I would like to share a precious memory of mine with fellow practitioners. While with a group of local practitioners we had the privilege of having Teacher lecture to us. During a short moment of silence when Teacher was about to conclude the Fa [law and principles in the Buddha School] lecture, I suddenly noticed that the appearance of the female practitioners in the front rows had miraculously changed. While astonished, I took a second look at them. (I am certain this was not a vision from another dimension because my Celestial Eye is sealed.) I discovered that their appearances had actually changed! They had become so beautiful that it was beyond human language to describe. No cosmetic work of this world could create such an incredible transformation. Being where I was, those practitioners in the front rows were the only ones visible to me . Nonetheless I presume that the appearances of all the practitioners who attended the Fa lecture might have undergone the same type of transformation. It’s quite a pity I am unable to draw and that I had no camera at the time. Because at last, after having overcome tremendous tribulations, dangers and challenges, and having undergone countless rounds of incarnations, we finally had this once-in-a-million-years opportunity to meet Teacher within such a close distance. It was as though their human appearances had been temporarily replaced with those of a Buddha, emitting divine radiance.
All this time and I had not realized how beautiful my fellow practitioners truly were!
A long time ago, we may have knelt down before Teacher and made a pledge. We pledged to Teacher that we would risk our lives descending to the human realm, that we would brave the infinite rounds of incarnations and samsara [1], and that we would risk being contaminated by karma, attachments and degeneration for the sole purpose of assisting Teacher with the Fa-rectification and offering sentient beings Teacher’s salvation at the most critical moment of the universe. We didn’t come here only to cultivate ourselves and remove our personal attachments. After all, next to our magnificent aspiration and pledge, our secular attachments are nothing at all. These human attachments can vanish as swiftly as the transformation of my fellow practitioners’ appearances. We become absorbed in demonic illusions when we fail to be impervious to fellow practitioners’ attachments. Also, along with the fact that we should prioritize our mission of assisting Teacher with the Fa-rectification, we should keep assimilating ourselves to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, and cultivate ourselves with our main consciousnesses. The process of removing our attachments may be a difficult challenge. But I have noticed that we have become increasingly tolerant of fellow practitioners’ attachments while being increasingly true and strict with our own cultivation.
I have become ever more convinced that when a person becomes boundlessly compassionate, in their surrounding environment all selfish and degenerate elements will be rectified. I have also discovered that when I become more compassionate, I become more tolerant and generous, and my righteous thoughts become more powerful when eliminating evil in other dimensions. I suppose that as one is able to make a clear distinction between good and evil, one’s righteous thoughts will become more powerful as well. This is a principle that everyday people may not be able to understand. No matter how good an everyday person may be, there must be some selfishness in him. Even the cultivators in the past might have been unable to comprehend our cultivation practice whose ultimate goal is to “...attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (From “Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature” in Essentials for Further Advancement) It would have been difficult for those cultivators to understand the principles that Falun Gong practitioners put into practice such as not taking credit for one’s own achievements and success. I feel that, as beings forged by Teacher and Dafa, we have manifested such a high level of compassion, selflessness and kindness that it has never been witnessed before and might never happen again with future cultivators. I am immensely grateful that we are Lord Buddha’s disciples and I believe we shall be Lord Buddha’s disciples for all eternity!
Becoming more perceptive of others’ merits and to our own weaknesses is the very type of progress that the evil beings and old forces fear, but on the other hand is what Teacher is most pleased with. The evil has been lurking in the darkness, intently waiting for the opportunity to exploit upon our lack of unity or diligence. But profound compassion has freed us from the old forces arrangements. We are becoming more resistant to the old forces interferences. Also, we have more control of our capabilities, and have indeed begun to travel the world with a free and easy spirit!
I am increasingly convinced that compassion is really omnipotent and that if I truly believe in Teacher I should cultivate my inner self!
Note:
[1] Samsara: The six paths of reincarnation in Buddhism. (One may become a human being, an animal, a plant, or other forms of matter through reincarnation.)
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