(Minghui.org) I was happy to hear that a practitioner who was detained from my area had been released. I started to think, “I should tell him that I almost lost my job for taking an attorney to visit him. I don't know if I will get a chance to see him. He may never know. That's fine. I don't mean to earn any reputation.” All of a sudden, I realized I was pursuing reputation by thinking like that. Didn't I want to earn gratitude from my fellow practitioner? Was it truly my motive?
Over the past few years, I have been working to eliminate selfishness. Based on my personal understanding, if we treat successfully rescuing a practitioner as our goal, but fail to establish the connection between disintegrating the persecution and the Fa-rectification, it is equivalent to treating it as a personal matter of helping fellow practitioners, instead of validating the Fa. The thought is selfish because I'm stressing what I have done for the other practitioner.
When I was helping another arrested practitioner get legal assistance last year, I knew that this practitioner had fallen short in his understanding of the Fa and in his steadfastness. I usually don't take much initiative to get legal help for practitioners like him, but I had been deeply saddened by his family members' negative opinion of Dafa.
I found an attorney to defend the practitioner. One of his family members was willing to pay for the attorney, but their spouse opposed it. I told them clearly, “It's completely up to you. I won't hold anything against you if you don't pay. The reason I'm hiring an attorney is mainly to restore Dafa's reputation and to save those who don't know the facts of Dafa.”
Things turned out as I hoped. Upon hearing the attorney's argument, the practitioner's family members who used to have negative opinions about Dafa cried during the trial, “There is nothing wrong with practicing Falun Gong in the first place!”
Thinking back, if my intention was limited to helping the arrested practitioner, my narrow view would have become a loophole. I would have been perturbed by my financial loss, and thought the money had been spent in vain because of the practitioners' behaviors while in custody.
If what I did was for him instead of the Fa, I would have been concerned about this individual's behavior, the cost, and my personal opinion of him. The notion of self would have come into play and triggered selfishness. Just like a person's qi can't control another person's qi, the result wouldn't have been anything extraordinary. I might have ended up accruing some karma by blaming him, or caused a negative influence.
The fellow practitioner's insufficient understanding of the Fa might have been taken advantage of by the old forces. How can we break him free from the tribulation? The only way to disintegrate the persecution is to go beyond personal loss and gain, help Master rectify the Fa, and realize that the old forces shouldn't exist and Dafa disciples shouldn't be persecuted.
We came here for the Fa. Validating the Fa gives meaning to everything we do.
Over the past year, I clearly feel that what we have done is not proportional to what the Fa has given us. For example, a practitioner asked me to accompany attorneys or family members of arrested practitioners to clarify the truth to the public security offices. Even though I was going through physical tribulations at the time, I never declined.
Many times, I almost collapsed before I went, but my body was cleansed and lightened by the time I came back. All I did was make a trip. It appeared in this dimension that I physically went to help rectify the Fa. I didn't think I was in a very high realm, and still fell short of the standard of a genuine Dafa disciple. All I wanted was to save the beings in my cosmic body. However, Master has given me what I want and so much more.
When I think about Master's blessings bestowed upon us, I would like to say Master and Dafa are the only things in my life and the only things I praise! All I do is to validate Dafa!
Once we transcend selfishness, we won't be swayed by human notions, personal likes or dislikes, or our loss and gain, and we won't be narrow-minded or calculating. We will know the meaning of life, gradually be able to understand things more clearly and tolerate everything.
