Learning from Traditional Roles How to Better Cooperate Within the One Body

In ancient China, the relationships among people were clear and strictly observed. It was emphasized that everyone should fulfil his or her own duties and roles. Specifically, in public, decision-makers and decision-executioners had clear divisions in their social functions. The upper class was benevolent and the lower class was trustworthy. In a family, a father was benevolent and a son had filial piety; a big brother was kind hearted and a little brother was respectful. This natural state of respectful heaven and humble earth was expanded to a form of systematic ethics, and is an important part of traditional Chinese culture.

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has distorted the harmonic follower and leader relationships among people into class oppression and exploitation relationships. The CCP stirs up human desires for fame and gain, which leads to eventual social disorder and chaos.

I remember a foreigner once commented on Chinese people: A Chinese person working alone is a dragon, but the Chinese are a worm if they work together. I think this sentence profoundly revealed the state of mind of the people who have been constantly poisoned by the CCP culture. Not understanding cooperation, coordination or duty, it is very difficult for people to live together harmoniously, not to mention collaborating or working together on projects. As Dafa practitioners, we should not be like that. We should restore the natural living state for people.

At Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference, Master said:
"If people don't want to listen whenever you assign something and they just want to do whatever suits their fancy, and each does things his own way, could that ever work?
Some people might think, "Why should I listen to so-and-so? I think I've cultivated better than him." You mustn't say that. Only someone who has cultivated well will be content to follow whatever is assigned to him, and [thinking that way] only proves that you have not cultivated well.

After finishing studying Master's Fa teaching, I thought about what was happening around me. There were gaps among my fellow practitioners. The things we tried to do as a whole body of practitioners were not going smoothly. Many problems were caused by mutual disrespect among fellow practitioners. Everyone insisted that he or she was right, his or her idea was good, or he or she was not willing to put oneself behind others and to coordinate with fellow practitioners or coordinators. Practitioners would judge or discount other practitioners' opinions or the coordinator's arrangements. We were not actively coordinating and silently harmonizing with what coordinators were doing. The direct result was that we were a mess. For long periods of time, we could not even share our experiences, or everyone was focusing on cultivating themselves well or doing their own work. How could there be great power for destroying the evil?

We have many practical things to do in our efforts to clarify the truth. Though it is not easy to handle coordination problems when we do things together, we must have whole body awareness. Our personal cultivation is for cultivating ourselves. Within the whole body, there will be coordination issues at times, which will require us to put ourselves in the right positions. There are coordinators at each practice site. They are the leaders of our groups. If coordinators have already decided on a specific thing, as long as they are in accordance with the Fa, we should comply unconditionally. Even if there are shortcomings with regard to a decision, we should not treat it negatively. We should quietly harmonize our shortcomings in the process of doing things. Putting Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings as our highest priorities are the examples a Dafa practitioner should set.

The above is my personal understanding. I welcome any comments.