How Might Our Dafa Students Learn to Deal With Each Other More Respectfully?

1. Abandon underlying notions

Many differences of opinion are still prevailing among practitioners. These are due to notions which we have not yet abandoned. That is the reason for many of them still assuming that their ideas, their projects and their comprehensions, and other things, are indispensable for the Fa-rectification efforts and must therefore be put into effect, no matter what. Anything that blocks their progress along the way is considered “interference”

In Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference Master said, “For a long time now some students just haven't gotten rid of their fundamental attachments! And as things have piled up, at the end they aren't able to overcome them and their tribulations get big. When problems occur, instead of searching for problems in their xinxing, fundamentally improving themselves, or truly letting go of the matter and coming through in an open and dignified manner by another route, they focus on the thing at hand--"Goodness… why is it that I still can't overcome this thing? I've done better today, so it should have improved a little. Tomorrow I'll do even better and it should improve some more." He can never let go of that thing. On the surface it appears that he's letting it go--"Look, I'm doing well now." You're doing well now but you are doing well now for its sake. You aren't doing that for the purpose of doing what a true Dafa disciple should do!”

2. Recognising the Methods of the Old Forces

How can we truly step out of humanness? That, of course, is not so simple. We are still living in this world, among everyday people, surrounded by the pursuit of money and fame. We are still within the scope of the Three Realms, still crawling among the molecules, in the dirt, as the Gods would say. We are daily awash in emotions; as soon as our proper, upright thoughts slack off, these emotions can penetrate our body’s surface layer that is not yet allied with the rest of the other parts.

We are directed, again and again, to totally and completely negate the arrangements the old forces have made. Only recently, on June 22, 2003, Master has given us new instructions in Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference, “Now that I've talked about it, you know about it, and having a clear objective when you send righteous thoughts will do. There's no need to think about things that are too specific. Have this objective in mind: Completely end the old forces' involvement. (Enthusiastic applause)”

Master explained for us more thoroughly the arrangements of the old powers during his travels teaching around the USA, “Since I don't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements and I don't acknowledge this persecution, and since the old forces have separated the surface and Dafa disciples' original natures, there are a lot of things Dafa disciples can't do anything about, and their surfaces are manipulated by evil beings and have been driven to do some bad things--which is because they have attachments that have been taken advantage of by the evil beings--so I will extract Dafa disciples' original natures.”

Let’s apply this arrangement to our Dafa disciples – we are all still here; we still have this shell of a human body that has yet to be assimilated. This body still harbours notions; karma is still present, as are human emotions. Sometimes the superficial things appear powerful and things look terrible. Once we look behind the façade, then we become aware of the other person’s true nature – we see the side that is their true spirit. Master said during the North America Lecture Tour “So for you, personal Consummation is minor. You have cultivated multiple times in history, and have gone through journeys like this in many time periods. The current test of your reaching the standard for personal Consummation isn't a big deal at all. That's the standard for measuring how much of Dafa you grasp. Your process of personal cultivation and Consummation was actually laying a foundation for your safeguarding the Fa and validating the Fa later on.”

3. Developing Mutual Respect

Master further explained in the North America Lecture Tour how we came to hear the Fa,
“…you are very different from any cultivation method in the past and from the cultivators in the past, for your missions are great. The Fa of the cosmos is being taught here--who would come to listen to the Fa? And what would those beings who would listen to the Fa do? All these things have greater significance. I've said that Dafa disciples are magnificent. In fact, the responsibilities you shoulder are quite large. You only know that some students made pacts with me in the past. When the truth is, there are a lot of other students who came from other cosmic colossal firmaments that are extremely distant and extremely vast, and they came to establish a karmic relationship. And there are also some people who entered while Dafa was being spread this time, because the door has been wide open and a lot of people with fairly good inborn quality have entered, too. So, these are the three categories our Dafa disciples mainly belong to.”

If we would consider where we come from, what our mission is to be, in short, what it means to be a “Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple” then we will figure out really quickly that we must consider all our fellow cultivators with great respect. If we can do this, the momentary notions that come up don’t bother us any longer, because we can then recognise that there is a great being [hidden] behind the façade. We can thus learn to express our thoughts with the mindset of a future enlightened being, and to understand the other person. And what happens to the notions/attachments that, a moment ago, were so all-encompassing and mighty? Those notions disappear in an instant, as if they had never existed.

Occasionally, when I read in a group with other practitioners and my heart is clear and pure, I sometimes let my eyes rove over the attendees in the room. Oftentimes I cannot hold back my tears, because I see a great being sitting there, each one of them with their capabilities, their own principles formed and confirmed during cultivation, founded in the Fa. It is then I experience tremendous respect, a great respect for all fellow cultivators.

Translated from German at http://de.clearharmony.net/articles/200308/11145.html