(Clearwisdom.net) For a period of time, when many practitioners around me met with tribulations which they could not break through for quite some time, or when they could not see something clearly from the perspective of the Fa, they would say, "Follow the course of nature." It seemed that they said it easily, but actually they didn't recognize the persecution arranged by the old forces clearly and they were passive and tolerant of the persecution. This phenomenon was not uncommon among some practitioners.
In "Expounding on the Fa," Teacher said,
"You should also be clear that 'natural' does not exist, and 'the inevitable' has reasons behind it. In fact, 'natural' is irresponsibly used by everyday people to make excuses for themselves when they are unable to explain the phenomena of the universe, life, and matter. They cannot imagine what 'nature' itself is. Under the influence of this kind of notion you think that all these tribulations are inevitable and that this is just the way it is, thereby developing a passive and pessimistic attitude. So your human side must stay aware. More importantly, your side that has attained the Fa must be clear." (Essentials for Further Advancement)
"Natural" does not exist. Gods arranged everything in the human world, and the old forces arranged the persecution of Falun Gong as a "natural" course of events. Practitioners may be passive if they don't recognize that the persecution should not exist. Being unable to see this principle is displayed in the following three ways:
1. Not Recognizing the Persecution Clearly
One practitioner was persecuted and he didn't handle his family issues well. His wife wanted to divorce him. This practitioner has been in this tribulation for a long time and he didn't improve his understanding. Therefore, when his wife wanted a divorce, he said, "Follow the course of nature." Other practitioners also echoed, "Follow the course of nature." The old forces wanted to create the impression that "Falun Gong causes families to break up" by arranging for divorces to occur within practitioners' families. They wanted to create a negative influence on a large scale and then use this severe environment to test practitioners. It was a persecution of the Fa, practitioners, and sentient beings. That practitioner's wife became a "victim" controlled by the evil. So, "following the course of nature" was just tolerating the persecution, which would ruin sentient beings.
There are many similar scenarios, such as renovating the home, being forced by the work unit to terminate his/her years-of-service, purchasing a car, being busy at work, taking children to the hospital, suddenly having to look after one's parents, and so on. If you don't recognize that these events are actually persecution, and thus send forth righteous thoughts and look within to discover your own loopholes, you will be trapped in a vicious cycle. For example, you would be deprived of your time when you have to take your child to the hospital or to comfort your parents. Also, if some practitioners did not conform to everyday people's conventions and did not look after their children or parents, the evil would say, "Falun Gong practitioners do not care about family members."
2. Controlling Human Notions and Common Sense
There are four seasons in nature. Humans have birth, age, sickness, and death. It seems that these are natural things. People cannot explain why such cycles exist and therefore don't think about it. Instead, they use the word "natural" to explain the phenomena. Modern people use this word to deceive themselves.
In fact, everything in nature was arranged for Falun Dafa's introduction, including the four seasons and the laws of nature. They are not simply natural things. Gods arranged them intentionally. Everything in this world is operating for the sake of the Fa. When we validate the Fa, we should not acknowledge any interference. We should eliminate it. It is fundamental to harmonize the Fa and achieve the attainment status of practitioners. So in our cultivation, we can break through all natural phenomena that regulate this human world as long as Fa-rectification needs us to do so.
A very simple example is a woman's menstrual period. According to "the laws of nature of the female body," older women no longer menstruate. But personal cultivation can change this cycle. Of course this example is just illustrating a point in personal cultivation. I am talking about problems in the Fa-rectification period.
When some practitioners accept the "laws of nature" and don't transcend them, they can't break through them. For example, some practitioners have said, "I can't sleep any less," "Humans need eight hours of sleep each night," "Some practitioners only sleep five or six hours a day for a long time and eventually they become exhausted," "I am old and cannot memorize the Fa as easily as young people can," or "My memory is bad and so I cannot recite the Fa." All these notions are passive acceptance. When you accept something, you will be constrained by it, and it thus becomes reality. In this way, practitioners also tend to use the phenomena to confirm their own understanding, which deepens and strengthens the human notion.
I will give another example. It snowed heavily recently, and a practitioner said, "It is too slippery to drive so let's delay our plans and do some other things first." I didn't pay attention to what was happening at that time, but I felt it was not right when two other practitioners said the same thing. I thought that it showed the attachment of fear, and that it was caused by interference from the old forces. If we can all deny this interference using righteous thoughts, then it won't have room to exist, and we can eliminate the interference caused by events that we consider to be "natural phenomena."
3. Excuses that Paralyze Us
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland,"
"I'm saying that 'letting things happen naturally' should be applied according to the situation. In cultivation we follow the natural course of events, but we still have to make an effort to repress the bad side of ourselves and we still need to work hard at cultivation--doing otherwise is not called 'letting things happen naturally.' The idea of letting things happen naturally isn't like what people said in the past, where a person would no longer care about anything and would just sit there as though he'd left the secular world; a person who did that was thought to be 'letting things happen naturally.' That's not how it is--that's definitely not the idea."
Some practitioners tend to paralyze themselves by following "the course of nature" and "natural phenomena." They hide their attachments and can't be diligent. For example, one practitioner remained in the state of personal cultivation and was very passive in clarifying the truth. When practitioners reminded him, he would say, "This is my current state. Aren't you putting pressure on me? I should follow the course of nature." That is to say, he would not do the three things that Teacher asked us to do until his comprehension was elevated. He would wait until he changed naturally. He would only do what he was willing to do. What the old forces want is to prevent him from saving sentient beings, validating the Fa, and walking the path Teacher has arranged. The notion of "following the course of nature" indeed acknowledges the old force's arrangements.
Some practitioners find excuses for not being diligent when they see the good state of other practitioners. For example, one practitioner memorized Zhuan Falun in 9 days. Most practitioners enlightened a lot from this. But some practitioners said, "We cannot all be at the same level and we cannot be compared to others. I am just in this state." Meaning, that it was "natural" for the other practitioner to have such a capability. In fact, any practitioner can have this "supernormal capability" because he recited Teacher's articles long ago. It was "naturally" the case because he had been diligent all the time.
I read Minghui weekly (Clearwisdom Digest) and was moved by practitioners' righteous thoughts and actions. I shared this with another practitioner, and he said, "Teacher arranged everything. Each of us has a different path. He just has that historical mission." It sounded good on the surface, but we could tell that he didn't want to admit that other practitioners were more diligent than he was. He was using "he is in this state naturally" as an excuse for his own lack of diligence.
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