(Clearwisdom.net)
Some recent articles have discussed different views on the understanding and experience of rescinding the pact with the old forces. Here, I would like to share my understanding.
One practitioner suggested that since some practitioners had in a previous lifetime made an agreement to follow the arrangements made by the old forces, which is now being taken advantage of as an excuse to persecute those practitioners, the practitioners could publish a statement rescinding that pact so as to break the undesirable arrangement. This has raised concerns in different areas. Some practitioners who have been in long-term tribulations think this is a shortcut to get rid of those tribulations without heeding Master's warning: "
Regardless of your situation, Master will definitely treat you equally. As long as you're counted among the disciples of Dafa, Master will treat you as a Dafa disciple and guide you. (Applause) But, you have to do well yourselves. " (Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa conference)
We have to do well ourselves.
Currently it is difficult to distinguish whether our tribulations are caused by the old forces taking advantage of our human attachments on our path of cultivation or by our historic pacts with the old forces that give them the opportunity to bind us. So in order to escape from the tribulations, we can only do well the three things that Master told us to do and break the arrangements from the old forces with our righteous thoughts and righteous actions. For those historic factors, Master explained,
"But it's not that you can't get rid of it. As I just said, even if sometime in history you did sign some kind of pact, if today your righteous thoughts are very strong, you don't recognize it, and you insist on not taking part in it, then you can in fact reject it. But this is a bit hard for you to handle in a case like this. What's hard is that the old forces won't let you go that easily, they'll try to take advantage of your gaps, and when you're just a little bit off they'll seize the opportunity. So when your righteous thoughts are very strong they can't take advantage of you, and this is because in Fa-rectification Dafa doesn't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, and I, as your Master, don't acknowledge them either. Of course, each one of our Dafa disciples says that we don't recognize the old forces' arrangements, but that's not something you just say--you have to follow the requirements of Dafa and the Fa-rectification. 'I absolutely will not acknowledge any of those things you arranged in the past, old forces. I don't even acknowledge you.' When your righteous thoughts are very strong you can purge it and you can reject their arrangements. (Applause) And that's because we absolutely cannot acknowledge them."
(Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A)
Thus, for those tribulations on our cultivation path, we not only need to eliminate our human attachments according to the requirements of the Fa, but also we have to realize clearly that the old forces take advantage of our gaps to persecute us. Publishing a statement to rescind one's historic pact with the old forces might help one personally affirm his or her position, but such a statement cannot be considered a substitute for cultivation, and one should not think that this will provide some sort of insurance, like -"The old forces do not dare to persecute me anymore." No matter how we deny the old forces' arrangement and the persecution, practitioners have to rationally consider where our problems originate and whether we have truly cultivated ourselves based on the requirements for Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period. This is not just our lips saying--"deny the old force's arrangement", or our hands writing a statement--"break off the arrangement with the old forces", it is the true step-by-step cultivation on the Fa rectification path. The written statement method suggested by fellow practitioners was meant to help those practitioners in long-term tribulations who don't recognize this factor to realize the barriers that the old forces created for them in history, enabling them to treat those problems correctly from the perspective of the Fa. Master also mentioned that those kinds of cases are rare, and don't effect all practitioners.
In short, I hope we can always treat the problems encountered on our path of cultivation with rationality and not go to extremes. If we're not doing true cultivation, it is useless. Similar to the "Solemn declarations" written by practitioners who temporarily succumbed to brainwashing and the statements renouncing Communist membership, they will be effective only if we walk our paths well in cultivation according to those oaths.