(Minghui.org) While sending righteous thoughts during one of the set times recently, I saw a scene that weighed heavily on my heart.
I saw Master, who was very tall, observing something in the distance as this black substance was surrounding him and landing on him. He paid no attention to it, and just brushed it off as if whisking dirt away.
But it was painful to watch, because it was dense, like ash falling after a volcanic eruption. When the scene started to unfold even more, I realized that it was coming from disciples, and that our human attachments were causing it.
I felt very saddened by what I saw, and then I realized what Master’s attention was focused on. He seemed to have a very worried look, not because of the black matter that was falling on him, but for disciples whose righteous thoughts were lacking and who were falling into ordinary ways of thinking.
I suddenly recalled the poem “Troubles:”
Troubles
I close my eyes and doze offto sever all troubles hereUpon waking, endless things come alongNeither heaven nor earth canblock my road of Fa-rectificationBut disciples’ human hearts can(Hong Yin III)
I saw that, in some of our projects, practitioners were arguing with one another and that some still had very deeply rooted attachments that were keeping us from pushing forward as a whole. All of this seemed to be interfering with Fa-rectification, since it was slowing down our efforts to save sentient beings and, at the same time, pushing our negative things onto Master.
I took a step back and started to see everything more clearly. I saw that if each of us were to take a step back and really see one another as our true selves, we would instantly stop arguing, feel ashamed, and want to work together. We would see how precious the time is and how many years and lifetimes we waited to be here with Master.
Master says:
“Once you’ve reached Consummation and returned it’ll be almost impossible for you to see each other again, even if you want to. So, you should treasure this part of your karmic relationship. And what’s more, those karmic relationships of yours have been intertwined with each other, and different karmic relationships were formed over every lifetime--it hasn’t been easy. So, cooperate well when you do things. Each Dafa disciple’s thing is everybody else’s. Don’t create distance and disharmony between each other over some little, trivial thing. You can’t do that, and you should treasure all this. And also, you need to cooperate in Dafa things, and you should do a good job of cooperating.” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference”)
The next thing I saw was a huge Falun. Inside of it, each disciple made up a part of the Falun as it was spinning in the cosmos, coming closer and closer to Earth. However, due to our attachments it wasn’t moving at the speed it should have been, and it seemed a little uneven in parts. My understanding is that we are all part of the Fa, and how diligent we are is setting the pace of Master’s Fa-rectification.
I then saw one more scene. I saw all the practitioners sending forth righteous thoughts with the ones in front being very big; they had a very strong focus and were making a huge impact. The practitioners in the middle would be focused for awhile and then would start looking around or try to focus, but not completely achieving the effect. The ones in the back were not with the group and were not even trying to send righteous thoughts. Most of them were talking, laughing, or just completely disconnected from the rest of the body, not paying any attention to what was happening.
I started to feel very discouraged, because it seemed that, after all these years, we still have not been able to truly and fundamentally remove our attachments. I found myself asking, “Why does it seem that sometimes we are hindering Fa-rectification instead of assisting Master with it?”
That day, I started to feel that we had let Master down and that I didn’t know how, as a whole body, we would be able to push forward to make a huge breakthrough. I started to cry, because I realized that I, too, have deeply rooted attachments that are hard for me to completely let go of.
When I got home that night, I asked Master to help me remove my attachment to this discouragement. Then, I went on the English Minghui website and saw that the question and answer section of Master's recent lecture in New York had just been published.
I started to read, and came upon the following:
“Disciple: Based on the current state of our media, I personally feel that it’s very hard for the articles to reach the skill level required of us. There are significant differences of opinion in relation to our news production, and I feel that the effectiveness of our reporting in terms of saving people is not so great. I don’t know what we can do to live up to Master’s requirements.
Master: Actually, you don’t need to be so worried. Master is already quite satisfied with the things you are doing. The media companies have played a big role—they have really played a big role in clarifying the facts, working against the persecution, and saving people. Of course, it would be better if your articles could be written better. But it won’t do if you start arguing because you want to write an article one way and someone else wants to do it another way. It’s just like how, when you used to work with each other on projects, there were different opinions on whose ideas were better, and people were thinking that such-and-such wouldn’t work, or something else wouldn’t work, and the things that needed to be done were affected because of this. It’s very hard for someone to actually do something to everyone’s satisfaction. Of course it’s good to do things better, but even if something is not done that well, don’t hold it up from being completed. Some things can still have an impact even when they’re not done that well. If they are done better, of course they will be even more effective, but don’t hold things up and cause them to have no impact at all.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference”)
After reading this, I felt as if Master instantly and completely removed my attachment to discouragement. I felt so light that I started to cry, overwhelmed by Master's compassion. I realized in that moment that all of our attachments are so trivial when we aren’t looking at them from within them. As soon as we take a step back, they become small, weak, and very insignificant.
Now, when I see other cultivators having a hard time or when I see an attachment come out very strongly in others, I quietly send righteous thoughts in my mind for them instead of criticizing them. I was always afraid to share this out of fear that I was showing off instead of being compassionate, but I realize now that I can’t let my attachment of fear stop me from sharing.
I realized that for us to work together, we need to put aside our emotions, our notions, and our attachments to what we want or how we think things should be, and that we should spend more time on how to effectively and efficiently work together.
I think that if all of us can do this well, we will make huge breakthroughs while saving even more sentient beings and truly assisting Master in Fa-rectification.
Thank you, Master, for all that you have done for us over the course of time.
The above is just my limited understanding based on my current cultivation level.
Category: Improving Oneself
