(Clearwisdom.net) After reading the article "Dafa Practitioners: Please Pay Attention to the Safety Issue with Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions" and learning the news about the recent nationwide persecution, I'd like to share some of my thoughts.
It's very painful to know that, at a time when the evil is heading toward its demise, practitioners are still being severely persecuted and the evil is still able to orchestrate nationwide persecution. Each practitioner should reflect on this seriously. Every human attachment that we cannot let go of is an excuse for the evil to persecute Dafa and practitioners. This remains true not only with the practitioners who are arrested, but also with every practitioner's long harbored human attachments. Although the old forces still exist, if all of us can let go of our human attachments and be clear-headed and righteous, the evil won't be able to take advantage of our loopholes to do evil.
Study the Fa well and let go of hidden attachments
Only after I realized my fundamental attachment (to the benefits that Dafa can bring me) did I really realize what huge loses I had brought to Dafa because of my human attachments and un-righteous thoughts. This fundamental attachment manifested in many aspects, while at the same time it was deeply hidden and not easy to recognize. It's like a big tree. When problems occur with the leaves and one just focuses on dealing with the problems of the leaves, new problems will occur after the old ones have been dealt with. The fundamental problem lies with the root of the tree. If one doesn't deal with the problem at the root, the problems with the leaves will never be completely resolved.
Several veteran practitioners around me have similar problems. Some of them are very attached to their children. They hope that their children can be outstanding and have a good life. The more they are attached, the worse the children become. Some of the children are even worse than those of everyday people and have had a negative impact on Dafa. These practitioners are troubled by their children all day long. As a result, they can't do the Three Things very well.
Although fellow practitioners keep reminding them, they can't enlighten to their attachments. Although they pay much attention to sending forth righteous thoughts, they do it for their children. They even hope that other practitioners can send forth righteous thoughts for their children to change their poor states. They regard the incorrect state of their children as interference from the evil. They haven't looked within to see whether they have attachments that they can't let go of. Thus they're taken advantage by the evil. This even troubles practitioners who recognize their attachments in this matter. They say the children are better today but worse tomorrow. They can't rectify this for a long time.
There are also practitioners who are very much attached to fear. They dare not openly study the Fa or do the exercises at home. Apart from secretly reading Teacher's articles, they refuse to read "Minghui Weekly" and other materials, nor do they maintain contact with other practitioners, fearing that they will be seen by everyday people if they go visit practitioners. When practitioners point out to them that they should step forward to clarify the truth and save sentient beings instead of staying at home, they go to remote areas to clarify the truth to their relatives. They dare not clarify the truth to the people around them. Even if they do clarify the truth, they do it with the thought that "one can't consummate without clarifying the truth." When other practitioners kindly point this out to them, they refuse to face the problem head-on, finding all kinds of excuses.
There are also practitioners who've become very attached to others' shortcomings. They go to "dig out" one practitioner's attachment today and then go to point out another practitioner's shortcomings tomorrow, claiming that they are being kind to practitioners. They complain that this practitioner is finished or that practitioner has enlightened along an evil path with a dissatisfied and wronged tone. They don't pay much attention to Fa-study. They think that as long as they are doing Dafa work, they are cultivating. They can't enhance their understanding of Fa-principles, nor can they let go of their human mindset for a long period of time, as Teacher said in "Shed the Human Mindset,"
Some students really haven't regarded studying the Fa as something important, and often look at situations that arise among Dafa students with an ordinary human mindset; and it's not limited to blindly admiring certain people. The display of this human mindset truly, in fact, bespeaks of the [difference between] a cultivator and an ordinary person."
Because they can't let go of their human mindset and look at the shortcomings of fellow practitioners with righteous thoughts by offering kind help, practitioners' shortcomings are even harder to be overcome. Our un-righteousness has enlarged the deficiencies of practitioners, created gaps between practitioners, obstructed the improvement of practitioners as a whole, and brought losses to Dafa. All these leave gaps where the evil can take advantage, while we remain ignorant about it. A few practitioners can't take the Fa as their Teacher and often spread hearsay with irrational minds.
We should look at all affairs within the Fa with righteous thoughts
When hearing good news, some practitioners will feel relieved and become more courageous. But when hearing bad news, they will be alarmed and feel frightened. Half a year ago, several dozen practitioners in our area were arrested. Someone spread the information that the evil would search practitioners' homes and we should hide carefully our Dafa books or transfer them to other places. After learning this, a practitioner and I became alarmed and transferred our Dafa books to another place. There were hardly any Dafa books left behind. As a result, our Fa-study had to stop. Several days later, I realized that I was pleasing the evil by transferring Dafa books and stopping Fa-study. The evil had really achieved its goal. I hadn't transferred my Dafa books when the evil was most rampant; why should I today when the evil is near its demise? After realizing this, I started Fa-study again diligently. But the other practitioner ignored his Fa-study from then on. He couldn't resume his Fa-study for a long time. Everyday he was tangled by all sorts of things and couldn't become clear-headed.
Another problem is that, whenever a practitioner is arrested, we can't look at this issue from the perspective of the Fa. Instead, we look at it superficially with a human mentality. For example, when we analyzed why practitioners had been arrested, some said it was because the evil had been stirred up by the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party they distributed. We didn't look within harder to see whether we still had attachments, or whether we were not righteous enough. Normally, after we distributed the Nine Commentaries, the evil should have been reduced and the persecution should have lessened. It's not true that the evil will persecute us because we distribute the Nine Commentaries.
Another example was that when some practitioners read the news in issue 198 of the Minghui Weekly about the National Security Bureau holding a secret meeting and preparing to force the work units to persecute Dafa disciples, they instantly became alarmed instead of denying the evil's arrangement with righteous thoughts.
Sometimes when practitioners have been persecuted because they've deviated from the righteous path, other practitioners say, "Look, they're under surveillance again." They talk as if this had nothing to do with them at all. They didn't support the persecuted practitioners with righteous thought to reduce the persecution. They were actually helping the evil unknowingly.
Recently the evil 610 Office staff in our local area sent some practitioners who had finished serving their illegal sentences to a brainwashing center. Apart from sending forth strong righteous thoughts, we should all look within to see if there is anything unrighteous within us, or whether we still have omissions as a whole. Only after we cultivate away our unrighteousness can we fundamentally deny the evil's arrangements.
Briefly, the most important thing I enlightened to is that it is the human mindset and the lack of righteous thoughts and righteous understandings of Dafa, as well as attachments, that are the fundamental excuses the evil uses to persecute Dafa and practitioners.
I hope that we can all become clearheaded, just as Teacher said:
"When disciples have sufficient righteous thoughts, master has the Almighty power to turn the cosmos around." (from "Grace Between Master And Disciple," "Hongyin" II, provisional translation subject to improvement)
"Calmly reflect on how many attachments you have As you get rid of human mentality, evil naturally disappears"(from "Don't Be Sad," Hongyin II, provisional translation subject to improvement)
With an attitude of being responsible to Dafa and practitioners, I have talked about the shortcomings of practitioners. My only purpose is to remind practitioners to discard their human mentalities and establish righteous thoughts earlier so that we can walk our way in a straight line, reduce the losses, end the persecution earlier, and not disappoint Teacher's merciful salvation.
