(Clearwisdom.net) Fellow practitioners often talk about stepping out to clarify the truth and saving sentient beings. I am a Dafa disciple that didn't step forward until 2003. What follows below are some of my own limited understandings.
If there were no persecution by the old forces, people could learn about Dafa through ordinary means. They would not have formed misunderstandings or prejudices from listening to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lies. Furthermore, they would not be led to commit offences against Dafa. However, the persecution has taken place and for this reason Fa-rectification period disciples have undertaken the mission of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. Stepping out to clarify the truth has become one of the three things we must accomplish.
Stepping out to clarify the truth is an important matter for all Fa-rectification period disciples' cultivation, and a requirement of Fa-rectification cultivation. As Fa-rectification period cultivators, we must step out and save sentient beings by clarifying the truth. Even more important, we need to cultivate well to remove our human attachments while clarifying the truth, in order to truly step out of our human notions.
The process of stepping out to clarify the truth is a constant elevation in the Fa. When I first came out to clarify the truth, I carried a lot of "qing." I had gratitude towards Dafa and a psychological fear of dropping down. I had many impulses to validate myself. I had very little knowledge of why Fa-rectification is needed, and what the meaning of being a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple is. In the course of clarifying the truth, I continued to study the Fa, constantly deepening my understanding of Fa-rectification. I came to understand a Fa-rectification period disciple's mission and felt the layer upon layers of the Fa's inner meanings. Over the course of time, I went from understanding Dafa through my senses to gradually progressing to understanding Dafa through reason and logic.
I enlightened to the understanding that clarifying the truth is a process of continuously removing human notions. Notions are the foundation of all types of human attachments. For example, when I first began to clarify the truth, the moment I handed out materials [flyers], I did not have the tranquility of a Dafa disciple doing godly deeds nor the divinity of saving sentient beings. Instead, I wondered if I was doing something wrong. I thought about whether I was participating in politics. Was I interfering with the order of society? What if I was reported to the authorities? If something happened to me, what would happen to my family?
Of these notions, some were from long-term indoctrination of crooked logic and evil rhetoric by the communist party; the accumulation of human notions from life; and selfish self-centered elements of the old universe. In the process of coming out to clarify the truth, these notions were often everywhere. Sometimes, while thinking of a single thought the notions would erupt out of my head. This situation interferes with our righteous thoughts and disturbs our righteous conduct because it exists on the material level. However, through the process of stepping out continuously and suppressing our improper notions, Dafa will constantly assimilate them. They will become less and less, little by little. Righteous thoughts become stronger and stronger.
Stepping out to clarify the truth is a process of continuously getting rid of the human heart. In the beginning of clarifying the truth, I often had a heavy attachment of fear and other attachments. Soon afterwards, the attachment of completing assignments, the attachment of accomplishing things, attachment of joy, to showing off, and the attachment of doing things as if they were everyday work emerged. Confronted with unsuccessful face to face truth clarification, my attachment to competition emerged. When faced with difficulty, the attachment of difficulty appeared. When the coordination of our entire group wasn't good, the heart of complaining emerged. Also the feeling of putting in more effort and bickering with Dafa over loss and gains emerged. These attachments are different from the ones faced in our personal cultivation practice. It demands that we give up even more of ourselves, and no matter what, it demands that Dafa is the most important thing in our lives. The process of stepping out and clarifying the truth is also the process of continuously finding out our own human attachments, and continuously cultivating to rid ourselves of them
Stepping out to clarify the truth is also the process of removing selfishness. When I first began to clarify the truth, I carried with me the urge to validate myself. I was under the restriction of my notion of self. I seldom viewed a situation from the deceived people's point of view or considered their things. In fact, if we think about sentient beings waiting hundreds and thousands of years to know the truth of Dafa, and their current dangerous plight, we would be more diligent and more conscientious. Think about all the benefits and happiness we have obtained in Dafa and the pitiful situation of people being "poisoned" by the lies against Dafa. When we clarify the truth we should be more lenient and have more empathy. We should furthermore consider things from their point of view and not be focused on our own understanding or our own comprehension. We should truly dissolve ourselves into Dafa and consider other's ability to accept and understand us. We should consider their attachments. If we can do this, clarifying the truth will have an even better effect.
Only when stepping out to clarify the truth, paying attention to Dafa, adjusting our every thought and every notion, and getting rid of selfishness, can we truly step out of being human.
This is only some of my understanding. I wished to write it down to encourage myself and discuss it with my fellow disciples. If any parts are inappropriate, please compassionately point them out.
January 14, 2006
