(Minghui.org) I recently read an article on Minghui: “Twenty-Six Battles: The State of Fa-Rectification Seen in a Dream” in which the author described conversations he had with some gods in a dream. As practitioners, we should follow Falun Dafa’s teachings, but I think this article is a reminder for us to do better.
The article mentioned 26 battles involving Falun Dafa practitioners, which may imply 26 years of their efforts against the persecution launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1999. Although practitioners won most of these battles, they lost three in a row (21 to 23). This may correspond to the three years of the COVID pandemic between 2020 and 2023. My understanding is that the pandemic should not have happened--the lockdowns impeded practitioners in China from telling people the facts about Falun Dafa and the persecution. For example, the number of people who quit the CCP organizations with practitioners’ help was typically 50,000 a day, but dropped to 20,000 on some days during the pandemic.
The practitioner had the dream in 2023 when battles 24 to 26 hadn’t been fought. The gods were not optimistic. The author said, “I wondered why. The god indicated it was because the army was tired. They felt that they worked extremely hard in the early years and the war was already won. They became complacent and decided they didn’t want to fight hard anymore. They wanted to rest. They felt like the last few battles didn’t matter.”
When I read this I felt we may have lost battles number 24 and 25; otherwise, the recent persecution against Dafa outside China may not have happened.
I think this is a serious reminder. Master Li, founder of Falun Dafa, wrote, “Everything that happens to everyday people is caused by them, themselves.” (Lecture Five, Zhuan Falun)
The recent events and what will happen in the future are related to each one of us. There’s an old saying: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” That is, nothing is certain until it becomes reality. So, unless we work hard and work well, which is our responsibility, we cannot assume things will be just fine. Plus, our cultivation practice is not about opposing the persecution per se, although the two are connected. If we slack off, various attachments and human notions may easily drag us down. In that case even if the entire battle, that is, practitioners’ efforts to expose the persecution, succeeds, we may still fail in our individual cultivation. If this happens, are we fulfilling our prehistoric vows and saving the sentient beings who are counting on us?
I’ve been thinking about this recently and I also noticed some practitioners around me experienced similar situations. I also pay attention to experience-sharing articles on Minghui. Through her celestial eye, one local practitioner saw her divine body was covered in rust, and this made her sad. In one article on Minghui, a practitioner saw the divine pens Master gave some practitioners were rusty, because they stopped writing articles to expose the persecution or validate Dafa. It’s been more than 20 years since the persecution began, but some practitioners still doze off when they send forth righteous thoughts.
Master said, “Do you realize that with all that being sent out, all around the world it formed into a sticky, glue-like substance, and it took just a very few evil beings to be able to interfere with you.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa”, Collected Teachings Given Around the World, Volume XI)
If many practitioners in China are like this, the old forces may win with little effort and thus start to focus on the persecution overseas – including swaying public opinion, lawfare, and unrestricted warfare that should never have occurred against Dafa.
I also have incorrect thoughts. For example, I assumed that because the old forces failed and could not do much in China they moved overseas; I also assumed the environment is relaxed now and we don’t have to work so hard since there are fewer vicious elements. As a result, I slacked off. Little did I realize my assumptions were wrong. If we practitioners continue remaining complacent, like the story about the frog being slowly boiled in warm water, the old forces may easily continue the persecution inside China while expanding it overseas. Isn’t this disastrous?
My understanding is that, although we live in different places, practitioners inside and outside China are one body. What happens overseas is related to, and affects us practitioners in China. If practitioners in China slack off we may affect practitioners outside China and the environment there. If we think about what happened over the years, the persecution outside China also started in 1999, not just in the past year or two.
Our behavior exposes our hidden attachments. Some practitioners in China aren’t willing to go out and tell people about Dafa or rebut the CCP’s hate propaganda. Some practitioners no longer produce Dafa materials. One practitioner followed the persecution policy and “reported” to officials every day. Others just want to begin enjoying a “peaceful life” and not do things to expose the persecution.
But practitioners have the responsibility of safeguarding Falun Dafa and it’s upright principles. The final moment could be the most critical.
I will share Master’s poem to encourage us all to do better,
“Fail Ye Not
Over our lifetimes we awaited the day,But the age of destruction imperiled all things.So the Creator now maketh the universe anew,Out of His love for all living creatures.Most in this world were divine before coming here,shouldering their heavenly kingdom’s trust.I now spread the truth at the Creator’s behest,Tread not the path of modern ways or thought.Earthly glories cannot to Heaven be brought;Atheism and evolutionary theory harm mankind.Stay true to tradition and the good, and sell not your soul;Fail ye not, for your kingdom’s lives above await salvation.”(Hong Yin VI)
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Category: Perspectives
