My Version of a "Stick Wake-up"
In Fa-rectification all of the cosmos's final, remaining things will be born anew as they are disintegrated and re-created, and the moment when the Fa rectifies the human world draws ever nearer. Over the past five years, as Dafa disciples have validated the Fa they have established the mighty virtue of gods, in the human dimension they have saved great numbers of sentient beings and people through their righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and they have destroyed great quantities of rotten demons and old-force factors. And judging by the way things look in the human world, they have lessened the evil's persecution, as well as freed sentient beings and the people of the world from the control of the evil beings in other dimensions and from the factors that interfere with Dafa. People are starting to take clear note of and think about the persecution of Dafa disciples and the world's people. And this has started to make the wicked people in this world who've had a hand in persecuting Dafa disciples tremble with fear, and now they keep their evil nature nearly at bay; some evildoers have even stopped persecuting Dafa disciples. All of this has made for a much improved situation. This is what Dafa disciples have accomplished with righteous thoughts and righteous actions before the Fa rectifies the human world. Dafa disciples are now seen by the gods in a new light, having become beings forged by Dafa amidst the Fa-rectification--the Disciples of Dafa. The path that Dafa disciples have walked in validating the Fa--where as they cultivate themselves they also save sentient beings, accommodate the needs of the cosmos's Fa-rectification, and disintegrate and clear away the dark minions and rotten demons that are negatively impacting the Fa-rectification and doing evil against Dafa disciples, as well as all the elements of interference and persecution arranged by the old forces--such is the complete path of cultivation, Consummation, and becoming a magnificent god that Disciples of Dafa walk.
By contrast, when it comes to those who hide in their homes and "study the Fa," no matter the excuse, it's actually due to the attachments they can't let go of. Those people even form little cliques, complain together and make off-base comments to one another, adopt a negative attitude about Dafa disciples' validating the Fa and everything that Dafa disciples are doing, constantly nitpick about other students' faults and shortcomings in cultivation, and even spread rumors both in China and beyond. What they do pleases the evil and helps the evil in the persecution. Some people say, "I only read Zhuan Falun, I don't read the new scriptures." Are you still my disciple? Let me make this clear to you: the period before July 20, 1999, was one of personal cultivation and comprehending the Fa, and in the process of comprehending it one could arrive at Consummation, but that is not the end of a Dafa disciple's cultivation; in the ensuing five years, the situation has been reversed, who can truly make it and who cannot needs to be seen, those who are not truly cultivating are weeded out, and the five years have been a time when those Dafa disciples who truly cultivate establish their mighty virtue and save beings. Why is it that a being needs to be saved by Dafa and me personally? Or, to put it plainly, [think about] what kind of a being is worthy of salvation by the Great Law of the cosmos? For a being who is saved, could it just be about personal Consummation? So what kind of being deserves to be a Disciple of Dafa? Would you say those people who hide in their homes and "study the Fa" do? Or those who only want to gain from Dafa but don't want to give for Dafa? Furthermore, what about those who, while Dafa disciples are being persecuted, don't want to speak up for Dafa and yet still "read the book" at home and try to get things from Dafa--what kind of people are they? You be the judge.
Master sees that danger is already approaching you. I don't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, and that includes this persecution, but I knew that the old factors who would be impacted by Fa-rectification would do this, and that it was just a matter of time and of which ones. In other words, it would have been best if the persecution hadn't happened, and if it hadn't happened, I would have had you take [different] paths in that scenario. Now that the persecution has happened, I've made use of it so as to have Dafa disciples nullify the persecution while validating the Fa, thus establishing the mighty virtue of Dafa disciples. Do you think a Dafa disciple's cultivation path is supposed to accommodate your fear, your pursuit of comfort and ease, and all your desires? Do you think that the religious cultivation methods and beliefs of long ago are the only forms of cultivation? If the Three Realms and everything throughout the history of man was planned for the Fa-rectification of the cosmos, then the sole purpose of history was to enable Dafa to create, throughout the course of history, sentient beings and mankind, along with the human mind and culture, so that when Dafa would be spread widely people's thinking would allow them to comprehend the Fa and understand what the Fa is, what cultivation is, what it means to save sentient beings, and so on, as well as understand the variety of cultivation forms. If that's the case, then weren't all the cultivation ways and beliefs in history establishing a culture in this world for the later Fa-rectification of the cosmos? What course is needed for a human being to become divine? The gods on high all say that I have given human beings a ladder to heaven.
And there are some people who think that Master, like the people of the world, can't do anything about the persecution. Did you know that the world's big monster is, other than the fact that the old forces are ensuring it lives until the so-called "tests" come to an end so that they can use it, acting under my command? Haven't some people said that when I tell it to jump, it jumps, when I tell it to go mad, it goes mad, and when I tell it to go wild, it goes wild? Don't you all know that whenever I say or write something, it leads just about its whole hoodlum gang that persecutes Dafa disciples to "study" it right away, day or night? Right now, it looks like it has been cast out amidst political rivalry--isn't that because the wicked rotten demons that controlled it stopped functioning? That's the only reason people could do, and dared to do, that to it. How could you deny that, the impact of Fa-rectification aside, it's the result of Dafa disciples' thinking and acting righteously, exposing the persecution, and nullifying the old forces' arrangements as they validate the Fa, take action against the persecution, and save beings?
Some people have family members who have been imprisoned in the persecution and are being persecuted, and yet instead of hurrying up and working along with everyone else to resist the persecution, stop the persecution, and lessen the persecution of your family members, you're talking about things like "studying the Fa at home" and you're still full of complaints about everything that [Dafa] students are doing. Did you know that when the persecution of your family members who have been imprisoned is lessened or stopped, it's the result of Dafa disciples exposing and shocking the evil beings while braving evil and danger to take action against the persecution? When they get out, how will you bear to face them? What have you done for them? A cultivating human being is not a cultivating god, and everyone makes mistakes in the cultivation process; the key is how you deal with them. Some people are able to recognize them and some aren't, and then there are people who don't want to recognize them because of their attachment of fear and some other factors. Cultivation is not about taking part in ordinary people's political struggles, and even less is it about fighting for power or gain. The notions, bad habits, and tendencies that you've formed in ordinary society and in political circles and the like are looked down on even among ordinary people, so even more so should they be disposed of in cultivation.
Cultivation is the process that enables a human being to ascend to heaven and become a god, so how could it not be hard? The Buddhist religion used to talk about "stick wake-ups," so let me give my version of a stick wake-up to those who don't measure up and have put themselves on the brink of danger.
Li Hongzhi
October 11, 2004
Editor's note: The translation is subject to further improvement so as to be closer to the original text. Last updated: October 15, 2004.