(Clearwisdom.net)
In "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference", Teacher discussed the following:
"The sentient beings don't want to be destroyed, and that's only natural. ... The old forces pushed to the very limit the Gods' power and wisdom in arranging what they thought to be the most perfect creation, and got so excited they completely forgot about a key point: that is, when the cosmos progresses to the stage of degeneration, all of the sentient beings and elements in the cosmos are, without exception, in the process of degeneration--the beings, the ways of thinking, the elements, and standards have all become impure--and the point at which standards and everything of beings became no good was arrived at slowly in the gigantic course of history."
Upon reading these words, I suddenly understood. That is, it is not an issue of personality or personal characteristics, but rather it is the reflection of the degeneration of the cosmos that our way of thinking is not complete or does not take the middle way. Beings of all levels become stubbornly biased, incomplete or even go to extremes in their way of thinking. It is to a large part the result of the degeneration of the whole cosmos. Among humans, even among practitioners, there are many manifestations of this situation, which all need to be rectified. To return to our original position, we should let go of all of our self-concepts and degenerated thoughts that have developed among everyday people, and we should make efforts to return to our original state--rational, pure and harmonizing.
Of course, harmonization doesn't equate to "clever" means that people adopt to insist on their own ideas. And purity doesn't equate to simplicity and incompleteness. Take the matter of harmonization for instance. It should include seeing through appearances to the inner essence; judging something by jumping out of the matter itself, viewing things as a whole instead of only as a partial phenomenon, thinking of another aspect while seeing one aspect, considering things rationally, objectively, completely and clearly, instead of with emotions, preoccupations and attachments.
I would like to talk about our recent rescue work outside China on behalf of Charles Li. We have made great efforts, compassionate and sincere, in clarifying the truth. However, obvious shortcomings exist as well, mainly manifested in not having sufficient righteous thoughts, and avoidance of crucial points when clarifying the truth because of our human mentality. In other words, our way of thinking is not in a harmonizing state. For example, Jiang's evil regime persecutes Falun Dafa practitioners, accusing them of "tapping into Chinese TV programs". It is obvious that the old forces are creating trouble by taking advantage of our thoughts when they are not righteous enough in dealing with this issue. However, many of us couldn't explain nobly and clearly the justice and necessity of tapping into the Chinese TV programs; instead, we tried to take a shortcut using human standards, avoiding the tapping issue because of our fear, and even denying the significance of the action itself. In fact, when we deal with this issue with our righteous thoughts, many politicians and ordinary people understand the relationship between "civil disobedience" and the action of "tapping into TV programs".
Theoretically, whether it is "tapping into TV programs" or rescue work, it is just an intermediate process, the fundamental goal being to offer salvation to people of the world by clarifying the truth. Therefore, when a person (for example, a Member of Parliament) asks us whether we know about the particular actions of a practitioner, we can answer honestly that we are not certain (there are so many practitioners outside of China, that is certainly understandable and true that we wouldn't know about every practitioner's particular actions). Then letting go of our human attachments, we can state our main points from a positive basis, frankly speaking about the justice and importance of "tapping into TV programs". We can say that we think the situation with Charles Li is part of the persecution conducted by Jiang over the past three years, and that Charles Li is being persecuted because he insists on his belief in Falun Dafa and on clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa. The persecution itself violates the Chinese Constitution and the United Nations Agreements on Human Rights.
The recent trial of Charles Li conducted by the Jiang regime had no justice at all. Such a so-called trial is a farce. That's why we are making such efforts in our rescue work and why we continue to appeal to more people to help. Thus, on the fundamental basis of following "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance", we make full use of our media experience and skills in human society to explain clearly what people should know. But, if we are trapped by one thought and cannot view things in a harmonizing way, it is very easy for us to fall into the "test" arranged by the old forces. Teacher said,
"The old forces are Gods, and right now it seems to you that their forms change in an incredible number of ways. If the students don't take the Fa as teacher, and focus their attention on these things, then the old forces can forge for you any false vision they want" (from "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference").
Since Teacher has told us this aspect of the Fa, we should not treat the situation with a human's attitude and take it for granted.
Teacher also said in "Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference,"
"I talked about this to tell you that the reason many things in Fa-rectification haven't turned out as well as we'd like is that both the low levels and high levels of the old forces have been doing that together, and they've been using their massive density to obstruct things. ... Of course, in this Fa-rectification when our students act righteously, then those problems won't exist."
In "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," Teacher also mentioned,
"Also, whatever we do, we have to do it righteously, to really do it like a cultivator would. Don't let the old forces take advantage of your gaps. When they take advantage of your gaps they'll do those kind of things [you mentioned]."
From Teacher's words, we can see how important it is that we do things righteously in order to fundamentally resolve problems related to issues that influence the overall situation.
In addition, it is very important to be aware of the implications of certain information, and to state that information objectively. For instance, for the past two months none of our practitioners outside of China have been able to verify the details of what happened to Charles Li during his past two trips to China. Also, during the so-called trial by the Chinese government, nobody knows what happened inside and outside of the court. There is no way for us to check. But it is well known that the Party is an old hand at brainwashing and extorting "confessions". In addition, it is a fact that the Chinese courts find all Falun Gong practitioners guilty, regardless of evidence. How can we make full use of these facts when clarifying the truth and informing people who are willing to help us? It is not enough to depend only on a compassionate intention. It also requires frankness, rationality and righteous thoughts. These are based on whether each and every practitioner can strictly follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.
What's more, when Charles' fianc e and friends actively work on rescue efforts, their genuine emotion is very touching for many everyday people. But if we all count on this form, other consequences may occur. For instance, the larger issue of persecuting Falun Gong through detaining and trying Charles Li may be unconsciously reduced to a family rescue event. As a matter of fact, the participation of all of us in the rescue work is not just because he is our relative or close friend, but for the purpose of safeguarding truth and justice. Some practitioners do it because he is a fellow practitioner of Falun Dafa. Some do it to stand up against the overall persecution of Falun Gong. Some do it to make more people learn the truth of Falun Dafa through the rescue effort.
Dafa practitioners should coordinate with each other, help each other, compensate for each other and support each other, but it doesn't mean we should all do things out of the same way of thinking. Similarly, why should we restrict ourselves as to the form of our rescue efforts? Thus, this recent example makes me realize the importance of harmonizing our way of thinking. It has a bearing upon whether we can do well those things we should do, and whether we can do things righteously.
The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything that is incorrect.
