Cultivating Compassion

(Minghui.org) Master said,

“The Buddha School emphasizes cultivating Shan of Zhen-Shan-Ren. Because the cultivation of Shan can generate great, benevolent compassion, when compassion develops one will find all beings suffering and thus develop an aspiration to offer salvation to all beings.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

My understanding of this part of the Fa is that great benevolence is the result of cultivating compassion. But how do we cultivate compassion? I think it is to always think of others first, be considerate, and be responsible to a person’s true self—his main consciousness.

A Cultivator Should Be Kind

Kindness is a basic requirement for a cultivator. If a cultivator cannot be kind, he will damage Dafa's reputation and make other practitioners wonder if he is a true practitioner. The cultivation of compassion is the Fa's requirement for Dafa disciples.

I watched a video of a candlelight vigil in the U.S. during which a reporter interviewed two practitioners. They had both been severely persecuted in China for practicing Dafa before they moved to the states. In their tone of voice and facial expressions, I could see anger and resentment but no compassion.

They had both gone through unimaginable ordeals, but the negative substances they accrued, such as resentment and hatred, had not been relinquished. Of course, their steadfastness that carried them through the ruthless persecution should be recognized. Looking at it from a different angle, however, why did such ordeals happen to them? Was it a coincidence?

Master's Fashen was with them when they were detained and tortured, but why couldn't Master protect them? Because Master can only help if a practitioner’s actions are righteous. If they are, Master would take care of the practitioner, and nobody would be able to touch him.

On the other hand, if he only cares about himself and sees himself as the true victim, he would naturally blame the police and harbor resentment toward them. To the evil beings who watch a practitioner’s every thought and action, this provides grounds for further persecution.

If a cultivator is compassionate and can completely let go of himself, he would see that the police is the true victim of the persecution. When one thinks of others first, one’s heart is compassionate, and one’s actions are based on the Fa, who dares to touch him? The persecution will stop right away.

Among ordinary people, using evil to subdue evil is common practice. For example, measures of war are often employed to solve problems. It should be the opposite for cultivators—we stop the evil by being kind, and we dissolve conflicts with compassion. No matter how much we have suffered, we cannot have any evil thoughts. Master said, “Compassion is the Divine's eternal state” (“Why Do You Reject It?” Hong Yin III).

My Experience Cultivating Compassion

How many practitioners in China bear no hatred or resentment toward Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Dafa practitioners cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and try to be good people, and this benefits society. We don't break any laws, so why on earth would Jiang and the CCP persecute Falun Dafa?

For a long time, I couldn’t accept how unfair it was and harbored anger. I resented the persecution and hoped that Jiang would receive karmic retribution and be brought to justice. I wished that the CCP would soon fall from power.

With all these negative thoughts, when I talked to people about the corruption of the CCP, my intention was not just to let people know its true nature; I was using it as a channel to express my dissatisfaction with the Party. People sensed that my heart was not pure, that I was more interested in overthrowing the Party than saving them, and that my intentions were political. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this problem until much later.

Master said,

“A wicked person is born of jealousy.Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself.A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion.With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.” (“Realms,” Essentials For Further Advancement)

It is true that Jiang and the CCP have committed tremendous crimes against Dafa, but as practitioners, we can't do the same and be as evil as them. We need to act based on the Fa and have compassion instead of hatred and resentment. There are arrangements as to what will happen to Jiang and the Party, and we need not concern ourselves with this issue. We need to look at the persecution with a calm heart and clear mind and not involve our own thinking.

Cultivators in China Must Overcome Tremendous Obstacles

When the Roman Empire persecuted Christians, the innocent followers were thrown into the Colosseum and fed alive to savage beasts. Some were tied up, thrown into a burning pile, and burnt to death. However, the majority of Christians chose peace when faced with imprisonment, torture, and murder. They upheld their faith steadfastly and eventually won over the people. Christians ended the 300-year persecution with compassion and perseverance.

Facing such atrocities, the Christians held no resentment or hatred and treated the evildoers with compassion. Why is it that some practitioners in China can't do this? My personal opinion is that the Christians in ancient Rome and the Chinese practitioners today are of different states of mind going into their respective persecutions.

The Christians had a peaceful mindset to begin with because. in ancient times, the standard of morality throughout human society was high. Without the influence of communist ideology, people were kind.

However, today's Chinese practitioners have lived in a highly toxic environment, been indoctrinated by the CCP, and filled with hatred. It has been intentionally planted into the Chinese people’s minds, and it saturates the microscopic dimensions of our bodies.

These negative substances have become part of our lives and awakened all things evil in us, such as jealousy, competitiveness, and violence. Almost everyone in China is immersed in hatred, which makes them jealous of others and complain all the time.

Besides jealousy and hatred, we are also heavily influenced by many other ideologies, such as atheism, evolution, and class struggle, as well as the almost complete loss of our traditional culture. The morality of Chinese society as a whole is approaching total collapse.

One can thus imagine the difficulties of cultivation when going into the persecution with such a mentality. Therefore, a practitioner in China could practice Dafa for many years without achieving the pure state of mind of a new Christian in the Roman Empire.

Similarly, when a veteran practitioner from China moves to a Western country, his state of mind is not as peaceful and kind even compared to that of an ordinary person. The vicious substances from the CCP and the declined morals of today’s Chinese society have negatively affected practitioners in China.

Cultivating Compassion and Being Responsible for Sentient Beings

Therefore, as a practitioner in China, cultivation of compassion is vital. In our cultivation, as long as we interact with others, we need to cultivate compassion. We aim to gradually get rid of the evil substance within ourselves and replace it with compassion. As we continue to do so, we will become kinder and eventually achieve the state of pure compassion—benevolence.

Though we are still cultivating and haven't reached the state of benevolence, our cultivated side is compassionate. As long as we constantly improve ourselves and always think of others first, our cultivated compassion will manifest. If there’s material interest involved when we interact with people, we would rather have the shorter end of the deal and should always be considerate of others.

We also want to be responsible for sentient beings. For example, if a person likes to gamble but he doesn't have money and asks me for a loan, what should I do? I shouldn’t lend him the money because his true self, his main consciousness, knows very well that gambling is against the law and that he should not do such a thing. Though his human notions and attachment to gambling push him to borrow money from me, I have to be responsible for his true self, not his human notions.

I am being responsible for sentient beings when I tell them about Falun Dafa so they can be saved. Though some people don't understand us, reject us, display hostility toward us, and even hit us or report us to the police, that's only because they are blinded by their human notions and the CCP's lies. That is not who they really are. Their true selves are eager to hear the truth about Dafa and be saved.

Compassion Toward Fellow Practitioners

We should also treat our fellow practitioners with kindness. Each and every person who continues to cultivate is doing well and is remarkable.

Think about it: he used to be a great divine being but knowingly gave up everything in his divine kingdom to help Master rectify the Fa. To lay a foundation for Fa-rectification, he followed Master's lead and helped create the 5,000 years of civilization, going through countless difficulties and obstacles along the way. He swore to become a practitioner in this lifetime and save sentient beings of the universe.

Now during Fa-rectification, he is validating the Fa in such a vicious environment where the evil is omnipresent. He is at risk of being arrested and could lose all he has at any given moment, even his life. What a great being and such a valuable life! So we have to respect and cherish every practitioner.

When we see fellow practitioners' shortcomings, we should sincerely point them out. If they correct themselves and improve their xinxing, that would be the best. If they don't accept it or fail to correct their ways, then we should just embrace them. If we have a conflict with another practitioner, we should look inward unconditionally and first correct ourselves. Then, with an open mind, we should communicate with them, admit our mistakes, and ask for their understanding and forgiveness.

Helping Practitioners Through Sickness Karma

When we help other practitioners, we need to be responsible for them and their cultivation. When a practitioner has sickness karma that makes it difficult, but not impossible, for her to take care of herself, some practitioners would voluntarily cook for her, do her laundry, and keep her house so that the practitioner with sickness karma wouldn't suffer as much.

On the surface, they are helping a fellow practitioner, but in fact they are not being responsible for her and her cultivation. This practitioner's main consciousness knows fully well that any suffering or difficulty is a good opportunity for improvement. She herself wants to suffer and improve.

In this situation, the helping practitioners are not helping her main consciousness but instead are helping her human notions and her attachment to comfort. It could easily cause her to become dependent on others. Therefore, when helping other practitioners, we should help them walk their own paths, which nobody can do for them.

When we help practitioners with sickness karma, we should truly be responsible for their cultivation and help without pursuing anything or mixing in any personal goals or intentions. We need to have patience, be persistent, not get upset or impatient with them, be understanding of their situation, and be considerate from their perspective. We should show them that we are sincere, kind, tolerant, and dependable. In doing so, we would strengthen their confidence in cultivation.

In fact, there are two paths in front of us. One is the old forces' arrangements that lead us to pay attention only to the false appearance of sickness karma that the practitioner experiences. We spend our days trying to come up with ways to get rid of the symptoms so the practitioner can get over the sickness karma quickly.

Another path is Master's arrangements—Master hopes that no matter what we encounter, we treat it as a good opportunity to cultivate and improve ourselves. When we do, it will eventually turn into a good thing. In other words, Master hopes that we focus on our xinxing in solving problems and improve ourselves by looking inward unconditionally.

When we are able to think righteously and position ourselves correctly, the false appearance of sickness karma will disappear. When we validate the Fa with a pure heart, like a true practitioner, we will achieve good results. In helping other practitioners this way, we are being responsible not only for fellow practitioners' cultivation but also for ourselves and the Fa.

Therefore, when we help practitioners with sickness karma, we must not focus on the false appearance and the imposed tribulation because that is exactly what the old forces want. We must focus on our xinxing, solve the problem from its root cause, and walk the path arranged by Master to pass the test. And each and every one of us should look within ourselves and truly cultivate our own hearts.

Cooperating with Practitioners

In order to be responsible for the Fa, we should be considerate of other practitioners while working with them. In particular, those who are in a good cultivation state should be more considerate of those whose cultivation state is relatively poor. We should consider their level of endurance and not ask too much of them.

We should focus on their strengths, encourage them, and strengthen their confidence in validating the Fa. When working together to validate the Fa, we could voluntarily take on the more difficult and risky tasks and leave the relatively easier things for them. Dividing the tasks accordingly is being responsible to the Fa and is likely to ensure good results.

The Police Are Victims in the Persecution

We can't judge a being by only one incident or what they are at the current time. Instead, we have to consider the life from a historical perspective. You might see a police officer participating in persecuting Dafa practitioners, but if you examine his past lives, he might have been the same as us, and his origins are that of a great divine being.

In order to save the sentient beings in his kingdom and help Master in Fa-rectification, he willingly gave up all he had as a divine being and took great risks to come to this world. He went through many lifetimes and endured great hardships in each to help lay a foundation for Fa-rectification. However, they are not as lucky as we are, as we became Dafa practitioners—a status coveted by all beings of the universe—and they became the villains.

I remember reading an article by a practitioner in which a divine being was arranged to become a police officer during Fa-rectification and participate in the persecution. He didn't want to be a police officer from the bottom of his heart, but the divine being who arranged this told him, “Just go. I will arrange for someone to wake you.” Seeing that there was no other option, he agreed, but he cried knowing what it entailed.

If a police officer is not controlled by evil, he would not dare to treat Dafa practitioners with such hostility. Whenever he acts that way, it is all because of the evil behind him, and it is the evil who is doing the bad deeds. The real persecutors of Dafa practitioners are the evil beings in other dimensions, and the police officers are merely being used as weapons.

Like a club—the club itself cannot hit someone by itself; someone has to hit with it. The police officer’s own main consciousness knows that Dafa is good and that Dafa practitioners are saving people. He too hopes that Dafa practitioners can save him, but he cannot control himself as he is being controlled by his own human notions and lies.

The evil uses his human attachments to control him and make him persecute Dafa practitioners. He has become a puppet and is getting closer and closer to his destruction. Just think about what horrible situation he is in—the old forces’ plan is to use him before eliminating him. If we don't save such a person, then what awaits him is hell. What tragedy. We cannot watch the old forces ruin sentient beings and do nothing.

Master said, “...every person in the entire world was at one point part of my family,” (Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference)

This police officer was Master's family at one point, maybe a sibling or a relative, and they depended on each other, supported each other, and suffered through life together. Think about how much Master must have suffered in countless lifetimes to build a predestined relationship with every person in the world. To have such relationships with them is so he could save them—what Master thinks of is all the sentient beings. And all beings came for the Fa. Master said, “The policemen, too, are beings who await salvation.” (Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference)

Other than the hopeless evil beings who cannot be saved, and until we hit an absolute dead end, we should not give up, even if we only have one thread of hope. When we save police officers, we are denying the old forces' arrangements and saving sentient beings. Therefore, we have to be tolerant. Even when we are in the midst of a great ordeal, we have to let go of ourselves and think of sentient beings. Master said, “While suffering I still rescue sentient beings” (“We Know,” Hong Yin III)

Only then can we shoulder the great responsibly of a Dafa practitioner.

There have been many cases in the past where a practitioner turned her situation around after being arrested because she was able to treat the police with compassion. Instead of being severely persecuted, she saved the police officers and walked out of prison with dignity. These practitioners completely put themselves aside and recognized that the police officers were the real victims of the persecution and were truly pitiful. They sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that was controlling the officers and then clarified the truth to them.

Once they know that Dafa is good, these officers changed their attitude toward the practitioners and treated them with kindness. Such police officers were able to escape the old forces’ tight grip, help in Fa-rectification, and choose a brighter future for themselves. Our practitioners’ selflessness and compassion toward the police even as they inflict pain on them altered the outcome to a good one.

Master said,

“When you encounter a tribulation, that great compassion will help you overcome it.” (“Chapter III Cultivation of Character,” Falun Gong)

“Compassion is an enormous energy, the energy of righteous gods. The more compassion that is present, the greater this energy becomes, and it can disintegrate anything that is bad. This is something that has never been taught, be it by Shakyamuni or cultivators of the past. The greatest manifestation of shan is compassion, and it is an expression of tremendous energy. It can disintegrate all that is not right.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)

Let’s remember Master's words and treat everything and everyone with compassion. It will help us eliminate evil, save sentient beings, dissolve all obstacles, and fulfill our vows as Dafa practitioners.