(Clearwisdom.net)To begin with, in terms of the overall situation, because the evil has seen its end, it will become wilder and more irrational. The manifestations on the human side are that, from time to time, Internet news reports things like "From now to the Olympic Games, law enforcement agencies all over China will step up the persecution against dissidents, especially against Falun Gong practitioners, by using harsher measures to deal with them." Some local authorities have even launched a so-called "100-day drive" and so on. How should we take this? What should we do? Actually, our revered Master told us the answer already in one of his lectures: "As for how to do things well, that means doing well in the three things that Dafa disciples should do--that is doing things best. " ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York") On this issue, I think that, no matter what happens, we should just keep on doing well the three things we are supposed to do well, and then no one will dare to touch us and no higher beings from the old cosmos that are disrupting Fa-rectification will dare to touch us. Of course, when we are doing those things we must maintain a steady mind and righteous thoughts. Even though we still have gaps, we should absolutely not allow any disruption from the evil, because we do not acknowledge it in the first place and we only listen to our Master. We are Falun Dafa practitioners and we are guided in our cultivation by the standard of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," the essential nature of the new cosmos. We are beings that belong to the new cosmos and we will enter this new era. The old forces of the old cosmos that are disrupting Dafa are fated to be eliminated. How could they be allowed to control beings of the new cosmos? They may use a variety of excuses, such as for the sake of practitioners' improvement, but they are interfering and disrupting. When we are clear about what we are to achieve and regard ourselves as Master's disciples, Master will take care of the problems we have and arrange for us to improve our character. Who dares to touch us? Who is really able to touch us? Absolutely no one!
As far as our character is concerned, there are indeed attachments that we need to get rid of through cultivation. Now I am going to share with fellow practitioners what I have seen, so that we can improve together.
The recent arrests all had to do with the elections of a village party secretary, and the practitioners involved all participated in the elections and lodged complaints against the party secretary. This is what I think: It's not that we cannot file complaints against bad people or cast our vote in elections, but the Fa has to take priority in everything we do. For instance, we could clarify the facts to the candidates who come to us for votes, and explain to them how their actions are related to their well-being. Our objective is not to pick a certain individual as the party secretary; rather it is to do well the three things that revered Master asks us to do. On this point, Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students:"
"Whoever you vote for, I can't, as your Master, say that you're wrong, nor do I get involved in those things. That's because the path I ask you to take has you cultivate in ordinary society. Cultivators can only benefit a society. You cultivate in ordinary society but you don't steer human society in one direction or another."
Meanwhile, when ordinary people bring a lawsuit against a persecutor, they do it according to the law. It's best we do not get involved. But if this person persecutes Dafa disciples, and we have solid evidence and good timing, we can take him to court, too. The thing here is that we resort to court because he persecutes us, Falun Dafa cultivators, and this is not to be confused with ordinary people's cases. The purpose of our lawsuit is not to punish him, to get back at him, or take out our anger on him. I don't think any of those is the intent of a cultivator. We should base our legal action on saving sentient beings. If, through the lawsuit, he could understand the truth and stop persecuting us, that would be a blessing for him. If others came to know the truth through our lawsuit and stopped acting against us, that would be the result of our truth-clarification efforts. In other words, whoever we bring to court, we are not doing it for ill intentions typical of those of ordinary people, such as vengeance or retaliation. We must act out of goodness and for others even in the human dimension.
At this point, I realized that I still have some interest in ordinary people's politics. Each day I still wanted to log on to the Internet and see who had fallen from power, who had died, who had committed suicide, who had fallen from grace, and so on. I treated them as omens: "Demon Jiang's days are numbered, so his followers are falling one after another." That means that I regarded ordinary people's political struggles as signs that the persecution is about to end. I realized this was dangerous, and it was an attachment to time, the time when the persecution will end. So I adjusted my mind: I can only use the fluctuations in ordinary people's politics to clarify the facts, and my heart should never be moved by them. I just keep doing well the three things Master told us to do, and no matter what happens, I will just be steady in doing well what Dafa disciples should do and fulfill my grand prehistoric vow.
Meanwhile, the current situation is the best occasion for us to clarify the facts and wipe out the evil. As Master has said many times before, our gong is tracking down the evil elements. So now the evil is coming again, and it may look fierce and vicious, but isn't that our opportunity to eliminate it? Before, we had to look for it everywhere, and it was hidden. Now it comes out into the open, and there's no need for us to look for it, so we can crush it with our righteous thoughts. Isn't that wonderful? Before, it was hard to find it even though we tried. Now it comes right out, so we have nothing to fear. I suggest that, from now on we do what we did when the evil was most rampant and send forth righteous thoughts every hour on the hour every day, until we completely eliminate it.
There's another thing I noticed that has affected many of us here in our area. A local coordinator I met mentioned some conflicts with other coordinators many times. Some articles about these conflicts were posted on the Internet. Here I do not want to say who's right and who's wrong. I only want to point out that there are many articles on Clearwisdom.net that talk about how the lack of cooperation among coordinators has caused difficulties for local Fa-validation work and has even incurred losses to Dafa. This has happened in various areas and should demand our attention. In my view, whatever caused them, these conflicts should not exist, and when they arise, they have to be resolved. All of us who have seen them, including the parties involved in the conflicts, should place ourselves in the picture and think hard. If our attachments cause losses to Dafa and local practitioners, will we ever be able to redeem ourselves? Dafa has given coordinators wisdom and let them know so many fellow practitioners. I don't think that's assigning them a job; it's a position for them to cultivate in, improve themselves, remove their attachments, and do well what they should do. In short, it's an obligation. Let's say that one person has done a lot of work--he's built all the temples in a country or even in the whole world. But his character has not improved one bit. Can he become a god?
Acting with Intent
How they busy themselves, building temples, worshiping,
Knowing not their acts are all for naught;
Lost in stupefying illusion,
they vainly dream of journeying to the Western Paradise,
Groping blindly, walking in darkness,
they try to scoop the moon's reflection from water.March 28, 1997" (from Hong Yin)
So the key here is that while we are doing coordination work, we should pay attention to finding our attachments and getting rid of them. Only that way are we truly establishing our mighty virtue.
We, as practitioners who have seen this, should also place ourselves in the picture and try to learn something from it. Their conflicts have lasted for a while, and what role have we played in them?
"When any conflict arises or anything happens, I've told you that not only should the two parties in the conflict look for reasons on their part, even any third party should think about himself--why are you the one who observed it? ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
I talked to only one of the coordinators and there were some others who thought she was right, too. But I think there must be a different group of people who thought the other party was right. But all of these people involved, have they dealt with this from the perspective of the Fa and taken care of this environment out of responsibility for Dafa? Or have they used human minds and sided with those whose ideas they could identify with, and thus further intensified the conflict? We are assisting Master in Fa-rectification. Our selfish ideas are deviated thoughts belonging to the old cosmos, thoughts that need to be rectified. When we see that others have attachments to themselves, to their own ideas, and to their self-righteousness, shouldn't we move to rectify these straying thoughts? Meanwhile, shouldn't we look within and see if we have similar thoughts? Is it possible that we think one party is right because one of his ideas is in line with one of our own? Have we measured everything with Dafa?
I want to remind fellow practitioners of the following: First, we are revered Master's disciples, so no evil is worthy of testing us because they are fated to be wiped out. How could rotten beings be qualified to test the cultivators who are on the path to godhood? Secondly, we are safe only when we get rid of our attachments and do well the three things Master told us to do under any circumstances, including in the midst of conflicts among fellow practitioners.
Another practitioner wanted to say that it is important that we read Zhuan Falun more and examine ourselves when encountering conflicts and look for answers in the Fa. Also, we should ask the families of those practitioners who have been picked up to demand their release, and they don't have to tell authorities whether they are practitioners or not. For instance, when we go explain the truth to village leaders, we can say that we don't have a strong interest in the elections, but we support good people. You may tell them, "Although you persecute us, we won't hold grudges against you, but there's no telling what our families and friends will do. Aren't you making more enemies? It's not a worthy effort to arrest a few people while antagonizing many more."
The above is my understanding at my present level. Kindly correct any inadequacies.
June 19, 2007
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