By a Falun Dafa practitioner in the USA

(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said in his article "Eliminating the Evil,"

I understand that we cannot rely on the lowlife Chinese Communist spies to improve ourselves, yet before we completely do away with the old forces' arrangements, the persecution and interference that have already taken place reflect our omissions and our lack of understanding of Fa principles. This is not an issue to be taken lightly.

After the Atlanta incident, many practitioners familiar with the circumstances [surrounding the attack] thought of one issue: the security awareness among overseas Dafa practitioners. One Chinese proverb says, "The destruction of a 1,000-mile dam starts with a single anthill." Information security is similar to maintaining a dam. Many people spend time, money and energy to ensure information safety, yet all their efforts are wasted when someone casually leaks data during a conversation, loses sensitive information due to negligence, cuts corners to save time, or when someone is overly dependent on modern technology. After a problem arises, should we look at each overseas practitioner and see if he/she is mindful of details while focusing on the major issue, and is selfless and has the sincerity to handle well the issues related to information security?

For a long time, numerous articles published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website have discussed issues regarding safety awareness among Dafa practitioners in Mainland China. However, many overseas practitioners and even some key people in charge of important projects did not take it seriously. Even after repeated breaches in security occurred that resulted in losses to themselves and others, they still think [greater attention to ensure security] is unnecessary and burdensome, and they did not learn a positive lesson from the past incidents.

Some practitioners think that minding security is the responsibility of Mainland Dafa practitioners and assume that we don't need to worry about it since we live in a free society, and so on. Some practitioners are blindly arrogant, thinking that we have superior technology. Some overseas practitioners who have never experienced the wickedness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are doubtful of the fact that CCP spies would unscrupulously carry out disruptive activities in foreign countries. Some practitioners and those in charge of major projects regard security measures as divisive measures that create alienation among people. They are therefore resistant and refuse to use security measures.

Dafa practitioners in Mainland China are not the only ones who must pay attention to safety to ensure the safety of Dafa. Overseas practitioners face the same cultivation issue--not because we have unspeakable secrets, but because we must be responsible for the world's people, for fellow practitioners, and for Dafa work. We should not give the persecuting evildoers any openings.

Perhaps the Atlanta incident perpetrated by the Communist regime agent spies does not exclusively target the long-term issue of an incorrect attitude toward information security among overseas practitioners. Nevertheless, we should not ignore the omission - a serious disregard for security - existing in many overseas practitioners' minds. As the evildoers try tooth and nail to infiltrate Dafa practitioners' ranks, it's quite irrational, absurd and unwise for us to take a lighthearted approach, or even overlook safety issues. To do so would also reflect indifference and irresponsibility on our part and toward other practitioners, which is a lack of compassion and not thinking of others first. If we cannot make up for the consequences, we would in fact be assisting the evil, which is running against the intention of all Dafa practitioners as well as counter to the requirements of Fa rectification.

Practitioners everywhere in foreign countries like to talk about the activities of different practitioners and the projects in which they participate. Some practitioners like to talk about it and other practitioners like to circulate the information. The importance of information security never occurred to them, nor did they think about whether they are being responsible for the Fa, to cultivation and for sentient beings as they openly share sensitive information. In order to improve their relationship with their non-practitioner family members (some who go back and forth between China and other countries), some practitioners divulge information of Dafa practitioners' anti-persecution activities, regardless of the importance and urgency of these activities.

Actually, if we truly treat our family with compassion, they will feel it. It is not necessary to try to win their support at the expense of leaking sensitive information about Dafa practitioners. As some practitioners openly discuss these topics, maybe they don't have any bad intentions and even have good intentions, when seen from an ordinary person's perspective. These sensitive topics can also help create the illusion of closeness among practitioners, but looking from the perspective of cultivation, this kind of behavior does not benefit anyone. Ordinary notions are at work in the subconscious of these practitioners, including the show-off mentality, curiosity, attachment to one's self and human emotions, among other things. This problem does not only involve one project or one person. Although the speaker does not mean any harm, the listener may have bad intentions. Ordinary people can be easily interfered with when they hear things they shouldn't, and they could do bad things and create karma.

It is difficult for practitioners who are not involved with a certain project to have thorough considerations. They could create interference for practitioners who are involved with the project if they don't handle the information properly. If their human notions arise, they might create barriers on their cultivation path.

During the past few years of our anti-persecution efforts, the Communist regime has invested huge amounts of money and manpower abroad. The spies are one aspect of this, and they have succeeded on several occasions, due to severe carelessness and lack of safety awareness of several overseas practitioners.

Right now, overseas practitioners should clearheadedly and rationally recognize the importance of safety issues abroad in relation to cultivation. If we are rock-solid, no external force can harm us. Considering this from the perspective of cultivation, some persecution incidents involving information security were the result of fellow practitioners' lack of safety awareness. Yet, when clarifying the truth and exposing these incidents, some overseas practitioners volunteer even more internal information, for whatever reason. They offer inside information about what the CCP spies call the "Falun Gong situation," which they hope to verify [with practitioners]. After all these years of Fa rectification period cultivation, such irrational and unwise behavior should have completely disappeared a long time ago! Dafa practitioners do their best with the three things as required in cultivation, and yet the amount of work we do does not represent our realm and level in cultivation. False impressions cannot deceive genuine practitioners. There is a fundamental difference between Dafa practitioners doing the three things and ordinary people doing their jobs.

In short, all overseas Dafa practitioners should pay attention to safety issues. Only by becoming more selfless will we be able to stop thinking solely about our own intentions, our own projects and accidentally do things that please the wicked CCP spies. We cannot just boast about doing away with the old forces' arrangements and opposing the persecution, because we must use common sense and take serious and solid steps in cultivation.

Posting date: 2/18/2006
Original article date: 2/18/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/2/14/120670.html

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