(Clearwisdom.net) Think back to the time when we put our hopes on the former Prime Minister of China, relied on foreign countries and the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The result was that the Prime Minister turned against us, some foreign countries followed the government of China and interfered with us, and the UN Human Rights Commission failed terribly. All the above lessons should have taught us never to rely on ordinary people and their ways of solving problems. However, we still fail to learn our lesson when we validate the Fa. I would like to discuss my experience and the lessons I have learned with fellow practitioners.
1. When clarifying the truth to high-level officials, we must be clear that we are saving them, not begging them for help.
Recently there has been a lot of interference overseas. For example, the incident with NTDTV's signal being terminated and the case of practitioners being harassed by the authorities in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. The situation of truth clarification materials production sites in China being damaged and practitioners being arrested is serious. We all know that these situations happen during the last insane struggle of the evil and we shouldn't acknowledge this interference. But, why do we still have such tremendous interference when the evil elements have been almost cleaned out? I personally feel that when we clarify the truth of Falun Gong either in China or overseas, we should be clear in our minds that we are saving the people and not asking them for favors. Whether the person is a president of a country or a millionaire, this person is, after all, only a sentient being in the maze.
During the Dharma-ending period, people are lost in this human dimension and sacrifice everything for financial and political interests. When democracy, freedom and human rights are challenged by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) political pressure and China's enormous economic clout, some companies and even some countries aren't able to place themselves in a righteous position. These companies and countries have had a strong negative impact and have committed serious crimes by interfering with Dafa. They are not being responsible to themselves or to their countries. People nowadays are selfish and only look for profits. Hence, being Fa-rectification practitioners, we need to be clear that we shouldn't rely too much on ordinary people and their ways of solving problems. Everything in existence is for validating the Fa. We are supposed to help ordinary people know the truth about Falun Dafa and give them an opportunity to choose a beautiful future for themselves. We should not entrust an ordinary person or group with our hope that they will end this persecution. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia,"
"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts. Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those thoughts they can't do anything. When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do a thing. If someone in ordinary society really did restore our Dafa's name, think about it, maybe human beings will do this, but have you thought about this: how high would I have to position that person? Isn't that right? You're cultivators, and all changes come from your cultivation and the Fa-rectification; everything that you yourselves validate and enlighten to, and everything that you'll receive, all this comes from what you have done on your path. Absolutely don't think about any favors the old forces might do for us, or about how the ordinary society might help us. You are the ones saving the ordinary people's society, and you are the ones saving sentient beings!"
Whoever chooses to support Dafa, it signifies the awakening of his or her true nature and his or her kind heart coming back to life. It is also a reminder to the people who are still wandering about in the maze. But practitioners are validating the Fa and not trying to succeed in something based on ordinary people's support. If ordinary people really understand the truth of Dafa, they will support Dafa and practitioners in whatever way they are capable. That's the natural outcome after people understand the situation Dafa is in and that we are not coming to them just in the hopes of getting help from them. The attachment to "hoping for something" will have exactly the opposite effect. I feel that if we can eliminate this attachment when we clarify the truth, the interference will be smaller and the evil elements and the CCP's evil spirit will not be able to sneak into the gaps caused by the attachment.
2. The attachment of depending on ordinary people to choose the content in the truth clarification materials
Take our area for example; during the past six years of the persecution, the practitioners making truth clarification materials have often had arguments with the practitioners distributing the materials. In one aspect, this promoted experience sharing, opportunities for upgrading our xinxing and enriching our experience of making the materials. However, practitioners from other areas gave us some materials that were not from the Dafa websites. I feel that we have to be truthful in doing everything. If we tell an ordinary person that something will happen on a certain date and it doesn't happen, this will result in creating a tremendous barrier between us and that person, and this person will never trust what we say afterwards. This could bring us great loss in saving sentient beings.
In my opinion, the reason that we still have this dependent mentality today is that we still treat this persecution as a persecution by ordinary people against ordinary people. We still want to use ordinary people's articles and methods to persuade people to understand the truth of the persecution so that they will help to end it. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference,"
"[Some things that seem] the same are actually beyond what ordinary people can imagine. [Some things may] appear to be very similar to ordinary people's things, when in fact the situation behind them is completely different--they are like night and day."
When we face people and clarify the truth, it is not about persuading them. It's about using our compassion to touch them and awaken their true nature. If we just want to persuade someone based on principles, sometimes we will get the opposite of what we want. Our words and behavior are part of the truth of Dafa. Our compassion and righteous thoughts can dissolve all unrighteous elements. This is how we can truly save people. I am not saying that we should never employ ordinary people's ways, but we do need to use them in moderation.
3. The dependent mentality between practitioners
This past spring, our information station was raided and suffered a great loss, causing tremendous interference for the local environment. A lot of practitioners dared not to go out and validate the Fa anymore. The source of Teacher's articles and practitioners' experience sharing articles were completely stopped all of a sudden. There were a lot of reasons causing this to happen, but there was one that must not be overlooked: the mentality of dependence.
For the past several years, a practitioner (A) did a lot of detailed and accurate Dafa work. Our local area had almost all of Teacher's articles, many experience sharing articles and truth clarification materials. We even supplied materials to other areas. After a period of time, some practitioners started to look up to and depend on practitioner A and they waited for A to do things. Other practitioners in our local area thought that the evil wouldn't interfere with A because A used to work in a special unit and was different from others. Other practitioners totally ignored the safety issue and didn't support the materials production site with righteous thoughts. Even those who were able to do something financially or technically wouldn't share the responsibility for the materials production site because of their attachment of fear. Practitioner A ended up being in charge of a lot of projects, as well as making the truth-clarification materials, and even had to provide his home for experience sharing. All of these combined commitments prevented practitioner A from being able to study the Fa well and, over a long time, eventually caused irreparable loss.
Being practitioners, how could we rely on one person's special identity for our own safety? The safest way would have been to become part of the Fa. We will be most safe when everything we do conforms to the standards for Fa-rectification practitioners. We will then be able to walk all the way to the last step in this persecution.
Also, we have to practice becoming selfless beings and bear others' interests in mind first in everything we do. Why couldn't we shoulder more Dafa work? Why couldn't we do what practitioner A did since we were all Dafa practitioners? If we could separate the work of building a website from producing articles and making truth-clarification materials, and asked everybody to do his or her best for the work, everyone would have sufficient time to study the Fa well. If practitioners didn't just wait and depend on someone else and could spontaneously do what was good for validating the Fa, the situation would have been totally different. Some areas did a great job in Dafa work because they had great power working as an integrated body. Can we take our attachments of depending on others with us on the day we reach Consummation?
In summary, on the path of Fa-rectification practice, only when we eliminate various dependent mentalities and walk our own path is our own mighty virtue displayed. Only then can we reach the standard of Fa-rectification practitioners and reduce or even avoid losses caused by the evil exploiting our gaps. I would like to finish by quoting Teacher's words in "Eliminate the Dark Minions With Righteous Thoughts,"
"Stop letting the evil exploit gaps, and stop being interfered with by human attachments. Do well the things that Dafa disciples should do, and walk the last leg of the journey well. Righteous thoughts, righteous actions."
The above is my personal experience and is for reference only. Please point out anything incorrect.
