(Minghui.org) A veteran practitioner in our area recently became very upset over a conflict with another practitioner. I shared my thoughts with him and reminded him to approach the problem from the Fa's perspective. He was so upset that he insisted it was the other party's fault, instead of looking within.

This led me to think about how we should handle conflicts as a cultivator.

Everything we cultivators encounter is not accidental. All of them target our heart and our attachments. Whatever tribulations and conflicts come our way, we should take a step back and not dwell on the issues themselves. No matter how much we feel we are wronged, we can get over the tribulations by believing in Dafa and believing in Master.

As a cultivator, we should measure ourselves by Dafa’s standards – the right or wrong in the human world does not matter. What really matters is whether we can let go of our attachments. It doesn't do us any good even if we convince the other party that they were wrong.

Some practitioners are diligent in helping people understand Falun Dafa and quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but they fail to look within and tend to find excuses for themselves when tribulations come to them. As a result, some suffered sickness karma and went to hospitals; some gave up cultivation under the CCP’s pressure; and some remained stuck in other tribulations for extended periods of time.

A practitioner was arrested and then sentenced to prison. I heard she blamed another practitioner for reporting her to police and a third practitioner for testifying against her in court. After she was released, she would not listen to the other two practitioners' explanation and remained indignant for a very long time.

When we are in tribulation, sometimes we tend to pin the blame on others. But such mentality missed a main point from the Fa's perspective: as a cultivator, how can other people cause hardship to us if we have no attachments or gaps?

If the suffering is due to our own gaps, we should find our corresponding attachments and get rid of them. If we truly do not have attachments at all, we should then negate the old forces’ imposing hardship on us. In either case, we do not need to blame other people or fellow practitioners. Even if other people appear to have caused the tribulation for us, our focus should still be on how we can pass the test, and not whether they should be punished.

I feel that cultivation is like going to school. Many students study diligently, but it is the tests that can tell if they truly master the materials. To us, the tests may be in the form of arrests, imprisonment, illness, being wronged, etc. Some may seem hard to pass. However, the essence of the test is to see if we are firm in our faith in Dafa – whether our first thought is based on the Fa or everyday people’s mentality.