(Clearwisdom.net) After studying "Be More Diligent," I realized that cooperation should be achieved with selflessness, and humbleness. It is also a process of removing our attachments. Whether we cooperate well bears directly on the effect of saving sentient beings.
I. Letting Go of Oneself is Necessary for Good Cooperation
When practitioners do not cooperate well, it is mostly when we cannot let go of ourselves; while we are trying to validate but not genuinely validating the Fa. We often have the excuse that everyone is responsible for the role of a coordinator, look outward, and point fingers at others for their failing to cooperate with us. We set our eyes on the project coordinator or other practitioners who disagree with us, which further gives rise to grudges. We tend to forget that we are cultivators, and Zhen, Shan, Ren is what we should validate. When we give in to our human attachments, evil finds loopholes in us; and through our failure in cooperating, our tasks of saving the sentient beings are sabotaged.
For quite some time, I felt that practitioners were excluding me. Initially, before starting any work to validate the Fa, I used to discuss it with our coordinator. However, when it came to implementation, different practitioners held firmly to different opinions which resulted in aborted work. I felt that it was other practitioners who were keeping up with Teacher's Fa-rectification process. I isolated myself from them instead of immersing myself into the body of our local practitioners and placing myself at their service. I stopped having discussions with them on the false grounds of walking down my own path. Interference set in. Practitioners were not helping each other. Sacred tasks were no longer as sacred. It became apparent that this originated from my less than righteous mind. It was me who failed to cooperate with fellow practitioners, not them. I held too dearly to myself and forgot to cultivate myself. I have since reminded myself that I have to cultivate myself well while carrying out the sacred mission of saving sentient beings. Only when I do both things well, can I walk down a righteous path.
II. Walk Down the Path of Cooperation by Eliminating Interference
We cannot take it easy on our own genuine cultivation. Even the slightest human attachment will incur interference, which keeps disrupting the implementation of our tasks. After studying "Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference," I realized that when we refuse to cooperate with others in the task of saving sentient beings, we are giving up our own cultivation, we are giving up on walking down the path Teacher has arranged for us, we are giving up the opportunity to elevate ourselves. In so doing, neither are we responsible to sentient beings nor to ourselves. This is not a matter of making our own path. Instead, it is a matter of cooperating well down the path that Teacher has extended for us, which will help us establish greater virtue. As a result, it is of utmost importance to our cultivation that we cooperate well during our interaction with other practitioners. Through interacting with others, we expose our human attachments; and to get rid of these attachments, and let go of ourselves will in turn facilitate better cooperation.
For example, I have built rapport with practitioners in a particular area. Unknowingly, they started to rely on me. They asked for my input when they ran into things which resulted in my earning their respect. However, behind this respect from them, my ego started to grow. Soon, I started harboring human attachments when carrying out Dafa work and stopped placing the Fa ahead of all other considerations. I stopped judging right from wrong on the basis of Fa. Instead, I made judgments on my personal preference. I ended up relocating equipment and materials from one production site to set up a new one. It turned out to be counterproductive and even disruptive to fellow practitioners. I realized my mistake, and brought everything back to the original site. Still, it slowed things down. As I see it now, I became a victim of interference for not paying enough attention to my own cultivation. To walk well the path ahead, I have to keep removing human attachments and cooperate better with fellow practitioners.
October 26, 2010