(Minghui.org) In recent articles, Master Li (Falun Dafa’s founder) talked about resentment in some practitioners. I’ve seen examples of practitioners falling in levels or turning to the dark side because of this attachment.
One practitioner said after serving a labor camp term, “I shouldn’t be cultivating this way.” Although he didn’t blame Master directly, his words implied that Master didn’t protect him and made him suffer.
Master long told us long ago:
“The enlightened beings think that the more one suffers, the better, as one should speed up repaying one’s debts. This is what they think. Some people do not understand and begin to complain to the Buddha if their praying does not work, “Why don’t you help me? I burn incense and kowtow to you every day.” Some people will throw the Buddha statue to the ground because of this and start to condemn Buddha thereafter. As a result of this condemnation, his xinxing drops, and his gong disappears. This person knows that everything is gone, so he resents Buddha even more, believing that the Buddha is ruining him. He evaluates Buddha’s xinxing with an ordinary person’s criteria. How can that comparison be made? How can it work if a person views high-level things with the standards of everyday people? Therefore, this kind of problem tends to arise when people regard their suffering in life as being unfair. Many people drop down this way.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I think that, whatever we encounter, whether it was arranged by the old forces or not, we need to maintain our righteous thoughts. We cultivate in delusion and there is no way for us to see clearly the true reasons for things. We need to have complete faith in Master. Maybe we can’t understand or comprehend Master’s arrangement at the moment, but our faith in Master and the Fa can’t waver. Only by studying the Fa more can we understand more Fa principles and make improvements. Maybe, as time passes, we will understand the reasons behind things.
I used to think that I didn’t have resentment. But recent experiences changed that assumption. In the school where I work, because of limited manpower, my supervisor arranged for me to assume responsibilities not related to teaching. I thought it was unfair and he could have asked someone else to do it. Although on the surface it appeared that it didn’t bother me, I kept thinking about transferring to another department or finding a new job. Isn’t that resentment and jealousy?
Also, my students this year were very cold to me, despite all the time and effort I’d spent trying to teach them. In the past, my students all liked me very much and asked a lot of questions. I was disappointed when that didn’t happen. Now I realize that I was seeking to be popular with the students. When I wasn’t, I became resentful. The root cause of this resentment is human sentimentality.
When Master published the articles, it must have been that many practitioners had developed such attachments. We should all actively look within and make good use of whatever opportunities arise to correct ourselves.