Examining Our Own Mindsets When Helping Practitioners Overcome Tribulations

(Minghui.org) An older fellow practitioner was experiencing a tribulation of sickness karma without any sign of recovery. Groups of practitioners came to help, “You should do this …!” Then another group of practitioners came and told him, “You should act like that …!” The practitioners gave advice in different ways, and some were quite demanding. However, the practitioner passed away.

Since I knew that practitioner quite well, I was sad and felt regret. At the same time, deep in my heart, I also had negative thoughts about him, “He had poor enlightenment. If his righteous thought was strong, he wouldn’t have passed away.”

A few years later, I realized I was wrong. I was always self-centered then. It seemed that I was thinking of others, when, in fact, I only focused on my own understanding. I strongly felt, “If he had listened to me, he wouldn’t have passed away.” I realized there were quite a few other practitioners who had the same thoughts.

Whenever a fellow practitioner experiences a sickness karma test, or a xinxing test, we should position ourselves well. We shouldn’t consider ourselves a doctor and offer a treatment plan. Moreover, if there is not effective communication, then what we say counts for nothing. We mustn’t be anxious about a practitioner’s loopholes; we are cultivating, so we won’t have a smooth path. The critical aspect is what we really care about and what we try to correct and comment on. Do we have any unnoticed human attachments? Even if there is no attachment, our suggestions only work when the practitioner who is in trouble listens to us and corrects himself. 

For a long time, this is how I acted: Whenever I heard that someone had trouble passing a test, I immediately wanted to instruct them. Later, I wondered why I had this attachment. I realized it was an attachment to self. I felt that my cultivation status was alright, and that I had a positive reputation among practitioners. I realized this was a big problem because I had developed a big ego. I tended to compare other practitioners’ shortcomings to my strengths and felt I was better.

I talked too much and frequently criticized others. I often boasted about how I passed tests. I was too complacent. As a cultivator, I should be clear that, regardless of how well I have done the three things and how well others commented about me, my cultivation is guided by Dafa and protected by Master. Without Master’s protection and hints, I might have already lost my life, as I was very sick before I practiced Falun Dafa. Everything we have achieved is because of Master. Only by our keeping calm and clear minded are others willing to listen to us, and are we able to see our own problems, and let go of our attachments.

Whenever we see other practitioners' problems, it might be an illusion. We mustn’t consider ourselves to be higher than others. Instead, we can ask, “What can I do for you?” If we are compassionate, it will give fellow practitioners encouragement that may help them stand up and pass the tests. If we say, “This is wrong, that is wrong,” it will put more pressure on the fellow practitioner and force them into a dead end. 

I also realized that when we try to help fellow practitioners, we should put ourselves in their shoes and be considerate of them. Our attitude should reflect our compassion. Our voice should not be too loud, and we must not be commanding. Only when we are very kind, would a fellow practitioner be willing to share with us and trust us. And when they want to talk to us about something they are ashamed of, we should cultivate our speech. If we talk to others about the fellow practitioner’s problems, we are being irresponsible, which works to ruin the practitioner. This is why some practitioners didn’t want to share their problems, even right before they died. It is because they didn’t trust anyone and didn’t dare to talk about their problems because they were worried everyone would know about their problems.

We must all strive to do better, rather than being complacent or even judgmental, feeling we are doing better than others by comparison. Don’t thoughts like these reveal that we are not doing as well as we thought? Helping our fellow practitioners is a cultivation process that also helps us to improve in our cultivation and understanding of the Fa.