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A Few Words on Righteous Faith By a Dafa practitioner in Mainland China
April 26, 2003 (Clearwisdom.net May 24 report) Why are we still bringing up this issue
now that the Fa-rectification has already progressed to its current state? I
think this is the most fundamental issue for practitioners, which runs
throughout the entire process of Fa-rectification and cultivation. If this issue
is not handled well in time, it will affect our Fa-rectification and
cultivation, and impact our coordination and improvement as a whole, because if
we have firm faith but others are not yet quite firm enough, we will not be able
to form a strong synchronized power. Master said, "Isn't any form of pressure a test to see whether your faith in the Buddha
Fa is fundamentally strong? If you still are not fundamentally resolute in the
Fa, everything else is out of question." ("For Whom do You Practice
Cultivation?" Essentials for Further Advancement) As Dafa practitioners, we should listen to what Master says, do as Master
taught us to do and form a diamond-solid faith in Master and Dafa through
cultivation. What are righteous thoughts? They come from righteous faith, which
originates from our real enlightenment to Dafa, our rational practice and
improvement. To have faith, genuine faith and firm faith, is a fundamental
matter regarding our xinxing. During the process of Fa-rectification, the old forces, under the pretense of
testing us, adopted the most despicable means to interfere with and persecute
us, trying everything they could at any cost to pull us down to stop us from
ascending. They have even gone so far as to destroy Dafa practitioners and
sentient beings to achieve their selfish goals. When we are not firm in our
faith, slacken a little or our mind is moved, the old forces take advantage of
our loopholes and quickly replace our righteous thoughts with their degenerate
things, thus taking control of our main consciousness and pulling us to their
side. From my observation, those practitioners who have yet to step forward or
those who have followed an evil path were all taken advantage of by the evil
because they did not have firm, righteous faith. Of course, there are issues of paying back our debts, eliminating karma and
elevating our levels in the process of Fa-rectification; therefore there are
tests and obstacles we need to overcome. Our Teacher tells us, "As long as you improve your character, you will be able to overcome
them--it's only that you might not want to overcome them. If you want to
overcome them you can." (Zhuan Falun) I believe that as long as we have firm righteous faith, have the courage to
let go of everything, then we will cultivate to the end and nothing can move us
as our Teacher described, "Just by staying unaffected, you will be able to
handle all situations." (Lecture on the Fa at U.S. Midwest Conference,
unofficial translation) Because you have a firm and pure heart towards Master
and Dafa, no matter what evil tests or deceptions arise, they won't be able to
move your heart, and these evil, dirty and despicable things would appear very
weak in front of you. When you are lofty, strong and solid as diamond, the evil
will become small, weak and will collapse of itself, because your xinxing
has already reached the standard of that level and has met the requirements of
the Fa at that level, so the evil has no reason to test you. If the evil still
tries to interfere, Master will not allow this to happen, and the guardian gods
of the Fa would also help with the Fa-rectification. Isn't it true that we often read articles online written by fellow
practitioners who broke out of the demons' dens with determined righteous faith
in Master and Dafa, and they overcame tribulations with righteous thoughts?
During Fa rectification cultivation, we also discussed the issue of "safety,"
which arises when we face the evil. However, the truth is the lack of righteous
faith and righteous thoughts are the greatest omissions. If we display the
slightest hesitation, or do not know how to handle this, the evil will take
advantage of our loopholes and certainly create trouble and pain for us. An
excuse often used by them is "beat you until your righteous thoughts come out."
Of course, omission is not an excuse for persecution, because we are doing the
best, the greatest and the most sacred thing in the world. We Dafa practitioners
have not done anything wrong. All of the persecution was forced upon us and it
is unreasonable. We must completely negate it. However, these troubles are
indeed brought about by our lack of righteous belief and righteous thoughts.
Master said, "As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the
result of Dafa disciples' thoughts. Even though the old forces do exist, if
you don't have those thoughts they can't do anything. When your righteous
thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do a thing" ("Teaching the Fa
at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A."). Righteous faith and righteous thoughts are wisdom; they show the harmony of
Dafa. Because righteous faith and righteous belief are the result of being
highly responsible for Dafa, for assisting Master to rectify the Fa, for saving
sentient beings and for everything we will enlighten to in the future, Dafa
practitioners should be rational and wise. Regarding this issue, I want to talk
about a little of my superficial understanding. For example, out of several
practitioners I am in contact with, one is in charge of coordinating Dafa work
in our area, and one is in charge of producing Dafa materials. When some
practitioners reminded them to pay attention to safety in a certain aspect, they
didn't pay enough attention and instead they said, "No problem. Don't be
afraid." Some other practitioners dove into Dafa work and had little time for
sleep. They indeed worked very hard. However, according to what I know, some
practitioners didn't study the Fa for several days in a row and some were
interrupted when they started reading the Fa, and they didn't have a chance to
calm their minds. During that period of time, many problems occurred and the
evil took advantage of our gaps, and Dafa work suffered losses. It was a painful
lesson. Sometimes, Master reminded us; sometimes we realized the problems and
fellow practitioners reminded us, but we often didn't pay enough attention and
our carelessness was again taken advantage of. Sometimes, we felt there was
really a lot of Dafa work waiting to be done and we had no choice but to do it,
and we became so busy that we couldn't catch our breath. In fact, this may be
exactly the old forces' intentional arrangements and interference. They want us
to be so busy we don't have time to study the Fa, so we forget to cultivate
ourselves in Fa-rectification, so we have gaps that they can take advantage of,
which serves their purpose of persecuting us. In fact, what ensures that we do
well in Dafa work, take solid steps and break through the old forces'
persecution? The only guarantee is Fa study and cultivation. We are not afraid of the evil and we don't have fear. The evil's farce is at
most a gauge for our xinxing level. However, the fact that we have no
fear does not mean we don't use wisdom. When we see how rampant the evil is, how
can we not fully utilize Dafa's wisdom, but instead let the evil take advantage
of our gaps and laugh at us? With the attitude that we are being responsible for
the Fa, for saving sentient beings and for everything we will validate in the
future, we fully utilize wisdom and prove the evil definitely inferior. In conclusion, let us remember Master's teaching at all times and walk
righteously on every one of our last steps in Fa-rectification cultivation. "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with
wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy--this is establishing the
mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being." ("Rationality", Essentials for
Further Advancement II). Above are some of my shallow understandings, only for fellow practitioners'
reference. Posting date: 5/31/2003
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