My Views on the Relationship Between Attachments and the Persecution

By a practitioner from China

(Clearwisdom.net) The old forces' evil persecution of Dafa practitioners are not always aimed at practitioners' attachments themselves, but sometimes at the instability caused by practitioners' attachments. It is practitioners themselves that have established the "inevitable" connection, namely, having attachments and being persecuted by the old forces always go hand in hand. For the time being, a common problem among our practitioners is that they look inside and let go of attachments only for the purpose of avoiding the evil's taking advantage of our gaps. It seems unnecessary for them to let go of their attachments as long as the evil forces do not take advantage of their gaps. Wouldn't this mean that we are cultivating ourselves for the old forces?

Teacher told us, "To do well is to not walk down the path arranged by the old forces; the goal is to not allow the old forces to take advantage of your gaps." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference") Then, is it true that we will not have to let go of our attachments as long as we are on the path arranged by Teacher? It's just the opposite. The path arranged by Teacher is for us to study the Fa and cultivate our hearts. Then, how can we go on the path arranged by Teacher while still having some attachments, yet not allowing the old forces to take advantage of our gaps? I think it is a matter of how we view the fundamental goal of our studying Dafa, looking inside and letting go of attachments. As I understand, the fundamental goal is to assimilate ourselves to the Fa rather than avoiding the old forces' taking advantage of our gaps. Indeed, assisting Teacher in validating the Fa and saving the sentient beings are certain manifestations after we assimilate ourselves to the Fa and, therefore, our primary goal is to assimilate ourselves to the Fa. I think that we as Dafa practitioners should not see our attachments as gaps which the old forces would take advantage of; instead, we should think of them as something we must rectify within Dafa.

This goal is for ourselves as well as for other practitioners. When seeing other practitioners' attachments, some practitioner would urge them, "Hurry up and let go of your attachments, otherwise the evil forces will persecute you." In my opinion, if a practitioner with attachments really caused any trouble, the one who urged him is also responsible since he strengthens the connection between our attachments and the persecution. I think we should lead things in the correct direction instead of the worst direction. For example, we can tell practitioners with attachments, "Don't indulge any attachments, otherwise your impure heart can lead to bad effects when you clarify the truth and validate the Fa, and the goal of saving the sentient beings may not be reached. Also, lives in our own universe systems may be eliminated because we have not cultivated ourselves well; or it may bring about negative influence if everyday people saw it."

We must righteously set this fundamental goal and eradicate our degenerated notions. Certain practitioners always emphasize the idea that escaping from the evil's den establishes great mighty virtue. Seeing this, the old forces will take advantage of this idea and constantly put the practitioner in such a situation. Will you have even more mighty virtue if you escape numerous times? We should draw a lesson from our past deeds instead of merely emphasizing how we escaped from the clutches of the evil and so forth. Some practitioners always think that distributing Dafa materials is more dangerous than other Dafa work. This degenerated understanding may easily provide the old forces with a dimension and a field for their existence. Some have the opinion that a practitioner who has never been persecuted is not reliable and not mature. This opinion is also recognition of the old forces' arrangement. Yet, some practitioners have little compassion toward those former practitioners who gave in to the evil's persecution and turned against Dafa. We should know that even if they were not true practitioners, their fate was a result of the evil's slandering Dafa and ruining countless lives. Then, how can we recognize the evil arrangements? We shouldn't ever think of the old forces and the evils as helpful in the Fa-rectification and in our improvement in cultivation.

In some practitioners' view, sending forth righteous thoughts is a way to guarantee their safety. The elementary purpose in sending forth righteous thoughts is for safeguarding and defending Dafa and for saving the sentient beings out of compassion. Isn't doing things for one's own safety selfishness? As a matter of fact, an unrighteous motivation of sending forth righteous thoughts will make a practitioner feel unsafe and unable to calm down.

In addition, we should try our best to harmonize the Fa at the level of everyday people, and to conform to the ways of human society to the greatest extent possible. We must study Dafa as much as possible and really calm down in our study. As Master taught us, "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/12/4/40387.html

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