Thoughts Arising from Our Greetings to Teacher--Strive Forward Together, Become More Rational, Clearheaded, and Mature

By Shangguo

(Clearwisdom.net) At every special event, especially New Year's Day and Teacher's birthday, Falun Gong practitioners all over the world send their greetings to Teacher on the Clearwisdom website. At every Fa conference, many Falun Gong practitioners also hand in notes expressing their greetings to our Teacher. Many sentiments are integrated in these greetings, mainly practitioners' longing and respect for Teacher and their belief in Dafa. These greetings no doubt are heavy blows to the evil, especially in China.

However, we should not ignore the fact that, even though we are doing the most sacred work, we must continue our own cultivation. If we cannot be strict with ourselves, we will be affected by the attachment of showing off, comparing ourselves with others, and acting out of emotion as ordinary people do, all of which result in personalizing these sacred greetings, indulging in our own attachments and adversely affecting our cultivation.

For example, after seeing group photos and videos of overseas practitioners on the Internet, a few coordinators, who had been selected by practitioners in certain areas of China, also called together practitioners in his or her area to take group photos and videos. Other practitioners also acted out of emotion and forgot to look at the activity from the standpoint of the Fa. As a result, the evil took advantage. Many practitioners were arrested, centers for producing truth-clarifying materials were destroyed, and the local practitioners faced more difficulties and hardships in clarifying the truth and in their own cultivation. Some practitioners in other areas suffered even more severe losses. In this regard, some overseas practitioners also showed their attachment to competing with others and showing off.

I sympathize with the feelings of our practitioners after reading their articles published on the Clearwisdom website, including "The Significance of Giving No Confessions." We should pay special attention to the basic problems in our cultivation. Each of us should examine ourselves and ask: "Is my base of cultivation practice solid, or do I have some problems?" "Am I looking at the persecution and conflicts with human attachments at different levels?" "Have I been studying the Fa with a calm mind or have I been regarding the Fa as some theory or piece of human knowledge?" And so on. It is time for us to strengthen the weak links in our own cultivation.

During these years of persecution, we have experienced a lot, endured a lot (even though it cannot be compared to what our Teacher endured for us), become more mature, and made many sacrifices (even though it cannot be compared to what we will gain after we achieve Perfection). However, we should pay attention to keeping a clear mind and a practitioner's attitude: you cannot replace cultivation with whatever you may have done for Dafa. On the contrary, if your character does not reach the sufficient level to validate the Fa, you may not make any progress in your work for Dafa. You may even cause losses when validating the Fa and doing the three things. Taking a group video in China without considering safety is one such example.

There is no doubt that all of the practitioners in Mainland China and in other countries send greetings and congratulations to Teacher on "World Falun Dafa Day" to validate the Fa and clear away the evil. But whether or not we have a righteous goal and righteous thoughts will directly determine the outcome of what we are doing. A righteous thought with a clear mind will lead to a positive result. If your thoughts deviate from the Fa, you may turn something good into something bad and create a negative effect. If we strive forward in cultivation and do well in the three things that Teacher has instructed us to do, this will be the most pleasing thing for our Teacher, because we are validating the Fa with compassion and righteous thoughts.

When the Clearwisdom website publishes our greetings, it is encouraging millions of our practitioners to come together as one body, to validate the Fa, to save all beings, and to strive forward diligently in shocking and suppressing the evil. It is not for practitioners with strong attachments to express their personal attachments. When we are doing the most sacred things, we should clearly know what we are doing and keep a calm and clear mind to cultivate ourselves. One day, perhaps, we can tell our Teacher with pride, "Teacher, we really became more mature in cultivation as you required."

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/6/4/76302.html

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