(Minghui.org) After reading the Minghui sharing article “My Understanding on the Story of Moses” yesterday, I gained a new understanding of China’s 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture that Master arranged for today’s Fa-rectification.
Complaining Prolongs One’s Pain
My previous understanding of five thousand years of divine culture was limited to laying the foundation for people to know and understand Dafa today. But I now realize that it has a deeper connotation to also guide us Dafa disciples in our Fa-rectification period cultivation.
God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and Moses began to doubt his own ability, which was actually a disbelief in God. After some miracles, following God's guidance, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. But when they encountered difficulties, the Israelites began to complain about God. It was these complaints that caused the eleven-day journey of the Israelites to be extended to forty years, and the Israelites experienced more torment than what was intended.
In the Chinese novel Journey to the West, the Tang Monk went through eighty-one tribulations on his way to the West to get the Buddhist scriptures. He never wavered in his determination and never complained about the Buddha or the tribulation. As a result, according to the arrangement of the Buddha, he was bestowed the scriptures after the painstaking journey of eleven years, and then brought the true teachings back to China. Think about it, if the monk in the face of life and death under the desperate situations began to complain, then he might have to go more than eleven years, and he might fail to achieve his mission.
Complaints Can Do Just the Same Damage to Our Cultivation
I know that after the 2020 U.S. election, some fellow practitioners became confused or even had doubts about Dafa since the election result wasn’t the way they thought it would be. One sharing article about a young practitioner’s vision and prophecy about the Fa-rectification caused quite a stir among practitioners. Some began to complain about why things didn’t go as expected and doubted whether the Fa teachings were true – they had totally forgotten one of the most fundamental principles for cultivators – looking inward. Many failed to see that our own selfishness and attachment to self have contributed to the environment in the world today and are what’s blocking Master from pushing forward Fa-rectification faster in the world.
My understanding is that in order to allow Dafa disciples to continue establishing ourselves, and for us to save more sentient beings, Master is enduring a great deal to extend the time and beating the evil at its own game. Master is waiting for us Dafa disciples to improve ourselves. Yet some practitioners can’t see the essence of these problems from the Fa’s perspective, but only look at things on the surface. They complain about the time, or even doubt Master – it really shouldn’t be this way! Isn’t all this caused by our lack of diligence as disciples?! If we continue complaining, won’t it cause us to cultivate for a longer time?
I wrote a sharing article which got published on Minghui. Upon seeing the published version, I felt ashamed because I realized the edits made to my draft by the editors were exactly places that revealed my impure elements.
I had a dream that night, in which I and some people were at the bottom of a big jar like a huge “alchemy furnace.” I saw four tall, celestial guards outside the jar, not allowing the people to come out. At that moment, a thought came to me, “Endure for a while, and then all will come out!”
At this point some people inside the jar started to complain, “Why is it so hot here!” Just then, I felt a cool breeze blowing towards me, and I wasn’t hot at all! I looked up to find where the cool breeze was coming from and saw a being in the blue sky outside the jar resembling a Bodhisattva with two little disciples around. The being was holding a rectangular object that resembled a small mirror in her hand, and that side appeared blue, and the cool breeze came from that mirror. I immediately put my hands together to express my gratitude!
I then told the people inside to come over to me, it’s cool here! Some people came, some people didn't. At this time, one person uttered a complaining swear word, and some others agreed. At this time I saw that the Bodhisattva's mirror was shining red light directed toward the one who was swearing and those who were echoing. Those people immediately rolled with heat and were in great pain. I reminded those people that they shouldn’t complain. I woke up after that.
When I woke up, I read Master's Fa teaching:
“In the words of the old forces, China has a concentration of many high-level lives and even higher-level beings, all of whom went there to obtain the Fa. Then that place is like the dan-tempering furnace as mentioned by the Daoists, and that fire must burn fiercely and strongly. If you can really come through the test under fierce fire, and are able to persevere amid the cruel persecution, you will be a cultivator, and you will be recognized in the heavens and be able to reach Consummation. What about those who cannot come through? And that's exactly their goal, and tempering is to have the dross removed and get genuine gold.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference,” Team Blue Translation)
Behind Complaints are Always Selfishness and Other Impure Factors
I understood from my dream that the persecution arranged by the old forces was like putting Dafa disciples into the alchemy furnace. If Dafa disciples can let go of their own selfishness and impure factors, the persecution arranged by the old forces will have nothing to do with us. But if the practitioners complain about Master and Dafa, or have doubts, then the persecution would become more severe and the duration of persecution may become longer.
In fact, complaints come from our own “selfishness” and other impure factors, and is not our true nature. Our nature is as particles of Dafa, so how can we complain? I also realized that the problems we are currently encountering in our cultivation and in saving sentient beings are the result of our failure to improve on the basis of the Fa. I hope fellow practitioners who have a good understanding of the Fa write more articles to share their thoughts. Good sharing articles are helpful for the practitioners to improve and can help them negate the arrangements of the old forces.
I admire those fellow practitioners who devote themselves wholeheartedly and clarify the truth every day to save people. In fact, the realm of these fellow practitioners is no longer in the alchemy furnace of the old forces, and the persecution has nothing to do with them. Some fellow practitioners complained, “Today’s people are hard to save!” or “The environment now is not as relaxed as before!” In my opinion, this is all caused by the failure of Dafa disciples to improve their cultivation levels, and the fundamental reason is that they can’t let go of selfishness and other attachments.
I realized that the obstacles to saving the worldly people today do not come from the people, but are caused by the evil elements behind them. The deeper reason for the existence of these evil elements is those higher beings in the old universe who have not yet been rectified.
It is they who are arranging things at the lower levels to turn the world into what it is now to test Dafa disciples, so that Dafa disciples can cultivate in the so-called “testing environment” and reach the standard they approve of, before Dafa disciples are qualified to save them. Only then will they recognize Dafa disciples and allow them to go through. Fundamentally, they exploit the attachments and other impure factors that Dafa disciples themselves have not yet cultivated away, and find excuses to arrange obstacles to the salvation of the world’s people.
Cultivators’ State and Realm Determines the Outcome
Several fellow practitioners and I went to a market in a suburb four years ago. We divided into two teams when we got there. A fellow practitioner and I handled the north side of the market and the rest handled the south side. My team had only one thought: we are here to assist Master in saving people. The area we went to was covered with positive energy. We felt comfortable. Many shoppers greeted us as if we were their old friends. They accepted the Dafa materials delightfully and some even said “Falun Dafa is good!” We felt like a part of a big festival, and everyone was in a good mood. When we finished distributing all the materials and met with the other team, we realized we had only used less than ten minutes! We felt as if we just walked out of the other dimension.
Several fellow practitioners on the other team still had a lot of materials with them. “It is not easy to distribute material here!” The looks on the shoppers were apathetic and numb. I later learned that those few fellow practitioners were not convinced that we had distributed materials that fast before and wanted to compete this time.
Isn’t it telling that the two environments just one road apart were so different! It’s not that people are hard to save, it’s that we ourselves are not pure and can’t reach the standard of the Fa. If we can really let go of our selfishness, then all positive factors of life will come to help us. In that case, will there still be obstacles to saving people? Because some have not cultivated well or not negated the old force’s arrangement completely, the righteous beings are not able to help us. That is why on the surface people seemed hard to save. Cultivation is all about searching within. We should not look only for external problems.
This year’s Shen Yun Performing Art was filled with the wisdom of Dafa and compassionate salvation for life, especially the first song, “Do Not Fail.” From the song, I experienced the Creator’s immeasurable, compassionate salvation for His disciples and the people who come to the Dafa today, which cannot be expressed in words. This song reached to the deepest part of my life. What I realized for the first time was that Master saw life completely differently than I had seen it before, and I was able to see my selfishness and limitations. I often thought that so-and-so was not worthy of salvation and should be eliminated. But what I felt throughout the Shen Yun show was Master’s compassion in saving people, as long as there was a trace of goodness in them. There was no “destruction” and “elimination” throughout the show.
We are Dafa disciples. We are here to assist Master in Fa-rectification. If we bear negative thoughts in our hearts, how can we save people? We came to the world for salvation, not for destruction and elimination.
Let us stop complaining and doubting. Otherwise, it will only make it more difficult for us to cultivate and save people. The time to cultivate in the Fa-rectification period has been extended, again and again, because of inadequacies in our cultivation. Let’s all search within and not look for reasons externally.
This is my current understandings at this level, and please kindly pointing out any shortcomings.
[Editor's note: Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions, for which the author is solely responsible. Readers should evaluate the article's merits on their own.]
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Category: Perspectives
