Rectify Our Every Thought with the Fa; Treat Cultivation Seriously

(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party continues to suppress Falun Gong and persecute Falun Gong practitioners to this day. Many Chinese people are still prevented from learning what Falun Gong really is. One of the reasons is that we have failed to apply strict standards to ourselves to assimilate to the Fa in our every thought. Whether we are aware of this or not, we have been overwhelmed with all sorts of notions, attachments and sentimentality, which has caused us to acknowledge the persecution.

A few days ago a fellow practitioner called on me when I was producing Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. She asked me to make several greeting cards for her with Falun Gong practitioners' art work and poems on the cover, as well as selected photos and international proclamations reflecting Falun Gong's worldwide popularity. This type of greeting card can be folded in half and hold a CD-ROM inside. She looked at the finished greeting cards and commented that the color of the photos inside was too light. I felt that she wanted only the best quality for our truth-clarification materials, but I also felt she was overreacting.

We had a brief discussion and agreed that we, as cultivators, should not evaluate anything based on our sentimentality or personal preference, and we shouldn't like or dislike truth-clarification material's content or presentation based on our notions. We should seriously evaluate each truth-clarification material according to the Fa, see if it complies with the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance", and make sure the content will help save sentient beings. We are entitled to point out problems in the truth-clarification materials, but we should prevail over our notions and emotions when we see problems.

Oftentimes our truth-clarification work fails to achieve a good result because of our lack of righteous thoughts and because of interference from our notions and emotions. One day while I was walking down the street, I saw a sweet potato vendor who was soliciting customers. I wanted to get away from him at first, but I decided to give him a copy of our truth-clarification material. In order to have an opportunity to give him the material, I bought sweet potatoes from him. However, he didn't want to accept it after I made a purchase from him. Although he eventually accepted the material, I could tell he didn't want to. I know it was because I wasn't thinking about saving him or telling him, "This is what you have been waiting for for many lifetimes." I was simply trying to get the "job" done.

I have also learned that if we produce truth-clarification materials according to our personal preferences, they will lose the pure power of saving sentient beings. Moreover, the evil will interfere and cause damage to our truth-clarification work. Not long ago I made some materials containing reports from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG). When I was watching the materials as they were being printed, I thought, "The red title looks very powerful! The wicked police will surely be shocked when they receive the materials." I unconsciously developed partiality towards the materials I produced. The next thing I knew, the color printer stopped printing in red ink.

For three to five years since the Communist Party began its persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, I have met a number of fellow practitioners who have steadfast faith in Falun Gong. When we met at small-scale Fa conferences, we would study the Fa first and then share our insights on how to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. But we rarely talked about ourselves. Since 2005, I have met more fellow practitioners. We have fewer attachments to fear and have elevated our understanding of the Fa significantly. This should help us clarify the truth, but we have become egocentric. Whether we realize it or not, we seem very pleased with ourselves and have put on airs because we think we have upgraded our understanding of the Fa significantly. When we have a discussion, we enjoy pointing out problems in fellow practitioners or their affairs like a "tutor" with an abominable conceit. We seem to be driven by such a "superiority complex" when we talk to fellow practitioners and even to non-practitioners. As a result, gaps between practitioners continue to widen, which have prevented us from cooperating with each other.

The closer to the end, the more we should apply high standards to ourselves to have each thought assimilate to the Fa. We must take into consideration the needs of Teacher's Fa-rectification, and the needs of the future universe, fellow practitioners and sentient beings. A true Buddha is a guardian of the universe and protector of sentient beings. How can we be egocentric when we are expected to become completely selfless and altruistic?

When our phones are tapped, when the police harass us, or when the Communist Party tightens its Internet control, we should follow Teacher's requirements to rectify our each and every thought, in order to deny the persecution and to deny the wicked people any opportunity to persecute us. But when the environment improves, we should remain vigilant, conduct ourselves based on the Fa at all times and stay diligent on our path to godhood in order to save more sentient beings.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/10/23/165068.html

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