(Minghui.org) Master published “The Ordeals Our Spiritual Discipline Faces” and “A Wake-Up Call” in June 2024. Since the winter of 2024, seven practitioners in my area have passed away. One of them felt sick during Fa study and passed away the next day; another went to the bathroom after doing the exercises and did not come out; one collapsed while playing ping-pong. Most of these practitioners had illness karma. Some practitioners are still struggling with illnesses, so I wonder what went wrong in our overall cultivation environment.
Master has said:
“The Fa-rectification is now reaching its end, and the old forces want to weed out a number of people who haven’t managed to truly work on themselves in their practice or who have long failed to honor their vows and fulfill their historic missions.” (“Dafa Spiritual Practice Is Serious”)
It seems to me that Master sounded the warning bell, yet many of us ignored it.
The author of the article “Twenty-Six Battles: The State of Fa-Rectification Seen in a Dream” wrote, “He indicated for me to look at battles number 21, 22, and 23. They were all marked with an X. Dafa disciples had consecutively lost those three ... The chances of losing all three remaining battles were very high ...because the army was tired. They felt that they already 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 anymore.”
This article reflects many practitioners’ mindsets. I’ll summarize the problems I saw in the practitioners around me, and I hope these stories awaken and inspire more practitioners to progress diligently during the end of Fa-rectification.
1. Treating Dafa Initiatives as Routine
Many practitioners do the three things mechanically like they are jobs that need to be finished. They do the same thing every day without thinking, without compassion, or a sense of urgency to save people. For example, I occasionally think: “I handed you the flyer and told you the truth. It’s your choice if you still don’t believe what I said.”
2. Attached to Comfort
Many veteran practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa after the persecution started in July 1999, and some filed lawsuits against Jiang Zemin in 2015. They think what they’ve done is enough for them to reach consummation, and they start enjoying themselves and living like everyday people.
This was especially obvious during the last Chinese New Year when many practitioners stopped clarifying the truth two weeks before the holiday began. They prepared for the holiday and enjoyed it so much that some did not resume clarifying the truth two weeks after the New Year.
3. Fear
Master said:
“Fear can cause one to make mistakes, and fear can cause one to lose a predestined opportunity. Fear is a death trap on a human being’s journey toward divinity.” (Pass the Deadly Test,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress III)
“But, as long as it hasn’t ended, the evil will be evil just the same. It’s just like how poison is bound to be poisonous, and even if you asked it not to be poisonous it couldn’t do that. So you must not lower your guard. Try your best not to let the old forces exploit any gaps in your cultivation.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII
After 26 years of persecution, some practitioners still have deeply rooted fear that they haven’t eliminated. When they read articles about practitioners being arrested and tortured, they choose not to go out and clarify the truth. They only go out when they think it’s safe.
Some feel that they’ve done a lot for Dafa for many years, and they’ve done a lot to clarify the truth to people. Since Fa-rectification is near the end, they feel that if they’re arrested and renounce Falun Dafa under pressure or die, then everything they’ve done would have been done in vain. With such selfish reasoning, some perfunctorily hand out flyers once a week, and some have completely stopped clarifying the truth.
There are also cunning people. They disappeared for years when the persecution was the most severe and reappeared when the situation eased up. They avoided talking with people face to face as they felt it was too dangerous. Instead, they help a sick practitioner study the Fa and find his attachments, send righteous thoughts for an incarcerated practitioner, or find a former practitioner and encourage them to resume practicing. They seem compassionate and talk a lot about Fa principles.
Master has spoken about such practitioners:
“You need to really, truly put some effort into cultivation, and not lapse into just doing it superficially; you shouldn’t have so many human attachments. As Master sees it, your each and every thought, and your every single action, reveals to me what your heart is like. What I least like are those who are all talk and no action. Nor do I like those who are cunning. What I like are those who are honest and simple, sincere and down-to-earth. I also hope that you can all, after so many years of cultivating, positively grow in wisdom and not grow so much in terms of knowing how to deal with worldly matters or how to conduct yourself as a human being leading a worldly life.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)
These cunning ones teased those who pushed hard to end the persecution or were arrested and imprisoned several times. They show off by saying how they’ve walked their path steadily.
4. Mistaking Truth-clarification for Cultivation
One practitioner, in his 70s, did very well after the persecution started. He went to Beijing several times, organized group exercise sessions, and established a large information production site. He spent hours printing Dafa books for everyone and helped anyone in need. Unfortunately, he seldom studied the Fa or sent righteous thoughts, and he was attached to lust and desire. He was arrested and imprisoned for years, but still did not see his loopholes. He eventually died.
Two other male practitioners, who were also attached to lust and desire, died: one from cancer and the other after he had a heart attack. Our attachments to lust and desire are a powerful excuse that the old forces can use to persecute us.
Another practitioner, who also went to Beijing several times to speak up for Dafa, has been imprisoned many times for handing out flyers. She prioritized doing things to tell people about Dafa, and her printer worked nonstop producing box after box of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and The Ultimate Goal of Communism. Meanwhile, she ignored Fa study and didn’t look within.
She had to take care of three grandchildren, her bedridden parents, and her mother-in-law. Knowing that she did not have time to study the Fa, some practitioners offered to help her print materials. She refused, thinking the practitioners were trying to take away her merit and role as a coordinator.
She was also competitive and domineering at home and often fought with her family members. She died of cancer.
5. Addicted to Reading Online Information
An elderly practitioner who was kind and helpful and liked by everyone produced Dafa materials and coordinated Dafa initiatives. She had no fear and gave flyers to everyone in her community and to police stations. When practitioners sued former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang in 2015, she talked to every practitioner and encouraged them to participate.
However, her husband passed away, and her daughter got married and moved to another place with her husband. She moved in with her daughter and took care of her grandson. Gradually, she slowed down in cultivation and became attached to life with her family. She began watching television and spent hours on her phone. She eventually stopped practicing Falun Dafa.
After she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the other practitioners tried to help by offering to study the Fa with her, but she avoided them. Eventually, she developed dementia, and her family formed negative feelings about Dafa.
Another practitioner died after she became addicted to cell phones and online shopping. She could not stay focused on Fa study or truth-clarification.
Although the practitioners who did well in saving people lost their lives because the old forces exploited their attachments, they still fulfilled their vows to save people, and will have a good future. I’m not so sure about those who didn’t fulfill their vows and never or seldom clarified the truth.
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Category: Cultivation Insights
