I wasn't interested at all." He meant to show me that he had no interest in power. But does this imply he absolutely has no attachment to power? I didn't have a clear understanding of this matter at first, but later I gradually came to realize that non-coordinators still need to examine their thoughts to make sure they have no desire or thoughts to control things, projects, or other people. If they still want to take control and make decisions for others, they are not free from the attachment to power.
When I first noticed many practitioners insisting on their own opinions about a Dafa project, I thought they were just too attached to their own abilities. Later, when I witnessed this phenomenon across different regions, I realized that people were, in fact, trying to maintain control of the projects and wanted everyone to follow them. As I see it, if you want to control others, you may cause huge conflicts among practitioners.
Ever since I was young, I held very strong resentments towards the secular world, and I was especially annoyed by those who fought for power and self interest. Whenever I saw anyone acting superior, I despised the person. But, strangely, I all the same longed to be noticed by so-called VIPs. After I began cultivation, I gradually came to realize that such conflicting feelings reflect twisted and warped notions. Due to my fear of being contaminated by power, I didn't want to have anything to do with it and looked down on people with power. However, my desire to enjoy the benefits derived from power made me long for recognition from VIPs.
In order to do the Shen Yun project well, we need to enter mainstream society and get in touch with people we wouldn't easily meet on the street. Such requirements are really a test for my attitudes about VIPs. I know that it's time for me to completely remove my attachment to power and authority. I can't pick who to clarify the facts to based on my own preferences. I must relinquish every human notion and look at the needs of Fa rectification so as to better offer salvation to mainstream people.
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