(Clearwisdom.net) The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has lasted for eight years. Many articles related to this topic of how to end the persecution as soon as possible have recently appeared on Clearwisdom.net. Many practitioners have shared their opinions during experience sharing in this respect. However, I noticed during such exchanges that many practitioners did not recognize the importance of stopping this persecution. Some seem numb to this and think it does not directly relate to them. Some feel there is not much they can do to help. They feel there are still many practitioners who have not reached the standard and still have the attachment of fear and other attachments. They think that as every practitioner reaches the standard, the persecution would end naturally. Practitioners think it is going to be a long-lasting process. Some also have misunderstandings and questions from the Fa's perspective. They thought that Master had mentioned there wouldn't be a period of peace before the Fa's rectification of the human world. They feel that stopping the persecution immediately is merely a motivation for one to be diligent, and a direction for one to move forward.
After repeatedly studying Master's new lecture "Fa Teaching at the U.S. Capital" (2007) and reading the experience sharing article on Clearwisdom.net, "Let Us End the Persecution Now" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/7/18/87805.html), I have a deeper understanding.
I realized that the quicker the practitioners improve their understanding on this issue as one body and the more practitioners realize that each practitioner bears a portion of responsibility for the outcome of this issue, the sooner the evil will be eliminated. Thus ending the persecution is not something far away anymore. The reason why practitioners want to end this persecution is not because of practitioners' inability to tolerate any longer during the persecution and their hope to get out of it soon; it is because practitioners are benevolent and treasure the lives of sentient beings, and want to rescue and free as many sentient beings as possible, and completely negate the old forces. This is the mission and responsibility Master gives us. This is the requirement for a Dafa practitioner during the Fa-rectification period. This is also the honor and opportunity Master gives us to establish our mighty virtue.
Master said,
"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A")
I realized: practitioners' fluctuating human thoughts could affect anything in a negative way; but practitioners' pureness and determination for sentient beings could make positive contributions. In fact, ending the persecution is not very complicated or difficult. It's just a thought away. Ending this persecution sooner will offer more sentient beings salvation. I would like to share additional thoughts with fellow practitioners to help create awareness and improvement in our cultivation. Please point out anything inappropriate.
After I studied Master's lecture "Fa Teaching at the U.S. Capital," I realized that the people in this world are precious. Each life has rich meaning that connects to numerous sentient beings. High level beings from different levels descended originally to the inclement human world with their steadfast faith in Dafa and the Fa-rectification. At different realms, isn't this accomplished by consciously putting down life and death? Isn't that greatness? Their courage truly makes gods shed tears. These kinds of lives are truly precious. I realized Master wants to save them all, simply because of this.
However, the collective reflection of the old cosmos' rotten substances - the old forces - out of their selfishness, consider themselves the dictators of the cosmos as they inevitably walk toward degeneration and annihilation. In order to protect themselves and because of their selfish nature, they do not consider the sentient beings' safety. With their evil arrangements, they keep themselves alive at the price of destroying other numerous sentient beings. When their actions are reflected in this human world, it is this evil persecution. They divided the lives who came to this world into two groups: some who act positively and some who act negatively. The old forces only know superficial things but not the inner meanings. They want to eliminate the many lives they do not appreciate.
However, this is absolutely not what Master wants. Master never acknowledged this persecution. In order to save all sentient beings (including the old forces), Master balanced everything and has given all sentient beings countless opportunities. Master lets the sentient beings display their bad thoughts and behavior and then compare them with Dafa's requirements so sentient beings can get rid of them. Wouldn't these lives be rectified? Wouldn't these lives be assimilated to the Fa? However, the old forces did not want to assimilate to the Fa. They chose elimination. They have committed a huge sin after having destroyed numerous sentient beings. So far, they have lost all their chances.
As Master said,
"And of note is that lately the multitude of gods are tracking down and killing the old forces on all fronts. The moment they are found, they are cast into hell. And even when none are found, the gods search all about for them with the intent of completely clearing them out (applause), and along the way some of the factors that the old forces arranged are being destroyed, as well." ("Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference")
The only thing that can allow practitioners to reach consummation and rescue sentient beings is Dafa; it is definitely not this evil tribulation arranged by the old forces. Master can also make us reach consummation without this persecution. This persecution is not a process practitioners have to go through. Now the old forces cannot avoid the end result of being completely eliminated. How could we acknowledge this forced persecution they arranged even a bit, or turn a blind eye to it, or get used to it?
Cultivating among the tribulations the old forces arranged is accepting the evil's arrangements to different degrees, no matter how well one cultivates. It means one is placing oneself below the dirty and criminal lives that will be definitely eliminated. Moreover, as Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification period, as the gods of different levels in the new cosmos, how could we continually let the old forces "test" us at will? Wouldn't that be damaging the true cultivation path Master arranged for us? How could we allow the evil to continue to arrest, torture and kill our fellow practitioners, while poisoning the minds of precious sentient beings and destroying their chances for the future?
The evil's persecution of Dafa practitioners has of course been taking advantage of practitioners' human notions and attachments. But we should clearly understand this: any excuse and reason for this evil persecution of Dafa practitioners by the old forces is unacceptable. It also constitutes interference with Fa-rectification and was done with the purpose of destroying practitioners and sentient beings. We have noticed that the old forces arranged a long time ago for many practitioners to be taken advantage of and forced it on them. It was merely that fellow practitioners did not negate this and were unable to get away from it. Therefore, we should not always stand on the side of the old forces to look for issues fellow practitioners might have. We should absolutely not accept anything from the old forces. Now, we do not need any reasons or conditions to completely disintegrate the old forces and their evil, rotten substances.
I realized that not all practitioners will reach consummation at the same level. The path practitioners walk is for the future, and is for future references. One practitioner's path and the tribulations one practitioner experiences does not mean that others would have to go through the same process to establish mighty virtue. The attachments and human notions that we can see in a practitioner are merely what is reflected in this practitioner and what he/she needs to eliminate. Our cultivation form determines it. However, we cannot detect the cultivated side of practitioners through our flesh eyes. One cannot see the ultimate truth even at different levels. But Master does discern all these and teaches us the truth. We should firmly believe in Master and have trust in fellow practitioners. Our personal cultivation should not limit our thoughts. Without neglecting our individual cultivation, we should think more about how to rescue more sentient beings instead of worrying about our own gains and losses. Only after setting the right foundation will we be able to truly catch up with the advancement of Fa-rectification and harmonize what Master wants.
How do we rescue more sentient beings? I realized, wouldn't ending this persecution sooner have a bigger influence and save more sentient beings?
In addition, some fellow practitioners thought: If we cultivate ourselves well and we do well as individuals and in the local area, the persecution would disappear on the individual level or in the local area. If all areas could do this, the persecution would be gone. This might sound right. But we can see that the situation is different in different areas. Some have huge differences. Some areas have few practitioners, and in a few areas there are even none. Even if practitioners from other areas do as much as they can, their number and condition is still limited, and there would still be many sentient beings that could not be offered salvation. With the persecution continuing, there is an issue of the CCP continuously and repeatedly poisoning sentient beings' minds. The other issue is that the doctrines from the CCP in China make people's moral standards slide lower and lower. If we delay the process, as time goes on, some of these lives would no longer be savable.
Let's talk about the areas where practitioners are doing relatively well. Because of practitioners' righteous actions in those areas, the persecution in that locale is suppressed. The environment has become relaxed. But this does not mean that the persecution no longer exists. Without ending the persecution in the entire nation, the depraved CCP is still poisoning the minds of sentient beings in different areas. The evil is like poison. It cannot stop poisoning people. When the evil in other areas is not eliminated, they will spread their influence to those areas at any time. Dafa practitioners are cultivators. As long as practitioners still have human notions, the evil will take advantage of them. We have seen examples of some areas that had been doing well, but because of zealotry and complacency, practitioners became muddle-headed and unreasonable. The evil eventually took advantage of them, and the persecution again worsened. Practitioners with their celestial eyes open saw the evil from other areas spreading and gathering in the area prior to the persecution again worsening. From an individual practitioner's perspective, there have been similar situations as well.
No matter how rampant the evil is, it cannot stop the practitioners' diligent steps to maturity. But this situation has created a huge impediment to rescue sentient beings. In the situation of severe persecution, sentient beings are unable to recognize and understand the Fa from the standpoint of the Fa. They can only recognize what shows on the surface. Hence, they cannot correctly understand the Fa and practitioners, which in turn prevents them from being saved. Therefore, we should not merely be content with our individual cultivation and the local improved environment, or be glad for areas of less severe persecution. We should spread and expand our capacities and view the issue from the holistic one-body perspective. We should use our righteous thoughts to help what others are doing.
How could practitioners have such strong righteous thoughts? A righteous thought comes from a practitioners' mindset of thinking completely of sentient beings. It comes from practitioners of different areas not being satisfied with a good local situation, but rather continuing to think about ways to improve as a whole. It comes from practitioners in China and from the whole world viewing ourselves as part of one whole body. It comes from the recognition that this persecution should not continue for one more second. If all practitioners work together and send forth strong righteous thoughts, this evil persecution will end very soon.
Currently, there are huge differences in practitioners' understandings. Some practitioners think this persecution is beneficial to their personal cultivation improvement; some practitioners do not have confidence in ending the persecution and think it is far away from ending; some are just passively waiting for the persecution to end; some are numb and do not consider this issue related to them, and so on. If this goes on, our righteous thoughts would be counteracted, and the evil would be protected by various incorrect notions. The evil would then find excuses to continue the persecution and Master and the righteous gods would not be able to help immediately eliminate the evil. Therefore, it is critical for us to change our notions.
"The Great Way is the simplest and easiest." (Zhuan Falun Fajie) As long as we have the right understanding and let go of our egos and attachments, Master and the righteous gods will do everything for us. Let go of the attachment to self. Let us send strong righteous thoughts for sentient beings and completely dissolve any evils that interfere with Fa-rectification. Completely stop this persecution that should not even have started, and immediately end this persecution.