(Clearwisdom.net) I often talked to fellow practitioners about letting go of life and death. We all felt that since we had already obtained the Fa, there was nothing to be afraid of, and we had already let go of life and death. However, there is no visible measurement in this world that can gauge whether or not we have let go of life and death, so my understanding of letting go of life and death was rather vague, which was also the manifestation of my insufficient Fa study. Later I was arrested, but by having righteous thoughts I was able to get out of detention. Such experiences enabled me to have a deeper understanding of letting go of life and death.

We need to understand the principle of letting go of life and death from the viewpoint of the Fa. In order to be able to let go of life and death in the current harsh environment, we need to make sure we have met the required xinxing standard. But since we still have more or less attachments, when we clarify the truth or deliver truth-clarification materials, sometimes the results are not that good, or worse yet, the evil may take advantage of our loopholes.

Some practitioners have done a tremendous amount of truth clarification work and they appear to be very diligent. However, after they are arrested and detained, they enlighten along an evil path and even begin to help the evil persecute practitioners. All of this happens because they still have attachments, but they are hiding them. They know their attachments very well, but they don't want to abandon them. Therefore, they go along with the evil and passively endure the persecution. As I see it, it's because they haven't really let go of life and death. Their strong attachments have separated them from Dafa and they treat themselves as ordinary people. If they truly believe in Teacher and Dafa, treat themselves as cultivators, assimilate themselves to the Fa, and maintain righteous thoughts, then it is not hard at all for them to let go of life and death.

The evil can only persecute humans, not gods. Letting go of life and death is letting go of the human mentality. Without the human mentality, one is a god who does not have the concept of life and death. How badly practitioners are persecuted while being detained depends on how much human mentality they still have. Some practitioners have very little human mentality, and even if they are detained, the evil can do nothing about them. The evil looks at how much human mentality we still have and Teacher looks at whether or not we have righteous thoughts. If we have righteous thoughts, then more of us will be assimilating to the Fa and meeting the requirements of a certain level, and we will be much more powerful than the dark minions. Can the evil still persecute us?

Removing the human mentality is a process of cultivation, which is embedded in the process of assisting Teacher in rectifying the Fa. Following Teacher's requirements to do the three things well is the most efficient, quickest and the only way to let go of the human mentality. If we think we've let go of life and death, and step forward to do the three things with human notions, then we do not have a clear understanding of the Fa principle. We need to have the courage to step forward to validate the Fa during the persecution. However, if we want to let go of life and death, we still need to look inward and see if we have human notions. We need to check if every thought, every word and every action of ours meets the requirements of the Fa. If we find any attachments, we should remove them and reestablish our righteous thoughts. This way we can achieve the best results when we clarify the truth. Even when we are detained we can manifest the power of our righteous thoughts.

Some practitioners say that if we step forward to clarify the truth, the evil will persecute us, but if we don't step forward then we are not following Teacher's requirements. This is looking at the Fa with human notions, not from the Fa. Teacher has long taught us,

"Whether you can let go of ordinary human attachments is a fatal test on your way to becoming a truly extraordinary being. Every disciple who truly cultivates must pass it, for it is the dividing line between a cultivator and an everyday person."

("True Cultivation" from Essentials for Further Advancement)

Why has Teacher asked us to step forward? Can humans validate Dafa and save sentient beings? Only gods can do such a thing. Teacher intends for us to break away from humanness. Doing well the three things is to completely negate the arrangements of the old forces and walk away from humanness. Some people who have enlightened along an evil path use validating Dafa as an excuse to cover their human notions. They think it is right to be "transformed" so that they can then clarify the truth after subsequently being released.

As a matter of fact, the evil can only persecute humans. If we relinquish our human mentality, what else can the evil persecute? If we all maintain our righteous thoughts, can the evil still exist? We should be clear about why we came down to this world, and what we want to accomplish. We have to let go of every attachment. Don't think the persecution is hard to overcome. The persecution is just one form of interference. As soon as we elevate our xinxing and let go of life and death, we can easily pass this test.

Posting date: 1/19/2006
Original article date: 1/18/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/1/4/117973.html

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