When Will We Be Mature?

We may be able to maintain a peaceful attitude and measure things with the Fa during the process of studying the Fa, doing the exercises and clarifying the facts to people. However, once it comes down to our attachments--the Xinxing (heart and mind nature) issues--we find fault with each other and are at odds. Some even spread gossip among fellow practitioners due to dissatisfaction, which is dealing with the things among practitioners with human thoughts. Every time I face this situation, I always have the following thought: how come a practitioner sometimes acts like a schoolchild who follows the teacher's instructions while in class but then throws them out once leaving the school building? Although practitioners also need to eliminate their bad things through cultivation, time waits for no one. We should mature as quickly as possible because we are shouldering such a great mission--saving sentient beings.

What we are doing now is practicing cultivation, which has fundamental differences from living ordinary life. Rather than doing everything for ourselves, all that we do is for others. Therefore, the starting point of practitioners is totally different. That's why we cannot measure things that we encounter in cultivation with the standard of everyday society. It requires that we maintain a heart of Dafa disciples at all times and measure everything with the Fa. Let's get rid of our shortcomings through cultivation and hurry up and mature!

It has been ten years since the persecution started in 1999. In the process of cultivation, many practitioners have passed through the hardships of giving up attachments, misunderstandings from relatives and friends, pressure from society, and interference and persecution. We can face those difficulties in an open and dignified manner; however, the conflicts and barriers between fellow practitioners have become a pressing issue. They consume Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts and directly affect the power and impact of our coordination and saving sentient beings.

It is just like how overseas Dafa disciples promote tickets for Shen Yun Performing Arts. In some areas there are plenty of Dafa disciples, but the effect of promotions there is still not desirable due to their poor coordination. Whereas, in certain areas there are only a few disciples, but the promotions there are pretty good. Why? I had a dream several days ago. I went to attend a Fa conference. When entering the yard, I found practitioners there divided into small groups with two or three practitioners hidden in a circle enclosure surrounded by corn stalks. They all exchanged their experiences while hiding behind those small enclosures. This dream reflects the true state of coordination in my area and some other areas.

Regarding the situation in my city, fellow practitioners haven't developed into a whole body; instead, most are still in small groups. This is also the true situation in the past several years. While talking about the whole body and coordination, everyone can also understand the importance and urgency of coordinating with each other. However, we still remain in the same state as that of several years ago. Frankly speaking, it is because some still haven't let go of ego. Some practitioners still consider things as they appear in human society and make comments with their notions and emotions. Some completely deal with things with human thoughts. In talking about coordination, they become involved in the debate of who is right or wrong, and even bring up past incidents. Finally, everyone has had his or her own opinion about who should be the coordinator. Some suggested that in order to develop into a whole body, each group should send one practitioner to make a coordination group. They can first get together to study the Fa every week, then share and discuss things in time in order to reach a consensus according to the Fa. This way, we could gradually form a whole body. However, some practitioners could not let go of their small circles and could not give up their opinions of others; therefore, some finally said that they would go back to the previous arrangement. Of course, there is nothing accidental on the path of cultivation. Facing the conflicts, if everyone continues to argue over who is right or wrong, we cannot upgrade ourselves.
Master said,

"That's how things will be for you, starting now. Whether you are right or not is, for a cultivator, not important whatsoever. Don't argue left and right, and don't emphasize who's right and who's wrong. Some people are always stressing that they're right, but even if you are right, even if you're not wrong, so what? Have you improved on the basis of the Fa? The very act of using human thinking to stress who's right and who's wrong is in itself wrong. That's because you are then using the logic of ordinary people to evaluate yourself, and using that logic to make demands on others. As gods see it, for a cultivator to be right or wrong in the human world is not important in the least, whereas eliminating the attachments that come from human thinking is important, and it is precisely your managing to eliminate those attachments rooted in your human thinking as you cultivate that counts as important." ("Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan")

Why are there conflicts among us? Why are there barriers among us? Isn't it our attachment of protecting self? Haven't our human notions formed our small circles of people? From this point, are we practicing cultivation? How many attachments have we let go? Of course, we cannot look at faults in others because we all know that according to the Fa, everyone should look inside when encountering conflicts, let go of self and upgrade as quickly as possible.

Master requires us to cooperate well with each other. In "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners," Master pointed out that looking inside and cooperating are right directions for validating the Fa well. Master again required us to look inside and cooperate well in recent Fa teachings. However, we are still staring at the faults of others and still commenting on others in small circles. It directly affects the trust among fellow practitioners and interferes with the development of the whole body.

Let's consider several questions: First, what role do we play in the coordination of the
whole body? What effects do we bring about? Second, facing the conflicts among fellow practitioners, do we exchange our thoughts with them frankly or aggravate the conflict among practitioners? Third, while listening to others commenting on other practitioners, what do we do--stop it by measuring it according to the Fa or follow his or her attachment to echo the issues? In such a critical time of saving sentient beings, we should calmly reflect on our words and deeds.

In this human world, no matter what feeling of gratitude or resentment we have towards others, we should end it in this golden Fa-rectification period. Although we have some predestined relationships, we should measure everything with the Fa, and compassionately resolve the issues. Think about the following: even to the evildoers who persecuted us, we can still be kind and clarify the truth without any grudges; why can't we be more broad-minded towards our fellow practitioners? Who never makes a mistake? Thinking about ourselves, have we made any mistakes in the past years? Why do we judge who is right or wrong? Isn't that a human thought? Isn't it the attachment of egotism? Selflessness and altruism are what we should attain. We need to move upwards step by step!

Master said,
"Each Dafa disciple is in fact shouldering responsibility for an enormous cosmic system, and if you are to save the countless sentient beings of such a massive system, then not only is the responsibility huge, but it also becomes very critical that you walk your path correctly." ("Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan")

Look at our missions, think about our current cultivation state. Facing so many sentient beings, if we only place emphasis on self, don't coordinate well with the whole body and even bring barriers to the whole in such a critical moment, causing us to miss saving one person, no one can take this responsibility. We should be vigilant and be mature!