Only Through Studying the Fa Can We Clearly Understand Our Missions as Dafa Disciples
(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, Revered Master! Greetings, fellow
practitioners! During the past year, with the progress of Fa rectification we have
encountered many great changes and important projects. This is an indication of
changes in the human world that correspond to cosmic changes in the universe.
Then in the process of Fa rectification, as Dafa particles have we done what's
required of us during the Fa rectification period? Is every thought of ours in
the Fa? Do we always set strict standards for ourselves? In asking myself these
questions, I feel that I am far from being up to par. Master said in "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at
the U.S. West Fa Conference," "Of course, personal Consummation is the first priority, since
there's nothing more to talk about if you can't reach Consummation. But
today's Dafa disciples are doing something different from the cultivation ways
in every other period in history, and that's because you are shouldering a
greater responsibility that surpasses your personal Consummation. Saving
sentient beings and validating the Fa, these far surpass your personal
cultivation, they're even greater things." I gradually realized that doing the three things well is what we
must do in our cultivation. When saving sentient beings, our ultimate goal is
not to seek our own elevation in personal cultivation. Improving ourselves is
preparing to take on the greater task of saving sentient beings. 1. Media Journalists Work at the Forefront in Clarifying the Truth As the Fa rectification progresses, the three media have been placed at the
forefront in saving sentient beings. The Sound of Hope Radio Station has been
able to broadcast directly to the people in mainland China about the Nine
Commentaries on the Communist Party, information about quitting the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and has helped the mainland Chinese, who have
been wronged by the CCP, to expose these injustices, something that the mainland
media dares not to report. At the same time, as journalists we also have the
responsibility to give them information and clarify the truth from
overseas during our interviews, thus forming a special channel in spreading the Nine
Commentaries and encouraging people to quit the CCP and its affiliated
organizations. Many practitioners are not professional journalists. As a practitioner we
should view things on the basis of the Fa, surpassing everyday people's
principles. Working for the media is not for showing off practitioners'
supernormal abilities to everyday people. Also, we should not get trapped by
ordinary people's logic that it is impossible to do if we haven't had formal
training. What we need to do is to elevate ourselves from within the Fa. Then
our wisdom will come from the Fa. We can then use everyday people's experiences
and methods to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Below are some
experiences in clarifying the truth as a journalist. Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in
Philadelphia, U.S.A," "You are Gods, and you are the future rulers of
different cosmoses, so who would you count on? All the beings are counting on
you!" When doing interviews, I've heard many everyday people's stories about how
they were wronged. For years, many of them went to appeal to higher authorities
in Beijing for help, but no one was willing to listen to their cases. Instead,
high pressure violence is used to deal with them. When talking to them, you can
feel that although they hate the government for not protecting them, and hate
the current social system, they don't know the fundamental causes of their
sufferings. So oftentimes, during the interviews, I talk to them about current
affairs in China and overseas, recommend the Nine Commentaries to them,
and suggest that they quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. After these
talks, many have quit the CCP. As these conversations go on, many of them step
out from their narrow-sighted state of seeking justice for their own cases. They
have realized the evil nature of the CCP and have taken the path of defending
their human rights as groups. One listener told me that he is not afraid of this
evil specter. The CCP's nine "genes" are of no use to him. He goes
everywhere to distribute the Nine Commentaries, and teaches people how to
quit the CCP. Although he was once arrested, when released he asked overseas
media to expose his case. I also see that when a person quits the CCP, and wipes
out the the beast's mark that he carries, Gods and Buddhas are all protecting
him. The CCP cannot really do much about this listener, although the authorities
repeatedly arrested him and released him. What he is doing helped me see that he
is broadening the channels of helping Chinese people quit the CCP. 2. Cultivating Compassion Towards Practitioners with Different Understandings
of the Fa in the Process of Coordinating the Investigation Team In March, two key witnesses who came to the US from China revealed the
massive organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. This
allegation shocked the entire world and every practitioner. Practitioners later realized that the Fa rectification has progressed to
another stage. We as practitioners must negate all arrangements from the old
forces and hurry to save sentient beings. We must awaken western governments and
their people by informing them of these cruel and shocking facts. In April the global Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG)
was formed. We in Australia passed the first step. Then the report by two
Canadian officials was released. In mid-August the vice president of the
European Parliament and a former Canadian minister visited Australia, and
revealed the CCP's crimes of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong
practitioners in China. During this period, the CIPFG began is operation. Many practitioners
participated in the activities of truth clarification about the organ
harvesting. It is a big test for all of us from the angle of cultivation and
elevation, understanding the Fa, attitude towards Dafa, and overall cooperation.
It also touched every practitioner's heart. In the process there has been much
friction and many xinxing tests. Practitioners' backgrounds
are different from one another and so they have different understandings of the
Fa and different ways of handling things. Soon a number of practitioners who wanted to share their understandings got
together, studied the Fa, and put all their different suggestions on the table.
Practitioners were able to let go of their egos, and break through the old
forces' arrangements, realizing that Dafa practitioners are saving sentient
beings, rather than depending on everyday people to do things. Everyday people
are often at the front line, but it is practitioners who are actually doing
things behind-the-scenes. In an extremely short time everyone was clear about
the fundamentals of the Fa and carried out all the detailed arrangements after
the sharing. Some practitioners started to exert the advantages of media, and
gathered a lot of information and the most recent news to compile a series of
booklets. These booklets were used when we visited other media. The team working
on government projects found them very convenient to use. They compiled lists of
parliamentarians and their current attitudes towards Dafa, indicating what
needed to be followed up by using different methods. This way, practitioners
were able to break through barriers. We also organized practitioners to clarify the truth on a large scale, make
phone calls, send faxes, and make up for time that was wasted. I understand that
these practitioners have elevated in the Fa and have let go of their egos. They
are not like everyday people, and take losses and gains lightly. They are trying
to rectify things and harmonize what Master requires us to do. This time we
heard an affirmative comment from Master about our cooperation. It was because many practitioners participated and were all sincere in their
hearts. However, because we have not laid a good foundation, the Australian
government has not moved much overall. The Australian media also didn't do as
much as we had expected. Even so, I have felt Master's compassion. We have only
had the thought to do well, and have started to cooperate. We have only had a
thought, and our Master has given us affirmative comments. I remember that after
sending off the two visitors, I almost collapsed in the car. It took me a long
time to get back to myself. It was like I had just fought a major battle.
Master's teaching in Lecture Seven of Zhuan Falun on eating
meat gave me a hint that when we have cultivated to a certain level our gong
will be able to help more. Because we are continuously facing big issues, our
own cultivation must reach certain levels. However, it often happens that things
do not turn out to be as they were expected. Although we know what should be
done, we haven't cultivated well enough to elevate, and haven't developed enough
capacity and wisdom from cultivation. In the entire process of cultivation we
often use human thoughts to handle things, and still use human thoughts to solve
problems. That's why we feel so tired. If we haven't cultivated to the standard
Master has set for us, in the process of Fa rectification, our human bodies
won't be able to catch up. In the following days I encountered something that was quite a mental test
for me. As one of the coordinators, I always thought that after a project was
finished, there should be a round-up summary. Whether it is from the Fa or from
the overall coordination there should be a round-up summary, which may be useful
for future projects. This was the reasoning on the surface. What was hidden was
that there were many areas we didn't do well in terms of overall coordination,
and so I wanted to point out who did well and who didn't. With this thought
there arose the attachment of competitiveness. But I didn't realize this myself,
as I only wanted to let everyone know who had done well and who had not. When I
spoke about this in the assistants' Fa study, many practitioners expressed
different thoughts, and some even expressed dissatisfaction of doing things this
way. At that time I was really puzzled. I thought about how in everyday society
evaluations are carried out when something is not done well, and as
practitioners we should take responsibility for the Fa. The more I thought the
more I was puzzled. After going back home and studying the Fa, it seemed that I still couldn't
determine where I needed to break through, although in my mind I was eager to
make a change and upgrade myself. In "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference
at the U.S. Capital," Master says, "If whenever something happens you instantly jump into who's right,
whose problem it is, and how you have done, then while on the surface it looks
like you are resolving the conflict or tension, in reality that's not the case
at all. On the surface it looks plenty rational, but in reality that's not
rational at all. You haven't taken a step back and fully cast off your
attachment, and then thought the issue over. Only after a person calmly and
peacefully withdraws from a conflict and then looks at it can he truly resolve
it." While I was holding my stance, one practitioner recommended hand copying the
Fa. I realized that Master was enlightening me via her words. Therefore, I
started trying to calm my mind. In addition to reading two to three lectures
every day, I also hand copied the chapters of "Demonic Interference from
One's Own Mind" and "Jealousy." The hand copying brought to me a
surprising change, making my head remarkably clear. Upon looking at a thing, I
could precisely find out its origin. Now looking back at my original mentality
wherein I intended to make the summary, was it done in a benevolent way, or in a
complaining way? How do I look at the problem currently happening? Why don't
people accept what I say? Why do my words induce other people's jealousy? In "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New
York," Master said, "If you deal with a problem without the attachment to self and calmly
put forward ideas about how to tackle the problem well, I don't think others
will feel uncomfortable upon hearing it, because you're doing it for the Fa." If we summarize the righteous side that presents the mighty power of Dafa,
displaying the righteousness to practitioners, they will all correct themselves
according to Dafa. This is also what practitioners are required to do. However,
in the process of Fa-rectification, there are so many times that we didn't
achieve the state of purity required by Dafa, leading to imperfect outcomes of
truth-clarifying projects and damage to Dafa's image. This also provides a
chance for the old forces to create inconsistency between practitioners. This is
because, according to the old forces, practitioners' minds are not pure, so they
are not qualified to summarize a substantial project, making it difficult for
practitioners to share with each other on time and upgrade xinxing
together. One thing that we should be alert about and should further look into
is that the old forces are watching us closely, using their ways to keep a
distance between practitioners who look at things in different ways. We should
all clearly and fundamentally deny this method used by the old forces to hamper
practitioners' effects of truth-clarification. 3. The Process of Hand Copying the Fa is a Process of Self-rectification After communicating with the practitioner who recommended hand copying the Fa,
I immediately implemented her suggestion. One day, after viewing my hand copy of
the chapter "Demonic Interference from One's Own Mind" in Lecture Six
of Zhuan Falun, one practitioner said that it seemed that my hand-written
words all came from a battle field. I took a look at those words myself, and
found that they were all like waiving big knifes or spears. So I realized that
there was a need to rectify myself again. One sentence from Master popped up in
my head, my understanding of it being "although you just made a simple
horizontal line, I can tell the full meaning of it." In appearance my hand
writing was in the cursive style of calligraphy. From the perspective of a
practitioner, however, it is a vivid manifestation of human notions on paper,
and those notions are waiving big knifes and spears that impact our body as a
small universe. No wonder numerous human notions are exposed in our daily
conversations. They cannot be covered up and will be exposed in front of other
people, no matter how delightful the tone used. I then realized that I should
keep an eye on every one of my thoughts and notions. In the First Talk of Zhuan
Falun, Master said, "We human beings have a body in each of many, many dimensions. The
largest component of the human body, as people today see it, is the cell. And
that's the case for our flesh and blood, at least. But when you go in between
cells and molecules, or in between molecules and molecules, you'll experience
what it's like to enter other dimensions." (Zhuan Falun,
translation version 2003) After repeatedly reading this part of the lecture, I understand one more bit
of the Fa, and this enhanced my own confidence in cultivating every one of my
thoughts and notions. When we develop a thought, the thought will also be
developed in each body of different dimensions at the same time. If a righteous
thought is developed, through the bodies in various dimensions the volume of the
righteous thought will be enlarged unboundedly, and it will turn into a thought
of God. However, in the same way a bad or an evil thought will also develop to
become as big as a mountain, making it difficult to eliminate the bad thought. After hand copying Zhuan Falun for a period of time, I found that all
words are gradually transformed into the official script style. In Master's
article "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art,"
Master said, "Speaking of the cursive styles of calligraphy, strictly speaking, they
are a reflection of mental states in which people are indulging their negative
side. When Gods helped people create Chinese characters, there were no such
things as cursive styles." "It's not that I have a preference for the official script style; it's
because when you write in the official script style you can't possibly do it
cursively. If it's written in cursive, it's no longer the official script
style. So it's hard for people to write in that style cursively when they are
indulging their notions or thought karma. From this perspective, I like
writing in the official script style." While I was hand writing the Fa, I was continuously abandoning my own thought
karma and human notions which encouraged self-indulgance. Also, the negative
substance in my body has been continuously eliminated, my body has become
lighter, and my thoughts have become clearer. Before hand copying Master's Fa about "Demonic Interference from One's
Own Mind," I thought that it was a kind of interference that can easily
happen to people with supernormal abilities. After the transcription, however, I
gained more understandings. I realized that following the human mindset instead
of following the Fa, making judgments based on sentiments, being attached to
supernormal abilities, and developing good feelings about oneself after
finishing some work for Dafa can all be categorized into "Demonic
Interference from One's Own Mind." After the transcription, I obviously
felt that the space of my mind had enlarged, and my intention to always think of
others first had been enhanced. Only when we study the Fa more deeply, and
upgrade ourselves according to understandings from the Fa, can we walk down the
right path of cultivation. Any deviation will lead us to a path arranged by the
old forces. In Master's most updated article entitled "Thoroughly Dissolve the
Evil," Master asks us to, "...thoroughly dissolving all evil beings and elements that persecute
Dafa disciples, clearing away the evil circumstances under which Dafa
disciples are persecuted in mainland China..." This new development of Fa-rectification is driving us to be more diligent in
cultivation, and to hurry in saving sentient beings, as mentioned in Master's
lecture "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital," "Having cultivated as Dafa disciples up through today, you have become
increasingly clearer on what this Dafa is that you cultivate, clearer on the
responsibilities of Dafa disciples, and clearer on the importance of
everything that Dafa disciples are doing today. " Thank you Master, Thank you all!
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/12/13/144549.html
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