Treating Fellow Practitioners with Compassion

One day after I came back to my dormitory, I indignantly criticized a specific Falun Gong practitioner for his not being compassionate to others. A fellow practitioner who was busy preparing materials in support of Falun Gong laid down the VCDs in her hands and sat on the opposite side of the bed, listening to my complaints. Inadvertently I turned my head and looked at her. I saw her looking at me, kindly and serenely. She didn't side with me or criticize me for my shortcomings.

At that very moment I felt the compassion of a genuine Falun Dafa practitioner, which was peaceful, unintentional, in accordance with Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, beyond the realm of ordinary people's emotions, and not moved by ordinary people's attachments. She helped me to see that my complaints and accusations were against Falun Dafa's principles and wrong, and I was able to see them as shortcomings in my cultivation. I stopped complaining and was moved to tears.

In the past, several other practitioners and I had taken the work of clarifying the truth and persuading people to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations as cultivation, a mentality derived from our incorrect understanding. Furthermore, we took ourselves as Falun Dafa practitioners for having studied the teachings and understood, to some degrees, certain principles of the Falun Gong teachings, that is the Fa). We thus thought we could view things from the perspective of the Fa. We thought that helping others by pointing out their mistakes was our being good to others, but we had failed to search within ourselves first when encountering problems. Our lack of solid cultivation prevented us from harmoniously working together. Upon encountering problems, we always searched externally and tried to find others' shortcomings. Even if one had searched for the gaps that had existed in one's character, one still wanted to emphasize, "Although I am wrong, he is not right either." We had failed to "unconditionally search within ourselves." During that time gaps constantly arose causing difficulties to what we were trying to achieve. One day we found out that agents from the police station planned to investigate us, and it was then that we finally started to coordinate better and use our righteous thoughts to foil their plan. Since then, we have gradually improved as cultivators.

Our attitude toward others actually reflect our own realm of thought and does not indicate if others have problems. If we have truly melted ourselves into the Fa, we will certainly be able to treat each other with compassion.

After watching the video Falun Dafa--Teaching the Fa to Australian Falun Dafa Practitioners, I am determined to do better in my cultivation to become a practitioner who will solidly cultivate his heart and mind. I will search within myself upon encountering problems and treat fellow practitioners and sentient beings with compassion.