(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, through the Internet, I became aware of certain information concerning Mr. Gao Zhicheng, the well-known attorney from Beijing, China who supports Falun Gong. Apparently, Falun Gong practitioners visit or call on Mr. Gao every day seeking his help, putting a heavy burden on his heart.
There are two major reasons for his discomfort. Firstly, although he has tried his best to meet every practitioner who came seeking his help, his time and energy are limited. Secondly, the more Mr. Gao talks with practitioners, the clearer he sees the brutality of the persecution suffered by the practitioners.
His willingness to help has also attracted the attention of the persecutors of Falun Gong. Certain officials from National Security have talked with Mr. Gao, putting a great deal of pressure on him. Recently, the number of issues that the attorney has been required to deal with has increased significantly, and he has not been home for more than ten days (for reasons unknown). Mr. Gao's mother is in the latter stages of cancer, and is quite ill. All of these demands have increased the burden on Mr. Gao.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can easily monitor and locate anyone through their phone, a fact that Mr. Gao is most certainly aware of, and his friends are worried for his safety.
As I read about this, I had mixed feelings. For about a year, Falun Gong practitioners have been talking with Mr. Gao about Falun Gong and the persecution. We have seen Mr. Gao righteously and sympathetically speak out on behalf of Falun Gong. He has spent a lot of his time for the benefit of practitioners and has worked hard on their cases. It takes a lot of soul searching and reflection for a person to understand Falun Gong, and it is an arduous undertaking for someone to courageously step forward in China to speak for the rights of Falun Gong practitioners. Yet, Mr. Gao has done so. I respect him very much for his noble and righteous deed. On the other hand, everyone knows the violent and criminal nature of the CCP. I can feel the pressure on Mr. Gao and the weight of the burden he has taken on, and I am concerned for his safety and well being. In my heart I sincerely wish the best for him. I hope that he will be safe, and I hope he will get to witness that most remarkable moment when the Fa rectifies the human world, even though he may presently be unaware of its approach or significance. That moment when the evil forces persecuting the innocent people who believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" are eliminated, will be the moment that marks the beginning of the new epoch.
In this article, I want to discuss how we practitioners inside and outside of China must put down our ordinary people's attachments, rectify the relationship between practitioners and ordinary people, and how we should be considerate and compassionate towards all people.
In China, when they first came to learn Dafa, many practitioners had various ordinary people's notions and intentions. Because they were ordinary people then, this approach wasn't wrong. But as a Dafa disciple during Fa rectification, if after studying the Fa for a long time one still holds onto those ordinary people's thoughts and attachments, it's no small problem, and it will cause much trouble and tribulations for the practitioner and those people around him or her.
Almost six years have passed since the persecution began in 1999, but there are still practitioners who think that the persecution is just a normal conflict in human society. This notion is firmly held and used by the rotten ghosts and dark minions in other dimensions to further persecute practitioners and extend their tribulations. Some of these practitioners are very attached to surface appearances, and ask questions like, "Why I am still being persecuted?" "Why hasn't my disease been cured?" and, "Why hasn't the persecution ended?" etc. They forget that everything around them, including themselves, is closely tied to their own cultivation. Teacher said in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun,
"In qigong practice, those of you whose qi cannot go through a pass or come down should look for reasons within your xinxing to determine if you are stuck at that level for too long and whether you should upgrade your xinxing! Once you truly upgrade your xinxing, you will find that qi coming down. You cannot only pursue transformation of gong in the physical body without emphasizing improvement of your xinxing. It is waiting for you to upgrade your xinxing--only then will you make a holistic change."
In fact, these are straightforward instructions for our cultivation during the Fa rectification period.
If a practitioner cannot study the Fa with a calm and clear mind, and is strongly attached to ending the persecution that has "caused me so much pain," that practitioner may easily seek outside help due to their own self interest. The practitioner's concentration will gradually focus on how to utilize outside forces, ordinary people, and their organizations to free themselves from the great weight of the persecution. No matter how strenuously they seek outside help or shortcuts to get what they want, the results invariably fall short of their wishes. The criteria by which a cultivator should measure him or herself are far beyond those used by ordinary people, and the persecution of Falun Gong also has roots far beyond ordinary human society. If a practitioner waits until the end of Teacher's Fa rectification, when other practitioners reach consummation, he will look back and find that his path was one in which he sought help from outside instead of seeking within himself, and because of this, he has failed in cultivation. If only then does the practitioner believe what Teacher has taught us during Fa rectification, it will be too late to regret it. At that moment, one's xinxing level will determine their position in the cosmos. Even though this being has come to be a practitioner in the Fa rectification period, if he doesn't fulfill his historic duty, there will be no second chance because Fa rectification will be complete. In fact, Teacher has mentioned this many times in his lectures. As long as a practitioner can study the Fa with a calm heart, he will know which way is the righteous way, and the effect will be good for himself and other people.
Today, as the persecution has lasted for more than five and a half years, those practitioners who still don't fundamentally believe Teacher's words are still unwilling to abide in the Fa should carefully examine themselves, and ask themselves, "Has the Party poisoned my mind so deeply that I can't believe in the existence of gods from the bottom of my heart?" and, "Have I accepted in my mind the atheism propagated by the Party for over fifty years?" Teacher said in his lecture, "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York (Question & Answers Section, Part I),"
"When the persecution in Mainland China started, if all of the Dafa disciples had managed to act fairly righteously like now, the persecution would have never gotten off the ground, and those evil things would have been destroyed instantly. The human world is no place for them to make a display of evilness."
When a person steps into the door of cultivation, none of the lower level gods are able to determine his life path. Dafa practitioners are above ordinary lives. We need to ask ourselves, "Do I believe a hundred percent in the Fa that Teacher has taught?"
In many cases, many practitioners are so busy that they don't have much time to sit down and think with calm and quiet hearts. When such a situation lasts for a long time, it gradually becomes their custom, just like those of ordinary people. Just because something is ready to be carried out and detailed steps are already planned, practitioners shouldn't just do a task for Dafa mechanically, treating it as a simple exercise, without understanding it primarily from the perspective of the Fa. Instead, they should calmly and reasonably do Fa rectification activities in an organized way, at the same time cultivating themselves. This situation has recently become quite prominent for practitioners both inside and outside China. In cultivation, a person should not use any excuse to cover up his actions, and must cultivate based on the Fa. In our daily lives, whatever we run into, think of, and do are all pertinent to our cultivation.
Take for an example practitioners' frequent visits with the attorney Mr. Gao Zhicheng. There is no absolute requirement, but we must be clear about our reasons for making these visits. For the practitioners in China who go to Mr. Gao seeking help, in addition to considering your safety and that of other people (Mr. Gao and all those who come in contact with him are monitored), they should search within themselves to see whether what they do is in order to clarify the truth and save sentient beings.
In fact, for a person to understand the truth, practitioners must be unselfish, compassionate, and work hard and consistently to clarify the truth. This is especially so if an ordinary person is to have a deep understanding of Falun Gong and the persecution and be able to openly support practitioners. Why do some congressmen and other government officials outside China openly and firmly support the practitioners and stand with them against the persecution? It's my understanding that it is due to practitioners' consistent, prolonged, reasonable and righteous clarification of the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution, which helps these officials to understand and overcome difficulties. Even after ordinary people understand the truth, our truth clarification shouldn't stop there. Continuous effort is needed to encourage them, answer their questions, and provide them with updated information.
After people know the truth, what they want to do and how much effort they want to put into helping us is not our main concern; because they are sentient beings, saving them is our top priority. If people are willing to help us from their hearts, using the means at their disposal in society, then it's a very good thing.
From studying Teacher's new articles, we know that there are still many good people with righteous hearts. Many people with good inborn quality and predestined relationships with Dafa have not yet come to understand the truth, but time is moving very quickly. More practitioners should strive to correct the relationships between themselves and ordinary people, be considerate to the people who have not understood the truth, take every chance to clarify the truth to them, be compassionate and protect the people who understand the truth. Practitioners should help these good people contribute their own positive efforts. If practitioners can find more people like Attorney Mr. Gao Zhicheng, and patiently and thoroughly clarify the truth to these lawyers, in a very short time Mr. Gao will not feel so isolated and will not face so much difficulty. Through our truth-clarification efforts, Mr. Gao will be joined by more and more lawyers, police officers, officials and leaders who have come to understand the truth. Together, they will do their best to do positive things for Dafa, and stand with Dafa practitioners against the evil and the persecution.