Looking Inward Unconditionally

Nowadays when there are conflicts between practitioners, everyone knows that they should look inwards to find their own problems. In the vast majority of cases, we are able to calm down, think about the Fa and make a great effort to restrain ourselves and look inward for attachments. For example, I have found that indeed I had many attachments and human notions. The root of these attachments is selfishness. It is like the root of a tree. The bigger attachments are like tree trunks and large branches, and the smaller attachments are like smaller branches and leaves. Once I find the root and pull it out, all the attachments arising from it will lose their footing.

However, I found that during the process of looking inward, another substance was created. After I looked inward, a notion would surface, "As long as I look inward, the other party will improve." In the beginning, I did not realize that this was actually an attachment of pursuit. Looking inward is unconditional, not for the purpose of making the other party improve. As a practitioner, whenever we encounter any problems, looking inward should be a natural course of action. If after we looked inward, we assume that the problem will go away, the same problem might very well come back stronger than ever. I had unknowingly added a condition to looking inward, that the other party would improve. Was I cultivating for the other practitioner's sake? Was I cultivating in order to have the other practitioner improve? I re-read Teacher's lecture "To the European Fa Conference", and Teacher's every word prodded me and pointed directly to my heart. I felt so ashamed.

As such, we should no longer be attached to the behaviour of fellow practitioners. We should become more tolerant and accommodating, and look inward and cultivate ourselves unconditionally. Meanwhile, we should fully cooperate with fellow practitioners. As long as other practitioners' suggestions are in conformity with the Fa and will be beneficial to our efforts to save sentient beings, we should be fully cooperative. We should not be concerned with the behaviour, attitude and cultivation status of the practitioner who proposed the idea, nor should we take notice of how this person is and how that person behaves. It is not like, "As long as I look inward, the other party is bound to improve", but rather, we should handle ourselves as true practitioners and do everything according to the Fa. We should focus on how to assist Teacher in Fa-rectification and in saving sentient beings. As long as we do that, everything will change naturally. When we are able to let go of the attachment to self, everything becomes easy and smooth.