(Clearwisdom.net) Whoever has worked in a cotton field knows that a cotton grower has to constantly prune non-bearing branches during the growing process so that cotton-bearing branches can receive the best conditions to produce cotton.
This applies not only to cotton but also to fruit-bearing plants, to produce large high-quality fruit. A plant's luxuriantly green non-bearing branches might confuse the layman to think that the plant is thriving, but an experienced farmer would prune them out in no time. In ancient times, when the Huang Emperor toured his realm in disguise, he met a lad who told him, "The key to running the country well is to get rid of evil members of the herd". The connotation in Chinese culture is that achieving success has everything to do with eliminating evil. Only when you eliminate all the evil can you reach the right fruit status.
With Dafa widely spreading today, everything is going through Fa rectification. Because of the old force's interference and destruction, the wicked beings manipulated by lower dimension demons and evil spirits have used the most despicable methods to deceive people. Master once stated that the beings pressed into the three realms are all old beings; they have many attachments to previous life experiences and restrictions based on different levels of the old Fa.
During this relentless persecution, the evil has seized every opportunity. Because of fear and their attachment to being human, some practitioners did what they thought was right but was not according to the Fa. They bragged about themselves being "good people", shackling themselves in self-deceit as well as the deceit of others. They see these shackles as a beautiful label. They stopped doing Fa rectification work but still believe they are cultivating themselves. Using the cotton-field analogy, they are actually turning themselves into non-bearing branches.
Teacher said in Touring North America to Teach the Fa,
"In other words, during the Fa-rectification, all that the behavior of the sentient beings shows is their attitude towards the Fa-rectification, and this determines whether they are kept or not--how good their attitudes are toward Fa-rectification is evaluated and used to reposition them. In other words, these are nothing more than the sentient beings' performances at the final stage of formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction."
For a practitioner to call oneself a "good person" is not up to the standards of the Fa rectification. It is like a non-bearing branch; it is meaningless and wastes time and nutrients. They are not true practitioners and waste not only their own efforts but also delay the time it takes to save the sentient beings.
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