By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) It has already been two months since the publication of the first part of the novel The Cosmos's Calamity. Because of the context of the novel and the stir that it has caused among Dafa practitioners both inside and outside China, Pure Insight website editors stopped carrying installments of this novel. With the publication of Master's new article "On the Novel The Cosmos's Calamity" and Minghui editors' article "One Should Search Within Oneself When Swayed," many practitioners have written to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website to share their understandings. After reading these articles, I reexamined myself and feel that nothing is accidental in my cultivation. The fact that many practitioners have been swayed by this novel has served to expose all the attachments that we have accumulated in our daily lives. From these attachments, we can see the existence of many loopholes in our xinxing cultivation. Here I want to share some of my understandings, my goal being to exchange ideas with fellow practitioners so as to prevent us from being trapped by this issue and to upgrade ourselves.

In the beginning, I was also very enthusiastic about this novel. Every day I remembered to go to the website to check whether or not a new installment had been published. If a new one was out, I would immediately read it. If not, I would be disappointed, and I would expect one the next day. When I met other practitioners, I would vividly describe the contents of the novel to those who could not access the website. I also sent the novel to other practitioners through emails or printed out some of the published parts and gave them to others. I had completely lost the rational and peaceful mind that a Dafa practitioner should have. Now when I think of this issue, I am very disappointed with myself. The practitioners whom I have kept in contact with also exhibited their own respective cultivation states; but the overall state was that these practitioners were not calm and their minds were swayed.

Although our agitated minds have calmed down, and we practitioners have started to view this writing rationally from the perspective of the Fa and discuss how to treat the creation of literary works, I feel that we need to think about this issue and reexamine ourselves. Over the past ten years, Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples have gone through many hardships and tribulations, and our cultivators' calm, steady, and mature mindsets have already melted into our daily lives. Then why would our minds have been swayed so much by this mythological novel? What exactly are the attachments that are still hidden among Dafa practitioners?

Through continuously searching inward, I found that being attached to what the celestial eye can see or to the scenes in other dimensions is a huge attachment of mine. So it is also the time for me to get rid of this attachment. Considering other practitioners' general cultivation states, I find that the practitioners in different regions have also apparently shown a tendency to admire those who can see things with their third eyes, and that these practitioners have also paid particular attention to reading those Minghui articles that talk about what practitioners have seen in other dimensions. I am one of those who is very interested in the articles that talk about reincarnation and near-death experiences; I am reluctant to miss even one of such articles. However, because these types of articles are small in number, and they are also short and only cover miscellaneous content, they have not caused much of a sensation among the whole body of practitioners. Besides, we should also affirm the positive roles of these articles. As a result, the human notions thus exposed have not caught our attention and still remain hidden to us.

Hidden attachments, however, are like tumors inside our bodies, and they will keep growing until they can interfere with our cultivation practice. When The Cosmos's Calamity was published, the lengthy descriptions of all the stories that have happened in the other dimensions during the Fa-rectification satisfied the needs of our attachments, and thus drew our deep attention. The shock and excitement of these scenes made us forget to use the Fa to judge everything that has happened during the Fa-rectification process, including the literary works created by Dafa disciples. There is no doubt that with our irrational reactions, we were neither responsible to ourselves nor to the author. Now, after calming down and reconsidering the novel, I find that there were indeed some improper areas, from the author's choice of format to the relationship of the characters in the novel to the Fa-rectification, as well as to the choice of stories portrayed in the novel. Although the author's intention was good--because it was written for the validation of the Fa--the inadequacy of the writing, as well as the areas that are not in accordance with the Fa, has also reflected the author's shortcomings and the fact that the author has not been diligent in Fa-study for a long time. I think that through this incident, the author should also search within him or herself. However, he or she should not take it as too much of a burden, as what is critical is to eliminate the shortcomings and be upgraded. I do not intend to focus on the author. I just want to say, from the perspective of a Dafa cultivator, that we should look within ourselves to discern which of our attachments have been exposed during this episode. We should make sure that, as this incident gradually dims in our memory, we do not forget about the attachments that we should get rid of.

In the past, when I shared with a fellow practitioner my view that we should view the tribulations that we have encountered from the perspective of the Fa, this practitioner sighed, "Ah, we are still in the maze!" What he referred to was that, as human beings, we are lost in delusion and cannot see the genuine situations in the other dimensions; therefore we are unable to let go of our attachments. This is exactly the warped notion of "what the eyes can see is true" that has caused us to be unable to let go of our interests in the ordinary world and to not have enough confidence in Dafa. It is also a reflection of our being attached to what the celestial eye can see.

Although Master has repetitively lectured on the Fa to us and revealed the facts of the Fa-rectification in the other dimensions, and although Master has affirmed the future of Dafa practitioners, the warped notion of "what the eyes can see is true" still, to a varying degree, interferes with our having righteous faith, sending forth righteous thoughts, and making diligent progress through Fa-study. Therefore, after the author of The Cosmos's Calamity, who is also a Dafa practitioner, described, in detail, the cultivation scenes in other dimensions, those practitioners who did not have enough faith in Dafa indeed felt that they had become more determined in their cultivation. This kind of faith in the Fa-- a faith from one's own perception and one that relies on an external factor to make one believe in cultivation practice--is a huge barrier to one's cultivation. If a person is in this kind of state, when he or she sees another kind of vivid description of cultivation, the person can easily be swayed as well. Over several years in the past, there have appeared particular individuals in different regions who claimed that they were the "masters" and who wanted to create something new to validate themselves. These individuals usually used some seemingly high-sounding words, but, in fact, they were baseless and served only to validate themselves. However, they could always find a market among some practitioners and be worshiped. They thus have been playing the role of interfering with the Fa-rectification. If we were among those who had just started their cultivation, it might be understandable to have such a mindset. However, when the Fa-rectification has reached the present stage, if we Dafa disciples still cannot gain our righteous faith in Dafa through our understanding of the Fa, our cultivation process is not solid, and the tribulations, which can occur at any time, can thus drag us down and ruin us among human notions.

Fellow practitioners, let us all be able to understand the Fa from the Fa, and make sure that our understanding of cultivation practice is rational. Although the things seen in other dimensions can play the role of encouraging practitioners, we cannot overly emphasize anything, because going too far in one direction is as bad as not going far enough. We cannot take what is seen in other dimensions as a guide to our cultivation. Although it can strengthen our faith in certain respects, we should never emphasize it, much less rely on it. One achieves consummation through enlightenment, and only Dafa is what is fundamental! In fact, when we really have a determined faith in the Fa and actively assimilate ourselves into the Fa, the Fa's extraordinariness and mighty power will naturally be manifested in us. This is something that all genuine disciples have understood.

In thinking about this matter deeply, if we had not had the attachment to seeing things with the celestial eye, we would have not been stirred up so much by the stories in the mythological novel, which is set beyond this time-space. If we could have viewed this novel with rational and calm minds, and if, after realizing the shortcomings of the writing, we could have conveyed them to the author in time and corrected these shortcomings, the novel could have become a powerful weapon for the validation of the Fa. No one would have been swayed by the novel, and we would have then walked our paths righteously, and this would have really been our validating the Fa. As a matter of fact, for those two months, which was not a short period of time, we did not meet the requirements of the Fa, and our ever-expanding human notions made Master once again worry about us and directly point out our shortcomings. We should take the Fa as the teacher. We really have not lived up to Master's expectations!

Through this episode, I feel that we have seen our human attachments that have been hidden for a long time. In the meantime, we also should have a better understanding of how we Dafa disciples should walk our paths in creating works of literature; that is, no matter what we do, we cannot be controlled by the principles of the old cosmos, and we should measure everything with "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and leave a pure and righteous path for future generations.

May 21, 2007

Posting date: 6/9/2007
Original article date: 6/9/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/22/155353.html

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