The Mentality of Evasion

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I have found various mentalities of evading things, and fellow practitioners around me also have this problem. It seems that this is common, so I am writing this down wishing to remind us all to dissolve it, as it seriously blocks us from walking the path of validating the Fa as arranged by Master.

I think it is the reflection of bad notions of the beings in the old cosmos in our mind. It exhibits in the following ways:

This is not to say that we should acknowledge the persecution and disregard safety. Instead, this is a mentality of fearing the persecution; it is an attachment, an excuse for one to not want to resist the persecution and validate the Fa, and leads to the avoidance of fellow practitioners and truth clarification.

In the past I had an understanding, which I now realize is very wrong, that one would be persecuted if one strives forward vigorously. Actually this is the understanding of non-practitioners. We are cultivators who rise above and beyond. We should view things from a very high perspective, and cannot follow non-practitioners' views. Will we be persecuted if we do things according to Master's teaching? Master does not acknowledge the evil persecution. In fact, when we have the mentality of "we can be persecuted," we are acknowledging the persecution, which is equal to pursuing persecution. If our first thought upon encountering problems is "being persecuted;" we are actually thinking about the evil and putting them in our mind. We have put them as the top priority and have acknowledged their existence, so they would have an excuse to control and persecute us. At this time even Master cannot help us. They would say, "You see, has your disciple treated you as the Master? Does he indeed have faith in you at this moment?" Master has told us to even deny their existence. When we truly stand on the Fa, stand on Master's side, have righteous thoughts and remain firm, the evil and the persecution will be dissolved in a second.

Of course, it is easy to say. I think that this is based on daily, untiring Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts, based on strictly disciplining oneself daily with the Fa's requirement and trying to do Dafa work as much as possible. It is impossible to achieve any status with bare thoughts. Instead of just thinking about it at home, when we do the three things with our hearts, it will be achieved naturally. We should sacrifice. Master mentioned that,

"however much you sacrifice is the amount you will gain."

"There is a principle in the universe: Whoever loses gains." (Zhuan Falun from 2000 translation version)

Master often says that we are "people walking the path to godhood." I think, would an enlightened being have so much attachment to fear and worry? Who dares to block an enlightened being from doing anything? An enlightened being would not try to avoid anything; he would only rectify the unrighteous, and dissolve all the evil that damages sentient beings and cannot be saved. The reason we are fearful is that we do not treat ourselves as enlightened beings, so our divine power cannot be put into play at all. When we encounter problems, our brain is full of the non-practitioner's mode of thinking and the logic that only non-practitioners have. At that moment we totally lose our standing as a cultivator, and cannot remember what Master has taught. The evil just targets our human thoughts and those they persecute are just human beings. The more we avoid things, the more encouraged they are to use an excuse to exist. They not only persecute you, but also persecute others.

Then some would think: there will be no persecution if I don't talk about Falun Gong nor do Dafa work. Non-practitioners also think this way and further persuade us to stop. But this is extremely irresponsible for our own future, for sentient beings and the Fa. We already know that we came for the Fa, for saving sentient beings, and did not come to be human beings. We may have made the vow in history to assist Master in Fa-rectification and save sentient beings in this period of time. Master said,

"The countless years of hardship were all for this time." ("A Will That Ebbs Not")

"This instant is precious beyond measure." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago")

We are lucky to be in this greatest Fa-rectification period. If we don't complete such a great mission and fail to save so many sentient beings who have infinite expectations for us, then at the end of the Fa-rectification when the truth is revealed, that kind of regret and self-blame would make me unwilling to live even if were permitted to live. That would be a deep regret such as has never existed in the universe! Now I have strongly felt this, so I dare not slacken my "resolve to be diligent." ("The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be") I analyzed my mentality of avoidance: in essence it is the mentality of being a human being; it pulls Dafa practitioners away from Master, and interferes with Master's Fa-rectification and our validating the Fa.

We cannot have this mentality either: seeing that some fellow practitioners have been persecuted, a person might assume that he would be persecuted as well, and accordingly avoid doing Dafa work and stop striving forward. Actually this is viewing things from a human perspective and not from the perspective of the Fa, and it is also measuring the Fa with human thoughts. We need to be aware that what the evil persecutes is one's human side, not the side which accords with the Fa. Who dares to persecute Dafa? It is Dafa that is enduring the tribulations for sentient beings. Then when the persecution he has suffered has been seen or heard by us, we should look at ourselves and see if we also have the same problems as he does: do we have any attachment of fear? Which mentality of ours has been touched? Will we from now on start to fear and dare not move forward, or look within to find the problem in ourselves and fellow practitioners, and then continue to do what a Dafa practitioner should do? Will we send forth righteous thoughts, clarify the truth, oppose the persecution and help fellow practitioners, or simply talk about fellow practitioners? Actually the persecution is to test if we are firm in our belief in Master and the Fa. To choose to avoid it can only provide energy to the human notions and the evil. We should actively dissolve it.

Of course, we try our best to avoid being persecuted, and we don't spend any time with the evil. We are not here to fight the evil and it is not even worthy of a fight. We even deny its existence. We won't spend any time on it, but just do what a Dafa practitioner should do. If we don't do well, we will think about what problems we have. "Rest momentarily for self-reflection, add righteous thoughts; Analyze shortcomings explicitly, advance again whole-heartedly" ("Be Rational, Awaken" in Hong Yin II) (Unofficial Translation)

What shall we do when we encounter the persecution? Face it with righteous thoughts, dissolve the evil which manipulates people by clarifying the truth, step out on the basis of the Fa, and do not avoid the persecution with human methods. Master said in "Walk Straight Your Path":

"...the existence of everything at present, whether it be evil or the upright gods, has to do with you."

My experience is that when we meet problems, if our standpoint is to safeguard and validate the Fa, then Master and the righteous deities will strengthen and help us. If we allow the attachments of fear, worry, anxiety and other human notions to take over, then the evil will take advantage of our loopholes to strengthen these attachments, just to see which one we would choose based on our spontaneous thoughts. Master said,

"...good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences." (Zhuan Falun)

This is again a human notion, whereby one likes peace and quiet and being unrestrained. Since conflicts make one perturbed and uneasy, non-practitioners fear conflicts, and wish all things would go according to one's wish and that all wishes would be fulfilled. However, practitioners should not be like this. We should truly make use of the conflicts to look within and improve ourselves. Even if we fail to do well when conflicts arise, upon calming down we still need to try our best to look within to find our own problems. It is certain that we can find our human notions or those thoughts that do not accord with Dafa and improve ourselves. Isn't this a wonderful thing for practitioners? We don't seek worldly loss and gain, so it is not frightening to have some conflicts. Actually conflicts will not be solved by evading or fearing them. They just come to target our human notions, and will come back again if our human notions are not eliminated.

I was reminded of the title of one of Master's articles "Pacify the External by Cultivating the Internal" and was deeply touched. In order to truly be tranquil, feel unrestrained and have no conflict, one has to strive forward vigorously in studying the Fa and cultivate one's heart. It is a status which is to be achieved and not pursued. The more we pursue it, the worse it becomes; the more we try to avoid it, the more likely it is to come. Actually if we further look within, it is still the attachment of pursuit for peace and safety, being unwilling to suffer and pursuing comfort in the human world. Of course, this is not to say that we have to pursue conflicts and troubles, instead it is about getting rid of the attachment of fearing conflicts, and how to correctly face the conflicts. We know that now it is the Fa-rectification period, and it will be great if we can truly achieve the status of not having conflicts and doing the three things with a calm and pure heart. If conflicts cause us to not able to do the three things calmly, then we need to pay attention to whether it is interference from the evil!

This is about the feeling of having no common interest with non-practitioners and being unwilling to contact non-practitioners and just be with fellow practitioners. I have an analysis for such a notion. It contains the notion and status of individual cultivation, as well as the notion of inferiority and getting away from the human world. Since we will clarify the truth and save sentient beings, we need to make more contact with non-practitioners and be amiable. We should not let them feel that we are unsociable and eccentric, cause any estrangement with them will make them misunderstand us. We can thus have more opportunities to clarify the truth. We are in great need of communicating with non-practitioners! I am determined to eliminate such a bad notion, get along with non-practitioners with ease, clarify the truth and guide people to withdraw from the evil CCP.

February 5, 2006

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/2/7/120197.html

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