(Clearwsidom.net) Teacher has said that time is very tight, and has asked practitioners to make every effort to clarify the truth and step forward from ordinary human society. However, Teacher has never asked every Falun Gong practitioner in China to go into the streets and distribute truth-clarification materials. Teacher told us that even if our cultivation were to end tomorrow, the persecution would still be happening today. Improvements in our environment do not mean the evil has disappeared. If we don't walk our paths correctly, the old forces will interfere. Teacher said:
"From now on, the Dafa disciples in China as much as anyone, both new students and veterans alike, should let go of their long-standing human attachments and start to seize the day and comprehensively save the world's people." ("Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People")
However, Teacher has never said that there is only one method of clarifying the truth. Moreover, "step forward" does not mean everyone "walks into the street." Instead Teacher told us to let go of human attachments, transcend the restriction of human notions, make the best use of our time, and comprehensively, thoroughly and broadly tell people the truth.
Recently, many of my local fellow practitioners publicly distributed Falun Gong truth-clarification materials and clarified the truth at a street market. I felt this had its positive side, even though some individual practitioners were not entirely rational. Some other practitioners pointed out the danger of such actions to them, but they felt they were acting openly and honorably. Afterwards, four practitioners were arrested at the street market. Even so, some fellow practitioners are still sticking to their own way of doing things, continuously persisting in their own method. I really worry for them a lot. We are validating Dafa, not ourselves, and therefore we must be rational and efficient when doing things. Teacher said:
"If you are validating the Fa, no matter what another person says about you, you won't be affected inside. If someone counters your opinion and you get riled up and don't like it, if when other people raise an opinion opposite yours based on some problem you have or disagree with your opinion and you don't like it, and you stand up to oppose it and argue on your own behalf, and when this leads to your going off topic and not listening to others, [in all such cases] you are--even if you are defending and explaining yourself with the best of intentions--still just validating yourself. That is because you didn't put Dafa first, and at that time the thing that you couldn't let go of most was self." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York (Questions & Answers Section, Part I)")
Teacher does not advise Dafa practitioners living overseas to return to China, because merciful Teacher is not willing to see either them or the practitioners living in this environment suffer persecution. I am not talking about the practitioners who do really well; I only wish to point out the misunderstandings of those practitioners who are not necessarily acting rationally and are simply following what others are doing. Fellow practitioners, I think you should calm down and carefully read what Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York" several times. The situation of Fa-rectification is naturally encouraging, but I enlightened to the fact that every word Teacher said in this lecture is truly important. Teacher has given us a "stick warning" not to be muddleheaded by the present eased up environment. Teacher worries for us. Teacher said:
"Well, actually, with some students it's not that their human attachments have been cultivated away but that the students have been too scared to do anything out of line, and if the environment eases up a little bit they will dare to do those things again. That's no good. If a person can't cultivate in the Fa, then he isn't able to truly understand the Fa. Only when a person has truly grasped the Fa can he walk the path righteously and can his being be assured a good outcome. Otherwise that kind of being remains in the most perilous situation, because the evil can take advantage of his gaps at any time." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York (Questions & Answers Section, Part I)")
Practitioners who are being irrational, haven't you realized that you are in a most dangerous state? There are many ways to validate the Fa:
"Cultivation paths are different
Yet all are within Dafa
With no attachment to anything
The path underfoot is naturally clear" (Hongyin II, provisional translation)
I am not sure if you have realized it, but only when you have "let go of all attachments" will you find that "the path is naturally smooth!" Since the first day that we started practicing Falun Gong, Teacher has been mercifully protecting us. When Teacher sees our shortcomings, he certainly arranges others to point them out to us, or uses other ways to give us hints. What is scary is that we often do not enlighten to or accept them, but look for excuses to dodge them. I remember an article on the Minghui (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom) website; the author suggested we clarify the truth face to face. I also approve of this method of truth-clarification when it can be done without exposing ourselves. Teacher has repeatedly emphasized the safety issue. Being responsible to one's self is being responsible to the Fa. Why else would Teacher ask us to:
"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom" ("Rationality").
I also directly talked to practitioners who clarify the truth openly, and found they have not cultivated away all their human notions, but have a strong competitive mentality. Some fellow practitioners even said, "It's even better if they arrest me, then I will have the opportunity to tell them the truth."
It is not like that. Teacher said:
"There used to be some students who would often say, 'So-and-so at our practice site has done so well! We'll do whatever he does.' Let me tell all of you that you absolutely must not do that and absolutely must not think that way. Cultivators can't take other human beings as their role models. They must take the Fa as the teacher!" "So when the righteous thoughts are not strong, people's minds waver. You absolutely must be on guard against that! You should take the Fa as the teacher. You can't look at how well a certain individual has cultivated and as a result learn from that person instead of the Fa." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York (Questions & Answers Section, Part I)")
When I had just begun to practice Falun Dafa, I felt the road was really wide. There are no rules or regulations. However, the longer I practice, the more I find the road is narrow and the requirements are strict, and you can't deviate a bit. Not only must our behavior meet the standards of cultivators, we also should not go to extremes. Even every thought must be righteous, because just a bit of deviation on our part means that we are not aligned with the Fa. We only need to think carefully to see that it is not easy to become aware of our human notions, because there are so many and they are too deeply hidden. This has caused us to unintentionally walk the path arranged for us by the old forces, and has brought losses to the Fa and to ourselves. It's similar to what has been mentioned about Li Yong (alias), who was persecuted to death: He escaped from the forced labor camp in an open and honorable way several times. If when he escaped the first time, local fellow practitioners had not praised him as being "great," but instead got together and helped him find the cause of his suffering persecution, helped him to improve from within the Fa, then maybe Li Yong would be alive and playing an even bigger role today.
There is a saying that goes, "For a 100-mile-long journey, only half of the total effort is used on the first 90 miles." Even though we have journeyed 90 percent of the Fa-rectification cultivation, or even 99 percent, it is only half way. The rest of the road is the most challenging. Of course, we do not want to be overly cautious. With the joint efforts of Dafa practitioners worldwide, the cultivation environment in China has eased up a lot; however the relatively more relaxed environment is to let more people be clear-minded and to let Dafa practitioners suffer less. After all, the current situation is different from the one prior to July 20, 1999. The evil has been watching us covetously. Everyone has his or her own path of validating the Fa, and the serious lessons we've learned should make us behave more rationally. Clarifying the truth with wisdom is what Teacher most likes to see.
I hesitated again and again while writing this article. I wanted to write it many times, but then stopped. I have not always cultivated well. I have learned many lessons because I was not rational. If some fellow practitioners truly do whatever others do without hesitation or thinking, then they should temporarily put down their Dafa work, calm down and study the Fa more, clarify the truth according to the Fa, and truly be responsible for their own acts.
[Editor's note: The author proposes a question worth noting. Hopefully fellow practitioners will be rational, wise, and not hotheaded when clarifying the truth, and will not allow the old forces to take advantage or have excuses to persecute you. At the same time, we should note that paying attention to safety is not the same as having the attachment of fear. We should not use this as an excuse for not doing what Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple should do. Generally speaking, we should understand Teacher's lectures with the righteous thoughts of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, not human notions.]
