Shed the Human Mindset
This article is well written, and the understanding it expresses is even better. Some students really haven't regarded studying the Fa as something important, and often look at situations that arise among Dafa students with an ordinary human mindset; and it's not limited to blindly admiring certain people. The display of this human mindset truly, in fact, bespeaks of the [difference between] a cultivator and an ordinary person. This brings upon oneself many problems in cultivation, and interferes with efforts to validate the Fa and the coordination and cooperation that takes place among students and that is based on the Fa. The most prominent manifestation of this is the severe persecution many students face as a result of their strong human mindset and lack of righteous thoughts. The solution is to without exception make studying the Fa a priority and to study the Fa diligently. This Great Law is able to rectify the colossal firmament and allows people to cultivate to Consummation--shouldn't you treasure an opportunity as rare and precious as this? And this is an opportunity that will be gone in an instant!
Li Hongzhi
September 1, 2005
By a Falun Gong practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) I can very much relate to the issue described in "Do Not Use a Human Mentality When Considering Those Practitioners Who Have Suffered Persecution" written by a fellow Falun Gong practitioner outside of China. It said, "Some practitioners (especially overseas practitioners) in addition to sympathizing and voicing support for those being persecuted, have admired them and praised them as heroes. These practitioners, while listening to the experiences of persecuted practitioners, often view such experiences as heroic stories." [1] As I think more about it, this problem is not limited to practitioners outside of China. Aren't practitioners in China facing the same problem as well?
For the past few years, Falun Gong practitioners in China often held various forms of cultivation experience sharing activities. Some of them were experience-sharing gatherings among local practitioners. In other gatherings, practitioners from some other areas were invited to share their cultivation experiences. Last winter the coordinator in our area invited a fellow practitioner from another area over to share his experiences. He was released early from a den of evil because of his righteous thoughts, and he was asked to tell us about how he overcame obstacles using righteous thoughts. We learned that he held a hunger strike protest in prison for many months and had many close encounters with death. In the end he was released early under Master's compassionate protection. His story was quickly spread to the practitioners in our area, and everyone began to admire and idolize him as a superhero without realizing it. Shortly afterwards, a local practitioner that had suffered long-term illegal imprisonment was released, and the news caused quite a stir in our area. He had suffered many types of inhuman tortures at the infamous Changlinzi Forced Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. During the torture, he had teeth knocked out and ribs broken. However, countless trials and tribulations were unable to shake his steadfast belief in Master and the Fa, and he finally prevailed with his righteous thoughts and righteous actions. After listening to his touching story, the practitioners in our area came to admire him and gradually set him up as a role model in their minds, showering him with praise at every turn.
Without question, the aforementioned phenomena are manifestations of our human mindset. If we don't promptly recognize our human thinking based on the Fa principles and rectify them, they will lead us down a very dangerous path.
When it comes to those fellow practitioners that broke out of dens of evil with their righteous thoughts, we should see Dafa's majesty and solemn nature based on what they went through. We should conclude that as Falun Dafa disciples, we must have granite-like righteous faith in Master and the Fa, indestructible righteous thoughts to annihilate all evil, uncompromising righteous actions to completely negate the persecution, and the righteous spirit to cause all evil to quiver in fear. When those fellow practitioners made a right decision or took a righteous action, it is because they were following Dafa's requirements and their actions were in compliance with Dafa. If we look at the supernormal results from someone's actions that are in compliance with the Fa as being more important than Dafa itself, then we will be prone to developing an attachment to idolizing those practitioners and cultivating by following people, and thereby deviating from Master's teaching to "take the Fa as Teacher."
It is true that each of us may be able to find a disparity in cultivation levels between those fellow practitioners who broke through using righteous thoughts and ourselves, and then prompt ourselves to become more diligent in the final stage of Master's Fa-rectification. On the other hand, we must recognize based on the Fa that those practitioners have suffered a tremendous amount of tribulations because they had loopholes that the old forces exploited, or that they had failed to eliminate their fundamental attachments, or they had failed to remove their long-standing human thinking, or because they had brought about great losses to Dafa, etc. Consequently, Master's Fashen and the guardian gods of the Fa weren't able to intervene even though they were very anxious to do so. When they were finally released because of Master's compassionate protection and assistance, it was because their righteous thoughts befitting Dafa disciples had come forward and become dominant during the tribulations. More importantly, we need to understand that right now, they are still cultivators on their journeys to godhood.
Therefore, we must not blindly admire or idolize those practitioners who were released because of their righteous thoughts. Doing so is in reality hurting them, likely causing them to become attached to themselves or to believe that they don't have anything else to cultivate now that they had let go of the thought of life and death. They might neglect the importance of grasping all the remaining time and opportunities to offer Master's salvation to all beings or the importance of making up for the losses caused by their long-term imprisonment. From the perspective of the Fa-rectification, it will become a major disruption when one, two and then more practitioners in an area idolize those released practitioners. When those practitioners that were released after having suffered a great deal of tribulations become the focus of validating the Fa in their respective areas, the old forces and the old cosmos' elements will definitely take note of it. Wouldn't that become an excuse for them to initiate a new round of persecution against those practitioners? If this should happen, there would be an incalculable amount of damage done to the Fa-rectification in that area, and it would hamper the area's practitioners in their improvement and elevation as a whole.
In short, no practitioner should use a human mindset to regard those fellow practitioners that broke out of the dens of evil using righteous thoughts. Besides learning from their righteous thoughts and righteous actions, we should look after and protect them from the perspective of safeguarding the Fa. We should remind them to study the Fa more diligently and catch up with the rapid developments of Fa-rectification quickly. Meanwhile, those practitioners must be clear about the fact that they are still in the process of cultivating and they must continue on their journey to godhood. Therefore, they need to make studying the Fa well a priority and do the three things diligently so as to make up for their shortcomings in the past, and to gather up all the sentient beings that can be saved. Master said,
"This instant is precious beyond measure. Completing the last leg of this journey well is what's most magnificent." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago")
As long as the journey of cultivation during Fa-rectification has not come to an end, each of us must stay vigilant at all times.
Reference:
[1] Clearwisdom.net: "Do Not Use a Human Mentality When Considering Those Practitioners Who Have Suffered Persecution"
