We communicate through email on many matters. Sometimes when I couldn't agree with other people, I felt out of balance in my mind. I often ran into this situation. Because I did not truly understand what other people meant or I felt that their words were not good, I started to have a mentality of resisting and criticising them. As time went on, I even started to develop a notion against such a person. I might think that this practitioner was irresponsible to himself, or I felt that he had an incorrect understanding of certain matters. Over a period of time, I quickly delimited every practitioner, setting fixed boundaries and valued them according to what I could observe.
In Teacher Li's new article "Righteous Thoughts" the term "timely" really stood out for me. I discovered that if I was not clear about other people's thinking, I could have immediately asked for clarification. There was no need to wait for so long while the notion started to form within me. During the past few days, I have seen that if I can immediately solve the problem by working together with the other party, I would not have develop the mentality of resisting them. Every such problem could be resolved quickly. I have learned to look within, and to find the other party to talk to them kindly. The most important thing is to be considerate.
If I can maintain such a mindset, then "you will have time or room to buffer the confrontation and think, should a problem arise suddenly." (Zhuan Falun)[Main text of Falun Gong}
Now I pay even more attention to what often seem to be simply small things. If I need help, I ask politely and express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart. I pay attention to respecting the people around me. I reply to my emails as quickly as I can even if the reply is short. Maybe I will never find out the real reason why I sometimes do not receive a reply, but I strive to remember the "time or room to buffer" and our principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." They keep me company.
I thank all the fellow practitioners who help me everyday to recognise and eliminate my attachments.
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