(Shared at 2001 Ottawa Conference)
May 17, 2001
People who have obtained the Fa [law and principle] are most precious. There are many everyday people who have never heard of the Fa; some of them are even fooled by the rumors made up by the evil and thus think that Dafa is not good. How can we get them to know more about Dafa? This is every Dafa practitioner's responsibility, and is also helping our master in this human world.
When I was in China, in order to validate Dafa, I spread Dafa to my colleagues, handed out flyers and went to Tiananmen Square to appeal. During this period, I met with lots of Dafa disciples, who have sacrificed their families and careers and devoted to Hongfa [introducing Dafa to the public] at great risk. Since coming to Toronto, I have seen the overseas practitioners make lots of efforts in terms of rectifying the Fa and clarifying the truth. They are doing what they are supposed to do under hardship and pressure. Even though the environment is different, the contribution is the same; great and immense. Master has affirmed the efforts made by practitioners both inside and outside China in many articles. Things that have been done well are also obvious to all of us. In the process of the Fa-rectification, any omission on our side will leave a loophole for the evil to attack. As a Dafa particle, in order to help master rectify the Fa and eliminate the evil, we need to rectify ourselves in the first place. No matter what we do, only when our thoughts and actions all conform to the requirements of Fa, can we truly be able to rectify the environment effectively.
I used to think that keeping up with the process of Fa-rectification meant giving up everything I had (including career, family, money and safety) to devote myself to the Fa rectification. I thought it would be acceptable if every Dafa disciple did this. Regarding the fact that the Fa hasn't rectified everything, I always looked at others' shortcomings. I thought that those disciples who haven't stepped out or who are not very devoted to Hongfa are holding back the whole process. I used to consider myself a disciple who had already stepped out to safeguard the Fa, as I had been busy doing Dafa-related work from morning to night fearlessly. When I walked towards Tiananmen, I was well aware of the possibility that I may lose the opportunity of going abroad, my family, my freedom, or even my life. However, safeguarding the Fa is above everything to me, nothing can stop me. The second time when I was released from the detention center, my mother and my parents-in law all cried in front of me, talking about their pain and worries. They asked me not to contact other practitioners any more. At that time, my husband had already bought the tickets to Canada, and quit his job. If I got detained again, all their efforts would be ruined. However, I declined their request. In fact, I was still handing out flyers at my apartment building on the morning of my departure to Canada.
However, I didn't recognize my hidden attachment of doing things. Even though my pace of doing things was never slowed by anything, and the purpose of my doing something was simply for rectifying the Fa, I never related what I was doing to the consummation of my cultivation and the elevation of my level, which was far from the requirements of Master to us in this Fa rectification period. Master asks us to step forward from humans, and this is a very high and strict requirement. If a practitioner does that, he must be in a god's status, away from all human attachments and sentimentalities. I recall while I was in China, there was a practitioner in China who once asked me why I still argued with my mother at home even though I was the one who handed out the most flyers among all the practitioners close to her. There was another practitioner who criticized me for not being considerate to others because I wasted some food while having lunch together in a practitioner's home. However, I thought that he should focus all his attention on the Fa rectification, rather than these trivial things.
At that time, my attention was all concentrated on how to deal with every single thing that was related to Fa-rectification; I even regarded uplifting one's cultivation level as a manifestation of one's selfishness, and I cared about nothing but Dafa-related work. Being in this state of mind, even though I kept studying the Fa and doing Dafa-related work, I was not really cultivating steadfastly. In fact, with too many human notions, I was always criticizing others for not doing enough to safeguard the Fa. Now looking back, I realize that I did not really break away from my human mentality. Why was I still complaining about misunderstandings? Why was I still arguing with my husband about petty matters? Why was I still caring about other people's comments about me? Aren't these manifestations unique to people who still have strong attachments? I come to understand that everything is in fact closely related to Fa-rectification. In Fa rectification, everything has to be pure enough and righteous enough. If I didn't assimilate to the Fa in a strict way and discipline myself with "Zhen, Shan, Ren" all the time, can just telling people that "Falun Dafa is good" change the external environment? What hinders Fa rectification is not only the evil from outside, but also the demon nature inside ourselves. Every single attachment that isn't removed will be taken advantage of by evil. Orthodox Fa cultivation is just that serious.
Every time the evil launches another round of brutal suppression of Dafa, or when we have large-scale activities to suffocate the evil, I am facing a test to see if I can remain rational and calm. Around the New Year's Day of 2001, there were many practitioners in China going to Tiananmen to safeguard the Fa. I, along with some other practitioners, was thinking to bring more practitioners to go to Tiananmen to validate Dafa. At that time, I was obsessed with the thought that the Fa-rectification fully depended on how many practitioners went to Tiananmen and whether we could make a concerted effort to validate Dafa in Tiananmen. This thought was so strong that I made too much effort on unnecessary things, such as trying to get in touch with practitioners who were then in Beijing so as to set a time to go to Tiananmen together.
For many practitioners in China, stepping forward to validate Dafa was not equivalent to going to Tiananmen. They were doing many other Dafa-related things, such as handing out materials that clarify the truth. Now I understand that all these are necessary and indispensable in Fa-rectification. However, at that time, I felt practitioners who did not plan to go to Tiananmen were not doing their best and they were hindering the Fa-rectification process. Thus, I spent a great amount of time explaining the importance of going to Tiananmen to them. Moreover, when they said there was other Dafa work to be done, I thought they were finding excuses to protect themselves. Although later I realized this was not good, I still could not maintain a calm mind, not to mention listen to others' opinions.
Now I know it's extremely important to remain calm while validating Dafa. The biggest difference between us and ordinary people or the evil force is that we have the Fa in our hearts. We are practicing "Zhen-Shan-Ren." However, if we fight with the evil with human hearts, we lose all our advantages and our actions become ordinary people's actions. I had been a person who was not very rational for a long time. Even now, I am still unable to let this attachment go completely. The most significant manifestation is that whenever there were people viciously attacking Dafa in front of me, I would be upset. Even though I tried not to let it surface, people still felt it. Clarifying the truth to people in this way, I found that it was really hard to achieve my goal. I ended up arguing with them. No matter how logic my argument was, I just couldn't convince them. I think that it was probably because I didn't hold on to my Xinxing. I was angry, so I was constrained by the universal characteristics. While trying to explain clearly, we should not focus on language or aspect, but should work on our hearts. A peaceful and calm mind will speak for itself.
We are so lucky to be Dafa practitioners in this Fa rectification period. We are spreading the Fa in this human world. Master asks us to "Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence (Rationality)." Reason, wisdom and benevolence are all closely related to the realm of our cultivation. Therefore, in order to get to master's requirements, we should cultivate ourselves in a diligent and steadfast way while doing Dafa-related work. Sometimes I tend to view things with sentimentality and I think that's because I do not cultivate well. We should abandon all those sentimentalities, such as anger, sorrow and passion and "validate the Fa with reason (rationality)."
Whether or not we can keep up with the Fa rectification process doesn't only depend on how many things we have done or achieved, it also depends on whether we can truly play the role of a Dafa particle and an unselfish and selfless practitioner. Actually, how many things we have done, or the degree of danger involved isn't the benchmark for measuring how high a practitioner's Xinxing is. It doesn't matter what you do, just as master said in his article that, "no matter where you are or what you're doing, you are improving yourself in the midst of the things you're supposed to do. There are reasons behind what everyone does. There's no difference in terms of the realm of consummation and the progress towards consummation." (unofficial translation) The level of our Xinxing depends on whether we are doing what we are supposed to do and to what degree we assimilate to this Fa, in our day-to-day life and work,.
The biggest difference between practitioners and ordinary people is that we examine ourselves when confronted with conflicts. When the evil attacked us, when we didn't get much understanding while clarifying the truth to the ordinary people, when other people wouldn't listen to us, why didn't we look inside ourselves to see if there's anything that needs to be rectified? If we always look for other's shortcomings, then what's the difference between ordinary people and us? Actually all these things happened because of our own attachments. We lack the benevolence that can touch people's hearts. Coercion can't change people's hearts, but benevolence can. If each Dafa disciple uses the benevolence that is cultivated from the Fa to rectify the Fa, and uses the purest heart to do the most sacred thing, ordinary people will naturally feel the power of Dafa and come to support Dafa. Let us correct ourselves strictly. Don't let our mistakes prevent predestined lives from finding their true home for their life in Dafa. Let us deserve the title of Dafa disciples. Let our actions and words verify the goodness of Dafa. We welcome the day when the Fa rectifies the world!
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