(Clearwisdom.net) Here I would like to share the understandings I have developed about cooperation as one body over the past year.
1. Meeting the Needs of Dafa to Form One Body
610 Office agents arrested some practitioners in my area over a year ago and sentenced them to imprisonment. This led to a disturbance among local practitioners. In the past, practitioners tended to work on their own for truth-clarification and there was not much trust amongst us. The police arrested practitioners from time to time and hardly anyone was willing to take the responsibility of being a coordinator. After being arrested several times, I myself had come under huge pressure and become unwilling to coordinate as well. Although I had little communication with other practitioners during those days, Master did not abandon me and arranged for practitioners to come and help me.
One day two practitioners came and asked me to help coordinate. At that moment, I was only thinking of how to protect myself and did not consider the needs of the Fa and the entire body, so I turned down their request. After they left, I felt very bad and guilty. After calming down and looking within, I was surprised by my behavior. On the surface, I had done things as a Dafa disciple, but in reality those things were done for my own interests. When fearing this or that, or considering myself incapable, didn't I lack faith in Master and the Fa? As long as we have the right mindset, and truly believe in Master and the Fa, we will see the power of Dafa. After realizing this, I felt much better, as if Master had removed some degenerate substance from me. I decided to work closely with other practitioners and integrate with the entire body. Several days later, the two practitioners came again asking me the same thing, and I agreed to do it.
2. Letting Go of Self and Establishing a Powerful One Body Through Cooperation
Through discussions, several of us involved in the coordination realized that our mission is to save sentient beings. One of the reasons for forming one body through cooperation is to do better in saving sentient beings, and improving ourselves during this process.
We thus divided up the workload and began to establish Fa-study groups. Group Fa-study is a format Master has given to us and it is also an important component to achieve effective cooperation. Through group Fa-study and discussions, we have all made significant improvements.
In past years, we have experienced many lessons in my area. That is, some practitioners have accomplished many things but at the same time, they had various issues, as well. Some could not break through illness tribulations and had to go to a hospital, some even passed away, and some were arrested many times. These phenomena negatively influenced the body of practitioners. After realizing the root cause was a poor understanding of the Fa, we improved discussions on the lessons learned and how to understand them based on the Fa principles.
In “Be More Diligent”, Master said,
“The truth is, no person’s viewpoint is perfect, nor is any one person’s idea flawlessly brilliant. On critical things, when someone raises some issue or tries to resolve some problem, or offers suggestions for improvement, as long as we feel his starting point is sound, and that the things to be done are generally correct, we should actively support it.”
Through joint effort, the situation in my area improved significantly over the past year. That is, we have gradually formed an integrated one body. In addition, based on problems that we were facing, we identified several major gaps that needed improvement. For example, we did not expose the evil enough; we needed to make more efforts to wake up practitioners who had slacked off; we did not extensively clarify the truth, especially to government agencies; and we had done poorly in rescuing practitioners who were arrested. Right now, many practitioners have improved their understanding of the Fa and realized the importance of waking up practitioners who either gave up the practice or slacked off. After we contacted some such practitioners, they in turn reached out to more practitioners of this kind, creating a positive cycle of actions and events.
One practitioner obtained a detailed list of contact information for all the local government agencies. We divided the list into several parts and gave them to practitioners who were willing to write letters or make phone calls. Gradually, more and more practitioners began to join the effort. Through discussion, we realized that the most important aspect of cooperation is not how much an individual contributes, but how much each of us can let go of our own self and work with others seamlessly. This process is indeed an opportunity to change our mindset and to improve as a whole. Therefore, whenever we have such group activities, we try to notify all the practitioners, hoping that everyone can participate and improve, as well.
After several such group efforts, we truly felt the power of working together as one body. Upon learning the vicious deeds of a domestic security division agent, we quickly collected his information and published it on the Minghui website. We then prepared truth-clarification materials and distributed them on a large scale in the local area. Posters were also put up everywhere to expose the evil deeds. At the same time, overseas practitioners called this agent's parents, wife and relatives, effectively suppressing the evil. Under this pressure, his parents went to his workplace requesting a change of job for their son. He left the 610 Office soon afterwards. Not long after that, we exposed the evil again regarding a vicious thug in a brainwashing center. The effect was also good. Many people came to know the truth and the evil was suppressed.
Exposing the evil is indeed a process of truth-clarification and saving sentient beings. Other group efforts include sending forth righteous thoughts near the places where practitioners are detained and contacting officials to request the release of practitioners. As practitioners were doing better in forming one body, their xinxing also improved.
During the process of cooperation, there were xinxing conflicts among practitioners. Once a practitioner from another city came to share understandings, and I was told that no more than 30 practitioners could attend the meeting. Thus, I made a decision and notified about 20 practitioners, asking them to attend the meeting. Soon afterwards, there were rumors that I was not fair when handling things and tended to make decisions on my own. Through Fa-study, I knew nothing was accidental and began to look within. Because of my impetuous temper, I was not considerate of others. In addition, I sometimes paid too much attention to practitioners' shortcomings and overlooked their strengths. These impure thoughts can easily be taken advantage of during cooperation and the barriers will weaken our joint effort as one body.
During the coordination work over the past year, many of my attachments were eliminated. I realized that letting go of oneself is the key to good cooperation. Cooperation with others is also a process of constantly purifying ourselves.
3. Having Faith in Master and the Fa, We Will See the Power of Righteous Thoughts
I have read many times on Minghui about how practitioners' righteous thoughts have led to miraculous outcomes. I also have such experiences and would like to share some here.
i) Anti-blocking software popped up on the desktop
When visiting a practitioner one day, I wanted to download some files from the Internet. This practitioner said she had never downloaded anti-blocking software in the past and knew nothing of how to use it. I was thinking: wouldn't it be better if this computer had this tool so that we can download the files with no delay? Then, several seconds later, the computer screen blinked and the anti-blocking software popped up on the desktop. I immediately understood that Master compassionately helped me install the software. Several practitioners also witnessed this and we had more faith in Master and the Fa after that.
ii) Compassionate care from Master: the rain and our trip
One day in the summer, we needed to go to a place to handle something. Seeing the cloudy sky, I brought an umbrella and asked other practitioners if they also needed one. One practitioner said with determination, “It will not rain. We are doing the most righteous thing and the weather will help us.” Hearing those words, I also had stronger righteous thoughts.
As we were walking on the road, we came across a woman who had been soaked in the rain. She took the same road as us and walked in the same direction. There was only several minutes between she and us. We heard her complaining to other pedestrians, “The rain today is a little strange. Where it rains, it pours. Where it stops, there are no raindrops even a few steps away.”
We walked about three kilometers and found the road to be wet. On the way back, the clouds were also very dark and low, but the rain still did not come down. After we stepped in the doorway, however, the rain poured down within five minutes. From this, I came to understand that as long as we are following the Fa, Master can do anything for us.
iii) The evil cannot block the Minghui website
I began to use a computer less than two years ago. Before that, I knew nothing about computers at all. Although the evil had intensified the Internet blockade many times, I was always able to access Minghui and submit articles successfully. In my mind, there is no such thing as the Internet blockade. My understanding is that we should always handle things according to the Fa and use Fa implements to do things. We should not allow the evil to cause damage. In “What's to Fear?” from Hong Yin II, Master said,
“If thoughts are righteous,
evil will collapse”
We have to play our roles well to fulfill our mission and not let down Master for his compassionate salvation.
