(Clearwisdom.net)

What is a solid foundation? Simply speaking, a person's foundation is the root of his actions; it is his fundamental starting point. Everyday people have their starting point, and practitioners have their own starting point. An everyday person's starting point is motivated by selfishness, whereas a practitioners' starting point is not for satisfying self, it is for the sake of others.

In the Fa-Rectification period, Teacher has asked practitioners to do three things: Study the Fa and practice the exercises, clarify the facts to sentient beings and send forth righteous thoughts. But in order to do these things well, we must first have a correct foundation -- we must understand that everything we do is for Dafa, to save the sentient beings, and to help Teacher rectify the human world. Firmly grounded in this understanding, we can better focus on Fa-study, get rid of our selfishness when doing things, place less emphasis on the results, and more benevolently save the sentient beings.

In his article "Towards Consummation," Teacher said: "Do you know that one of the biggest excuses the old evil forces use at present to persecute Dafa is that your fundamental attachments remain concealed? So in order to identify those people, the tribulations have been made more severe." Having a good fundamental starting point is the key to completely denying the old forces' arrangements. After July 20, 1999, the practitioners that suffered from the persecution had attachments and could not give up their human mindsets (this doesn't include those people who did not step forward to validate Dafa, because they had already fallen behind. If some of them still want to become practitioners, they may encounter "tests" aimed at destroying them, because the behind-the-scenes helpers of the old forces think that they are not qualified.) Initially some practitioners went to Beijing to validate Dafa with the purpose of reaching Consummation. The old forces took advantage of this human attachment and persecuted them. On the other hand, some practitioners righteously validated Dafa without any selfish intentions, and the evil forces were too afraid to persecute them. Here is one example: Two practitioners decided between themselves that they had to step forward and speak out about the Truth, as Dafa was being persecuted and Teacher's name was being slandered terribly. But one of them stepped forward with the purpose of achieving Consummation. In Tiananmen Square, the practitioner that came purely to validate Dafa was kicked by the police and was told: "Go home to practice, why do you come here to practice?" When the other practitioner was arrested, he said, "We are together," but the police arrested him only. Looking at the surface, there was not any difference between the actions of each practitioner, yet in another dimension, the evil forces had taken advantage of one practitioner's selfishness. In fact, stepping forward to validate Dafa with one's own pursuits is still harboring human attachments.

Recently I have heard a lot of practitioners say that we are not communicating well as one integrated body. In cultivation, Teacher arranges for us to look inside ourselves during conflicts. Even third parties witnessing these conflicts still need to look inside themselves. Actually the clashes occurring between practitioners are due to strong attachments to self. If we follow Teacher's Fa and do things entirely for others without personal interests or agendas, there will be no conflicts. Then the group will communicate well and the old forces will not be given any opportunity to take advantage of us. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa conference in Boston," Teacher said, "A Dafa disciple should put the Fa first in everything he does--whenever you evaluate something you have to consider the Fa first. You probably remember something I've said to you often: a Dafa disciple should consider others first in everything he does. Whenever something happens or whenever a situation comes about, even if it's a minor thing, my first thought is of others, for it's already become natural for me--I just think of others first. If all of you can do this, there won't be any of that stubborn arguing in your validating the Fa; if you really have a solid foundation like this and are able to calm yourselves, consider others, and examine yourselves when anything happens, I think you'll be able to handle a lot of things well."

Only by doing everything for Dafa and for saving sentient beings, can we achieve selflessness. If we can rise above all the demonic influences, then in the process of validating Dafa we can showcase the righteous cultivation status obtained through practicing Falun Dafa.

I have deviated from my righteous cultivation path a number of times. When back on track I always wanted to make up for all my mistakes as soon as possible. In the past, some practitioners told me that I had the attachment of wanting to do things, but I always disagreed with them. Although I was doing the three things, I always used human notions to do them. Recently I studied Teacher's article "Further Understanding." Teacher said that "... what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred." I suddenly understood that my make-up effort did not have a pure starting point. I wanted to make up for the loss in my cultivation, not for the damage done to Dafa. After I corrected my understanding, when I did the three things the whole situation was different. Every human notion became very weak and could not control my thoughts any more. My xinxing also ascended to a new level.