Some Understandings After Studying Master's "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference"

By Zhong Yue, a practitioner in Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) Master told of certain incidents how high being in the old universe treated the Fa-rectification,

"The beings of the numerous realms see Fa-rectification only when it is almost right before them, they don't see it until it arrives. That's why the cosmos's beings have acted in different ways in this Fa-rectification. Some have a positive understanding, some have a negative one, and some have a passive one. That's how they are. All of the different ways we have seen human beings act in today's human societies, I can tell you, are fairly similar to how things are in the higher realms." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference")

These words resonated with me deeply because the gradual change in my brother's attitude towards Dafa over the years matches very well with what Master said about the higher beings' attitude in the Fa-rectification process.

Everybody in my family, my parents, my brother and I, got interested in Qigong as soon as it appeared in society, although none of us had any concept of cultivation before. We went to all the Qigong masters' lectures. My brother and I even went to Wudang Mountain and Wutai Mountain to look for a Qigong master (Wudang and Wutai mountains are famous Taoist and Buddhist mountains). But, of course, it was just like Master said, "They have traveled everywhere and spent a lot of money. They have not found the well-known masters after having been all over the country." (Zhuan Falun, Third Translation Edition in March 2000)

In 1996, my parents' friends introduced Dafa to them, and they immediately recommended it to my brother and me. I was very happy after reading the book and was excited because I learned what the true meaning of life was. My parents and I were pretty sure that my brother would accept Dafa immediately as well, because before we practiced, his xinxing seemed to be the best among us. He could endure when there were conflicts and he also had a strong sense of justice. After reading the book, he said that the principles in the book are very good, and he also believes what Master said in the book. However, he said one did not necessarily need to take the path of cultivation, and he thought it could be an attachment.

Of course, we kept encouraging him to practice afterwards, but he always remained in a strange state of mind. I was overzealous after starting to practice and lost interest in many things. All I talked about with my parents was the Fa. So, my brother thought that I was going to extremes. If I did not do something well, he would point it out immediately and say that our practicing and reading the Fa were just for show, and we did not change at all fundamentally.

At the beginning I treated it as an issue of personal cultivation and tried to look inward. I then discovered my own preoccupation with zealotry and a loophole in my xinxing. At the same time I hoped that he would also be encouraged to become a Dafa disciple if all of us behaved well. But to my surprise, his misunderstanding of Dafa got worse and worse. When he saw more and more people starting to practice, he often put forth some strange opinions, that a truly high level Fa wouldn't be taught to so many people, and he didn't believe that so many people would succeed in cultivation. He also had strange ideas about our group Fa study and Fa-promoting activities. He asked why we always had so many group activities, since for him cultivation was a personal business.

Now, when I look back, I realized that this is because the high-level beings corresponding to him, as the beings in the old universe, had those deviated notions. Because of selfishness, they saw personal cultivation as the most important and were jealous of Dafa disciples. Just as what Master said,

"Before July 20, 1999, back when Dafa was being spread widely, in what kind of state were the beings and the gods of different realms? They were saying, "Wow, Dafa is so great. What a pity such a good Law is taught to humans, and done so when humans are at their worst." (Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference")

My brother was rather annoyed with the "April 25" incident, saying that we were getting political and our behavior was not like that of cultivators. However, the persecution after July 20 came as a surprise to him. He believes in gods and cultivation, so he was not against us cultivating, but just asked us to practice at home instead of publicly. Later, my parents and I were persecuted for validating the Fa. I was unlawfully imprisoned in a labor camp. He then began to oppose our cultivation and forbade us from mentioning anything related to Falun Gong, and he also told us that he had gotten rid of Master's lecture tapes, which my parents left at his place.

I constantly quarreled with him then, even cried for him. I was afraid that he would be destroyed for doing such things, but I was not able to change him. Just like Master said,

"But once the persecution began on July 20, 1999, their thinking changed. Great numbers of beings in diverse realms assumed a resigned, passive attitude and just watched things; they did nothing upon seeing the rotten demons do evil and carry out the persecution, as if they were watching to see if [I] would make it through. They thought, "If you can make it, then wow, that's simply extraordinary and I will support you." But, owing to the obstacles that arose after the old forces and old beings were roused, and upon seeing the world be filled with an evil, overpowering force, the beings each had selfish thoughts. The majority thought, "It will be really hard for this to succeed. If it doesn't work I will be affected." So they didn't declare a stance. Almost all beings in the multitudinous realms were like that." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference")

Later, Master said that more and more evil elements, which were controlling ordinary people, had been eliminated, and more and more people started to wake up. I decided to try to clarify the truth to my brother again. Just as expected, when I mentioned this topic, he was not like before anymore and didn't try to avoid it. Although he still tried to argue with me, we could talk. The more we talked, the clearer things were becoming. He started realizing that his previous thoughts were wrong. Moreover, he saw that after so many years of cultivation, my xinxing was much higher than his. Although he didn't say anything, in his heart, when seeing how I handled daily life conflicts and problems, he knew that my xinxing level was high.

Master said,

"This shows that many students haven't done well, done enough, or had success in clarifying the truth to their families. Do you know what the biggest reason for that is? It's that you see them as your family, rather than as part of the sentient beings or as just like all of the other independent lives. You should earnestly and carefully clarify the truth to your family members, just as you would with other people in the world." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")

I realized that I didn't treat my brother as a normal sentient being. I had to let go of my emotional attachments, treat him like a sentient being, and clarify the truth to him more rationally and wisely. After I realized this, I stopped trying to force him to listen to me. When I saw my brother again I tried to listen to him talking about the difficulties he has in his life and work. Then I would tell him how we cultivators would handle those problems. Since he has strong convictions and way of doing things, he would make up his own mind as to what is right and what is wrong.

One day he told me that his supervisor wanted him to become a CCP member, and he needed to fill out an application form. One of the items on the form was, "Do you have a family member practicing Falun Gong?" I asked him what he would do. He said, "I returned the form and told them that I don't want to be a member." The movement to quit the CCP had not yet started at that time, but I was very happy for him. It showed that he could still tell good from evil.

Several days ago he encountered a big difficulty, and I told him that sincerely saying "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance are good" every day would help. He didn't say anything, so I asked him, "Do you believe it?" He nodded. Recently, I heard that his problem had been solved. When I talked with him about quitting the CCP, he no longer accused me of getting political and asked me to help him publish his statement to quite all CCP-related organizations. But, he told me not to tell anybody. I said, "If you believe that the gods will eliminate the CCP and quitting the CCP will save one's life, how can you leave your friends and relatives out of this? I suggest that you help others quit if you have the opportunity. Don't be too selfish." He nodded after being silent for a while.

Again, just like what Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference,"

"Of course, as the overall Fa-rectification continually pushes forward, the situation in the world and that of the entire Three Realms changes constantly. The actions you have seen by people today bear much resemblance to how things are in the heavens. Put differently, if the lives of many of the world's people correspond to those of celestial bodies and have certain backgrounds, then think about it: doesn't [how they act here] relate directly to how things are in higher realms at this time? Of course, humans at the outermost surface aren't clear on things. Right now many people are willing to step forward, because a lot of the different realms' beings and kings can see that Dafa's success in Fa-rectification is unstoppable and certain. So one after another they are giving their stance and showing it in their actions."

I am very happy about my brother's change. A being who I thought had no hope left has at last changed his entrenched wrong thoughts after so many years. I am truly awed by Master's immense mercy. When persecuted, because of my own suffering, I wished many times that the persecution would end soon. But think about it, if it had ended at that time, how many beings would lose their future? Moreover, they are not ordinary beings, for they all correspond to celestial bodies and numerous sentient beings. So, as Dafa disciples, we really should not have any attachment to time. We should not relax on the issue of saving sentient beings. There are lots of people who don't know the truth for various reasons and are blocked, waiting for us to tell them the facts.

Finally, let's review Master's words in "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference,"

"Remember: you are the stars of today's world, you are the lives that sentient beings are watching the most intently, and you are beings who are determining the future of every person in the human world! (Applause) So, saving all beings and cultivating yourselves well are of the utmost importance for you, the Dafa disciples. It's not done just for the Consummation of your own being--it is also about fulfilling the hopes that have been placed in you by sentient beings, by more beings!"

June 6, 2005

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/6/7/103490.html

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