Lightening My Heart with Compassion

(Minghui.org) I made a breakthrough with my cultivation practice this year. I seldom had intensive arguments or mumbled on emotionally.

I previously felt uneasy whenever I saw anyone who had persecuted me or discriminated against me. I also felt reluctant to move back to the apartment affiliated with my former company. For this reason, when my husband who worked in another city was on vacation, he preferred to visit his parents rather than to stay with me.

Being Compassionate Is Learning to Give Up and to Forget

I believed my thoughts must not have been aligned with the Fa, so I needed to look within and change myself. When I came across anyone who had previously harmed me, I tried to forget about the suffering I endured and not let my resentment flare up. While at the same time, I consciously sent compassionate thoughts into their hearts. I wanted them to feel the beauty of compassion.

Consequently, when I managed to do these things, those people let down their guard. Moreover, my husband told me that he'd like to come home during his vacation. It was just as Master Li Hongzhi said,

“When you change such that your presence is refreshing and uplifting to people, and your mind becomes broad and full of optimism, you will find the things around you to be correspondingly different.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference” in Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)

Casting Away Resentment to Be Tolerant and Remain Unmoved

Facing those people who harmed me before, I tried to not let my heart be moved by their words or actions, nor have feelings about them. I maintained a peaceful outlook. Just as Master Li said,

“By contrast when a person is in a calm state, he is good, and that in fact is the true state of a human being.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting on Writing Music” in Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Writing Music and Creating Fine Art)

Besides handling the situation peacefully and calmly, I understood that I also needed to look inward to see where I fell short, which is different from thinking that I am superior to you, so I don't want to bother arguing with you. That wouldn't do.

Nowadays people disregard goodness before evilness. They only consider who ends up gaining the upper hand or who is the capable one, even though such thoughts are against high-level principles.

In my day-to-day life, if someone takes advantage of me and causes me to lose out, I always try to keep my heart unmoved. As Master Li said in Zhuan Falun:

“Rather, you are to practice while part of this world and stay alert to all of its pitfalls around you; to knowingly get shortchanged and be indifferent to it; to not fight with people when they try to take what’s yours; to keep your composure when people do things that are trying; and to, in this adverse setting, strengthen your will, perfect your character, and rise above all of the bad and worldly tendencies of thought that you are exposed to.” (The Eighth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Master also said:

“You know, people who have reached the level of an Arhat won’t take anything they encounter to heart. Nothing among everyday people will bother them—they’re always jovial, and they’re all smiles no matter how big a loss they suffer. If you’re able to do that, you have reached the initial Attainment Status of an Arhat.” (“Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Jinan” in Zhuan Falun Fajie)

I often recited these parts of the Fa, especially while having a xinxing test. Through constantly remembering the words, I calmed down and managed to let go of the resentment in my heart—it was then replaced by compassion and kindness.

Being Tolerant Also Shows Respect to Others

No matter how tiny a being is, it was created by the heavens. There is kindness and evilness in everyone. Especially in today's society, the morality of people poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party culture has declined a lot. It is pointless to complain about them or feel pity for them. Master asks us to help save everyday people. Only when we do not harbor any evil thoughts toward anyone can we possess the compassion to save them.

Compassion Is Only Achieved Through Solid Cultivation

At the current stage, I think that for one to become compassionate, one needs to consistently recite the Fa. Secondly, one needs to eliminate any hatred in one's heart as well as the Party culture. One also needs to maintain righteous thinking at all times. Lastly, one needs to eliminate one's jealousy. Master said,

“If you can’t rid yourself of jealousy it will undermine all of the work you have done on your character.” (The Seventh Talk, Zhuan Falun)

When I thought about it more closely, I realized most of my attachments were rooted in jealousy.

I once did an experiment and closely watched my every thought and action to see if they were aligned with the Fa. I suddenly realized that the root of every thought that deviated from the Fa was caused by jealousy. And it was not as simple as some practitioners think, which is, if others are better than me, I won't be jealous. Master has articulated it very clearly:

“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.An enlightened person has no attachments at all.He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions.”(“Realms” in Essentials for Further Advancement)

Which is to say, when we complain, feel things are unfair, feel we have been wronged, look down upon others, or get upset when our ideas are rejected, these reactions all result from jealousy.

If we dig into it a bit more, we'd find a show-off mentality, feeling superior to others, competitiveness, being arrogant, indifferent, thinking highly of oneself, stubbornness, hatred, paying too much attention to details. All of these also come from jealousy.

I realized that if one can't manage to eliminate jealousy, one's compassion would not arise, and one wouldn't be tolerant either.