(Clearwisdom.net) I often read in experience sharing articles that practitioners ask Teacher for help to solve problems, such when suffering "sickness karma," when persecuted by the evil, when their family is in trouble, when there is a problem they couldn't resolve, or even when their child disappears. There are numerous examples of practitioners asking Teacher's help for trivial things that come along. I have seen over the past years that many practitioners ask Teacher for help as soon as they come across a tribulation. Many practitioners link "asking Teacher for help" and "righteous thoughts" together, thinking that "asking Teacher for help" in a tribulation connotes firm belief in Teacher.
Different levels have different Fa manifestation. For those practitioners who can't think of themselves as Dafa practitioners, "asking Teacher for help" is inherent in sending righteous thoughts. Asking Teacher when faced with tribulations does somehow show that we believe in Teacher and the Fa, and hence more or less our problems at the moment are sometimes resolved. However, senior practitioners who are firm believers in the Fa can't always remain in a beginner's state. We need to adopt higher standards.
1. Is the Thought Pure and Righteous When We Ask for Teacher's Help?
Righteous thoughts are fundamental to acknowledging oneself as a practitioner. At the same time, thinking about Teacher when one experiences tribulations may or may not come from righteous thinking. Whether our righteous thoughts are pure or not is what we want to discuss. We have various human notions, and asking for Teacher's help in tribulations may be caused by one of our attachments, such as fear, desire for comfort, wanting the tribulation to end sooner rather than later, not believing in Teacher firmly enough, lacking confidence in the Fa, overly relying on Teacher, thinking Teacher will help disciples with everything, or worrying about not being able to pass the test.
Tribulations target human notions. When faced with tribulations, we need to remain calm, look inward, and improve ourselves based on the Fa. This is how we overcome tribulations. These are the true righteous thoughts. We encounter tribulations because our righteous thoughts aren't righteous enough. At that time, we can't separate human notions from our true thoughts. When asking Teacher for help, it is difficult to tell between righteous thoughts and human notions. Hence, many practitioners, when facing tribulations without pure righteous thoughts, mistakenly "ask Teacher for help," not realizing that their actions do not stem from righteous thoughts and firm belief in Teacher.
When our righteous thoughts are not steadfast enough and we lack belief in Teacher, we focus on "asking Teacher for help." We even believe that it's a sign of believing in Teacher. We all feel Teacher's protection at all times when walking our cultivation paths. Sometimes when we are confronted with an accident and had not been able to ask Teacher for help, we realize later that Teacher helped us. In fact, whether we ask Teacher or not, or whether we realize what happened or not, Teacher protects us. As long as our thoughts are based on the teachings of the Fa, Teacher helps us at all times. This isn't something we can ask for. If we truly believed in Teacher and the Fa, we wouldn't focus so much on "asking Teacher for help."
When "asking Teacher for help" is successful, many practitioners mistakenly believe that it is the result of their righteous thoughts and therefore consider asking for help a righteous thought. In fact, in the presence of Teacher's immense compassion, our pure righteous thoughts are very trivial, let alone our impure righteous thoughts. We should never believe that our so-called righteous thoughts of asking for Teacher's help connotes that we can command Teacher at will. If we think that way, we are not far away from "Demonic Interference from One's Own Mind."
Asking for Teacher's help during personal tribulations comes from wanting to gain something from Teacher and the Fa instead of wanting to give something most of the time. At that moment, our thoughts are mostly self-centered, and hence asking for Teacher's help during personal tribulations isn't necessarily using pure righteous thoughts.
2. What is Behind "Asking Teacher for Help?"
When encountering tribulations, it's difficult to ask for Teacher's help without attachments. In reality, we most likely are trying to avoid facing the attachments that we need to eliminate. Instead we are trying to push the karmic debt we need to repay onto Teacher. Though our trouble is more or less solved by asking Teacher's help, we should know that this is because of Teacher's immense compassion. We shouldn't take it for granted and "enjoy" Teacher's help and refuse to look within.
"Every time things get out of hand, people go looking for Master. It's always because they can't overcome it, or don't want to overcome it, that they go looking for Master. Is it that you're trying to help Master cultivate?" ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")
Few of us think about asking Teacher for help when we are validating and within the Fa. Those who are asking Teacher for help are most of the time encountering tribulations. Teacher is magnificent and divine. How can we just cling to him because we want to pass a test or solve trivial problems?
None of us knows the immensity of Dafa. It is the boundless Fa that forms the entire celestial body. As we are Teacher's disciples who help Teacher rectify the Fa, how can we be controlled by our human notions and unwittingly attempt to use this Fa to solve our tribulations? This is far from being selfless and not compatible with our status as "Fa-disciples who help Master" and "Awakened Ones that walk the earth" (Congratulatory Message).
3. Rectify the Tribulations Forced Upon Us
When we encounter large tests and Teacher helps us pass them, many practitioners think, "Teacher shouldered it for us." However, many tribulations exist because we have attachments, and the old forces arranged the tribulations for us. We should negate the old forces' arrangements and not acknowledge them by thinking "Teacher has shouldered it for me." Otherwise, we acknowledge the existence of the tribulation and Teacher's suffering for us. As we deeply appreciate Teacher's suffering for us, have we ever thought that because of our acknowledgment, the old forces have an excuse to force the tribulations that we can't shoulder upon Teacher? Hence when we ask Teacher for help, we might very well push the tribulations that we should suffer onto Teacher. If a lot of practitioners think and behave this way, we could possibly artificially make it more difficult for Teacher to rectify the Fa.
The old forces target our human notions and center around them. There are many things on the path of Fa rectification that should be done by us, not them. The old forces' excuse is that we have attachments and so they force tribulations upon us. None of us should accept or push the tribulations onto Teacher. We should rectify everything that is wrong. The old cosmos persecutes gods who offer salvation in the human world, and that is wrong. When a tribulation comes and interferes with us helping Teacher rectify the Fa, we must look inward and in the process of doing the three things well, we will return the tribulation that is forced upon us back to the old forces. This is fundamentally negating the old forces.
4. What Should We Ask For When We Ask for Teacher's Help?
Does that mean that we can't ask Teacher for help in the midst of tribulations? No. We rely on the Fa and Teacher to pass tests. Without these, we can achieve nothing. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
"Fa-rectification is utterly solemn. When you first took up cultivation Master at that time did for you everything that should have been done. Now it's up to you to battle through tests with righteous thoughts. Master can help you when your righteous thoughts are sufficient."
My understanding is that righteous thoughts are the key to passing the tests, hence we should ask Teacher to strengthen our righteous thoughts when we are in tribulations.
The firm belief in Teacher and the Fa doesn't mean relying on Teacher for everything. It is disrespectful to ask Teacher to solve trivial problems for us. Asking Teacher to help us when suffering personal tribulations is not being selfless. We should try not to ask Teacher for help to avoid having to eliminate our attachments. No matter what we are capable of, we should at least remember "to look inward and to use the righteous thoughts we developed from the Fa and pass all the tests!" This is very important.
Are we unsure we could resolve personal tribulations if we didn't ask Teacher for help and have enough righteous thoughts? We shouldn't be worried about this. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference,"
"The Fa-rectification will definitely succeed, and Dafa disciples will definitely succeed."
We should trust Teacher. The firm will to practice didn't come from asking Teacher for help but from the firm belief in Teacher and the Fa. As long as we know that we are Dafa practitioners and are confident that we will succeed in the practice, we will definitely pass any test. Big tribulations are tests of our will to practice. We can't forget for a moment that we are lives created by the Fa, no matter how the evils interfere. In the end Dafa will help us.
Teacher talked about righteous thoughts in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005,"
"Today I read a report on the Minghui website. A student was beaten so badly that her legs were smashed and broken into pieces, and they didn't set her bones before applying a cast. It never even occurred to the student that she would become handicapped because of this. She didn't pay any attention to it at all. She just studied the Fa every day, and her righteous thoughts were very strong. When she was able to sit up a little bit, she started to do the exercises. The doctors told her that her bones had been smashed and fractured in several places, and that the cast had been applied before the bones were set. It was all done by those people in the prison hospital. She didn't pay any attention to it and just told herself, "I want to cross my legs and do the exercises." She pushed herself and did it even though it was extremely painful to do. As time went by, she no longer felt any pain when she crossed her legs. The end result is that she has recovered. She can now jump up and down without any problem, and she's just like a completely normal person. (Applause) If any of you can conduct yourself like that, the old forces will absolutely not dare to touch you. Whoever can be like that will be able to make it through when encountering tests. What are "righteous thoughts" about? That is what righteous thoughts are about."
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