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Being Attached to Preference Versus Being Merciful

Aug. 20, 2008 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) Today I went to my local police station for some business. I felt uneasy whenever I saw their uniforms, and it took me a long while to get started. Puzzled, I started looking inwards: "What did I do wrong?" I kept searching and found that I had an attachment of preference. I treated the policemen differently from other human beings. I considered all policemen as evildoers and "rejected" them in my heart. Actually the policeman who handled my business was just an ordinary policeman who perhaps had never conducted any persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners. However, I had no mercy for him. I asked myself: Am I really a Dafa disciple? Searching inwardly even further, I realized that behind my attachment of preference was selfishness. I would stay away from those whom I felt might bring bad things to me, all the while I enjoyed meeting others whom I preferred. All those actions were due to my own preferences!

Continuing to look inward, I discovered that I did similar thing at school. I preferred to be with the people who quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or its affiliated organizations or those who were nice to me; I loathed those who were deeply poisoned by the CCP. I would even laugh inwardly whenever I heard about those people whom I did not prefer getting into trouble. In my mind, I thought they deserved the troubles. I lacked mercy for them, simply because they still had not understood the truth. In fact, I had no mercy for them at all!

Then I thought of Teacher. Teacher is so merciful to every sentient being. He bears so much for every sentient being. Even those CCP spies who are committing crimes against Dafa, Teacher is still treating them mercifully. Teacher is completely good for the sake of others.

I said to myself that I needed to get rid of this bad attachment of preference. I should be merciful towards policemen, security guards, people wearing red bands on their sleeves (a symbol for those assisting the police to manage the security of neighborhoods), or those who were deeply deceived by the CCP. I should truly be nice to them and wish them a wonderful future.

Actually, when I was merciful and did not treat people according to my own preference, it was quite easy to save sentient beings!

For example: One day I saw two high school students who were in love behaving improperly on a bus. At first I felt they were disgusting and thought: "How could you do this at such a young age?" Then I said to myself, "This is not mercy. They did that simply because they did not know any better." Hence, I changed my thoughts to eliminate the evil factors blocking them from being saved. Thus, my heart was full of mercy. Upon getting off the bus with the girl, I told her about quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Immediately she happily quit the Youth League. Another time, I met a girl on the street. She had red spots all over her skin which looked quite scary. However, I overcame my attachment of preference and talked to her. I helped her to quit the Young Pioneers and told her to chant "Falun Dafa is Good." She followed my instructions seriously.

Also, at another time, I saw a middle-aged beggar on the street who was disfigured, with only half a nose and mouth. I avoided looking at him when I walked by. But when I saw him the second time, I realized that nobody was "perfect" in the world. He also came for the Fa. Though his appearance was quite unattractive, he represented enormous sentient beings. So I sat down next to him and gave him some money with a truth-clarification message on it, then helped him quit the Young Pioneers. I also asked him to read "Falun Dafa is Good" on the bill, which he did.

When we get rid of the attachment of preference and selfishness, we enter the state of being merciful. Only then can we be effective in saving sentient beings!

By August 4, 2008