(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in February 1996, and since then, I have always been participating in a group Fa-study.

I take reading the Fa very seriously. If any practitioner misreads a word, I correct it right away. This includes adding omitted words and correcting wrong tones due to accents, etc. In summary, all the practitioners in our group have been corrected by me at some point. In the beginning, I felt I was right while correcting their mistakes. However, I didn’t realize that most practitioners disliked my approach.

During one group Fa study, when I pointed out a fellow practitioner’s mistake, she didn’t correct her reading, instead, she said, “Do you know you make me really nervous when you sit by me and always correct me.”

I felt very bad and immediately realized I was wrong. Everyone is a particle in the Fa, and when we get along with each other, the field is harmonious and peaceful. In that situation, there must have been something for me to get rid of if other practitioners are nervous to see me.

As I was looking inward, other practitioners started to criticize me. One group member said, “I was thinking about this last night. I think you are wrong. You shouldn’t correct us no matter how we read the Fa.”

Another practitioner said, “When I was listening to others reading the Fa, I was about to understand some of the Fa principles. However, at that moment, your correcting distracted me.”

A third practitioner said, “You just pay attention to others’ mistakes, while you couldn’t concentrate on studying the Fa yourself. How can you understand the Fa?”

As they were sharing, I noticed my attachments to saving face, the competitive mentality, and feeling superior. My heart was moved, and I stopped looking inward. I realized I didn’t tolerate anyone who badmouthed Dafa, just because I had the strength to uphold the truth.

However, I was overly concerned with correcting fellow practitioners’ mistakes in reading the Fa because I felt Dafa is too sacred. Adding or omitting a word would alter the Fa. As Dafa practitioners, we should be responsible for the Fa when reading the Fa. So I, initially, didn’t realize what was wrong with my correcting them?

Before my resentment subsided, I discovered that I had developed the human notion of looking down on the practitioner sitting next to me. I had a judgment about her because she was a teacher but didn’t set a good example by misreading words when studying the Fa. I also felt she did not even step forward to validate Dafa. I even had the thought that it was good she obtained the Fa late, otherwise, she would not have stood up for Dafa during the most severe period of persecution.

I then reluctantly told everyone that it was my fault, and they all read correctly. After I returned home, I still couldn’t calm down and fall asleep that night. I was very frustrated. I recalled that a retired elementary school principal attended another Fa study group. Those practitioners often read words wrong. He tried to point out their mistakes but there were just too many mistakes. So he had to quit studying the Fa with them. I comforted myself with the thought that the principal didn’t continue correcting their reading and why should I? From then on, I would just keep my mouth shut.

I didn’t realize my own problem and just felt negatively about the criticism. Although I no longer corrected their mistakes, my heart didn’t calm down. However, the other practitioners thought I had looked inward and even encouraged me, “See how much change you have made. In the past, when you sent righteous thoughts, you were not able to keep your palms in the upright position. Now you can and you sit straight as well. This is because you looked inward and stopped correcting us.”

I felt what they said was ridiculous. I laughed with a sense of sarcasm and self-righteousness. But I knew there were some bad substances behind the laugh. After I got home, I asked Master to strengthen my righteous thoughts and disintegrate any thought or action that didn’t align with Dafa.

Gradually, my mindset changed. When I rejoined the group, I began to realize that many members were from the countryside and, naturally, they have accents. I should think differently. As long as they don’t add or omit a word, it should be okay. Otherwise, I am validating myself.

Master said,

“Some people are always stressing that they’re right, but even if you are right, even if you’re not wrong, so what? Have you improved on the basis of the Fa? The very act of using human thinking to stress who’s right and who’s wrong is in itself wrong. That’s because you are then using the logic of ordinary people to evaluate yourself, and using that logic to make demands on others. As gods see it, for a cultivator to be right or wrong in the human world is not important in the least, whereas eliminating the attachments that come from human thinking is important, and it is precisely your managing to eliminate those attachments rooted in your human thinking as you cultivate that counts as important.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)

I kept looking inward, and I found I often paid attention to other practitioners’ status in society. For example, the teacher should set a good example. A retired school principal couldn’t stand others reading mistakes. Why should I put so much importance on people’s diplomas and academic qualifications?

It’s because I was discriminating, and I looked down on the practitioners in our study group because they had lower education and were not humble enough to ask for my advice.

I once disagreed with a fellow practitioner and even shouted that it’s terrible to have less education.

I became aware of my attachment to self-righteousness, looking down on others, and validating myself. Over these years, I have joined many Fa study groups. I have corrected fellow practitioners’ mistakes in reading the Fa many times. However, it was not a problem with other Fa study groups. Why did practitioners in this group complain to me? The reason had something to do with my shortcomings!

Master said,

“If everyone is good to one another without conflicts of interest or interference from the human mind, and if all you do is just sit there, how can your xinxing improve? That wouldn’t do. One must truly temper and improve oneself through actual practice.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

I thank Master Li for his compassionate salvation. If He didn’t arrange for me to join this Fa study group, many of my attachments would not have been exposed for me to get rid of. Since then, the separation between me and the other group members has disappeared. The atmosphere is harmonious, and we now go out together to clarify the truth afterward.