(Clearwisdom.net) I was recently in a state of bewilderment. I had tried hard to search within myself, but I could not find any fundamental attachments. Since last October to the present, there have been over forty practitioners in our city who were illegally arrested in succession, and our Dafa material-preparation sites were severely damaged. We have fallen into a mentality of "passively" trying to rescue the arrested practitioners. However, before one practitioner was successfully rescued, another one was arrested again. Such arrests have happened one after another, which has caused us to have no time to even catch our breath.
So what has been going on? It appears that the evil has become even more "frenzied" and more "relentless" in its persecution of Dafa practitioners. But how can this be the case? With the elimination of large numbers of evil beings, the evil influence has already become very weak, while the field of Fa Rectification has become increasingly stronger. But why does the situation appear to be the opposite in our city? It is true that some practitioners still have big gaps in their cultivation and they have not cultivated away their attachments to fame, self interest, lust, desires, sentimentality, and so on, in a timely fashion. And the old forces have taken advantage of these gaps to persecute them. However, this persecution has targeted the whole body of Dafa practitioners, and it has directly affected the salvation of sentient beings in our city. So what problems do we still have? For several days, my memorization of the Fa proceeded to the following section of "Cultivation Insanity":
"Once you are scared, it is an attachment of fear. Isn't that an attachment? Once your attachment surfaces, shouldn't it be removed? The more you fear it, the sicker you will look. This attachment of yours must be removed. You will be made to learn from this lesson so that your fear can be removed, and you can advance." ("Lecture Six" of Zhuan Falun)
The words "the sicker you will look" shocked me and I seemed to have understood something. I started to have a clear understanding of the problem. So what attachments of our main body of practitioners have caused this false manifestation that makes the evil appear more "frenzied?"
Our attachment to fear is the cause
Why do we have such a severe attachment to fear? It has its root cause. In the initial two years of Fa Rectification period cultivation, many of us did not have a clear understanding of the Fa. Evil forces took advantage of this gap to persecute us. The gap also caused us to develop an obstinate attachment to fear. Even as more and more evil is eliminated, this strong attachment to fear prevents us from going forward. The more we become scared, the more we try to dodge it, the more likely it becomes that we dare not to face it. Thus, the more the evil appears to be with us like a shadow and persecutes us. Isn't it right that our being afraid of it mean that we are actually attracting it? If many of us are in this kind of state it becomes a strong field of attachment. The more we are scared, the more "frenzied" the evil appears.
There are practitioners who are still thinking with human notions: "Do we have Master's law bodies protecting us? Why do we still suffer from this persecution?" Their righteous faith thus becomes even weaker, and it is even more the case that they cannot step out of their humanness. Is all this, in fact, the product of our fear? The Fa states:
"'Why does Falun allow it to come? Don't we have Teacher's fashen to safeguard us?' There is a principle in our universe: Nobody will intervene if you want something yourself. As long as it is what you want, nobody will intervene." ("Lecture Six" of Zhuan Falun)
Why do we become scared? Our fear originates from our selfishness. In fact, this fear does not represent our true nature. It is just a factor that controls people. It is the biggest attachment that cultivators need to eliminate.
We are all Dafa particles. Master has already pushed us to the attainment statuses that we should reach during our cultivation and we already have the power to protect ourselves. However we often acknowledge evil persecution, and take ourselves to be like ordinary people. Master said,
"If every Dafa disciple can think and act righteously as he goes about things and can look at things with righteous thoughts under any circumstance, none of you will become afraid when facing persecution. If that is how you are, who would dare to persecute you! If a person is completely in the Fa no one can touch him. Isn't that having the ability to protect yourself?" ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco," November 5, 2005)
Master has, in fact, given us all supernormal capabilities and divine power, but we have not truly become divine. With all the supernormal abilities we already have, we still want to squeeze ourselves into a fixed mentality and endure this suffering. By having thoughts and actions that are not on the Fa, we are supplying energy for the evil to persecute us.
Our old human notions caused the persecution
Looking within myself, I found thoughts of mine that were not in accord with the Fa. Whenever I heard that a practitioner had been arrested, I would feel heavy in my heart, as I thought that another fellow practitioner would be persecuted. I thought that I should hurry up and send forth righteous thoughts to rescue him or her. I am not the only practitioner who has thought this way. Many practitioners have thought this way. This thinking may appear "very reasonable." However, when I looked back, I found that this thought was still not very righteous, because I had used human notions to judge things. I subjectively thought that the evil would certainly persecute the arrested practitioner, and I also affirmed that they were able to persecute the practitioner. Were these thoughts righteous? Were these human notions? Besides, I had more or less developed some fear and other attachments. Was it the case that we had provided the evil with excuses to persecute us?
Journey to the West (a classic Chinese cultivation story passed on over the centuries) has the following story: When Sun Wukong [the Monkey King, a main character in the story] was fighting a demon, he was sucked into its stomach. Zhu Bajie [another character in the story] became so intimidated that he cried while hiding himself behind a tree, as he thought that Wukong was dead. Wukong then shouted from inside the demon's belly: "Bajie, why do you cry? I am not dead." Bajie, who still did not understand, said, "Isn't it right that you have been swallowed by the demon?" Wukong said, "Silly. It ate me. Don't you know I can pull out its heart, dig out its liver, and hang and swing on its organs?"
This reminded me where I was wrong. Why did I not have strong righteous thoughts? Like Bajie, I used my human notions to view this thing. Let's look at ourselves. Should it be time for us to change our mindset, let go of human notions, and not take our own "human thoughts" as something absolute? We really need to use the gods' righteous thoughts to view things. When a fellow practitioner is arrested, we should not think that he has been taken away for persecution. We should instead use our righteous thoughts to strengthen this belief: Never allow the evil persecution to happen, and furthermore, consider this as a very good chance to save sentient beings and disintegrate the evil. In this way, we can attack the evil from both the inside and outside and completely eliminate these dark dens of evil.
Some practitioners may think, "Sun Wukong has so many talents. He still has the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel, so he, of course, is undefeatable. But we are not that capable!" I would say that such practitioners still have not walked out of "humanness." Is it the case that we do not have magic powers at all? Perhaps our magic powers are much more powerful than the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel. However, we do not have Wukong's enlightenment quality, so we do not know how to use our capabilities, and we always take ourselves as doormats. We always subject ourselves to the notion that only what the eyes can see is true. We get attached to this human body and cannot become divine. So how should we use our divine powers from the Fa? I do not need to repeat the answer; it is our sending forth righteous thoughts. It is just our sending forth righteous thoughts. Now I more deeply understand the significance of sending forth righteous thoughts. We recite the formulas to mobilize our divine powers and have them play the role. Furthermore, we can use not just one divine power; we have everything we should have and every power will come if we want to use it. This is something that our benevolent Master has given us in this special historic time. However, a lot of disciples just do not know how to use their divine powers, and even today, we are still being persecuted badly.
In the Biography of Jigong, there was a story about Jigong making a big scene in the home of Prime Minister Qin [the person who killed Yue Fei, a patriotic hero in the Song Dynasty]. Qin wanted to punish Jigong and put a cramp on Jigong. Although Jigong's legs were squeezed, he did not mind it at all. Jigong had one eye open and another closed. He held his broken fan and pointed to Qin with his finger, shouting "Start the torture!" Qin immediately yelled in agony as it felt very painful in his legs. Jigong shouted again, "Start the torture!" Qin, who was in pain, then fell to the ground squarely from the chair. It seemed that it was Jigong's legs that were squeezed in the cramp. But Jigong had used his supernormal power and transferred the torture onto the person who had applied the torture. Let's look at Jigong's mindset. He shouted, "Start the torture" without fear. He never thought that the torture tool would have any effect on him. He did not have human notions, nor did he have fear. His righteous faith was very strong. Ordinary people's things could not control him at all. He used his supernormal capabilities at will.
Master gave us all divine powers a long time ago. However, we still hold onto our human mentalities and are therefore unable to use these powers; and we are still being persecuted. Isn't this a shame? We have not lived up to Master's expectations, and we also have brought a negative impact to the salvation of the sentient beings in the region.
If we still cannot let go of humanness and walk toward godhood, how can we validate the Fa well? We should all break through human notions, let go of all attachments, clarify the truth and send forth righteous thoughts wherever we go, effectively using our divine powers to protect ourselves, and disintegrate the evil. Every Dafa disciple is able to call upon the power of such righteous thoughts.
If we do not acknowledge the persecution or acknowledge the old force arrangements, would they still dare to arrest us? Wouldn't they instead be afraid of us? The key is how we break away from the layers of our human shell, eliminate human notions, and return to our true selves. We can no longer let our human notions control us. We should not hold gold bowls begging for food, nor should we still be beaten while holding the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgels. We should truly become divine. Do not let Master wait for us anymore. I believe that Master wants our divine sides to resurrect.
This is some of my understanding that I have at my present cultivation level. I hope that fellow practitioners can share these insights. Please kindly point out anything that is wrong.