(Minghui.org) I recently heard that several fellow practitioners either passed away or experienced life-threatening situations. The reason behind each of these tribulations was complicated, but I noticed that the old forces persecute cultivators who are resentful. Cultivation is serious, and I’ve seen that practitioners who harbor resentment encounter difficult tribulations. I would like to remind practitioners to pay attention to eliminating resentment.
Resentment is contrary to the universe’s characteristics of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Resentment prevents us from saving sentient beings with compassion and creates huge barriers among fellow practitioners. In severe cases, some practitioners may even blame Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) and Dafa for their tribulations. I realized that resentment manifests itself as negative thoughts in our human world, but in other dimensions, it represents evil beings or material elements, such as communism. If we cannot eliminate these things in time, it can damage or even destroy the celestial bodies of our universe.
Many practitioners know that resentment is not good, but they have difficulty eliminating it completely. I’d like to share my understanding of the issue based on my recent experiences.
I know very well that resentment towards others is wrong, but I could not eliminate it. These thoughts were not compliant with Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and I should have rejected and eliminated them when they appeared. However, I felt very passive even though I knew I was far from reaching the standard of a cultivator.
Master said,
“Forbearance is the key to improving one’s xinxing. To endure with anger, grievance, or tears is the forbearance of an everyday person who is attached to his concerns. To endure completely without anger or grievance is the forbearance of a cultivator.” (“What is Forbearance (Ren)?” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I discussed my concerns with another practitioner. He said, “How can you blame others? The issues are a result of you yourself not being able to reach the cultivation standard for too long, so other people behave this way to provide you with opportunities and conditions to improve. How can you blame others? You should be grateful to them! After you truly improve and reach the standard, would they treat you this way?”
His remarks shocked me. I never thought about this issue from this perspective, and I felt that Master was reminding me through this practitioner’s words. I really should thank all the people—practitioners and non-practitioners, who I thought “hurt” me, because they endured hardship and contributed to my improvement. Instead of blaming them, I should thank them! When I thought this way, I felt full of compassion and peace, but I was also sorry and apologetic because I harmed others. I found that my very stubborn human concept was shattered after my mindset changed. At that moment, I felt all the substances attached to resentment disintegrated.
From that day on I noticed that my resentment had weakened. Whenever it surfaced I could disintegrate it with one thought. I learned the importance of changing my mindset to get rid of resentment from this experience.
In Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, Master clearly explained the concept of gaining four ways in one shot and thanking the other party during conflicts. Although I’d read this passage so many times, I was never able to fully understand it due to a disconnect between studying the Fa and putting it into practice. I realized that this was a sign of my laziness in cultivation, or perhaps I was polluted by society. I placed more emphasis on fame, profit, and emotions rather than on the Fa, on cultivation, or returning to my true nature.
Because I wanted to improve and get out of my muddle-headed state, Master enlightened me.
One of the superficial causes of people’s resentment is because they feel that their reputation, fortune, and emotions have been harmed. When people are obsessed with worldly things, they value and hold onto all the interests they pursue, especially since in the human world, fame, profit, and emotions are very real. Cultivators are the opposite of everyday people so we don’t go after worldly things. The purpose of being a human being is to return to our true nature instead of seeking fame, profit, and emotion. Everything in the human world is an illusion; it’s a place created for cultivation.
If we can maintain this understanding and remind ourselves that we are cultivators when our attachments to reputation, profit, and emotions are at stake, we will no longer consider the situation that brings us pain to be a bad thing, but a good thing that provides us with opportunities to improve and gain four ways in one shot. Instead of resenting the other person, we should thank them.
All those people and situations that we thought had hurt us were actually providing us with conditions and opportunities to pave the way for our improvement, and were uplifting and perfecting us. We should understand that it wasn’t easy for those involved and we should thank them. If we can truly reach this state, resentment will be eliminated.
Of course, removing resentment also involves getting rid of jealousy and other human attachments. Every practitioner has his or her understanding of cultivation. I only wanted to share my realization after I changed my mindset.