(Clearwisdom.net) Very often we do not have a good understanding of the true relationship between "cultivation practice" and "tribulations." Fearing tribulations will actually bring to us real "tribulations," we have brought to ourselves many unnecessary troubles. In fact, fear itself is an attachment.
Teacher says,
"Qigong practice and true cultivation practice will not lead to illness, particularly under this condition. It is known that what actually causes people to become ill is seventy percent psychological and thirty percent physiological. Typically, one experiences a mental breakdown, the mind cannot handle it, and one suffers a heavy mental burden before the illness’ condition drastically worsens. It is usually like this."
"As a practitioner, if you always think that it is an illness, you are actually asking for it. If you ask for an illness, it will come inside your body. As a practitioner, your xinxing level should be high. You should not always worry that it is an illness, for this fear of illness is an attachment and it can bring you trouble just the same." (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
Although Teacher has stressed this point clearly, in actual practice we are not in accordance with the requirements of Dafa. In addition, when tribulations come, oftentimes we use ordinary human mentalities and conventional thinking to measure and face them. Teacher arranges some difficulties for us to improve. However, because our human side does not have a clear understanding of the Fa, the difficulties become long-term tribulations. Hence, we have changed the opportunities for improvement into the long-term tribulations arranged by the old forces. Being unable to understand the Fa from the Fa perspective might be one of the reasons why Dafa practitioners are still not yet divine-minded.
The old forces are actively seeking loopholes where we are unable to understand the Fa from the Fa perspective. Teacher says,
"As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and have prevented them from doing Fa-rectification. How can the uncultivated side restrain your main thoughts or the side that has already attained the Fa? Having humanly fostered the evil demons, you allow them to capitalize on the loopholes in the Fa." ("Expounding on the Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
Teacher has also told us that when the demons persecute us, they have an excuse that is:
"students’ own karma, inadequate understanding of the Fa, inability to let go of attachments amidst tribulations, inability to deal with things using righteous thoughts amidst painful trials, and so on." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
My understand of the "excuses that the old forces use to persecute Dafa and Dafa practitioners" is that our practitioners should first completely deny the old forces’ pompous excuse. The old force’s persecution of Dafa and Dafa practitioners came about due to their own evil nature. It is not our cultivation practice that provides them with the excuse and environment to persecute Dafa and Dafa practitioners. The path that we take in righteous Fa cultivation is founded in accordance with the needs of the cosmos. The whole process of Fa-rectification is controlled by Teacher. It is absolutely not a matter that can be handled by the evil forces using any excuse. As a matter of fact, the entire persecution against Dafa and Dafa practitioners is all from the excuse of their one-sided wish. However, if in our cultivation practice, Dafa practitioners fail to position this relationship well, we are most probably admitting to the old forces’ arrangements, either consciously or unconsciously. Many tribulations will consequently occur. Besides, the biggest trouble we may have is that we are unable to walk out of the tribulations arranged by the old forces.
Whenever tribulations come, if all practitioners as a whole viewed this evil persecution with our cultivated sides, this persecution might have already come to an end.
