The Process of Clarifying the Truth is the Course of Our Fa-Rectification Cultivation (Part I)

(Clearwisdom.net) My father is a person who has been controlled by the evil and has lost his mind. He has even cursed Teacher and Dafa. Through my own process of looking inward and clarifying the truth, he has gradually become a hopeful being. Now he knows that Dafa is good and he has even started to resist the evil.

During this process, I have improved and enlightened to the understanding of Teacher's saying, "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" Along the way, I also discovered many of my own shortcomings. I can now calm my mind and I was able to write this article straight through without hesitating.

Over the past two years, in the process of clarifying the truth to everyday people around me, I became enlightened to the fact that when cultivators are clear on the principles of Dafa, unobstructed by notions, their righteous energy field can restrict everyday people, causing them to become clear-headed. When people around us are not clear, we must look inward, pinpoint our own warped notions and attachments from the standpoint of Dafa, and then clear them out. Then when we clarify the truth to everyday people again, they will understand right away. When we correct ourselves and conform to Dafa, a calmness and clarity will come over the people around us. However, in dealing with those "people whose thoughts are just bad or people who have bad thoughts arising," (Fa-Rectification and Cultivation) we cannot simply clarify the truth, we must also eliminate the evil factors behind them. At the same time, we must continue to look more deeply inward to see the gaps within us where the evil can take advantage of us. We must correct ourselves without giving the evil any opportunity to take hold. If we resolutely clear them out, people will then naturally become aware of the truth. The process of clarifying the truth is the course of our Fa-rectification cultivation.

1. Encountering violent resistance for clarifying the truth, eliminating the evil by looking inward

Because I persisted in cultivating Falun Dafa, I was persecuted and my education was put at risk. This touched my father's attachment to fame and gain. In China, the opportunity for receiving higher education does not come easily, and the achievements of the children are the pride of their parents. He opposed my decision and beat me several times during the two years.

The first time, I was in the brainwashing class held by my school after going to Beijing to appeal legally. My father came along with my mother, who had just undergone a medical operation. She shed tears as she spoke to me. My mother had been ill for six or seven years without having any medical operations, but she went to the hospital just shortly before I went to appeal. At the time, I knew it was a form of demonic interference to shake my determination in Dafa. My father knelt down before me, and when he saw that I still had not written the "guarantee statement" to quit practicing Falun Gong, he slapped my head. Right away, I couldn't hear anything. Later, he pulled my hair, and when he saw that I did not move, he said even more bad words.

Another time, when I showed him some truth-clarifying materials, he tore them up right away. While I was clarifying the truth to him, for every sentence I spoke, he kicked me once. At the end, he became flustered and exasperated and again slapped my head. My eyeglasses were knocked off from the beating. At that time, my original nature knew it was not him, but the evil that controlled him.

One time, while I was practicing the exercises, he pulled my leg forcefully. I became aware of my fear, and that my environment had been shaped to provide me the opportunity to get rid of my attachment of fear. As I maintained my xinxing and steadfastly moved my leg back, my mind stayed calm. Teacher encouraged me by letting me see the fast rotating Falun out of the corner of my eye.

Another time, also in the brainwashing class held by the school, I was under threat of being expelled from school, and he beat me up again. At that time, I had been on a hunger strike for six days.

The last time, I had simply wanted to show him the Dafa truth-clarifying CD. He actually whipped me using a leather belt, leaving welts all over my body. This made many of my relatives cry. My father was being controlled by the evil and had lost his mind cursing Teacher and Dafa. After I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind him, he felt regret for beating me.

But while I was telling him the truth, whenever Teacher and Dafa were mentioned, he again used the evil lies and misconceptions to try to defend himself. When I saw him like this, I lost my confidence, and I felt he could no longer be saved. That day, I left home so that I could do Dafa work without any interference.

I calmed down and thought about it carefully. Was the problem entirely his fault? Or was it only his bad thoughts that the evil had taken advantage of? I looked inward and found that much of the problem came from me. For example, while telling the truth to him along with the rest of my relatives, I was totally different than when I was telling the truth to other everyday people. For the same issues, some everyday people could understand right away, but he and my relatives could hardly understand, no matter how much time I spent explaining. It was because I carried with me human sentiment, so I shed tears, and felt wronged and resentful. I treated them like my "family members" (the everyday people who are related to me by human feelings and blood relations) instead of with the compassion for beings that needed to be offered salvation.

When I began to dig further, I realized that this "sentimentality" also evolved into the attachment of achieving something. Dafa is dignified and sacred, it is not something to beg someone to obtain. This pursuit itself exposed the fact that I was not determined in Dafa. I was putting Dafa in a less important place, while I put the human aspect in a more important place. I even had the dirty thought of exploiting Dafa, and I was unable to show people the dignity of Dafa. At the same time, while clarifying the truth, I mixed it with my selfish notions and my thoughts, such as "I think ...." In defending my own notions, I relegated such a sacred thing as clarifying the truth to that of a dispute of viewpoints between people. I sometimes even had the attachment to competitiveness, as I did not have a benevolent heart, and I was not taking a stand to offer salvation to all beings.

From all these human sentiments, pursuits, and selfish notions, I dug to the root of attachments, which had to do with my point of view. It turned out that I did Dafa work totally from the standpoint of human habits and notions, not genuinely from the standpoint of Dafa. Meanwhile, I realized that this was not my true self, but the deviated material, which a cultivator should eliminate. However, I regarded these degenerate notions as myself, which was my own problem.

On the other hand, we are now cultivating during the Fa-rectification period. Teacher asks us to use righteous thoughts and supernormal capabilities and to eliminate the evil in other dimensions. While clarifying the truth to everyday people, I failed to draw a clear distinction between humans and the evil, which controls people. At the same time, I treated people with human sentimentality, which hindered my divine side from actively being a part of Fa-rectification. For example, I didn't recognize the evil factors, which controlled my father and influenced his resistance to the truth. I responded with anger and resentment. When the evil commanded my father to curse me and beat me, I felt wronged and thought he himself was evil. Therefore, my eradication of evil was not thorough, and due to my human sentimentality the righteous thoughts I sent forth were not pure enough.

Another important point was that "losing confidence" and "thinking he was no good" supported the evil which controlled him, which was an acceptance of the arrangement of the old forces. Teacher said, "A Dafa disciple completely opposes everything arranged by the evil old forces. Clarify the truth thoroughly, eliminate the evil with righteous thoughts, save all beings, and safeguard the Fa with determination, because you are a part of Dafa, indestructible; rectify all that is not righteous. Those who are 'reformed' and those who are being saved can only be beings deceived by the evil. Those who are being eliminated are the evil beings and the evil old forces. Those who are reaching Consummation through all this are Dafa disciples, and only through this can Dafa's mighty virtue be established." (Dafa is Indestructible) When we do things according to the Fa and our divine side is in action, the evil cannot render even a single blow against it.

By then, I firmly believed I was able to eliminate all the evil forces behind my father and save him. When I began to have such indestructible determination, I could no longer accept any control of the kindhearted beings by the evil. I wanted to use my life to protect them, to be responsible to them with all righteous elements. Naturally, I thought of a scenario where my father would resist the evil and even help me to do Dafa work after he was rectified.

(To be continued)