(Minghui.org) A few days ago, the Minghui Editorial Board published a notice about a practitioner who moved from China a few years ago and portrayed himself among practitioners in the U.S. as a “hero” who “bravely fought the persecution in China.” This led many practitioners to admire his “righteous thoughts” and follow him to do things not in line with the Fa.

Based on my personal cultivation experience and understanding of the Fa, we should avoid treating any cultivator as a “hero.” Such a mentality is a product of the degenerated Party Culture and is often reflective of major problems in one’s cultivation. If we don’t pay close attention to this, it may lead to serious issues and cause damage to our clarifying the facts and saving people. Practitioners outside of China shouldn’t give such people the attention they crave, and instead should evaluate everything based on the Fa.

In China, those who cultivate themselves well usually don’t suffer serious persecution. They steadily and solidly validate Dafa and save people; they keep a low profile and would not promote themselves as “heroes.”

On the other hand, those who enthusiastically promote themselves as “heroes” often have strong attachments to reputation, fame, and competitiveness. They tend to validate themselves and do things to impress others. They like to do “big things” to draw attention. When they are persecuted, they brag about their detention and torture as “heroic deeds.” When they are persecuted again, they become “bigger heroes” for enduring the suffering. This may form a vicious cycle and cause those who admire them to believe in them even more.

I know this from my personal experience, because I used to be that way, eager to validate myself and become famous. I realized my problem after practitioners in my Fa study group all stopped talking to me whenever I was about to brag about my “crashing the persecution.” Thanks to them, I finally saw my mentality of showing off and realized that being persecuted repeatedly is not something to brag about.

I believe the reason why practitioners in my Fa study group didn’t give me an audience is because of their solid Fa study and their evaluating things based on the Fa. I’m grateful to them and Master’s guidance and protection, which stopped me from deviating further from the Fa and sliding down the wrong path.

As far as I know, many practitioners moved overseas from China after the persecution started. While they no longer face the physical persecution outside of China, cultivation is not any easier. The environment can change, but the ultimate goal and requirements for cultivation don’t. Wherever we are, we will still be tested and suffer tribulations, as long as our attachments aren’t removed. Only by actively getting rid of our attachments, will the tribulation go away.

While those “heroes” often brag about the “big things” they did, did anyone ever evaluate how much impact such “big things” really had? For example, a few years ago, some practitioners liked to collect petitions from villagers in support of certain practitioners who were arrested. It did seem pretty impressive when we presented piles of petition papers with the villagers’ fingerprints, but how many of those villagers had truly understood the facts? If the police went to harass them, how many of them would stay unmoved or would they easily submit to intimidation?

On the other hand, those Dafa disciples who quietly went from house to house to clarify the facts to people may have saved the most people, but they weren’t on the headlines or top news. No one knew what they did, but they achieved the most behind the scenes, without causing a stir in society or making themselves a target of persecution.

Master said:

“You know, in cultivation the most prominent sign that a person still harbors human attachments is his doing things that are not to validate Dafa but instead to validate himself! That is playing a destructive role.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VIII)

We have to be clear: those who were repeatedly persecuted and suffered terribly in China are not so-called “heroes.” Such people often have serious problems in their cultivation; they refuse to admit their mistakes or look within; and they may have even turned a blind eye when Master’s Law Bodies dropped strong hints to them. Seen from the perspective of the Fa, this isn’t hard to understand.

Of course, another path for one to avoid the persecution is to treat oneself as an ordinary person, who doesn’t do the three things or diligently cultivate oneself. If they don’t consider themselves a Dafa disciple, the old forces may not see any reason to go after them, either.

The root cause for wanting to be a “hero” or those who admire such people is the desire to validate oneself. If we truly cultivate ourselves and assimilate ourselves to the Fa, we would understand that everything we have is given by the Fa and we have no basis to claim any credit for the things we do. When we put the Fa in the first place, we wouldn’t even think of proclaiming ourselves as “heroes,” let alone develop any following. When things go astray from the Fa, we are actually inviting persecution ourselves.

Let us all take this opportunity to look within, study the Fa better, cultivate away our human attachments, and do better in the remaining time ahead.