Finding Our Shortcomings Through Study and Cultivation

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Liaoning Province

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, vicious slogans attacking Teacher and Dafa have appeared in our city. Safeguarding Dafa is every Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple's sacred duty. In the face of evil persecuting Dafa and poisoning the world's people, I would like to share my experiences in finding shortcomings while emphasizing study and cultivation. I hope practitioners with similar shortcomings can catch up as soon as possible. Please correct any improper understanding I may have in this article.

One night in late June 2006, I went to a practitioner's home. It was almost 9:00 p.m. Both the husband and wife are practitioners. The wife told me, "There were two slogans attacking Teacher and Dafa sprayed on the wall near the No. 3 gate of Wangxi Park. Three of us just came back from attempting to cover them with red paint, but there were several suspicious persons nearby. We wondered if they were waiting there to arrest Dafa practitioners, so we didn't do anything. After walking around for nearly two hours we came home. We just walked in. Let's send forth righteous thoughts!" At the time I didn't discuss it further with them to try to understand it from the Fa, but only thought, "I'll go check it out tomorrow."

The next night another practitioner and I went to Wangxi Park and saw the slogans attacking Teacher and Dafa sprayed on the wall. I tried but couldn't scrub them off, so I told the practitioner, "Please buy some red paint. Let's come again tomorrow night to cover them." That night when I called her, and she said, "It's raining outside. I won't go. I suggest you not go either." And neither of us went. I then asked myself, "Should I also not do it because other practitioners don't do it?" Cultivation practice is one's own matter. Why couldn't I safeguard the Fa openly and nobly? It shows that I still have the mentality of fear, and cannot fundamentally believe in Teacher and the Fa.

Teacher said in "Path,"

"Studying the Fa and doing cultivation are a person's own affair. Yet often there are quite a number of students who consistently take other people as their role models--they look at how other people do things and then follow suit. This is a kind of poor behavior developed among everyday people. A cultivator has no role models. The path each person is to take is different, because each person's foundation is different, the sizes of their various attachments are different, the characteristics of their beings are different, their jobs among everyday people are different, their family environments are different, and so on. These factors determine that each person's path of cultivation is different, that how they get rid of their attachments is different, and that the sizes of their tests are different. Therefore, amidst the manifestations of things it's very hard to find a path that others have made, and it's even less possible for a person to get a ride down one. If there really were pre-made paths and effortless rides, that definitely would not be cultivation."

"Dafa disciples are now right in the midst of the Fa-rectification period, and the old forces' performance has formed the most fundamental and most severe test of Dafa disciples. Whether the test can be passed is an actualization of Dafa and of whether every Dafa disciple can be responsible to himself. And whether a person can, while breaking and eliminating the evil, step forward to validate Dafa becomes a testament about [letting go of] life and death, becomes confirmation of whether a Fa-rectification disciple can achieve Consummation, and also becomes what differentiates a God from a human. For a Dafa disciple, safeguarding and upholding the Fa is only natural. So at this moment in history, when we truly have a situation in which evil persecutes Dafa, a Dafa disciple will certainly step forward to validate the Fa in response to the persecution. In this situation, when some students see others step forward to validate the Fa, they follow along; when they see that others are not stepping forward, they don't step forward either;"

"But a person always has to enlighten on his own to what he should do in the face of tribulations. Every time a person improves, the Attainment Status he has validated and enlightened to rises."

"The path a Dafa disciple takes is a glorious history, and this history has to be created by his own enlightening." ("Path" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

As a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, I have been doing sufficient Fa-study and know that I should safeguard Dafa, validate Dafa and do the "three thing"s well. However, when the evil is persecuting Dafa, have I safeguarded Dafa? Have I walked my path of cultivation toward consummation well?

Teacher said in "Solid Cultivation,"

"Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing
be measured against the Fa.
Only then, with that,
is it actually cultivation." (from Hong Yin, translation version A)

In the meantime, having heard the news, many other practitioners in the Benxi area stepped out with their understandings of different levels and realms. Among them was an elderly practitioner. Her first thought when she heard the news was, "I am a cultivator on a divine path. I do not allow the evil to persecute Dafa and poison the world's people here. Teacher, please strengthen your disciple and I will go remove it." She immediately went to buy some paint and followed other practitioners' directions to the site. She started scrubbing and brushing and did not even think of whether there were police or spies waiting to catch her. When someone asked her what she was doing, she said calmly, "It's not wanted anymore." Some people praised her, "You Falun Gong are remarkable. The Communist Party's slogans should have been removed a long time ago. Folks are all cursing the wicked party now, and nobody believes its propaganda anymore!" Some others said, "Do you know? Those who painted those slogans are afraid of being seen, so they pick nighttime when no one can see them do this. The Communist Party is afraid of you, not vice versa."

Two practitioners heard the news and went to the site the following night and scrubbed the vicious slogans away using wire dish scrubbing pads dipped in gasoline. Other practitioners had the news published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website as soon as possible and invited more practitioners to participate in the Fa-rectification activities. Still other practitioners made stickers to warn the evildoers to stop doing evil. About a week later, more practitioners stepped forward and completely removed all the vicious slogans attacking Teacher and Dafa.

In this battle between righteousness and evil, I have deeply come to understand that Dafa's righteous field has completely subdued the evil and the evil has lost its foothold. Practitioners' righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and improvement as well as cooperation and coordination are the key to destroying and eliminating the evil. Just as Teacher said in "Cautionary Advice,"

"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!"

This incident has helped me find my shortcomings in cultivation practice and to identify the difference between the thought of a human and a god. When a problem occurs, some practitioners take it as a good opportunity to clarify the truth, save sentient beings, and eliminate the evil, as well as a good opportunity to look inside and find their own shortcomings in cultivation practice and their problem areas. Some practitioners however, and even a few coordinators, see it as an intense situation. Some of them take a "wait-and-see" or "depending-on" attitude, and even spread statements such as "the evil is arresting Dafa practitioners using this method," or "cameras were set up next to the slogans," and "never go to those places." Some practitioners even stopped making truth-clarification materials due to fear. Some practitioners became afraid to contact each other, and even canceled their experience sharing planned earlier.

Cultivation practice is serious. The serious issue facing every genuine Dafa disciple is whether or not he or she can eliminate all attachments, the human notions that have formed deep in our bones over thousands of years, the superficial human shell, and all mentality of fear, and achieve the standard of a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple. Teacher said in "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be,"

"I know that after you become clear on this you will quickly catch up, but you should take fewer detours on this most magnificent, divine path; not leave reason for regret in your futures; and not fall so far behind in terms of levels. That is my hope, your hope, and the hope of the beings who are counting on you."

My fellow practitioners, let's set our minds to follow the Fa as our Master and look inside, find our fundamental attachments in cultivation practice, put more effort into doing the three things Teacher told us to do, treasure Teacher's mercy, and treasure this one-in-ten-thousand-years' precious opportunity of cultivation practice. Let's have righteous thoughts and righteous actions and walk the path that Teacher has arranged for each and every Dafa practitioner well and righteously.

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