Creating A Good Family Cultivation Environment Provides a Strong Foundation for Doing the Three Things Well

By a Falun Gong practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) With the rapid progress of the Fa rectification, it has become even more urgent for Dafa disciples to step forward to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Whether one can shoulder this historic responsibility according to Master's requirements is a grave test for every Dafa disciple. As a practitioner, to do the three things well, one has to first create a good family environment. A congenial family environment is helpful to our stepping forward to validate the Fa. This is to say, creating a good family cultivation environment is an important foundation for one to do the three things well. Otherwise, one may most likely first see interference coming from one's family.

In the present time, because of the long-time, vicious persecution and the influences of many other factors, the family environments of different practitioners in China are also different. However, overall the family environments can be summarized into several categories. The first category refers to a relatively relaxed and harmonious family environment, which provides convenience to and a good foundation for Dafa disciples' validation of the Fa. The second is a family environment that has caused certain interference to the practitioners; the interference will stand out more when the persecution becomes more severe. Such a family environment has created certain negative impacts on Dafa disciples' validating the Fa and made some practitioners unable to catch up with the Fa rectification progress. The third is a family environment that has caused great interference, which has made some practitioners unable to come out to validate the Fa in a dignified and righteous way, and even unable to do the three things well.

Although the causes for the above situations are very complex, they are caused mainly by factors from three aspects. The first aspect is the practitioner's personal issues, that is, whether the practitioner has strong righteous thoughts and whether he or she can handle the problems in a harmonious way, which, I should say, are the predominant factors for the creation of a good family cultivation environment. This is because a Dafa disciple's righteous thoughts can change the environment. If a practitioner really has strong righteous thoughts, can view and handle any issues with righteous thoughts under any circumstances, is able to use compassion to help the non-cultivating family members improve their understanding on Fa validation and this persecution, and especially, does not have fear in the face of persecution and can also use his or her righteous thoughts to eliminate the persecution, interference from the family members will diminish. They may even become supportive. Their attitude toward Dafa may also change, and old forces will not be able to find gaps to take advantage of. Therefore, whether a Dafa disciple has strong righteous thoughts or not is the predominant factor in the creation of a good family cultivation environment. If the practitioner lacks righteous thoughts, cannot do well, and even has fear and becomes very worried, how could the practitioner demand his or her non-cultivating family members to cooperate well with him or her? How could the practitioner further create a good family cultivation environment?

The second factor is how the family members view and how much they support the practitioners' validating the Fa. Before the persecution, most of the practitioners' family members had very good opinions of Dafa as they saw the tremendous benefits that the Dafa disciples had received from their cultivation, and the family members all actively supported the practitioners' cultivation. However, after the vicious persecution started, the terror created by the Chinese Communist Party and the brutality of the persecution brought tremendous pressure on and interference to Dafa disciples' families; some families were even torn apart and had members who died in the persecution. Furthermore, because the persecution of practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has lasted so long, been so brutal, and also kept escalating, and because the CCP has always used lies to deceive and poison people, the practitioners' family members may also be deceived and develop different degrees of fear; thus, they could more easily be controlled by the old forces' evil beings and factors. These fearful, muddleheaded, and irrational minds of theirs will naturally bring hindrances and interference to Dafa disciple's validation of the Fa. Consequently, the family members will have quite different views about the practitioners' stepping forward to validate the Fa. Some have showed support and some showed opposition. Most show understanding and they do not oppose Dafa disciples' practicing the exercises, but they are worried that the practitioners may be persecuted, so they often remind the practitioners to be more careful and not to let the bad people know what they have been doing. Those family members who have a lot of fear will not support the practitioners to continue their cultivation. To prevent the practitioners from continuing their cultivation, some family members even watch the practitioners all day long, some resort to crying and fighting to stop the practitioners' cultivation. In the most severe cases, some even beat practitioners, use divorce to threaten the practitioners, and in the even worse cases, help the CCP persecute their loved ones. In front of the different degrees of interference from the families and the threats from the terrible external environment, some practitioners have used the wisdom, capabilities, and righteous thoughts that Dafa has endowed upon them, and they have broken through one after another tribulations; they have pulled through. Some practitioners have been led by their human notions, no longer cultivate diligently, and fall into an ambiguous state between false and genuine cultivation. Some have even completely given up their cultivation.

The third factor is the old forces' interference and sabotage. In fact, ever since the beginning of the persecution, the old forces' evil beings and elements have been doing bad things in every aspect of Dafa disciples' families. It is very easy for them to control ordinary people to do bad things. Sometimes, they take advantage of the family members' fear and demon nature to create interference. Sometimes, they make trouble by exploiting the loopholes in which Dafa disciples have not done well in harmonizing their family environments. Sometimes they interfere by capitalizing on practitioners' fear and emotions toward their family members. If the practitioners become slack in their Fa study and do not have strong righteous thoughts, the old forces' interference with their families will be more and more severe, which could bring great hindrances to practitioners' validation of the Fa; the evils may even take advantage of the gaps to persecute the practitioners.

In terms of the aforementioned situations, how to correctly handle and harmonize family conflicts and eliminate the obstacles and interference caused by the practitioners' family members has become an important issue that cannot be neglected.

There is a practitioner in our region who firmly believes in Master and Dafa. When she went to Beijing to validate the Fa, the CCP regime agents arrested her and used all means of torture in an attempt to brainwash her. In the end, she walked out of the detention center in a dignified manner. However, her husband, who works in a governmental branch, became scared. Although he knew that his wife has become even more kind and thoughtful through her cultivation in Dafa, and although he knew that she has taken care of all the daily household works and made everything tidy without his involvement, he, out of fear, still started to interfere with his wife in her cultivation. For example, he did not allow her to go out to clarify the truth, with the excuse that doing that way would affect his future and the future of their children. Later he even used divorce to threaten her. She was not moved by the interference. She explained the principles to him in a rational, calm, and compassionate way. At the same time, she firmly expressed that if he was afraid that he would lose his material interests and insisted on getting divorced, she would not stop him, but it was impossible for her to give up cultivation. Since she expressed her determination in a peaceful way, the situation has completely changed. Her husband told her that he would not divorce her, that what he had said was not real. After that time, although her husband is still afraid and worried about her doing the three things, he no longer openly and actively stops her. With the change of the environment, her husband sometimes also secretly reads the truth-clarification materials. In this way, she has created a good family environment for her validation of the Fa.

There is also another practitioner who was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp for her clarification of the facts about the persecution. After she was released, she still persisted in her cultivation. But her family members, out of fear, have posed big obstacles and exerted huge interference on her cultivation. They often have someone watch her. To prevent her from going out to validate the Fa, they lock her inside the room once they hear something that they deem to be dangerous. Facing the interference from her family members, although she has not given up studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, she has not been able to rectify her family environment in an open and dignified way. She appears helpless and just remains acquiescent and enduring. So over a long time, she has lived amidst the interference from her family members. There are also some practitioners in the region who do not have strong righteous thoughts in the face of the interference from their family members. On top of this, they have strong attachments of fear and hold onto too many human notions and attachments, and they are reluctant to rectify their family environments and are obedient to the ordinary people's demands. In the end, they gave up their cultivation and thus may lose this rare cultivation opportunity. In our region, there are indeed some practitioners who have created very good family environments; their family members have relatively clear understanding of the persecution and actively guard and support the practitioners' cultivation.

Some Dafa disciples' family members prepare meals and do the household work during the three preset times of sending forth righteous thoughts, that is, in the morning, noon, and evening, so that the practitioners can send forth the righteous thoughts with calm minds. When it is time for the practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts, some family members even remind the practitioners that it is time. Some even help by giving out the truth-clarification materials and doing some Dafa work. Once a practitioner was preparing the truth-clarification materials at home, the police and 610 Office members came. When the practitioner's wife opened the door and saw them, she stopped them at the door and frankly told them, "He is not at home. If you have anything to talk about, do it after he comes back." As the police did not notice any flaws in her words and also could not find the excuses to break into the room, they had no choice but to say, "We will come back later." They then left dejected. So a dangerous situation was resolved by the righteous thoughts of the practitioner's wife (Of course, the elimination of the danger was fundamentally because of Master and the Fa). When they talked at the door, the practitioner heard all of their conversation, and he was not affected by it. Whenever a practitioner has created a relatively good family environment, he or she will experience less interference from different aspects.

The above examples illustrate that although each practitioner's family members has different attitudes toward the practitioner's validation of the Fa, although they show different degrees of support or opposition, and although the various kinds of evil elements can come to interfere and sabotage, the key lies in the practitioner him or herself; that is, how well the practitioner has studied the Fa and cultivated him or herself. If the practitioner has studied the Fa well, has strong righteous thoughts, and can rectify and create the family environments according to the Fa, the practitioner's cultivation environment within their families will naturally become better. If the practitioner does not pay attention to Fa study, does not have strong righteous thoughts, and uses his or her human notions to view and handle the family issues, the effect will be poor and he or she will not have a good family cultivation environment. This is the key issue.

From the Fa Master has taught, we understand that Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts come from the Fa, and the Fa is the all-knowing key to resolving all issues. So studying the Fa well and strengthening righteous thoughts has become the most fundamental way for practitioners' creating good family cultivation environments. Let us take the Fa as the teacher and have righteous thoughts and actions, create a good family cultivation environment, and play well the role that "Fa rectification period Dafa disciples" are supposed to play--that is, doing well the three things that Master has required us to do during our validating the Fa and saving the sentient beings.

Please point out any understanding that is not correct.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/6/158286.html

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