All Attachments and Notions Originate from Selfishness (Part 2)
4. Security Issues
Many practitioners have discussed this issue in depth. I would like to share
some of the serious lessons that I've learned so that other practitioners can
learn from them.
During the time I spent working in a location where truth-clarification
material is put together, I developed a stubborn and extreme notion -- I thought
using the means used by everyday people to protect one's security is a human
notion. I thought as long as I recognized what I was doing was the most
righteous thing, if I was not afraid of being in danger, I wouldn't be in
danger. How was my thinking any different from those who thought their illnesses
would be cured as long as they practiced Falun Gong?
My thoughts were further contaminated by my attachments to being overly
zealous and showing off. I was feeling pleased with myself for doing things that
other practitioners didn't dare to do. To put it plainly, I was very attached to
myself and I wasn't able to jump out of the boundary of my sense of selfness. I
wasn't being responsible to fellow practitioners.
"A Dafa disciple should put the Fa first in everything he does--whenever
you evaluate something you have to consider the Fa first. You probably
remember something I've said to you often: a Dafa disciple should consider
others first in everything he does" (from "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa
Conference in Boston").
Of course, at the time when the evil was able to take advantage of my gaps, I
also had problems with other aspects of my xinxing. When I was arrested by the
police, other practitioners were also affected. Some were arrested. One
practitioner even died from falling off a building while trying to elude police
capture. I've learned some really serious lessons. What happened was a part of
the arrangement of the old forces. But on the other hand, I can't say that it
had nothing to do with omissions on my own part. The fact that my own attachment
conformed to the arrangement of the old forces also contributed to what had
happened.
What we are doing is the most righteous thing. We should do things in an
upfront and open manner. As a matter of fact, certain practitioners truly have
been conducting themselves very well. They are able to validate the Fa in public
and they live under relatively pressure-free environments. That is a reflection
of the state of cultivation that they've achieved. But when it comes to work in
places where truth-clarifying material are put together or come in contact with
other practitioners, we run into practitioners who are in different cultivation
states and at different levels. Many complicated elements are involved. Under
this kind of circumstance, we must conduct ourselves in a well-thought out and
omission-free manner when it comes to security issues, in order to avoid
bringing losses to Dafa. On the other hand, we all know that the security issues
we face are not purely human ones. If we only put emphasis on specific methods
that we use to do things, it wouldn't work. The only way for us to address
security issues on a fundamental level is to be perfect and omission-free in
every single aspect of our xinxing.
5. Technical Issues
"It's clear what our starting point is. The essence of what you are doing
as a cultivator is improving yourself and cultivating yourself, and, during
this persecution, exposing the evil, bringing the persecution to an end, and
rejecting the old forces' arrangements. So a lot of the things you do look
like what ordinary people do, but their very nature is different. The
fundamental difference is that our ultimate goal and our starting point are
different from theirs. We're only utilizing some ordinary means in the
ordinary society. The ordinary society, too, is a level that the Fa has
created for humankind, so at this level we validate the Fa by making use of
the culture that the Fa created for ordinary people and the various forms in
which it can exist. I don't think there's anything wrong with these things."
(from "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003")
When we encounter specific technical issues while validating the Fa, we can
be certain that there are definitely things that we need to improve. Evil
interference does exist. But if we have righteous thoughts that don't have any
omission, we certainly are able to eliminate the interference. When specific
issues arise, they often seem to happen purely by chance and are seemingly
related to our lack of technical knowledge. But we can't let surface appearances
cover up the fact that we need to improve ourselves. We can't simply use
technical knowledge to solve technical issues. It is true that certain problems
can be solved with help from others. But I feel that when it comes to one's own
xinxing problems, nobody else can help him solve those problems.
If a practitioner isn't able to link his work with cultivation, no matter how
much technical knowledge he has, if he isn't able to search inward when
encountering problems and still uses human thinking to think of problems, what
he knows is only the technical knowledge of ordinary people, and he absolutely
can't reach the state of a God and doesn't possess the great wisdom of a God. In
that type of situation, he can only achieve limited results, as the higher one's
level is, the more ability he has. We are all clear on the point that if we do
things with the intention of accomplishing something, we aren't conducting
cultivation and can't validate the Fa. If we truly do things with a good
mindset, with a pure mindset of cultivation, with the benevolence of offering
salvation to all sentient beings, how could there be any technical problems that
we can't solve?
6. Attachment to pursuing results
Recently I submitted several articles to the Clearwisdom net. It took me a
lot of time to write those articles, but none of them were published. I then
read articles on Clearwisdom that were on similar subjects as the articles I
wrote but weren't as specific and detailed as mine. I was quite stirred up and
felt unhappy for a long time. I felt that I had spent so much energy writing
those articles but the efforts were spent in vain. I felt that as those articles
weren't published, so I didn't achieve any result. Many similar thoughts
occupied my mind. But when I calmed down and thought things over, I asked
myself, "Haven't the articles that other practitioners wrote also achieved the
result of shocking the evil? Were those articles by other practitioners
published because they were purer and more righteous than mine? Am I still not
attached to my sense of self, as I am eager to see the things that I do achieve
tangible results? Isn't it because I feel that I should be rewarded for the
efforts that I made? Would I still care so much about the results if other
practitioners did this?" I realized that the reason that we can't let certain
things go is because we are attached to our sense of self.
"Whoever does the work is spreading Dafa. It is not important whether it
should be done by you or by others. Are you going to bring to a paradise
this attachment that you cannot let go of, and contend with Buddhas? Nobody
should treat Dafa as his own exclusive thing. Get rid of that thought that
you've been treated unfairly! When your mind cannot get over something,
isn't it caused by your attachment?" ("Further Elimination of Attachments")
"If you've got a good idea, well, you came up with it, you're being
responsible to the Fa, and it's not important whether your idea is adopted
or whether your approach is used. If another person's idea can achieve the
same effect and you aren't attached to your own idea and instead you go
along with his, then whether you've shared your approach or not, Gods will
all see this and think, 'Look, he isn't attached, and he's able to be so
tolerant and broadminded.' What do Gods look at? Isn't this what they look
at? When you're attached to emphasizing your things you are too caught up in
it and the Gods watching above can't stand it. Even though you keep claiming
it's for the good of Dafa, and that 'my approach is good' and can reach such
and such goal--and maybe that really is the case--still, we shouldn't have
attachments that are too much like ordinary people. If you can really do
that, all the Gods will say, 'This person is truly remarkable.'" (from
"Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
"...true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining." (from
"Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
7. Indestructible mechanism of the new cosmos
Master has said that the universe is in essence composed of energy, and
energy is expended and needs to be made up. My own understanding is that in the
old cosmos, the expending and making up of energy is limited within the
confinement of each individual body. That is because fundamentally they are
unable to jump out of the boundary of their own selves. One day they will
exhaust all their own energy and in the end be destroyed. But in the new cosmos,
the energy of individual bodies is made up not only by the individual bodies
themselves, but by other bodies as well. Each particle will contribute and make
up energy for others. It is because each body exists purely for the sake of
others, and this is the only way that it will remain in a harmonious and
indestructible state.
If a Dafa particle can truly do well the three things that Master Li has
asked us to do, one can let go of his selfishness to the greatest extent
possible and achieve the state where every thought of his is pure. When that
happens, he naturally will be able to completely oppose the arrangements of the
old forces and will truly be responsible to all the righteous elements within
the cosmos. The old forces have displayed all the evil elements in this Fa-rectification. "All the degeneration of beings, and all the bad states beings can
display during the Fa-rectification period, manifest in a concentrated way
in the entire system of the old forces that affects the Fa-rectification."
("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference, July
21, 2001")
When we use the requirement of the Fa to break through all these and save
sentient beings, we are creating the future of a cosmos that is able to
harmonize everything.
Master Li has set very strict requirements for us in this aspect.
"Many Dafa disciples will achieve the status of gigantic beings in the
future, and they will encompass many sentient beings, even boundless beings.
So if your standard is lowered, then that level of the cosmos won't last
long and that level of the firmament won't last long, so you have to meet
the standard." (from "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver,
Canada, in 2003")
I hope every single of us Dafa particle is able to clearly recognize our
sacred responsibilities and use our purest thoughts to fulfill our solemn
pledges. Let us fulfill the responsibilities that we have the privilege to bear,
not let down the hope that sentient beings in the cosmos have placed on us, and
not let down everything that Master has done for us, things that can be never be
described and things that we can never repay. For Part 1, please see Posting date: 11/21/2003 |