(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said in the article "Take the Middle Way,"
"Because of disciples' differences in understanding, some disciples always go from one extreme to the other. Whenever they read the Fa I have written they take extreme actions, thereby causing new problems. When I tell you to change your human understandings, I am not asking you to maintain a human way of understanding Dafa. Yet neither should you be irrational or eccentric. I want you to be clearheaded in understanding Dafa." (Essentials for Further Advancement)
I have found that some practitioners, including myself, often go to extremes in their understanding of the Fa. Very often, extreme behaviors surface when we try to validate Dafa, and we're not able to "Take the Middle Way." When we learn certain Fa from Teacher, we sometimes get stuck on one point, or have an incorrect understanding, because we're unable to consider the special circumstances of the group who originally listened to the lecture, or understand the whole situation. In fact, Teacher's Fa is always in harmony. When we interpret Dafa in an extreme way, the word "enlightenment" is overwritten by another kind of "enlightenment" and we end up going from one extreme to another. This irrational approach will bring losses to ourselves and to Dafa. More seriously, we could cause practitioners to doubt Dafa and go to the opposite side.
We've had many lessons. For example, Teacher told us that firstly a practitioner has to be a good person. Some practitioners have come to believe that "to be a good person" is the essence of cultivation and have taken everyday people's degenerate notions as the standard for what comprises a good person. They're afraid to step forward and clarify the truth about Dafa, and they worry about bringing losses to their families, colleagues and employers. They are afraid to be accused of "not caring about their family or their company," etc. At the other extreme, some practitioners devote themselves to clarifying the truth, but fail to fulfill their responsibilities to their families or do well at their jobs. They haven't cultivated themselves well in harmony with their communities. They have given their families the impression that cultivators don't take care of their families and only care about their own consummation, which creates obstacles and interferes with truth clarification. Actually, many practitioners are able to clarify the truth well and are also able to meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers, who now know the truth and are very supportive of Dafa. This has harmonized Dafa.
A similar phenomenon manifests when sending forth righteous thoughts to help practitioners who are in the midst of tribulation.
After learning that sending forth righteous thoughts as one body for a specific goal is effective, some practitioners summon practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts together, and label anyone who doesn't participate as uncooperative and "not of one body." However, very often there are no significant results from sending forth righteous thoughts under these circumstances, because the external help from righteous thoughts can only be considered a supplementary factor. The real changes come from practitioners lifting themselves up, and very often tribulations are directed at the attachments of the practitioners (sometimes they are also aimed at those practitioners around the one who suffers tribulation, because they are too attached to the practitioner). On the other hand, when some practitioners hear that a practitioner has an attachment, they go to the other extreme and think that it is the attachment of the one practitioner alone, and they think they can't do anything about it, and it's no use to send forth righteous thoughts. When this is the case the practitioners who are in tribulation end up isolated and helpless, and the evil will freely persecute them.
In "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," a practitioner asked,
Question: "Many among the disciples currently have this thinking: When a practitioner experiences tribulations because of interference from the old forces, other practitioners think that even if he does have attachments, the persecution shouldn't be allowed to take place and everyone should send righteous thoughts. My question is, if the practitioner himself doesn't improve, will this work?"
Teacher answered,
"That would be a serious impediment. If he himself isn't rational, whatever we do amounts to nothing. Sending righteous thoughts can eliminate what's outside him but not what's inside his mind. Whatever a person wants to do comes from a single thought of his--it's he who decides if he wants something or not. When this situation occurs, I think there has to be a knot in his mind that stems from attachments. If he's really not able to do it, you can go and help him. There's no problem with doing that. Try to help him understand things on the basis of the Fa-truths and by studying the Fa more."
Actually, when practitioners are interfered with because of their attachments, their righteous thoughts are already very weak and they are in a state of confusion. At that time, we can help them to clear their heads, look inside righteously and let go their attachments. That way they'll be able to get past the tribulation. Certainly we can't have an attachment to the practitioners who are in tribulation, because the old forces will seize on this as a reason to aggravate the persecution. Furthermore, we can't focus too many practitioners' efforts on this, or it will interfere with clarifying the truth, and the old forces will have succeeded in interfering with Dafa practitioners validating the Fa.
On September 8, 2005, the Clearwisdom.net article "A Young Practitioner's Sharing: With Firm Belief in Teacher and the Fa, We Can Eradicate the Persecution by the Old Forces" brought up a very good and dramatic example. Some practitioners don't understand and wonder why we can't help the practitioners who are in tribulation. We will fully understand if we let go our sentimentality for our fellow practitioners and evaluate things based on the Fa. In writing experience sharing articles, we should try our best to be more thorough, clear and correct in our understanding of the Fa, and be considerate so as to not cause practitioners to go from one extreme to the other.
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