By a Dafa practitioner in Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) Not long ago, police broke into several houses rented by fellow practitioners who had been forced to leave home, and took a number of practitioners away. The losses were very heavy. The causes for the incident will be analyzed in another article. Here I would like to share my personal understanding about the incident.

Fellow practitioners reacted differently after the incident. All the practitioners living in exile evacuated their then rented places, and some practitioners who stayed at their own homes, upon hearing the news, refused to make contact with those practitioners living in exile, thinking it would bring themselves danger.

I also felt uneasy inside and shared my thoughts with my elder sister, who was sharing a house with me. I could not remember everything she said, but two sentences deeply struck me. She said, "Our house seen in other dimensions is also a living being and our heart is like the heart of the house. If our heart does not move, any interference is an external factor and it cannot move anything in essence." She also said, "I'm not afraid if fellow practitioners give my name under pressure when they cannot hold on to righteous thoughts, but what I am 'afraid' is that if I should be abducted, it would mean that I myself have loopholes that I'm not even aware of. I 'fear' that I'm unaware of my own degenerated elements."

What my sister said shook me up a lot, and I could see that I lagged behind. I always believed that I did not have much fear, and even if I felt fearful in a particular situation, I was always able to put the Fa first and force myself to go ahead with what I should do.

I used to look squarely at a bad person who was tailing me, and eliminated all the evil behind him; sometimes I would, while sending forth righteous thoughts, adopt an anti-tailing approach (by turning around and tailing the secret agent who was after me), and effectively scared the thug away. When facing the police, I used to use my own body to block the fists and kicks from the police in order to reduce the suffering of fellow practitioners (my heart was beating fast at the time, but I knew this was what a Dafa practitioner should do). In order to save sentient beings, I once went to a dinner party held by special agents from the National Security Department. Knowing their intent was to arrest me, I faced them calmly. I clarified the truth to them and safely returned.

However, I still found a feeling of "fear" inside from time to time.

I asked myself what I fear fundamentally. I feared that I might not be able to cope with the loneliness in prison, I feared the pain and suffering when being tortured, and I feared that my loved ones would be put under even more mental pressure. All these are thoughts formed when human postnatal notions take control of our mind, and are results of the human mentality yet to be relinquished in ourselves. As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we should diligently rectify ourselves in the process of constantly assimilating to the Fa. While looking inward we send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all the behind-the-scene helpers of the evil old forces, at the same time be rational and compassionate in what we do in the human world, and do the best we know how. Master once mentioned undetectable elements. Those are things I cannot keep control of beforehand. If a situation has occurred due to undetectable elements and our attachments, if we have strong righteous thoughts and can let go of life and death, be indestructible like diamond, then we can break with the arrangements of the old forces.

Reviewing a section of Master's teaching in "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," I realized that deep in my mind there has always been a degenerate thought that I was not aware of. When I do a specific Fa-rectification task, I would think that should I be rational and wise and constantly and diligently cultivate myself, then I would be safe. I had a strong attachment to being "safe," and I have always tried to have a better understanding about the issue of safety and righteous thoughts through Fa-study and in practice, hoping that I would become more mature on this issue. Whenever a practitioner got into trouble I would think in my heart: Oh, that was how he understood the issue, see how he got into trouble! I immediately drew a conclusion in my mind, in the hope that I would not make the same mistake. It seemed that I was doing things for my own safety instead of completely focusing on assisting Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings. Ultimately, I had a "fear" for my own safety and was not truly able to "do without pursuing," and I had a clear goal. It is just like some practitioners who have not studied the Fa in depth, they do not take medicine because they think Master will get rid of their illnesses. It won't do.

Master said,

"Also, a lot of our students are concerned about many things, all kinds of stuff. In fact, once you think about those things your realm has dropped. Don't think about anything, and don't worry about anything." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003") "Get rid of any attachment you have, and don't think about anything. Just do everything a Dafa disciple should do, and everything will be covered." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" in Guiding the Voyage)

Of course being rational and mature is also part of our cultivation, but it is not like me who, with a human mentality, uses Dafa as a protective umbrella and has a clear goal based on selfishness (one's own safety). True maturity comes from our xinxing [mind nature] and rationality constantly assimilating to the righteous Fa principles of the cosmos, from constantly relinquishing the human notions and from the process of our life constantly elevating to its highest prenatal position.

Master also mentioned that when a life dropped down, in the eyes of higher beings it had become "heavy." My personal understanding is that during the process of a life descending, elements at various levels would get into this life, and the lower this life drops the more elements it would receive, and this life would become heavier and heavier. As for a life, maturity does not mean that he becomes experienced, more composed in adverse situations and remains calm and cool. Instead, it means to constantly get rid of the elements he has received at various levels, constantly breaking with restraints to his life at different levels and different realms so that he can elevate to even higher levels and reach the standards of even higher realms. Then, in the eyes of higher beings, this life is not becoming "heavy" but "light," and the lighter a life becomes, the more mature he becomes. Along with the elevation of oneself, his behaviors in the human world would naturally become mature and rational. The prerequisite for righteous actions is righteous thoughts, and only when we have righteous thoughts can we take righteous actions! My personal understanding is that the prerequisite for righteous thoughts is "righteous understanding," righteously understanding Master's teachings; the prerequisite for righteous understanding is "righteous belief," because if a life does not have a fundamentally firm belief in the Fa, all will come to nothing.

Many practitioners understand the principles of the Fa in theory since Master has expounded this very clearly in his writings. The crux lies at how to carry it out and how to improve our own xinxing in implementing these principles in practice, which is genuine cultivation and enlightenment.

When I heard the news that my home might be targeted by the police, my mind began to feel uneasy. I sat down calmly and began to look inside, and I indeed found many aspects that I could improve in. After blaming myself for a while, I just told myself to get up from the fall and continue to advance forward.

On this issue, my elder sister's calm and peaceful mind encouraged me greatly. I saw the distance between me and her. One's xinxing level will be displayed when facing a problem. That is the true manifestation of one's realm. In an environment without evil pressure, anyone can talk about what they have understood through reading the Fa. But, whether they can apply it to practice would indeed display where their xinxing is. When other practitioners evacuated and some truth-clarifying material sites were destroyed in succession, and when we were told that we were in very high risk of being exposed, my elder sister and I peacefully stayed at home. We are the heart of this house. Sometimes, I also look inside to see whether I have a thought about being lucky. Of course, if we are sure that our home is exposed or we are followed, we will act accordingly and move.

There is a practitioner who thinks she is being monitored if a car is parked in front of her building. Hearing the sound of a police car, she thinks it came for her; a broken light bulb or a drain block would be regarded as a hint and became a reason to quickly move out, even giving up the Dafa books, Master's picture or expensive equipment. Once the above situation occurred, she would try to keep moving to hide and always felt the evil around her. As a matter of fact, it's all a result of her thoughts. We have human mentalities. The evil took advantage of her mentality of fear to interfere with her and other practitioners as well at the same time. They made them spread these rumors among practitioners, which scared some practitioners with the same mentality not to come out to validate Dafa and clarify the truth. Some of them might come forward, but with all kinds of conditions set for themselves. I knew a practitioner who couldn't get rid of her mentality of fear all along. She would run away whenever she felt something unusual. Finally, she moved to another province and was arrested.

Since we do Dafa work, it is important for us to stress security and to be aware of safety. However, we do not stay safe for safety itself. Hiding and escaping is not the solution. Our cultivated side should be able to face our unpurified mentalities and to get rid of them. No human mentality can be brought to the heaven. Do not let your own human attachment last too long! One day, whether you like or not, you have to inevitably face it. Try hard to rectify what you have realized. We see from the classic painting, when the disciples of Jesus were facing being fed to hungry tigers and lions, their faces were radiating with a noble and righteous belief. As Dafa practitioners, shouldn't we do better?

Some practitioners would read three chapters of Zhuan Falun everyday, study Master's articles and send forth righteous thoughts on the hour. But whenever encountering any problem, they would avoid looking into their own mind and do not pay attention to their xinxing improvement. They would try to get around the problem with human ways. For some practitioners, the purpose of studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts is to protect themselves from being persecuted by evil. At the bottom of their minds, there is such a thought: as long as they can study the Fa diligently and do the three things Master required, they would not be persecuted. Their understanding of being persecuted is simply regarded as being in jail and being tortured. Isn't this the mentality of pursuit? Master told us,

"All of you are already aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go of it." (From "Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

My staying at home is not to get rid of the mentality of fear; instead, it's a manifestation of being calm on the issue.

In fact, everything displayed at the surface are external factors. It's the human mind inside that plays the role. The evil may manifest in many different appearances in the human world at will in the excuses that the practitioners are not diligent and have loopholes in their cultivation. When something happens, instead of truly looking inside to improve xinxing, many practitioners would emphasize external factors such as mobile phones or pagers as potential safety problems. When the event mentioned above occurred, some would simply refuse to meet any other practitioners and turn off their mobile phones and pagers, and always found excuses to cover up their attachment of fear.

Master has mentioned again and again in teaching the Fa, "The principles of ordinary human society cannot be casually violated." (Zhuan Falun) We all have such an experience. When we want to meet someone, Master's law body would arrange it if it is within the requirement of Fa-rectification. If we want to take advantage of the extraordinary power of the Fa to cover our own fear, the power of the Fa will not be seen, because we stand in a human position on this issue and we are restrained by the principles of the human realm. If we truly reach a different level and qualify at the standards for the beings at the different realms, the power of the Fa will be manifested. However, it cannot be achieved through pursuit. It's the natural manifestation of the Fa's power at that realm.

The above is just my personal understanding at this stage. Please point out anything improper.

July 12, 2003

Posting date: 8/25/2003
Original article date: 8/24/2003
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 8/14/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/8/11/55299.html

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