What Master Wants Is Our Holistic Improvement

Recently an elderly Dafa practitioner in our region showed signs of sickness karma because of the attachments she could not let go of. She did not talk to other practitioners, and she had isolated herself for over two months. She did not participate in the local study group to study the Fa. When fellow Practitioner A later saw her, her weight had already dropped to a little over 60 kg from her original weight of over 75 kg. During the two months, her stomach could not take anything that she ate. Practitioner A cried when she saw her, but Practitioner A did not help the elderly practitioner from the perspective of the Fa by strengthening her righteous thoughts. Instead, Practitioner A suggested to her, "You can go to the hospital if things do not get better." Practitioner A also gave several examples where other practitioners went to the hospital. Later, several other practitioners also went to see the elderly practitioner. Since the elderly practitioner lacked strong righteous thoughts amidst the tribulation, her family members took her to a hospital the next day and the doctor performed surgery on her.

Regarding this matter, the practitioners from our two local Fa study groups have shared understandings together. First, we studied Master's lecture of "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles" (February 25, 2006). Then practitioner B shared her past experience of making the same mistake that Practitioner A made. Practitioner B said that she subsequently realized that her suggestion was not right because a practitioner amidst tribulations often does not have strong righteous thoughts. Other practitioners should share their views from the perspective of the Fa and should not talk based on human emotion, so as not to leave loopholes for the evil to capitalize on. Practitioner B further commented that for the practitioner who is in the midst of a tribulation, even one sentence of what she had said with righteous thoughts could help the practitioner in breaking through the hurdle smoothly.

Through our discussion, other practitioners also searched within. Some practitioners said that if it were not for this sharing, they would have also agreed with Practitioner A's suggestion. They now realize that they were wrong. This was especially true for practitioner A, who also realized her shortcoming of not having shared understandings with the elderly practitioner from the perspective of the Fa. All of the practitioners involved have realized that this format of having group Fa study and sharing, which Master has arranged for us, is very good, as it allows us to look inward and improve together.

Our sharing as a group has achieved a rather good result. However, the issue was not completely resolved, because when the bad substance does not surface in obvious ways, practitioners have difficulty recognizing it. The next day, when I saw Practitioner B and another practitioner, I found that they had a mentality of showing off and validating themselves. At that time, I just said to them, "Both of your attachments have surfaced," but I did not point out what attachment it was. Later, I searched within myself to see why their attachments had surfaced in front of me. In the past, I also had the attachments of showing off and validating myself. After I was arrested by agents of the Communist regime in 2007, I found these attachments and made the determination to get rid of them. At that time, I could not feel Master dissolving these dirty substances for me. I felt that I no longer had these attachments, but why did this attachment show up again now in front of me?

At that time, a plumbing pipe in my kitchen was clogged and my son could not fix it no matter how hard he tried. I suddenly realized that besides my looking inward, I should also kindly point out others' shortcomings. So I have come to the understanding that just looking inward is not enough, as my selfishness was mixed into this looking inward.
Master said,

"I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" in Essentials for Further Advancement)

So Master used this incident to point out my "selfishness." Master, I now understand that besides knowing that I should search within myself, I should also kindly point out other practitioners' shortcomings. After I understood the principle, the clog in my kitchen disappeared without further intervention. I knew that I had found my problem from Master's hint. Thank you, Master!

Just like what a fellow practitioner has said in his cultivation-sharing article, "...as the understanding of the Fa principles becomes clearer and your cultivation status is elevated, you will understand that all of your surroundings exist for your improvement in cultivation..." (http://www.pureinsight.org/node/5661) As long as one looks inward, one can find the issues that one needs to improve.

Regarding the elderly practitioner who had gone to the hospital for treatment, we have
not slackened our efforts in sharing understandings with her. Now this practitioner's cultivation state is very good; she has found her shortcomings and made the determination to get rid of it, cultivating herself diligently and catching up with Master's Fa-rectification progress.

In the end, I want to share with fellow practitioners the words in Master's new article,
"Walk the last steps of your path well and with determination, study the Fa well, and, with a foundation laid by your having cultivated well, your righteous thoughts will naturally grow stronger and you will surely do well with what Dafa disciples are supposed to do." ("Greetings," May 17, 2009)