The Importance of Cultivating Speech

(Minghui.org) Because of the long-standing issue among local practitioners of not cultivating speech, a strange phenomenon has emerged. When one practitioner tells another something, it quickly becomes known to everyone.

What’s even more unusual is that this “everyone” does not include the practitioner(s) directly involved in the matter, as others won’t speak to them directly, believing they should cultivate their speech. But behind their backs the others speak freely and boldly.

In my understanding, this behavior contradicts what Master Li taught about cultivating speech and goes against the principles of Truthfulness and Compassion.

This situation lingered in our area, and small circles were formed among practitioners, unintentionally creating divisions. Unverified gossip spread, fueled by attachments to others’ attachments—practitioners focused on others’ shortcomings while displaying their own show-off mentality, jealousy, and a sense of superiority.

Some practitioners even speculated about an alleged affair between a male and female practitioner and spread the hearsay, thus lowering their own levels and generating karma in the process.

One day at lunchtime, a male practitioner saw a female practitioner at the farmer’s market, and they talked about the illegal detention of the man’s wife.

The woman was in a hurry to return to her store, but she wanted to continue exchanging understandings, so she said, “Aren’t you alone? I’m also by myself (she meant she didn’t have to take care of anyone at that moment), so let’s have lunch at my store.” She meant that she could watch the store while eating and exchanging understandings. The man declined, and the two parted ways.

The female practitioner didn’t give much thought to the situation. However, the male practitioner misunderstood her intentions, thinking she had lustful motives. When his wife was released, he told her that he passed the test of lust. Later, the matter was passed on to the female practitioner, and the original words became distorted into, “You’re alone, I’m alone, let’s have lunch together.”

When she heard this she wasn’t able to maintain her xinxing, and became extremely angry.

This shows that the male practitioner misunderstood the female practitioner’s intentions. Of course, the female practitioner also bore some responsibility by not speaking precisely, which led to the misunderstanding.

As practitioners, we should view things with righteous thoughts, and certainly not spread negative news. If we think something that’s normal is abnormal, the more we analyze it, the more it will appear that way.

This is similar to the story of a man who lost his ax and thought his neighbor’s son stole it. Every gesture and action of the boy seemed to confirm his guilt. However, when the man later found his ax, and saw the boy again, the boy’s gestures and actions no longer seemed to be those of a thief.

I hadn’t planned to write this article, but I then remembered what Master said:

“This is because everything within the dimensional field around his body will transform according to his thoughts, which is called “transformation follows mind-intent.”” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)

I realized that when fellow practitioners talk about others’ inadequacies, or spread untrue information, the moment they begin to think about it, negative substances start to evolve in their own dimensional field. When they pass on this information, they are spreading that negative substance to others. When they do this, they are truly harming others as well as themselves.

We often observe other practitioners experiencing interference, such as drowsiness when they read the Fa or send righteous thoughts, sickness karma, and so on, yet they are unable to find the reason this happens when they look inward. Does spreading rumors about them help them?

It’s not wrong to talk about our understandings of the Fa and our cultivation experiences. We should consider how many more cultivation opportunities we have. Do we still have a chance to form a unified one body before the end of the Fa-rectification? Everyone, myself included, should reflect on this.

I wrote this article with the intention of exchanging understandings with other practitioners and improving. Please have tolerance and understanding for other practitioners. If you see this behavior in other practitioners please refrain from blaming them or complaining about them. When everyone learns from this, the incident becomes a process of cultivation.

Let’s not generate new attachments that would give the negative factors an excuse to interfere with us. We should control our speech and correct any incorrect thoughts we have, and be responsible for ourselves and other practitioners.

This concludes my limited understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper.