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Looking Within When Encountering Conflict is the Key to Improving Xinxing

Jan. 5, 2008 |   By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) As a practitioner, I know that I should look within and find out what I did not do well or how I did not conform to Dafa when encountering conflicts. But in reality, I often forget that I am a practitioner and therefore am unable to do this.

As cultivators, we can only look within, recognize our shortcomings, correct them or eliminate them. This is the state in which practitioners should stay. Why did I still not achieve it, even though I knew I should? After much thought and Fa study, I realized that it resulted from an incorrect interpretation of Teacher's Fa.

Teacher said in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference",

"Looking at the overall situation, there is no longer a question of whether Dafa disciples can achieve Consummation during the maturation process."

My understanding was that I am a practitioner during the Fa rectification period. Since Teacher said that it is not a question of whether I can achieve Consummation, then it is for certain that my xinxing has already met the standard. I am so great and I am a practitioner in the Fa rectification period.That means that I should point out all the incorrect things others do so that they can correct them. Later, after studying the Fa and sharing my experience with others, I realized that Dafa practitioners should not get involved in lots of things in society.

Teacher said in Zhuan Falun,

"But being a practitioner is a higher thing. So as a higher person you have to hold yourself to higher laws and higher logic. You can't evaluate things with the reasoning of ordinary people or with ordinary laws. When you don't know the underlying causes of something you'll probably handle it wrong. That's why we talk about nonaction--you can't just do whatever you want. Some people say, 'But I just want to make sure justice is served." Then I'd say great, we should all just enroll in police academy then?'"

When we see some bad things in ordinary society, we practitioners cannot interfere casually. If we don't measure things with the Fa's standard, but instead use ordinary people's standards, we then easily make mistakes and accumulate karma. We can point things out with compassion, without thinking of changing others. When I enlightened to this, I no longer had the thought of changing the bad things I saw in ordinary society. Instead, I first looked within. However, I soon developed another bad habit--to specifically find other practitioners' shortcomings and pick on them. When they didn't agree, I then became more particular and caused conflicts. When this happened, I even went to other practitioners to prove that I was right and the others were wrong.

Later when I studied the Fa, Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in the city of Los Angeles",

"Of late, some students have often sent me notes, letters, or messages telling about how wrong such-and-such persons were, or what problems such-and-such persons have. I know what's going on--very well. Cultivate yourselves. I don't want the environment Dafa disciples have to become one in which people point fingers at each other. I want the environment to be one in which everyone can accept criticism and at the same time look inside themselves. If everyone cultivates himself, everyone looks within, and everyone cultivates himself well, won't the conflicts be few?"

I was very ashamed of myself when I read this. I am doing poorly in studying the Fa. Practitioners are all human beings and not Gods. It is therefore certain that they have shortcomings. If I would say, "If you are a practitioner, then you cannot do such as such," he would not listen and behave like an ordinary person. However, I also did not look within and did not think of others with compassion. Teacher has pointed out a long time ago about looking within when encountering conflicts, and I only realized it now.

Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in Australia" that Australian practitioners complained to non-practitioners when conflicts arose, causing them to misunderstand Dafa. This may have seemed like a minor thing, but it actually was a serious problem. Otherwise, Teacher would not have talked about it three times in the Fa conference. Practitioners can never complain to non-practitioners when conflicts arise. It is not an issue of who is right and who is wrong. It is an issue of safeguarding the Fa or sabotaging the Fa; an issue of saving sentient beings or pushing away. Practitioners should first look within and find where they have not conformed to Dafa. When we find our attachments through the Fa, our xinxing will improve and conflicts will naturally resolve. When we master the skill of looking within when conflicts arise, we then learn how to cultivate. We will feel that cultivation is actually not so difficult. Looking within is the key to improving xinxing.