(Clearwisdom.net) For a long time I knew, on a theoretical level, that I should negate the old forces' arrangements, but in practical cultivation practice I sometimes could not distinguish whether a tribulation was arranged by Teacher or by the old forces. Recently, when I was studying "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles," the Fa that Teacher taught by answering a question about eradicating the old forces' persecution with righteous thoughts, triggered my thinking of how to see through and eradicate old force arrangements myself. I have studied this part of the lecture again and again, and have come to the following understanding: For every one of us, most of the tests and tribulations in the path of our cultivation practice were arranged as soon as we started practicing cultivation, unless we ourselves do poorly, and there come about some additional tribulations. But the old forces insisted on taking part in them and, in fact interfere with the Fa-rectification process when they do this. Therefore, on the surface it looked as if it was the same arrangement as Teacher's, but the consequences of the tribulations are different. One can pass the tests if they are following Teacher's requirements. The stronger the righteous thoughts are, the faster one passes the tests, but they are almost impossible to pass if one is following the path arranged by the old forces.
1. See Through the Old Force Arrangements
The path of cultivation practice arranged by Teacher is the most righteous but nevertheless, very narrow. To stay on it we are required to hold strong righteous thoughts at every moment. Teacher can do anything for us when our righteous thoughts are sufficient, because Teacher has arranged for it in the Fa early on. However, when our righteous thoughts are lacking and we cannot meet the standard, we have actually fallen off the path that Teacher has arranged, and if Teacher then had to do something for us, it would be something in addition to the original arrangement and would involve huge issues, such as having to redo everything that has already gone through the Fa-rectification. Therefore it cannot be easily done. In my understanding, this is why Teacher said that He could surely protect Dafa practitioners who maintained righteous thoughts and righteous actions. Teacher also said that sometimes He couldn't change things because Teacher cannot protect an everyday person. When our righteous thoughts are lacking we are like an everyday person on that particular issue.
The path of cultivation practice arranged by Teacher is based on the Fa-rectification process. In other words, as long as a disciple is in line with the Fa and raises his/her xinxing when a tribulation comes, he/she can pass it, and it definitely will not affect validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. For instance, Teacher will absolutely not arrange for you to die for not being able to pass the test of sickness karma, or have you sentenced to prison or labor camp and have you undergo some other tribulations in a horrifying way, to remove your attachments. Mostly these are done by the old forces. The old forces' arrangements are based on personal cultivation. In other words, they would firmly grasp the omission in your cultivation practice and go all out to test you, not let you pass if you have not done it perfectly, without hesitating, even if this is going to ruin you. In addition, due to their jealousy, they normally test practitioners in a hard and extreme way. For instance, they would have you imprisoned to remove your lust, or have your family broken and relatives killed to remove your qing.
Therefore, when we cannot pass our tests we should be careful about falling into old force traps.
2. Eradicate the Old Force Arrangements
Only when we have seen through the old force arrangements can we then negate and eradicate them. I was once "transformed" in the labor camp, and have been repenting bitterly about this stain in my path of cultivation practice. Sometimes I imagined putting myself back to that situation and wondered, "Could I negate the old force arrangement completely, refuse to be "transformed," and walk my way out with righteous thoughts?" But taking into consideration the evil environment of the labor camp, as well as my understanding of the Fa and my sustainability at that time, I didn't think I could reach that standard. It seemed inevitable for me to be "transformed." So I had no choice. I concluded that everyone's path is different. That was my level at the time, and I couldn't do anything about it. But after I studied the lecture "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles" as well as the article "Expounding the Dao," I came to understand that it is absolutely not "inevitable" to fail such a big test in cultivation practice. It was because I had taken the path arranged by the old forces which turned my tribulation into a test too big for me to pass, and I "inevitably" failed!
I realized that I didn't see through the old force arrangements and was acknowledging them without knowing it. For instance, I shouldn't imagine putting myself back into the labor camp in the first place before continuing to think about how not to be "transformed." That is already practicing cultivation in the tribulation arranged by the old forces. In that way of thinking, even if I could "break out of the evil den with righteous thoughts" by holding hunger strikes, the loss would have been huge. Sure enough, following the old forces' path is full of dangers. I should negate it fundamentally. In other words, I should negate the labor camp itself. In another instance, I didn't want to be arrested, but unconsciously I was preparing for the arrest on a number of occasions. For instance, I would normally wear suits to work, but upon thinking, "What should I wear in case I am arrested and kept in the detention center?" I went to the department store and bought casual clothes that might be better to wear in the detention center. A third instance happened one day when my father told me, "If you continue to be like this, sooner or later you will run into a mishap. Can you bear it if you were sentenced to prison?" I answered, "These are all my personal acts. I didn't organize any big activities and therefore I'm not qualified for imprisonment. At most it could be forced labor." After I was arrested, I admitted the things that I had done without hesitation, which is equal to cooperating with the evil to persecute and sentence me.
If I believed that my illegal arrest was an unnecessary tribulation in my fate, then following the path arranged by Teacher would have eradicated the tribulation with righteous thoughts. In other words, as Teacher taught in "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference:"
"If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace."
From Clearwisdom.net we can see many practitioners have done it exactly this way. But due to my shallow understanding of the Fa, I accidentally took the difficult and dangerous path arranged by the old forces and have thus caused destructive losses in my cultivation practice.
From this I thought of the practitioners subjected to organ harvesting. In my opinion, because of various personal and historical reasons, the old forces have made a very vicious arrangement for them, which is the inhumane slaughter we see now. The old forces did it as a so-called test of Dafa disciples, especially Dafa disciples outside of the death camps, to see if we have any doubts about the Fa and Teacher under such circumstances. The practitioners in the death camps were mostly imprisoned in 2000 and 2001. Although they are very steadfast in the Fa and Teacher, most of them have not read Teacher's later lectures and have not enlightened to the principle of completely negating the old forces' arrangements, and therefore, to a great extent, are passively bearing the inhumane persecution and failing to follow the path arranged by Teacher to negate the persecution and break out of the evil den.
3. Eradicate All Old Force Interference
Speaking of eradicating all old force arrangements, I realized that some extremely moody or psychologically unsteady states were the result of old force interference by exaggerating some of our attachments. This is because they want to manipulate our every thought. For instance, in the past, my state of cultivation practice always swayed between feeling proud and feeling inferior, and I couldn't "take the middle way" too well. Among everyday people, I have a high degree and am quite capable. Before starting cultivation practice, I was young and arrogant. As soon as I obtained the Fa, it was just like,
"Oh how many the years, looking for the master,
Finally the day has arrived to meet him."(Hongyin)
I was intensively moved. Therefore I thought I had a good enlightenment quality and a greater predestined relationship than others. The old forces thus magnified my attachment of zealotry and grew my arrogance to such an extent that I refused to listen to different opinions. I have gone to extremes on some occasions, exposing myself to the evil on my own initiatives, and incurring persecution. In the labor camp, I believed the lies from those enlightened along an evil way, and took a detour (by signing statements renouncing Falun Dafa). Later I realized the mistake I had made and grieved to the extent that I was willing to die. Then I became very frustrated and wondered if I was still good enough to practice cultivation. In fact, thinking about it now, aren't both extremes their trap? Essentially, all they want is to let you disqualify yourself and fail.
Of course the reason why the old forces had the chance to interfere with me still lies in my having attachments. For instance, both feeling proud and inferior are in fact manifestations of not being able to let go of the "self." Feeling proud when doing things relatively well, in fact, means one still wants to validate oneself. Otherwise if one had realized it was because of Teacher's merciful arrangement and the mighty power of Dafa, what would have been left there for one to be proud of? Now I understand why practitioners who cultivate well are always so humble, it's not because they know it is a virtue and therefore cultivate the humbleness intentionally, in which case it would be with action. Instead, it is because, through solid cultivation, they have understood the meaning of Dafa and are clear about their roles in the Fa-rectification. They would not think of themselves as remarkable. While feeling inferior makes one appear to be "humble" at the surface, it always makes one feel himself/herself to not be good enough. But this is not the same state as that of a cultivator wanting to advance diligently to catch up. Instead it often has something to do with giving up and feeling hopeless. In fact, it is a result of wanting to be "arrogant" but failing, and the reason is still the attachment to "self." Otherwise if one only has one thing in mind, saving sentient beings, he/she would never mind his/her own feelings, because there is no time to feel proud or inferior!
It is exactly this "self" that I couldn't let go of that has kept me from eradicating the old force influence completely in my way of thinking. For instance, I was "strict" with my fellow practitioners. This is just like the way the old forces think, "We won't let you ascend if you go wrong even a bit." Therefore negating the old forces is not merely negating the old forces' persecution, it also means negating their way of thinking and their interference in our minds. Moreover, negation is not something merely said, it reflects how strong one's righteous thought are and how thoroughly one can negate the old forces. The righteous thoughts come only from the Fa, therefore studying the Fa with a calm mind is always the first priority.
April 28, 2006
