Thank you for everything, venerable Master.
Hello, fellow practitioners. I’m grateful for this chance to look within, to learn from you, and to share.
A small incident led me to look at my motives and behavior. A practitioner who I was working with called me, and I was pleased to see her name on my phone, because I like her. But she said, “If you have a problem with me, tell me directly,” in a way that I interpreted as angry. I felt shocked, and I was sad for a couple of days. The details are not important, but the conversation made me look at some of my attachments.
I had interwoven friendship and social gratification into my relationships with other practitioners. It was not just about cooperation and forming one body. It was qing, mixing human needs and preferences into my cultivation path. This was a serious mistake.
Master said in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun:
“If you want to practice cultivation, human sentimentality must be relinquished. Of course, in practicing cultivation in ordinary human society, we should respect parents and educate our children. Under all circumstances, we must be good and kind to others, not to mention our family members. We should treat everyone in the same way. We must be good and kind to others, not to mention to our family members. We should treat everyone in the same way. We must be good to our parents and children and be considerate of others in all respects. Such a heart is thus unselfish, and it is a heart of kindness and benevolence. Sentimentality is something of everyday people, and everyday people just live for it.”
So I understood that I had been looking forward to a fun chat with that person, as if she was a source of companionship or entertainment. It was not the thought of a cultivator.
I also realized that I had indeed done something impulsive and inconsiderate that affected her. I did not stop and think as I should have. In the future, I will check myself and consider others before taking actions or speaking.
Master said in Essentials for Further Advancement:
“From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. So from now on, whatever you do and whatever you say, you must consider others—or even future generations—along with Dafa’s eternal stability.”
Speaking of being good and kind to family members, I have a close family member who has grown atheistic and interested in technologies like genetic engineering and creating human/computer cybernetic organisms. He likes to read and talk about Ray Kurzweil’s ideas about the singularity, in which humans and computers will merge and become immortal. Of course, I do not think these ideas are good or true. Yet I am sure I should not debate them.
It felt painful to me when he would describe these ideas, or send me articles on the subjects. I felt anxious, frustrated, bored and impatient.
The discomfort was another manifestation of qing. Perhaps I was not thinking of him as a being to be saved, but as a family member. I noticed how much emotion I had about this, and resolved that it was an attachment to eliminate.
It’s embarrassing to say—I had been thinking “Shut up! These ideas are awful.” Though my surface remained pleasant, inside I was following my demon nature. I was not seeing him with compassion. I was also thinking, “why do I have to be in this environment?” as if I needed to be surrounded by other dizi [disciples] for my own comfort. It was another aspect of using relationships with other practitioners for my sentimental needs.
That person’s true self came here for Dafa, or Master would not have let him come to earth and be close to a practitioner. In my years of cultivating, he has been steadfast in supporting me in Dafa work—all my family have— and it shows how good they really are. They deserve the utmost kindness. Kindness would include not thinking disrespectful thoughts when any of them say things I do not like to hear.
I decided that next time he talked about atheism or the singularity I would send righteous thoughts. His knowing side probably does not want to be buried under these meretricious concepts. Not only that, how can I save him if my heart is so impure? Whether it’s a relative, or a stranger, or a friend, or a coworker, any person we come into contact with is a person we should approach them with shan. It was a serious problem if I allowed myself to feel impatient with that relative. I had to get rid of that. It became clear that my thoughts about both other practitioners and other regular people were mixed up with sentimentality and demon nature.
Master said in Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference:
“Actually, now that you’ve come to realize it, and have managed to see that you’ve been wrong, haven’t you improved? Just do your best to handle it right, study the Fa more, and naturally you will do well. Gradually it will become second nature for you, and you will be fine.”
Thank you again, great Master.
