4. Security Issues
Many practitioners have discussed this issue in depth. I would like to share some of the serious lessons that I've learned so that other practitioners can learn from them.
During the time I spent working in a location where truth-clarification material is put together, I developed a stubborn and extreme notion -- I thought using the means used by everyday people to protect one's security is a human notion. I thought as long as I recognized what I was doing was the most righteous thing, if I was not afraid of being in danger, I wouldn't be in danger. How was my thinking any different from those who thought their illnesses would be cured as long as they practiced Falun Gong?
My thoughts were further contaminated by my attachments to being overly zealous and showing off. I was feeling pleased with myself for doing things that other practitioners didn't dare to do. To put it plainly, I was very attached to myself and I wasn't able to jump out of the boundary of my sense of selfness. I wasn't being responsible to fellow practitioners.
"A Dafa disciple should put the Fa first in everything he does--whenever you evaluate something you have to consider the Fa first. You probably remember something I've said to you often: a Dafa disciple should consider others first in everything he does" (from "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston").
Of course, at the time when the evil was able to take advantage of my gaps, I also had problems with other aspects of my xinxing. When I was arrested by the police, other practitioners were also affected. Some were arrested. One practitioner even died from falling off a building while trying to elude police capture. I've learned some really serious lessons. What happened was a part of the arrangement of the old forces. But on the other hand, I can't say that it had nothing to do with omissions on my own part. The fact that my own attachment conformed to the arrangement of the old forces also contributed to what had happened.
What we are doing is the most righteous thing. We should do things in an upfront and open manner. As a matter of fact, certain practitioners truly have been conducting themselves very well. They are able to validate the Fa in public and they live under relatively pressure-free environments. That is a reflection of the state of cultivation that they've achieved. But when it comes to work in places where truth-clarifying material are put together or come in contact with other practitioners, we run into practitioners who are in different cultivation states and at different levels. Many complicated elements are involved. Under this kind of circumstance, we must conduct ourselves in a well-thought out and omission-free manner when it comes to security issues, in order to avoid bringing losses to Dafa. On the other hand, we all know that the security issues we face are not purely human ones. If we only put emphasis on specific methods that we use to do things, it wouldn't work. The only way for us to address security issues on a fundamental level is to be perfect and omission-free in every single aspect of our xinxing.
5. Technical Issues
"It's clear what our starting point is. The essence of what you are doing as a cultivator is improving yourself and cultivating yourself, and, during this persecution, exposing the evil, bringing the persecution to an end, and rejecting the old forces' arrangements. So a lot of the things you do look like what ordinary people do, but their very nature is different. The fundamental difference is that our ultimate goal and our starting point are different from theirs. We're only utilizing some ordinary means in the ordinary society. The ordinary society, too, is a level that the Fa has created for humankind, so at this level we validate the Fa by making use of the culture that the Fa created for ordinary people and the various forms in which it can exist. I don't think there's anything wrong with these things." (from "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")
When we encounter specific technical issues while validating the Fa, we can be certain that there are definitely things that we need to improve. Evil interference does exist. But if we have righteous thoughts that don't have any omission, we certainly are able to eliminate the interference. When specific issues arise, they often seem to happen purely by chance and are seemingly related to our lack of technical knowledge. But we can't let surface appearances cover up the fact that we need to improve ourselves. We can't simply use technical knowledge to solve technical issues. It is true that certain problems can be solved with help from others. But I feel that when it comes to one's own xinxing problems, nobody else can help him solve those problems.
If a practitioner isn't able to link his work with cultivation, no matter how much technical knowledge he has, if he isn't able to search inward when encountering problems and still uses human thinking to think of problems, what he knows is only the technical knowledge of ordinary people, and he absolutely can't reach the state of a God and doesn't possess the great wisdom of a God. In that type of situation, he can only achieve limited results, as the higher one's level is, the more ability he has. We are all clear on the point that if we do things with the intention of accomplishing something, we aren't conducting cultivation and can't validate the Fa. If we truly do things with a good mindset, with a pure mindset of cultivation, with the benevolence of offering salvation to all sentient beings, how could there be any technical problems that we can't solve?
6. Attachment to pursuing results
Recently I submitted several articles to the Clearwisdom net. It took me a lot of time to write those articles, but none of them were published. I then read articles on Clearwisdom that were on similar subjects as the articles I wrote but weren't as specific and detailed as mine. I was quite stirred up and felt unhappy for a long time. I felt that I had spent so much energy writing those articles but the efforts were spent in vain. I felt that as those articles weren't published, so I didn't achieve any result. Many similar thoughts occupied my mind. But when I calmed down and thought things over, I asked myself, "Haven't the articles that other practitioners wrote also achieved the result of shocking the evil? Were those articles by other practitioners published because they were purer and more righteous than mine? Am I still not attached to my sense of self, as I am eager to see the things that I do achieve tangible results? Isn't it because I feel that I should be rewarded for the efforts that I made? Would I still care so much about the results if other practitioners did this?" I realized that the reason that we can't let certain things go is because we are attached to our sense of self.
"Whoever does the work is spreading Dafa. It is not important whether it should be done by you or by others. Are you going to bring to a paradise this attachment that you cannot let go of, and contend with Buddhas? Nobody should treat Dafa as his own exclusive thing. Get rid of that thought that you've been treated unfairly! When your mind cannot get over something, isn't it caused by your attachment?" ("Further Elimination of Attachments")
"If you've got a good idea, well, you came up with it, you're being responsible to the Fa, and it's not important whether your idea is adopted or whether your approach is used. If another person's idea can achieve the same effect and you aren't attached to your own idea and instead you go along with his, then whether you've shared your approach or not, Gods will all see this and think, 'Look, he isn't attached, and he's able to be so tolerant and broadminded.' What do Gods look at? Isn't this what they look at? When you're attached to emphasizing your things you are too caught up in it and the Gods watching above can't stand it. Even though you keep claiming it's for the good of Dafa, and that 'my approach is good' and can reach such and such goal--and maybe that really is the case--still, we shouldn't have attachments that are too much like ordinary people. If you can really do that, all the Gods will say, 'This person is truly remarkable.'" (from "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
"...true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining." (from "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
7. Indestructible mechanism of the new cosmos
Master has said that the universe is in essence composed of energy, and energy is expended and needs to be made up. My own understanding is that in the old cosmos, the expending and making up of energy is limited within the confinement of each individual body. That is because fundamentally they are unable to jump out of the boundary of their own selves. One day they will exhaust all their own energy and in the end be destroyed. But in the new cosmos, the energy of individual bodies is made up not only by the individual bodies themselves, but by other bodies as well. Each particle will contribute and make up energy for others. It is because each body exists purely for the sake of others, and this is the only way that it will remain in a harmonious and indestructible state.
If a Dafa particle can truly do well the three things that Master Li has asked us to do, one can let go of his selfishness to the greatest extent possible and achieve the state where every thought of his is pure. When that happens, he naturally will be able to completely oppose the arrangements of the old forces and will truly be responsible to all the righteous elements within the cosmos. The old forces have displayed all the evil elements in this Fa-rectification.
"All the degeneration of beings, and all the bad states beings can display during the Fa-rectification period, manifest in a concentrated way in the entire system of the old forces that affects the Fa-rectification." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference, July 21, 2001")
When we use the requirement of the Fa to break through all these and save sentient beings, we are creating the future of a cosmos that is able to harmonize everything.
Master Li has set very strict requirements for us in this aspect.
"Many Dafa disciples will achieve the status of gigantic beings in the future, and they will encompass many sentient beings, even boundless beings. So if your standard is lowered, then that level of the cosmos won't last long and that level of the firmament won't last long, so you have to meet the standard." (from "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")
I hope every single of us Dafa particle is able to clearly recognize our sacred responsibilities and use our purest thoughts to fulfill our solemn pledges. Let us fulfill the responsibilities that we have the privilege to bear, not let down the hope that sentient beings in the cosmos have placed on us, and not let down everything that Master has done for us, things that can be never be described and things that we can never repay.
For Part 1, please see
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/11/20/42416.html