Cultivating Diligently: Letting Go of Resentment and Notions

(Mingui.org) Greetings, esteemed Master and fellow practitioners!

I felt very uncomfortable about the way a practitioner shared his experience after we finished Fa study one day several years ago. I didn’t interrupt him because of my superficial forbearance and courtesy. However, I kept laughing at him in my heart.

When I came home, the four characters of “Divine body was injured” came into my mind. That was no joke. I felt uncomfortable all over my body for some time. I felt pain here and there. My cultivation state didn’t come back to normal until one day I attended the group Fa study in the Northern suburb.

I paid a lot of attention to my thoughts when it came to other practitioners since then. I dared not to hold on to my negative thoughts about other people.

Practitioners’ Behavior Is Like a Mirror for Me

Cultivation means constant improvement. I didn’t like Mr. Liu (pseudonym), a practitioner in my group. When I read any of his writings that I didn’t agree with, my attachment materialized. I felt resentful toward him. On one occasion I opposed his idea directly while he was sharing in the group. I thought I was responsible for the Fa and our cultivation environment. I felt that our thoughts must be righteous among practitioners in our group. Unrighteous thoughts shouldn’t play a major role.

I couldn’t say that my thoughts were incorrect. But my heart became unbalanced. When Mr. Liu spoke, I felt agitated. From then on I felt unhappy as soon as I saw his name. This was not the cultivation state a practitioner should have. How could I get rid of this attachment? I was worried.

Master is looking after us all the time. Master hinted one day with this thought: “You actually are the same as him.” I was surprised. I turned out to be just like him when it came to cultivation.

I calmed down and looked within. Actually, it was indeed the case. I had a strong ego. I thought of myself highly just as Mr. Liu did. He was like a mirror to me. Whatever attachment I had, Mr. Liu had. Thus, it was shown to me so I could eliminate it. But I had looked outwardly and didn’t cultivate myself. Now, I knew and found my problem. The bad material around me was removed. I no longer had bad thoughts about him when I saw him.

Compassion Emerged after Changing Mentality and Letting Go of Sentimentality

Soon I had unpleasant thoughts about Ms. Wang (pseudonym), who is on my project team. I even felt angered when she made a speech. It was an opportunity for me to improve my xinxing. I had formed a notion about her when we were on the same project some time ago. When I saw her again, my mind was churning. I looked down upon her and disliked her.

I looked within. It must be the heart of jealousy. I felt that she was not in line with my notion. But that was not my fundamental attachment. Later on when I was reading Zhuan Falun, Master hinted directly.

Master said,

“Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)

I judged a person according to my thinking. It was sentimentality. It was selfish. Practitioners must let go of sentimentality, consider others first and treat everyone with compassion.

I was very impressed by the article “Breaking Free of the Emotion of Anger” that was published on the Minghui website. The author saw that when angry, a person was under the control of a floating substance. If one was able to overcome the effect of the substance, one would not be angry at all. The anger came from outside, not from any part of our true selves. Anger was a human emotion, and such an emotion was not part of our true selves. We should go beyond the constrictions of emotion and cultivate compassion. It was of utmost importance to distinguish our true selves from human sentimentality.

I realized that my stubborn notion caused my anger. I liked capable people whose logic, manners, efficiency and thoughts were in line with my criteria.

Master said,

“A notion, once formed, will control you for the duration of your life, influencing your thinking and even the full gamut of emotions, such as your happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy. It is formed postnatally. If this thing persists for some time, it will become part of a person’s thinking, melding into the brain of that person’s true self, at which point it will shape his temperament.” (“Buddha Nature,” Zhuan Falun Volume II)

So I had been clinging to the notion of an elite and regarded it as a criterion to judge a person. I thought it was part of myself. It actually was formed postnatally and it was selfish. It didn’t belong to my true self. I should dispel it. I was driven by those postnatal things to dislike other people, and then generate resentment and hatred to disturb myself.

Master said,

“The extremely, extremely microscopic particles that compose the human body make up the nature of a human being, something that never changes. When the boundaries that confine a person’s thinking are removed, man’s kind disposition, temperament, character, and traits become readily apparent, and that is the true you.” (“Buddha Nature,” Zhuan Falun Volume II)

I understood that “Accomplishing is cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin) Cultivation is a process of constantly looking within and rejecting bad substances. When Master sees that we are genuinely cultivating, he will help us eliminate them, allowing us to elevate.

Being Tolerant and Achieving Results Together

I enlightened to the Fa that at these ending times, every being in the old universe is at the end stage of this eliminating period. Practitioners must come out of the end-time chaos, cleanse the bad substances in the body, rectify everything and then be moved to the new cosmos. If every being was so great, we wouldn’t need to cultivate. From this perspective, isn’t it normal that practitioners have shortcomings?

Take me as an example. I have many shortcomings. Master doesn’t give up on me. Who dislikes and rejects Dafa practitioners? The old forces and the like. The only criteria to measure a person is the universal characteristics of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The old forces, however, measure everything by their own notions and then eliminate the beings that they look down upon. I am a Dafa disciple and not part of the old forces. So I shouldn’t behave like them.

When I clarify the truthabout Falun Dafa to people, I am unconditionally compassionate. I hope they will choose a good future for themselves. So what if they are practitioners? I should help practitioners unconditionally. Whatever shortcomings the practitioners have, I want them to succeed in cultivation and help them complete their cultivation. I should encompass them.

Every practitioner has different innate traits that are derived from the universal characteristics of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They also have karma that separates us. We have to eliminate it via tribulations during the cultivation process. Why should I look down upon others? Other practitioners might not have the strength that I have. But, I might not have the characteristics they have which comply with the universal characteristics. If I could tolerate them and encompass them with compassion, we could encourage each other and accomplish what is expected of us.

I am enlightened that this is validating the Fa power of automatic restoration and all-encompassing and eternal Fa-principles. It can rectify everything that is not righteous or not good and restore it to the best. If I can be tolerant and forbear and become selfless and considerate, the Fa power will naturally rectify the elements that are not righteous, harmonize the universe and make the universe unbreakable like a diamond and become eternal.

Cultivating Myself While Helping Practitioners

The Minghui website holds an annual online Fahui to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on May 13. This is an opportunity Master gives us and enables us to present the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa to the world’s people, validate the Fa and save sentient beings. I submit articles every year. Almost all of my articles were published either as an article to celebrate Falun Dafa Day or published on the Minghui website. Sometimes I forgot that I had written the article. When I saw it again on Minghui, I was very encouraged.

I felt I didn’t have any new stories about myself to write this year. Other practitioners’ stories were more wonderful and touching They haven’t written them down. During a big group Fa study sharing, I invited local practitioners to write down their precious cultivating stories. I remembered one sharing article published on the Minghui website about what a practitioner saw in another dimension that every wonderful article was like a stunning dancer. When the editor edited the articles, it was as if the editor helped the dancers do make-up and adjust their dresses, Then the dancers went onto the stage to perform to save sentient beings.

After my sharing, some practitioners indeed wrote articles and asked me to revise them. Their words were simple yet their gratitude to Master was very evident. I was very moved. I dared not slack off. Their articles witnessed their path to Godhood. I must revise them whole-heartedly and help complete good articles.

Not Giving Up While Coming Across Difficulties

Practitioner Yu (pseudonym) clarified the truth to people diligently and looked within while in conflicts. She should have many stories to write. I invited her to write and told her that it was for everyday people to read and should not be like an experience-sharing article. When I received her article, it was of an experience content. So, what should I do? She was very busy and didn’t go to bed until the early hours the following morning. Could she write another article?

I became anxious, but I calmed down. I felt that she could write again. I left a message for her. She was a bit annoyed and said that she had nothing else to write. It might be that time was not right for her. But two days later, she sent me another article. Luckily I shared with her. Finally, we had two versions of her article.

A lot of practitioners didn’t write before the deadline. I hesitated to share again after the group Fa study. My cultivation state was not good that day. The deadline for the articles was just around the corner. Was it worth reminding them again? My heart to validate the Fa and save sentient beings prevailed. I tried my best to share with the practitioners. I hoped that they would grasp this opportunity. I was upset after I shared. I didn’t think I spoke well and was not sure if my sharing was of any use.

That afternoon one practitioner told me accidentally that she was touched by my sharing in the morning. She thought she couldn’t write because she worked on a farm. But now she wanted to write. I encouraged her and said that it was not for ourselves but for sentient beings and that practitioners should do things to validate the Fa. As a result, she wrote a one-thousand-word article.

She said that Master rewarded her after she finished writing her sharing article. Her adult child offered to contribute money to the family. She enlightened that while she took the responsibility as a practitioner to write the sharing article, her non-practitioner family member took her responsibility for the family.

When I finished editing other practitioners’ articles and sent them off to the website, Master also encouraged me. I felt many bad substances were eliminated. I felt a jump forward in my cultivation. This was something I didn’t expect. I did what I should do. Master gave me the best.

I wish all Dafa practitioners of the Fa-rectification period would fulfill their historic mission of assisting Master to rectify the Fa and proceed to the moment of the glorious time of the Fa rectifying the human world!

Thank you Master, and fellow practitioners!

(Presented at the 2021 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)