(Minghui.org) One of the tactics that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been using to persecute Falun Gong practitioners is to pressure the targeted practitioners to sign a statement to renounce their faith. Some practitioners have buckled under the pressure and signed the statement.

While Master gave those practitioners another chance to cultivate by publishing a solemn declaration to nullify the statement they signed under pressure, it always saddens me to see such solemn declarations being published on Minghui.org. I feel that those practitioners didn’t take cultivation seriously enough.

Master said,

“That is because each of our students is cultivating in Dafa, and he knows the preciousness of Dafa. To cherish Dafa is to cherish yourself. In the course of your learning Dafa, you will often encounter some tests, including tests in your dreams, in your daily work, or in your daily life. They are like quizzes conducted after a period of learning that check to see if you are solid and have learned well.” (Teachings at the Conference in New Zealand)

When we fail those quizzes or tests, Master still gives us a chance to make it up and even extends the Fa rectification to allow us more time to improve ourselves. With all the sacrifices Master makes for us, we should all the more so take the tests seriously and strive to pass them.

Among the practitioners around me who didn’t pass the tests and signed the statement to renounce their faith, some gave in under their family members’ pressure, some gave in for fear that their family members would be implicated, and some were afraid themselves.

When the CCP pressured some practitioners' family members or threatened to punish their family members, they yielded to the evil.

Affection to family members is an attachment. There was a cultivation story about Du Zichun, a wayward son of a well-to-do family who squandered all the money but later decided to cultivate the Tao. He passed all kinds of cultivation tests calmly until the day when his child was killed. His heart was moved and his cultivation failed. This attachment to family may mislead us to think that we should compromise with the evil for the betterment of our family members. But giving up cultivation will not benefit our family members or ourselves.

When facing the evil’s persecution, our family members, who do not cultivate, may not be able to resist it. But we, Dafa disciples, with Master’s protection and other righteous gods’ help, should be able to. When we have the righteous thought, the evil dares not persecute us, and we thus have protected our family members. We will bring more blessings to our family members when we reach consummation, such as having them as beings in our world.

Some practitioners signed the statement to renounce their faith, not because of family members, but due to a lack of strong righteous thoughts and being muddle-headed on the Fa. Some thought signing the statement was not a big deal. We should also watch out for these mentalities.

We cultivate in hopes of reaching consummation. To that end, there will be tests to see whether we can completely let go of human attachments and truly transcend the human realm. I hope fellow practitioners can all pass the tests.

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)