(Clearwisdom.net)

The Chinese government has followed three mandates in its persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners: "ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically." In other dimensions, the dark minions, rotten demons, and the evil party's specter have been persecuting Dafa practitioners in these three aspects as well. Even the old forces at high levels have arranged their "tests" mainly in these three aspects. Among them, the aspect of bankrupting and blocking practitioners financially seems to be the one that is most difficult for practitioners to be aware of and recognize. The evil has been able to have its way in this regard for a long time owing to our lack of enlightenment on this issue.

The means that the Chinese government have used to financially persecute Falun Gong practitioners are mainly as follows: firing them from their jobs, illegally "fining" them, ransacking their homes, illegally taking away their personal property, enticing or forcing workplace and neighborhood officials to withhold practitioners' wages, bonuses, retirement funds, means of production, etc. All of these things are rightfully owed to practitioners. To make matters worse, government officials frequently harass practitioners' work units, leaving them with no way out but to fire the practitioners.

Most practitioners are aware of these kinds of persecution, and they also know to use their righteous thoughts to disintegrate the evil factors behind them.

However, the evil persecution is not limited to these means.

For example, some practitioners are forced to stay away from their homes to avoid further persecution and they cannot find jobs. Some have worked long hours for low pay and suffered under heavy workloads for long periods of time. Some are very capable but cannot find suitable jobs. Some own their own businesses, but always lose money. Some have worked very hard but cannot make enough money for all kinds of surface reasons. Some used to be financially sound but suddenly fell into financial crisis.

Let us look at the issue from a higher level. Some practitioners are supposed to be rich and have a fortune in the human world, but they became very poor as a result of the old forces' persecution acting under various guises. There are also some practitioners who, deceived by the old forces, agreed to some of the old forces' arrangements and thus feel very helpless now in changing their poor financial situations. These situations have happened to Dafa practitioners both inside and outside of China.

For example, during the economic downturn, many practitioners lost their jobs. The top leaders of some big financial corporations had made oaths to help the Fa rectification during the Fa-rectification period, but under the deception of lies and with the enticement of material interests, they have used their money to assist the evil.

Of course, I am not saying that a cultivator is definitely being persecuted if he does not have much money. The money that Dafa practitioners have used to clarify the truth and save people is basically from their own savings, which are accumulated through their frugality. For them, having one extra yuan means the possibly of saving one more life. At the present time, the evil has created financial impediments for Dafa practitioners not just to make trouble for our personal cultivation. They also want to make the public misunderstand Dafa practitioners. At the same time, they want to make it convenient for them to do evil in other areas. What is even more damaging is that the financial impediments have caused Dafa practitioners to lack sufficient funds to organize and carry out various kinds of truth-clarification activities to save sentient beings.

As a result, these "tests" by the old forces basically play the role of poisoning and ruining sentient beings. Many determined practitioners have rock-solid faith in Dafa, but their financial situations are extremely bad. This leads people who know them to say, "How come after practicing Dafa, one becomes poorer and poorer? I do not dare to learn Dafa from you!" Some practitioners still do not realize that due to their failure to harmonize their personal cultivation, they have made some people who should have entered Dafa, miss their opportunity. These practitioners may have only understood the issue at the surface level, and they may have mistakenly dismissed the situation thinking ordinary people value fame and money too highly.

Master said that since the persecution began, he has not arranged any tribulations for veteran practitioners in their personal cultivation. [Paraphrased] My understanding is that the reason this is so is because the time of personal cultivation practice has already passed, and all the hindrances we have encountered have actually originated from the old forces' so-called "tests." Therefore, the evil's financial persecution is the same as their persecution of practitioners in other aspects. In other words, it is directed at Dafa practitioners as one body. These are not personal tribulations that some practitioners have to pass. It is just that the evil has chosen to directly target practitioners who have not enlightened on this issue yet, or who have relatively large amounts of karma in this area.

In the minds of the old cosmic forces, personal cultivation is of prime importance, as they believe that Dafa practitioners can only establish their mighty virtue by enduring torture, persecution, estrangement from their friends and families, financial difficulties, etc. This kind of thought is just like what some practitioners have said, while being influenced by the evil. They said "Being arrested or tortured is a way of eliminating karma," and "The more sufferings one endures, the greater the virtue one accumulates." These practitioners hold these views because they have not truly understood the magnificence of Fa-rectification cultivation practice and the state that Dafa practitioners should have during the Fa-rectification period.

It is true that most genuine cultivators in history were poor, and many of them even had nothing and had to rely on begging for a living. However, our present form of cultivation is different from any of the cultivation ways in history. Especially during the present time, the requirements for Fa-rectification determine everything, and the importance of Dafa practitioners' clarifying the truth and saving people goes far beyond what personal cultivation can cover. Therefore, Dafa practitioners need to have good conditions for saving people. Our cultivation practice also requires us to have reasonable jobs in society and make reasonable incomes from our work. This does not mean that we only pursue personal fame and interest. In fact, we cannot achieve this standard while holding on to human mentalities.

We need to fully understand the nature of the persecution, but even more important, we must negate the persecution through our righteous thoughts and actions.

So, how can we negate the financial persecution?

First, I personally believe that we should be clear on this issue from the perspective of the Fa, always view the situation we are in from the perspective of Fa-rectification period cultivation and the salvation of sentient beings, and leave no loopholes for the evil to take advantage of. The practitioners who are being persecuted should act this way, and so should the practitioners who are not being persecuted. We should not acknowledge in our minds, even through acquiescence or in numb or passive ways, that the persecution is justified. I remember that Master has pointed out:

"Do things well in an upright and dignified way, negate them, and strengthen your righteous thoughts some. 'I'm Li Hongzhi's disciple, I don't want other arrangements or acknowledge them'--then they won't dare to do that. So it can all be resolved. When you can really do that, not just saying it but putting it into action, Master will definitely stand up for you. What's more, there are lots of Fa guardians around Master, there are lots of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and there are even greater beings, and they will all participate, because forced persecution that's not acknowledged is a crime, and the cosmos's old laws don't allow it either--irrational persecution absolutely is not allowed, and the old forces don't dare to do it if that is the situation."

("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

Second, we should not neglect our own cultivation.

We cannot use a human mentality to view the issue of negating the financial persecution. We also should not go to the other extreme of pursuing money, which also constitutes an excuse for the evil to persecute practitioners. We should work diligently and do our jobs well in ordinary society, create the image that practitioners are good people no matter where they are, clearly understand our present cultivation practice's format and goal, maximally conform to the conditions of human society, and balance well the relationship between the cultivation and our everyday lives.

Third, the Dafa practitioners who can find proper jobs should try to work. Practitioners can recommend job opportunities to each other. We should not give the public a wrong impression that Dafa practitioners do not value the way people normally live. We also should not hold the wrong view that only by following the cultivation way that the professional cultivators have followed in the past can we cultivate to high realms. On the contrary, while working, we can gain even farther-reaching contacts with people in society and thus have more opportunities to clarify the truth. At the same time, we should understand, from a higher level, that the monetary gain we have, no matter how much it is, is justified as long as we have earned it through our labor and work. Furthermore, we can use the money in a good way, that is, for truth clarification and saving sentient beings. If we have really used it this way, those who have paid us the wages are also accumulating virtue.

So it is not like what some practitioners have imagined; that our doing ordinary work means that we have not based our views on the Fa, or that we have not cultivated ourselves diligently. Actually, it is just the opposite. By having normal jobs, we maximally conform to the conditions of ordinary society and eliminate the various misunderstandings that people may have (this is especially important in the current time when people are still being deceived by the evil lies), we have done well the three things that Master has asked us to do, and at the same time, we have cultivated ourselves well and naturally harmonized everything.

Lastly, we should negate evil arrangements with our righteous thoughts. Once we find that we have loopholes, we should improve our Xinxing accordingly, and at the same time, send forth righteous thoughts more frequently to eliminate the evil factors in other dimensions that persecute us financially.

It seems that I still have more things to say. However, because my level is limited, I may not have very deep understandings of this issue. I hope that other practitioners can also talk about their understandings of this matter so that we will be able to negate the financial persecution, and thus do well what we are supposed to do.

These are my personal understandings. Please point out what I have not understood correctly.

September 19, 2005