A Western Practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, I have come to some understandings about the old forces' destructive arrangements and Master's benevolent arrangements, and the contrast between the two. I would like to present them to fellow practitioners.

My understanding is that the old forces arranged a very wicked environment in the human world to test Dafa and its disciples. Thus, not only did they make the moral standard of ordinary society very perverted, but also imposed an even greater tribulation by foisting on Dafa and its disciples the most wicked, evil scoundrel persecution in history. Not only that, even the personal lives of many Dafa disciples have been made difficult - they have financial tribulations, their family members do not understand them or even aid the persecution, they have to work difficult jobs just to barely support themselves, or they live in very isolated places where they cannot meet with other practitioners, etc.

Thus, the tribulations serve the old forces' attempts to temper steadfast Dafa disciples and make them meet their standards by passing those imposed tribulations, make weaker students who are not so steadfast in Dafa give up the practice, and severely punish those whom they want to weed out by making them commit heinous sins. The old forces want to "purify" the cosmos by preserving those they want to preserve and those whom they think should enter the new cosmos. This includes, of course, themselves.

Over the last four years, under the arrangements of the old forces, the persecution of Dafa and its disciples has caused immense harm and damage to the disciples and sentient beings. Some Dafa disciples gave up cultivation, some temporarily went to the opposite side and some committed grave moral sins even though they knew they were doing wrong. Under the principles of cultivation of the old cosmos, such disciples would never have had the chance to cultivate again, and the cosmic bodies that corresponded to them would have been annihilated. Worse would have been the fate of those who sinned against Dafa:

"In this persecution, so many of the world's people have been poisoned, and for so many sentient beings, because of the minds of the world's people having been poisoned, the gigantic cosmic bodies that are connected to them have disintegrated." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference")

However, this is not the arrangement that Master wants. What Master wants to do is to save all sentient beings in the whole cosmos, irrespective of how bad they have become over the long course of history.

"... what I wanted was for none of the sentient beings to interfere, for them all to wait there, and I would have gone forward rectifying things, and the worst beings, however bad they might be, and no matter what kind of mistakes they'd made in history, all of them could have reached Consummation while just staying put. Wouldn't that have been great?! (Applause)" "If he couldn't do it, then Master would help him do it. When the cosmos isn't up to standard it's because all of the sentient beings aren't up to standard, and I would have helped all sentient beings do it, I would have helped you do it and I would have helped him do it." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

"During this Fa-rectification [I] have been treating everything and all beings with the greatest mercy, and that's the reason [I] wanted to assimilate these beings and get them over there from this old cosmos, and that's why I set out to do Fa-rectification of the cosmos." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")

My understanding is that instead of acknowledging the persecution imposed on Dafa by the old forces, Master is utilizing the persecution to enable more sentient beings to obtain the truth about Dafa. Hence, Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth becomes the most important weapon by which we are turning the tables on the old forces' arrangements. By clarifying the truth, we are causing sentient beings to awaken to the truth about Dafa and establish righteous thoughts about Dafa. Thus, in turn, instead of persecuting us, more and more sentient beings will support, respect and stand up for Dafa disciples. This will enable them to have wonderful blessings in the future, or maybe even a chance to cultivate in Dafa in the future.

The above are only my current understandings. I hope fellow practitioners can point out any of my misunderstandings with compassion.

Posting date: 5/7/2004
Original article date: 5/6/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights

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