Remove the Competitive Mentality and Eliminate the Separations Between Us

I have witnessed separations form between fellow practitioners due to their attachments to "self." The separations have brought some things to a halt and have affected the coordination of our efforts in validating Dafa. I have also experienced such situations myself. I would like to share my understandings, and hope it to be helpful to you.

I have been entangled by emotion in recent years, and my practice has not been going well. I asked fellow practitioners to help me, but I felt they were talking down to me and their points were not related to the Fa. I felt a little upset, feeling they were not being considerate to me.

I had a dream one night. I was about to leave a big room, and saw a snake at the other end of the room, lying still. For no reason, I started to jeer at it. It knew it and came dashing toward me. I realized that my competitive mentality had brought it on. It landed on my shoulders, and I struggled trying to drag it down. Then I woke up.

When a problem arises, I know I have to look inside. I knew the dream was a hint for me to remove my competitive mentality. I realized that I liked to look outward and point my finger at others. I hated being criticized, and tended to get very emotional as soon as a conflict arose. I refused to look inside and attacked others, pointing out their shortcomings. Therefore, conversations became accusations, and the separation between me and others grew.

I realized that cultivation requires cultivating my xinxing (heart and mind nature, character). This is what's most important.

Later on, my young child had a dream. In the dream, I was fighting with a fellow practitioner's family. The practitioner's house was brought down from fighting, and the people in the house were shouting for help. The dream made me realize that my behaviour had created separations in the group, and, instead of forming one solid body, a fight had been broken out in other dimensions.

I started to ask myself why I would be concerned about the attitude of fellow practitioners so much. It's normal for them to still have some attachments, just as it is for all of us. I should tolerate their shortcomings and persuade them to do well instead of getting attached to their shortcomings. Why would I be able to tolerate a non-practitioner's shortcomings but not a fellow practitioner's? It was because I had treated practitioners as being "special." Therefore, in my humble understanding, as soon as practitioners get attached to each others' shortcomings, we tend to look outward and demand that others conduct themselves by following the Fa, instead of requiring ourselves to do the same and improve ourselves first. I read Essentials for Further Advancement once again, where Master wrote in "A Dialogue with Time,"

"Divine Being: Some of them have come looking for the aspect of the Fa that they consider good, but they are unable to let go of the aspect that prevents them from having a complete understanding of the Fa.

"Master: There are also such people among veteran disciples. And the most outstanding evidence of that is that they always compare themselves with humans and with their own past, but fail to examine themselves with the requirements of the Fa at different levels.

"Divine Being: These problems have already become very serious. It would be good if they could manage to search within themselves for the things that they have been able to find in others.

"Master: It's time for them to become clearheaded so that their environment can turn into one for true cultivation practice, and thus they will be able to become real gods."

A little while ago, a disagreement arose among local practitioners and the situation persisted and separations formed. A young practitioner saw a demon above the city with his third eye. My understanding is that the demon exists in the separations, and can only be eliminated when fellow practitioners have eliminated the separations as a result of improving their xinxing.

Lately I have seen many problems and conflicts like this, and I think, perhaps, it is time for every one of us to improve in this respect. I sincerely hope that those practitioners who are still frustrated by conflicts will detach themselves from others' shortcomings and improve their own xinxing first. By doing this, our Dafa disciples' one body will become so solid that it will be indestructible.