Don’t Blindly Admire Others

(Minghui.org) In many regions, there is still an issue of practitioners admiring certain individuals. I would like to share my understanding in hopes that this can help serve as a reminder for all of us to not blindly look up to others.

Those who are admired are usually well educated and good speakers. They can talk for a long time, and everything they say makes sense. They often talk about interesting and humorous things, so people like to listen to them.

If the person is good at memorizing the Fa, people say, “What he says is all in accordance with the Fa. He has studied it really well. I have gained a lot from just listening.”

People who are admired include coordinators who have done a good job in leading the practitioners to validate the Fa and those who have experienced tribulations and overcome them with Master’s protection.

We are still practitioners with human notions. If we accord an individual special treatment, it may make him arrogant and thus be more attached to himself. He’ll tell himself, “So many practitioners admire and approve of me. It looks as though my sharing can really help others improve.”

Gradually, the “sharing” and “helping practitioners improve” will become his main mission. He begins to go to different places to share his understandings or give talks. Those who listen to him think that no one has cultivated or understands the Fa better than he does. Some even describe him as a “big particle.”

This practitioner can talk for hours and may even use Master’s Fa as his own words, or mix the Fa with his own words. He often asks a question and then answers it to instill some of his own understandings into practitioners’ minds. The practitioners who can’t understand him believe that it is because he is at a higher level.

We should calm our minds and think about it carefully. Just because someone is a polished speaker and expresses himself well doesn’t necessarily mean that his xinxing level is high. Even when the person says something in line with the Fa, we still should not admire him. We should ask ourselves if this kind of sharing is in accordance with the Fa. Many people may not have thought about this because they are influenced by sentimentality.

Cultivation is very serious. Dafa is the standard for measuring good and bad. Master’s Law bodies have made systematic arrangements for each practitioner’s cultivation. Thus, each practitioner has his or her own path and must enlighten to his or her own things. Master will then put everything together for us in the end. If one person “shares” too much, he may be interfering with others’ cultivation.

I’m not saying that we can’t share our experiences with each other. Everyone can share their cultivation experiences based on the three things and how they look inside to improve according to the Fa. It shouldn’t be only one person talking and lecturing others based on his or her own understandings of Dafa. 

As it says in the editorial article “Giving Speeches Amounts to Disrupting the Fa” published on the Minghui website: “Holding special sessions at which people give speeches to practitioners, or traveling around expressly to ‘share understandings’ with practitioners, amounts to disrupting the Fa.” 

It’s known that Master approves the editorials, so they should not be taken lightly. We need to remember that it is Dafa that we should validate and protect, not individual human beings.

Coordinators who are capable and looked up to by many practitioners may begin to think, “My righteous thoughts are strong. I do more and better than others.” They eventually talk as though they are above everyone else and no one can question them. They also develop the attachment to zealotry and the mentality of showing off and their ego grows.

The more they do, the worse their attachment to validating themselves gets. They look down on practitioners they think are selfish and have fear, and they mistakenly take their arrogance as strong righteous thoughts. They will eventually fall down hard. 

Master said, “In fact, it does not matter who the person is—there is only one Fa. Only by observing this Dafa can one meet the genuine standard.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)

There have been several cases of such practitioners being persecuted after they were admired for a long period of time. Some even ended up being “transformed” while in jail. After they were released, they continued to spread the fallacies among practitioners.

Recently, a practitioner who had been going around and sharing for a long time was arrested and sentenced to many years. Did those who admired and listened to him have any responsibility for his arrest?

Master said:

“And this is even more so for the Dafa disciples in mainland China. For them, amidst the tremendously harsh persecution, every single thought and idea is critical. Whether you’ve done well or not; whether or not you’ve been susceptible to being persecuted; whether or not you’ve handled things correctly and to what degree you have been persecuted—all of this is directly connected to how you have walked your path and how you have thought about things.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)

Our path is very narrow and we cannot deviate even a tiny bit. In the past, several practitioners would look up to others instead of following the Fa. Those who were admired ended up being sentenced and some even lost their lives. There have been many such lessons over the years. Are the practitioners around them responsible? Is it a result of not studying the Fa well for long periods of time?

If practitioners can have a clear understanding based on the Fa and not follow or admire others, couldn’t the persecution and losses then be avoided? After this has occurred so many times, we really should reflect on ourselves and have a solid grasp of the Fa. We can’t let it happen over and over again.

Master has talked about this many times. It’s only because we didn’t pay enough attention to solid cultivation. Let’s study Master’s teaching again:

“You should not follow or listen to him because he has supernormal abilities, supernatural powers, or because he can see some things. You will do him harm, as he will develop the attachment of zealotry and end up losing everything and having them switched off. In the end, he will stumble. One who has reached the state of Unlocking Gong may also stumble. If one cannot conduct oneself well, one will also stumble even if one is enlightened. When things are not handled properly, even a Buddha can stumble, not to mention a practitioner like you among everyday people!” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)

“Some people like to watch how others handle things and then follow suit. Then you are not cultivating yourself but are just following others. Yet cultivators must walk their own paths to Consummation. In order to teach you a lesson, to make you really think hard about things, the old forces may go so far as to cause trouble for that person you take as a model, and may even cause him to depart early.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day”)

I hope that we can treat the Fa as Master, become more mature and rational, and measure ourselves with the Fa while constantly correcting our every thought.

Master said, “This is because the criterion for discerning good or bad and benevolence or evil is the characteristic of the universe.” (Lecture Five, Zhuan Falun)

It’s time that we seriously correct this issue. The persecution has been heartbreaking and devastating, causing a substantial loss to our efforts to save sentient beings.