More on Handling the Relationship Between Technical Skills, Cultivation, and Dafa

By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Over the past year, especially in the last six months, several practitioners in our region who specialize in technical support were illegally arrested and sentenced to prison. The persecution seems to be very serious in our area.

First, we must strengthen our righteous thoughts, and completely negate the persecution from the roots of our minds. We should send forth righteous thoughts more intensively to support and rescue our fellow practitioners and eliminate the evil. We should do the three things well and more diligently, to compensate for the loss in saving sentient beings caused by the persecution. All the persecution means are so-called tests of Dafa practitioners; in other words, tests of Dafa. They are interference to the Fa-rectification.

Second, a fundamental issue of cultivation is to look inside ourselves no matter what happens. The reason these practitioners were persecuted is because they had gaps which the old forces took advantage of. For a long time, they had failed to see these gaps, failed to look inside for these attachments, and failed to eliminate the gaps. For instance, they failed to travel the path correctly even though Master had repeatedly hinted to them. They actually acknowledged the arrangement of the old forces and walked the path arranged by the old forces. We must learn from these lessons.

I think the fundamental problem is that these practitioners had unintentionally regarded their technical skills (or abilities) more highly than their cultivation and the Fa. Below are some typical behaviors these practitioners, including some practitioners who just started to learn technical skills, exhibited when dealing with a long-term project or handling a specific task.

1. Some practitioners think that however much they know, and however advanced their technical skills (or however many divine powers they have, or so-called high-level things they can see) indicate how well they have cultivated. They started to put themselves above other practitioners. They forgot that Master has told us in the Fa that the criterion to evaluate a practitioner is his character (xinxing.) How well he masters technical skills is just one indication of his cultivation realm. Too much emphasis on this is an attachment to arrogance and blind worship.
2. Some practitioners couldn't accept different opinions or even kind-hearted advice.
3. They didn't pay enough attention to Fa study. Fa study and the exercises became a mere formality. Some even failed to study the Fa or practice the exercises, and became addicted to their computers.
4. They were not modest, failed to cultivate their speech, boasted, and showed off.
5. Another important issue is that some coordinators paid great attention to learning the technical skills themselves so as to break through the Internet blockade, yet they used every excuse to take care of their own truth-clarification material sites rather than helping other practitioners break through the Internet blockade. Several years passed, the materials site situation continued to be "fruits from a single tree" rather than "flowers blossoming everywhere," as required by Master. Some practitioners even dissuaded their family members who were working on technical support not to teach other practitioners for the sake of placing more importance on their own roles. Isn't this an attachment to fame and profit? Isn't this selfishness? This has caused problems and potential danger to Fa-rectification projects. It has also created problems with the personal cultivation of practitioners working at materials production sites in the Fa-rectification period. Of course, this is also related to other practitioners' attachment to comfort and their dependent mentality. I would ask the practitioners to rectify their mindset and starting point, so that all our materials sites can run independently and truly blossom everywhere.

Master told us long ago that, "Supernatural skills are but petty means, The Great Fa must be the basis of everything."("Seeking the Righteous Fa" in Hong Yin)

Even an enlightened being cannot make his abilities and divine powers come before Dafa, let alone the shady human technology in the human world. Everything we can see was arranged long long ago for the purpose of spreading Dafa. We can only do our best to make good use of these things to harmonize Master's arrangements and Master's requirements. We should use all the abilities we have and every favorable condition to validate Dafa and save sentient beings! How can we allow such attachments to interfere with our cultivation and validating Dafa? The way to solve all such problems is to calm down and study the Fa more, solidly cultivate ourselves, and do well the three things as Master has told us to do.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/9/17/186036.html

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