Excuse is a very cunning demon, mostly hiding in our mind, thoughts, ideas and careless words and deeds. If we cannot capture and rid ourselves of it in every thought and idea, it will cause havoc, losses and damage in validating Dafa and saving sentient beings. The lessons which I experienced recently should be seriously considered.
While sharing experiences with practitioner "A," I said, "When I edited the characters in Dafa books, I often missed typing the 'enter' key." Practitioner "A" responded, "Me too." His answer made me relieved; it turned out that I am not the only one making such mistakes. As a result, I slackened when editing the characters. Even after I reviewed the document three additional times, I continued to miss this error.
When sharing experiences with practitioner "B," I said, "It seems to me that the more I cultivate, the more attachments I have. Most attachments were immediately eliminated, but I realize now I am not as pure as before. Practitioner "B" responded, "Me too." His answer gave me something to fall back on. I even mistakenly thought that this is a common state after a period of cultivation, instead of considering this issue based on Dafa. Because of this, I slacked off further.
While sharing experiences with practitioner "C," I said, "I miss sending forth righteous thoughts at midnight most times since I cannot wake up." Practitioner "C" responded, "Me too." His answer made me feel steady and sure. I even suspected that most practitioners did the same thing. This excuse made me persist in my old ways and I did not think much more about the issue. As a result, this caused a great delay in eliminating the evil entirely.
From my experiences, it can be seen that the attachment of "excuse" subtly caused major problems for four cultivators and the work of Dafa. It caused us to become lazy and irresponsible, not considering the whole body of practitioners and all other sentient beings, and it resulted in our being selfish, relying on others, hesitating, and giving up diligent progress.
Sometimes I really hoped to do better in the things a Dafa practitioner should do during the Fa-rectification period (1). However, I was blocked by all sorts of excuses. When I prepared to write a letter to senior government officials to clarify truth about Falun Gong, the demon Excuse said, "Forget about it. There are many Dafa practitioners around senior officials in Beijing. It is not your turn to do that." When I tried to rescue practitioners in prison, Excuse said, "There are tens of thousands of practitioners detained, is it possible for you to rescue them all?" When I planned to write an indictment to sue the former head and his accomplice who are responsible for persecuting Dafa, Excuse said, "When the critical mass gets to that stage, everyone will write an indictment. Wait until then."
Thus Excuse obstructed and hindered us from saving sentient beings. What would happen if everyone accepts the thought, "If I don't do it, someone else will; it makes no difference whether I participate or not"? Because of this, we separated ourselves from Dafa. The dark hands behind the attachment observe, "Look! Dafa disciples are so selfish. How could they cultivate to selflessness and righteous Enlightenment?"
Although we do not acknowledge the old force's arrangements and trials, we really need to look inwards. Saving sentient beings is such a sacred issue. What would happen if we always depended on each other and Mainland disciples depended on disciples outside China, and at the same time disciples outside China depended on disciples inside China? Disciples detained would depend on disciples outside of prison, while other disciples would depend on Teacher and the cosmic plan. Because we're all depending on something outside of ourselves, we would be persecuted endlessly by the evil, since it can easily grasp our great weaknesses and constantly take advantage of us. Teacher warned us in Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference:
"The evil takes advantage of the slightest gap and glares menacingly at every single word and action of yours. Whatever you're attached to, that's what the evil beings will strengthen, and when your mind is off they will make you irrational."
(1) The three things Master Li asked practitioners to do are to study the Fa (the teachings of Falun Dafa), send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth of Falun Dafa and the persecution to the world's people.
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