|
Be Levelheaded and Compassionately Help Fellow Practitioners Who Have Taken the Wrong Path
By a Dafa Practitioner (Clearwisdom.net) Without exception, today's persecution is testing
Dafa practitioners relentlessly. Many practitioners have been, since the
beginning of this immense adversity, momentarily confused and befuddled and have
done things that a practitioner should absolutely not do. Thus, they have
brought blemishes upon their cultivation, and caused damage to the Fa-rectification
process. With their actions, some have even committed great sins against Dafa,
which cannot be resolved through deep remorse alone. It is not necessary to dwell on the great mistakes that were committed by
these fellow practitioners, or whether they still can be clear-headed. What has
to be considered is that they are still amongst us. As to how we regard such
practitioners depends on the level of our xinxing [1]. Without doubt, those who
have gone astray have brought great losses to Dafa. They even repaid our
kindness with enmity and obstinately followed the wrong path. But, as
practitioners we live by the universal principles of "Zhen, Shan and Ren"
(Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance), which asks of us to be
compassionate towards others, and therefore, we must continue to still be
rational in how we treat such people. We know that Teacher will take care of those who have taken the wrong path,
but still wish to cultivate again and make up for the losses they caused.
Consequently, as Dafa practitioners, we must maintain our purest righteous
thoughts, be in harmony with Teacher and help them obtain Teacher's salvation.
If we reject them and even strongly censure them, then it may bring about the
opposite reaction from some of those who had taken the wrong path. The reason
they took the wrong path was because they had strong ordinary people's
mentalities. They were not diligent in their Fa study and thus were unable to
abide by the Fa principles. Thus, to require them to adhere to the high standard
of a Dafa practitioner at such moments is unrealistic. A person that was
"transformed" by the evil, even if he considered it only a formality,
had at that moment agreed to the transformation; therefore, he can change from a
successful practitioner into an ordinary person in a flash. Once such a "transformation" has taken place, one should view all
that he says or does in terms of spreading rumors or showing enmity towards Dafa,
as committing sins against Dafa as an ordinary person. Because of this, the
situation of such people is dangerous and terrifying. These people have obtained
and practiced within the Fa. Such people, although they are unable to follow the
principles of the Fa, know in their heart what kind of xinxing is required of a
Dafa practitioner. If we provoke them, instead of being compassionate, we would
be acting recklessly. We would be acting irrationally regarding matters of life
and death, survival or annihilation. Therefore, if we sincerely adhere to
Teacher's words and hope to rescue them, we have to fully realize these
eccentricities of the human mind. We should gradually encourage those that wish
to return to cultivate and encourage them to make up for having committed
wrongdoings. In fact, though there are some extreme cases among those not living
up to expectations, many of them can still be saved. Let us also not forget that
they had, at one time, been closely related to Teacher. We have to abide by the
fundamental requirements during Teacher's Fa-rectification in handling them. In
this process, there are many factors to be considered. We must first be able to
be benevolent and forgiving if we are to be able to assist those who walked down
the wrong path, so they can mend their ways and cultivate diligently henceforth. In fact, in this respect, Teacher has explained to us many of the principles: "What I'm talking about is, only when Dafa disciples don't do well
themselves can they have a bad effect and impact in this world. If a Dafa
disciple has an ordinary person's mentality and isn't doing well, or was a spy
before, or a student did something wrong because he couldn't pass a test, and
thus everybody drives the person out or regards him differently, truly causes
his predestined opportunity of thousands of years to really be ruined, and
causes him to go over to the opposite side, then, let me tell you, that would
be truly doing something bad. (Applause) "Only when we're able to be forgiving can we save people. If every
Dafa disciple could think that way, then think about it, with that power from
compassion, would there still be any room for bad factors to exist? With that
said, let me tell you, the professional spies aren't able to get in. [The
spies among us] are [Dafa] students who used to be in that line of work before
1999 and who didn't cultivate well, or students who gave in to the evil at one
point out of fear and didn't do well. If you were to tell them to really harm
the Fa, they wouldn't do it. It's just that they became confused at a certain
time, didn't do well, and couldn't pass the test, at which point they took the
wrong path. There are also some Dafa disciples who are attached to those
little things that they have, and some who just wanted to do enough to get the
rogue spy agencies off their back. The reality is, it's impossible for anyone
to truly harm Dafa." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference") Let me give you an example. I met a fellow practitioner in prison who had
been brainwashed, although I did not at first recognize this fact. She spoke
most disrespectfully of Teacher and Dafa. Although she had begun to attack me
verbally, I was not appalled at her behavior. Having seen her change to this
behavior, my only thoughts were, "I only hope I can save her." First,
I tried to give her the chance to recognize and discover the contradictions in
her thoughts. Then, I gradually helped her understand the issues about Dafa that
she was unable to figure out and thus rectified her thoughts. Throughout this
process, I calmly talked about the principles, and I finally succeeded. The tone
of my voice, the words I said and my benevolence changed her false impressions.
Once she understood and had returned to the fold of Dafa, she held my hands, and
described, with tears in her eyes, the days when she was misguided by the evil.
She spoke of her heartache and incongruities, of being confused and without
help, and of seeing herself being completely hideous. Though she tried to return
to the former glory, she was unable to, no matter how hard she tried, as she had
cast Dafa aside. Teacher said: "How I look at things is different from how you or the world's people
do. When a human being sees someone make a mistake he finds it almost
unforgivable. But I don't look at things that way. I look at an entire being
overall, and even when there's just one thread of hope, I'll give him hope.
(Applause)" (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago
Conference") When Teacher lectures to us, he is also leading by example. Hence, should we
not learn from that how we should treat others? Seeing these misguided people that, in their hearts still know that Dafa is
good, and deep in their hearts still want to cultivate, we, who know better than
those who followed the wrong path, should understand clearly what ultimately
awaits them. We should not rebuke them by venting our human sentimentality, but
take the opportunity to tell them openly the truth and how to live by it. Only
then are we really helping them to return to the fold. Only then are we worthy
to walk in Teacher's footsteps and save these people who have taken the wrong
path. They made the mistake because of being confused about Dafa. This led to
misunderstandings. Under such circumstances, we can only tell them clearly about
the Dafa that we clearly understand and tell them the significance of the Fa-rectification
and salvation of sentient beings by Teacher. Only then can our duty and mission
of assisting them to return be accomplished. In this regard, there are many
articles published on Clearwisdom which can guide us. If there are a lot of
people we cannot help to step back on the right path, we should look within to
see if we really understand their problems and the Fa principles ourselves. By
using the Fa principles to persuade others, our power of compassion will be
strong. This certainly is the most positive and the most direct way to
accomplish what we set out to do. Once they understand what is correct, all
practitioners will know what to do. Whether these people can again take up the path of cultivation is not only an
issue of whether they can be welcomed into the new universe; it is also an issue
of whether their sentient beings can also be admitted into the new universe.
Furthermore, it is a question of whether the countless sentient beings of the
vast celestial bodies they represent can all be welcomed into the new universe.
For each practitioner who understands the situation, more humans in the world
and sentient beings will have the opportunity to be saved. Notes: [1] xinxing (shin-shing)--mind or heart nature; moral character. |