By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Kaifeng City, Henan Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) Practitioners, including myself, have all missed many opportunities to clarify the truth due to concerns over safety, lack of an appropriate introduction for the topic, the fear that people may not accept it, or feeling too embarrassed to bring up the topic of Falun Gong. This might have caused people with predestined relationships to miss the opportunity to be saved. I once asked myself, "Why do I need to try so hard to find an appropriate introduction for 'truth clarification'?" After carefully thinking it over, I find that they are but "human attachments" and concepts formed in the human world (also a form of sentiment). Master says in "Environment" in Essentials for Further Advancement:

This is cultivation. Do we also feel "embarrassed" when clarifying the truth to people? Don't we also need to break through this obstacle and get rid of the attachment and give "clarifying the truth" its proper standing?

In "Digging Out the Roots" in Essentials for Further Advancement Master also says:

Let us ask ourselves: are we still keeping the "human notions" when clarifying the truth? Using an example at the level of ordinary people, if you know for sure that your loved one's life is in danger if he continues on the way he is going or that he will definitely lose his life, would you still be "too embarrassed" to stop him? Would you still be aloof and stay at home? Would you watch him lose his life out of concern for your own safety? If that is the case, are you qualified to be a human being, let alone a Dafa practitioner? Lately I have disregarded all the concerns I had in the past, and whenever I have a chance, I openly clarify the truth to strangers or friends, including those who have enlightened on an evil path. (Of course you need to exercise discretion. You can't just say everything to anyone you come across.) The outcome has been good. Obviously it is not that people do not accept the truth, but that most of the time we set up a wall to block ourselves. On the surface it appears as if we do not have enough confidence, but actually it is due to a lack of righteous faith in the Fa and not taking clarifying the truth as seriously as saving sentient beings.

There have been practitioners who said that certain places were not safe because the police were patrolling, etc. It is not wrong to remind fellow practitioners to pay attention to safety, but we need not shun these places just because "they are not safe." The result will be that people from there will not be saved. Didn't Master say not to omit "a single area where there are people?" Do we have to take into account people's environment when saving them? Perhaps these places are indeed evil and treacherous, but aren't these the very places where we need to clarify the truth and break through the evil? We can use different methods, as what we have is wisdom. Actually things at the ordinary people's level may be effective for the everyday people, but they do not have a great deal of effect on practitioners. We all know that practitioners are not moved by superficial phenomena in the human world, and what's more important are the factors behind those phenomena. Some of them are "tests" by the old forces targeting our attachments. If you do not have fear and totally reject it with righteous thoughts, it will not have any effect. You would still be safe, however treacherous those places might be, and fellow practitioners have provided numerous such examples. If your thoughts are not righteous, with too many human attachments and concerns, you might not be safe even in places you think are quite safe. Do not use too much of the human way of thinking to calculate, weigh, and decide what practitioners during Fa rectification should do. When you think that "this place is not safe," or, "I can't do anything here," or, "this person might not have a predestined relationship," or, "this person could not be saved," you are creating obstacles for yourself. How can the righteous gods help you if you do not have righteous beliefs and wishes? Of course we need to avoid the other extreme - "I have strong righteous thoughts and I am not afraid of anything," and disregarding planning or being rational, or always thinking, "With Master's protection everything will be okay."

In short, we need to totally let go of human attachments and comprehensively save sentient beings. There isn't be much time left for us to hesitate. We should have faith in the power of Dafa.

My understanding is limited by my level. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.

Posting date: 10/9/2004
Original article date: 10/9/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/22/84772.html

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