August 22, 2002
I know a practitioner who has been depressed since he went wrong in his path. As a fellow practitioner, I only want to say, the depression is not your true self.
Teacher says in "Melt Into the Fa":
"I once talked about what a good person is and what a bad person is. It is not that one who appears to have committed a bad deed is a bad person and one who has done something good is a good person. Some people's minds are full of bad thoughts--it is just that they have not shown them or have slyly concealed them relatively well; yet these are truly bad people. Some people, on the other hand, are not bad to begin with but occasionally commit wrong deeds; these people are not necessarily bad people."
As a practitioner who studies Dafa, we should not always look at things from an ordinary person's perspective. Neither should we measure a practitioner with an ordinary person's standards. Teacher says in "Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts":
"Some students have written things like the so-called 'guarantees to stop practicing' or 'statements of repentance' when they were not in their right minds and forced. None of those were genuine expressions from the students' hearts--they were done against their will. Although they had attachments, were momentarily taken advantage of by the evil, and did what a cultivator should not, a cultivator ought to be looked at in his entirety."
Allowing oneself to become "transformed" [forced to renounce Falun Dafa] under pressure is not the right thing to do. However, if you become depressed because of this wrongdoing, and even think about giving up cultivation practice, I think that is even worse. I admire two kinds of people: one is a person who keeps running all the way to the end; the other is one who has stumbled but does not care what has been lost and gets up from the ground and continues to run. As practitioners, if we have already done something wrong, then let's examine ourselves to see why and what attachments we have not yet let go. I know that what many of us now worry about most is being "transformed". We are afraid that all that we have achieved in our cultivation will be ruined. If one is depressed because of this, I think it exposes a fear of not being able to achieve consummation. One should get rid of this fear with time. This person still hasn't let go of "self" and hasn't let go of the selfishness of worrying about what will happen to him or herself.
Cultivation practice is very serious. As Teacher says in "Path": "Can you imagine what it means for a cultivator if this stain isn't washed clean?"
No matter what happens, let go of all the attachments; once again participate in the Fa-rectification. If you have stumbled, then look for the reasons and continue to run. Do not take pleasure in the hollow spot in the ground that you created. There's no time for it and there are many kind-hearted sentient beings waiting to be saved.
Cheer up, don't take your gain or loss too seriously. Don't take your honor or disgrace too seriously. Let go of yourself in the path of cultivation practice, on the journey of Fa-rectification, my dear practitioner. Please move forward.
