(Clearwisdom.net) In my cultivation, I've progressed from having the attitude of doing only what I want to do to doing what I am supposed to do according to the Fa.
I have completed many tasks over the course of my cultivation. Looking back, however, I now realize that everything I did revolved around myself. My attachments of zealotry and needing to validate myself, as well as attachments of wanting to compete with others, to be better than and to feel superior to others were all exposed in the process.
For example, I wanted to do the tasks that I liked doing. I also put a lot of emphasis on how much money I had contributed and how many things I had done. When I did Dafa-related projects, I was motivated by fear that I would fall behind in my cultivation or that I would be unable to establish mighty virtue. I was also afraid that I would lose the chance to do things my own way. Thus, although it may seem that I had done a lot of things, I actually did not improve in my understanding of the Fa during the process. I did not become more selfless, but instead became more self-centered.
I even had the mentality of seeking mighty virtue through doing Dafa work. I was working on projects to serve myself, not for the sake of assimilating to the needs of Dafa and sacrificing selflessly. This, in turn, caused tensions in my life. For example, once I created too many truth-clarification materials, which placed a lot of pressure on fellow practitioners. At the same time, too many people found out about the materials preparation site and we had to change the location. Also, my attachment to contributing money created tensions within my family.
I had detected my attachment of self-centeredness early on, but because I was not very clear in my understanding of the Fa, I was unable to get rid of it at that time. It wasn't until recently that I finally realized that being able to validate the Fa as a Fa-rectification disciple is a result of the mighty power of Dafa, and not due to one's own personal ability. Everything that one has, including individual ability, comes from Dafa. Thus when we do any Dafa work, we must realize that we are validating Dafa and not ourselves, and we must do this work well.
Now I understand that I am a particle within Dafa, and as such I am responsible for my tasks. In the past, I always wanted to compare myself and my achievements to others. I felt that if I did more work or contributed more financially, then I was superior to others. I even looked down on others because of this mentality. Now, however, I understand that all practitioners are part of the whole, just like brothers and sisters in a big family. Each of us has different strong points, different environments, and different cultivation paths, but every one of us is using different methods to achieve the same goal-- to validate the Fa. Therefore, I should not create barriers between myself and other practitioners.
When I worked on creating materials in the past, I would hoard the task, unwilling to let others participate because I wanted to do things my own way. Recently while I was watching the Shen Yun group performance, I saw that in order to change the formation of the dance, some dancers had to temporarily leave the stage during the dance. These dancers waited till the end of the dance to come back to the stage to make a formation of the whole body. I then realized that mighty virtue is not established by being on the stage all the time, by being the lead dancer or by doing things better than others.
If we are not self-centered, and follow the needs of the whole body and cooperate unconditionally to fulfill Dafa's requirements, all is possible. There should not be any elements of self in our hearts, and the only consideration should be the needs of the whole body of Dafa practitioners. Only this kind of heart can be pure and clean, and the things we do can then be truly sacred.
Once my new understanding of the concept of the whole body became clear, my view of things changed. When I read the first few pages of Minghui Weekly in the past, I would skip the section about overseas practitioners validating the Fa. Now I no longer think that this news is of no concern to me and feel deeply that these events do affect me. Thus, I should use righteous thoughts to strengthen the various activities that the overseas practitioners do to validate the Fa. Dafa practitioners are truly one whole body. Regardless of whether the activity is taking place overseas or in mainland China, they validate the Fa, and thus the activity concerns all of us. Although I cannot take part in some of these activities, I can use righteous thoughts to strengthen them and help them have a greater impact in saving sentient beings.
I should also use righteous thoughts to eradicate the evil that interferes with or persecutes practitioners in any region. Because of the old evil forces, Dafa is also being tested as a whole body. We should not use human notions to segregate ourselves and create unnecessary barriers. Regardless of which specific region and which specific practitioner, and regardless of the form of interference or persecution, all things that are doing damage to Dafa should be considered as interfering with and persecuting every practitioner, and thus all of us should use righteous thoughts to eradicate them.
After reading Master's new article "Be More Diligent," my personal understanding is that the process of Fa rectification has come to a new phase. At the end of Fa rectification, we need to put our selves aside and form one whole body. To put it more seriously, if self-centeredness is not let go, then the interference this would create is no different from that of the old evil forces. Didn't the old forces want to force upon the world what they thought was the best? Thus, practitioners should not be attached to their own ideas.
We should cooperate with the whole body with righteous thoughts. Wherever there are shortcomings, we should quietly make it better and assimilate to it. In this way, the whole body would not have any loopholes, our strength would be greater and we would be able to save more people. This is the requirement of Fa rectification. This is the requirement of the new cosmos based on the special quality of altruism and selflessness for the greater good.
The current stage of history exists for Fa rectification. In order to completely assimilate to the new cosmos, we should only follow and do things according to what Master says and requires of us. This is precisely a cultivation process, during which we continually eliminate human attachments, let go of self and assimilate to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
This is my personal understanding at the current level. Please compassionately point out if there is anything inappropriate.
