Helping Fellow Practitioners Also Helps the Cultivation of Our One Body

Many practitioners have talked about helping fellow practitioners. I want to share my experiences in this regard.

Practitioner A is over 60 years old. She learned Falun Dafa in 1996, and served as a coordinator in her village. She twice suffered the symptoms of a stroke around the time of the 2008 Olympics. The first time she recovered on her own, thanks to her steadfast belief in Teacher. But because other people were all busy and she did not fully recognize her attachment to the fear of getting arrested while clarifying the truth, she had symptoms again shortly thereafter.

At first everyone helped her by sending forth righteous thoughts, and some went to visit her and share thoughts with her. They also made sure that her daughter, who supported Dafa, played tapes of Teacher's lectures for her. As time went by, fellow practitioners' help gradually diminished. She could not listen to Teacher's lectures regularly, and her speech became slurred. She cried as soon as the slurring began, and sometimes got upset with her family members. She felt unwilling to withstand the pain, although with fellow practitioners' sharing and encouragement, she quickly changed this thought. This situation gave her family members a bad impression, and impacted the saving of sentient beings. It was the evil factors that took advantage of this loophole and prevented the saving of sentient beings.

Two months ago, some other fellow practitioners and I had a discussion, and we decided that we needed to have someone with her to study the Fa and share experiences to help her recover. Teacher told us: "The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference in 2002")

Right away we decided that we would coordinate with other practitioners and arrange it so that seven of us would take turns visiting her, one for each day of the week. In the beginning, Practitioner A would fall asleep when I was reading the Fa. My mind would become unsettled, and unwittingly I began to read faster and faster. I soon realized that this was not right. How could she understand what I was reading if I went so fast? Wasn't I just trying to finish the task? If we could not truly learn it, then studying the Fa together had no meaning. I then adjusted my mindset, slowed down, and kept my mind and tone as peaceful as possible. After a short while, I found that I was no longer upset, and my anxiety was gone. I used to lack patience during my work--I got mad easily and sometimes threw things. Now I can react peacefully in similar situations. Teacher has taken away my bad substances and let me advance a big step on the path of cultivation.

Now Practitioner A can turn over by herself and her speech is more recognizable. She can control herself and does not cry. She can point out the mistakes fellow practitioners make while reading the Fa, and can share experiences and thoughts with them. She knows that she should not recognize the old forces' arrangements and should reject them. Things such as falling asleep when studying the Fa are all corrected. Although she still cannot take care of herself in her daily life, her husband is already very pleased.

We thoroughly reject the persecution of the old forces, and want to help practitioners to be able to validate Dafa and save sentient beings. The recovery of Practitioner A represents the collapse of the evil factors, as well as the elevation of herself. What is more important, is the formation of a one-body for all of us. We still have difficulties, however, and more practitioners need to have a better understanding and help other practitioners. We still have practitioners who are suffering the tribulation of illness karma who need our help as a whole.

In the process of communicating with Practitioner A, people had many different opinions and reactions. Some lost confidence; some thought that a veteran practitioner should not have such tribulations; some would wait and see what the coordinator's position was; some said that this was not part of the three things (study the Fa [the teachings of Falun Dafa], send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and about the persecution to the world's people); some were interfered with and could not make it for their turn each week.

We all know that saving sentient beings is very important. A life may represent a whole world, but to save a fellow practitioner, it may represent more than a world. Therefore, saving a fellow practitioner is much more difficult than saving an ordinary sentient being. Not only can there be many different reasons that the practitioner went astray, but the interference by the evil is more severe. One practitioner said that her family members seldom interfered with her when she did Fa-validation work, but they did not want to let her go to Practitioner A's house. She enlightened that it was because the evil was afraid and it utilized her family members to stop her. Thus, she insisted on going to Practitioner A's house even more, and the interference became much less. Another time, when a fellow practitioner went to Practitioner A's house to study the Fa with her, it happened to be at a time when no family members were home to open the door. She stayed outside and sent forth righteous thoughts to have the door open, but she failed and went home. Thirty minutes later, she came back again and went in and helped Practitioner A study the Fa. The practitioner enlightened to that no matter how bad the interference is, as long as one has a steadfast heart, the evil will be destroyed.

Teacher said: "Do you know what I think? I can't leave behind any of the Dafa disciples. Every person is family to me, so how can you treat different members of my family differently?" ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students")

Practitioner A used to ride her bicycle long distances to remote countrysides to promote Dafa. She had a clear understanding of the Fa during group Fa study. She was full of righteous thoughts when going to Beijing to validate Dafa. She told her friends and relatives the truth about Dafa and helped save sentient beings. Today, however, her eyes, although filled with yearning for Dafa, show more helplessness. If Practitioner A could steadfastly join the entire group, perhaps the evil would have no ability to persecute her. If after her recovery from her first tribulation she had removed her attachment of fear and steadfastly came out of it, maybe she would not have been knocked down the second time. If we could have cared for her much sooner or if we could have cared for her from the bottom of our hearts sooner, perhaps she would not still be lying in bed. In the past two years in our area, a few practitioners have passed away. Shouldn't this warrant our deep reflection? There are also other practitioners suffering from illness tribulations just as Practitioner A does. Is it because we have not formed a one body? Or, is it because we still have many attachments and don't care enough about our fellow practitioners? Having once gone astray and then come back with the help of Teacher, I have no reason to blame any practitioner. It is just that I deeply appreciate the great importance of getting help from fellow practitioners and being part of the group in cultivation.

If just one of the wooden sticks forming a barrel is shorter than the rest, then the capacity of the barrel will be greatly reduced. Dafa practitioners are one body. If one of them has problems, the capacity of the whole will be affected.