My Thoughts Regarding the Article "Fellow Practitioners, It's Time to Go Home!"

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) Having read the article "Fellow Practitioners, It's Time to Go Home!" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/4/3/84161.html) I would like to share some of my understandings on the issues mentioned in hopes that we might improve together.

We should deny the old forces' arrangements and remove all the agreements made with them.

The article said: "I stood in front of Master's picture and held my palms erect in front of my chest. I said to Master, 'Master, no matter what kind of agreements I made with the old forces, from now on, they are all in vain. I'm just following the path Master has arranged for me by doing the Three Things well and following Master home. I do not want any arrangements made by the old forces.' This way, the old forces will not be able to find any excuses to persecute practitioners and will not dare to arrest our practitioners."

It is good to make such a wish, and it demonstrates strong righteous thoughts. However, if we say that the old forces will not be able to find any more excuses to persecute us and the evil people will dare not arrest our fellow practitioners, simply by making a wish, then our cultivation would be too easy. Master has asked us to do the three things well. Following that denotes completely denying all the arrangements of the old forces, including the agreements we "signed" with the old forces.

We are all in the maze and know nothing about our pasts. What we can do is to keep strong righteous thoughts and have faith in Master and in the Fa, and conscientiously do the three things well, and then everything will be resolved--including, of course, the agreements signed with the old forces). If we fail to regard the Fa as teacher and fail to solidly cultivate ourselves, and if we have very strong human attachments, then the old forces will still find excuses to persecute our fellow practitioners. This will happen, regardless of our having made a wish, and Master will not be able to help us disciples either, because it is up to us to choose what we want. If we fail to walk the path Master has arranged for us, then we will take the path the old forces have arranged. There is no other option. We as Dafa disciples must have a clear understanding of the Fa principles and do what Master has told us to do. Once we mix in human stuff, we may develop new attachments and create obstacles on our cultivation path.

The other issue mentioned in the article is this: "We all know that during this last stage of our cultivation, the road has become much narrower. It is so narrow that we have to cultivate our every individual thought. Many senior practitioners do not understand how to cultivate their every thought." I have also read many other articles in which fellow practitioners mentioned, "The cultivation path becomes narrower the closer it approaches the end." Such remarks give people the feeling of Zen Buddhism digging into a bull's horn. I think such understanding is incorrect.

Our cultivation is a great way without form. Dafa disciples constantly cultivate themselves well and become more mature during the process of being against the persecution, validating the Fa, and rescuing sentient beings. As we rationally do the three things well, the environment is becoming better and better, with more and more people getting to know the truth and the evil steadily losing support. Therefore, the path we take is not getting narrower, but wider. At the same time, along with improvement on the basis of the Fa in the progress of Fa-rectification, Dafa disciples' levels are ascending higher and higher, and what the Fa requires of them is also becoming higher and stricter, as are the standards.

Let me draw an analogy. During one's personal cultivation stage, it is as if we are driving along a country road where traffic regulations are not strict, but we cannot drive very fast, either. When it comes to the stage of cultivating while negating the persecution, it is like we are driving on a smooth, straight super highway with good road conditions. Traffic regulations, though, are stringent. The drivers must also be highly focused; otherwise, it is quite easy to have traffic accidents.

I believe, therefore, that the closer we approach the end the better the environment. But the Fa has higher and stricter requirements for us as well. Isn't it better to look at it this way?

In addition, we have been through eight years of difficulties in our efforts to counter the persecution and rescue sentient beings. While we have accumulated extensive experience, we have also let go of many human mentalities in our cultivation, and they have become fewer and fewer. However, because our past nature was based on selfishness, oftentimes when we look within we have unintentionally "kept" our selfishness. Our minds still harbor deep-rooted, stubborn selfishness. When we do things, we fail to truly consider sentient beings from the perspective of thinking of others first. This is also the reason why we are unable to improve faster and easily slack off. We need to place stricter demands on ourselves, grounded in the Fa, and truly leave selfishness and humanness behind. The closer we approach the end, the more special efforts we need to make in this respect.

As of this year, the Fa-rectification process has taken on new changes, with the crumbling of the Party culture, the global NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular tour, and the forthcoming Chinese Dance Competition. The strong responses from various levels and the world's people let us feel that the time for the Fa rectifying the human world is approaching. During this process, human minds, human culture, and their ways of life must all be rectified. Dafa disciples are the ones right now who take the lead and walk the way. We need to make full use of our circumstances to do the three things well within the limited time. We must have more extensive tolerance and compassion in order to arouse world's people and harmonize what Master wants and at the same time truly improve ourselves.

The above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper.

March 26, 2007

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/3/27/151605.html

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