(Clearwisdom.net)

Some practitioners have the attachment of thinking about when the tribulations will end. I had this attachment when I regretted that I had not done a good job, and caused the arrest of fellow practitioners and myself. This damaged our truth-clarifying work, and enlarged Teacher's suffering for practitioners. After breaking through the tribulation, I always felt regret for the loss of time, worrying about the delayed salvation of sentient beings caused by my mistakes, and I was also anxious about the lost chance for many beings to establish their positions before the tribulations are ended.

However, after a careful analysis from the perspective of the Fa, putting down every human being's conception, and studying the Fa with a cool head and peaceful heart, I found that the various attachments of "ending time" surface simply because "Those who live for sentimentality create worries for themselves." ("To Be a Human" in Hong Yin) Through studying the Fa, I realized that Teacher has already told us when the tribulations will end.

Why are the tribulations still in existence? Because evils in lower level dimensions that are persecuting Dafa and the old forces in a higher and broader range still exist. In "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.", Teacher said, "As you know, the persecution that Dafa disciples in Mainland China suffer is quite severe, so each student has to truly, clearly realize what his responsibility is, and when he sends forth righteous thoughts he has to be able to truly calm his mind and truly produce the effect of righteous thoughts. So this is something extremely critical, extremely important. Then if every student is able to do that, I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again--that's how important this is."

Then we may all compare what we did with what Teacher said, to see if we were able to truly calm our minds with pure hearts to send forth righteous thoughts. Since we have not reached such a state as a whole, the evils still exist.

As a matter of fact, Teacher has already told us clearly when the tribulation will end: "When Dafa has consummated everything amidst the tribulation, all of the evil that persecutes Dafa will end."("What Are Supernormal Abilities" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

If we concentrate our time and effort on purifying ourselves, and correcting our own thoughts that are not righteous enough, on finding and pointing out with compassion fellow practitioners' shortcomings to reach a higher level together, on remedying any leak among practitioners after seeing it, on eliminating evil old forces who persecute Dafa, and on saving the many sentient beings who are still not saved, the tribulation will end sooner. If we are attached to looking forward to the ending, our attachment itself is prolonging the time for the tribulation to continue.

When we are doing well in our Fa-study, clarifying the truth, and sending forth righteous thoughts, we must remember to purify ourselves while saving sentient beings and eliminating the evil forces. As long as we are doing better and better, raising our levels faster and faster, and consummating everything, the time to end the tribulations will arrive sooner.

This is my personal understanding, and I offer it for fellow practitioners' correction.