(Minghui.org) Our Fa-study group had a discussion recently after an article was published on the Minghui website about the severe persecution in Shandong Province. We came to some understandings after the discussion.
Understanding the Purpose of Saving Lives
Master said,
“For a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, personal liberation is not the goal of cultivation: when you came, saving sentient beings was your great aspiration, and that is the responsibility and mission history has bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification. Thus great numbers of beings are to be saved by you. Dafa disciples, don’t forsake the magnificent responsibility that has been bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification, and even less should you disappoint those beings, as you are now their only hope for entering the future.” (“Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World’s People,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress Vol. III)
While most practitioners know that their mission is to save more people, a few still see it as a task to be completed. Some even go out to clarify the truth with human notions and encounter interference or are arrested.
In both cases, practitioners are clarifying the truth, so why are the outcomes so different? We think it rests on whether a practitioner has a correct understanding of the purpose of saving people.
Master said,
“The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston,” Collected Fa Teachings. Vol. II)
A practitioner in our area was arrested after someone reported her to the police while she was talking to people in public. After she was released, we discussed the incident with her. She admitted that she felt pressured to go out and that she had felt that talking to people was like completing a necessary task.
After more Fa-study and sharing with fellow practitioners, she understood the real purpose of saving people and has been doing it regularly and safely ever since.
Abandoning Human Notions
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, 2005”)
How we think about things is a reflection of our cultivation state. While reading the Fa, we understand what Master has said, but often in reality when we hear a police siren we may think of the worst case scenario. Or when we hear that a fellow practitioner has been incarcerated, we may begin to worry about our own safety.
If we don’t have strong righteous thoughts, we will create many bad factors. It is very important to maintain righteous thoughts.
Master said,
“The bigger you perceive the challenges to be, the harder things will be to carry out, since “the appearance stems from the mind.” And so the task will become increasingly burdensome. When I say “the appearance stems from the mind,” by that I also mean that the difficulty stems from your overstating the importance of the matter itself and seeing yourself in a lesser light. Don’t take any such things to be a big deal, for with something as significant as saving sentient beings you should just do what you are supposed to do, going about it in a composed manner. When you encounter things that don’t sound so good or that aren’t what you hoped for, don’t take it to heart, and just nobly and confidently do what you are supposed to. If you don’t let the evil’s interference sway you, bad factors won’t arise from you, the evil will become trivial, you will become towering and massive, and your righteous thoughts will be ample. That’s truly the case.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)
Forming One Body
Master said,
“For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles” (“Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”)
If practitioners aren't able to form one body, or if practitioners are at odds with each other, the power of the group no longer exists.
There had been a lot of conflicts among the practitioners in a nearby Fa-study group. Some of them looked down on others. Some of them refused to accept any criticism. Two practitioners often undermined each other. Some went to extremes by claiming that at Fa-study they should only read the Fa and not share personal understandings and insights. However, they could share everyday people’s stories.
In the end, that Fa-study group broke up after several practitioners were arrested and their houses were ransacked. The rest of the practitioners in the group are worried.
Breaking Out of the Law of the Old Universe, the Safest Place Is in the Fa
Master said:
“For the cultivators of the past, cultivating was hard. Many people who wanted to cultivate thought of a way: to suffer and cultivate through suffering. Cultivating through suffering can indeed reduce karma, because you're cultivating, after all, so you can elevate. But even when they gave it all they had, their levels were still limited, and most of them couldn't go beyond the Three Realms. The reason was, there wasn't Fa to guide their cultivation, and they didn't know the Fa's standards and requirements at different levels.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003,” Collected Fa Teachings. Vol. II)
We cultivate in Dafa, which is more than just cultivating through suffering. We don’t recognize the arrangements of the old forces. We walk on the path of cultivation practice by negating the persecution.
Master said,
“You can use the seminar form to have everyone communicate with one another, and you may discuss and share things with one another. We require that you do it this way. ” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
Fellow practitioners should form one unbreakable body and work with each other in concert.
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Category: Improving Oneself
