(Clearwisdom.net) On August 9, 2007, the human rights torch was lit in Athens, Greece. It and an exhibition exposing the truth of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) persecution of Falun Gong practitioners will tour thirty five cities around the world. How should practitioners view these events? Some practitioners were stirred up psychologically. One practitioner stayed up the whole night of August 8 for the morning of August 9. What kind of mentality does this show?
It's true that practitioners have experienced unimaginable difficulties in their truth-clarification and Fa-validation efforts in China. Under high pressure from the CCP, they use their benevolence to save people. When good news came, I felt a warm wave spreading in my heart. Then I calmed down and thought it over carefully. Isn't having good news a manifestation of a new era of the Fa-rectification? Why should we be moved by the news? Isn't this our attachment to relying on something? This could even become an major hurdle that many practitioners need to rectify in their cultivation.
It is not accidental that Clearwisdom.net repeatedly publishes practitioner's articles. It is telling us that we need to get rid of our deeply hidden attachment to relying on others. If we can't look inwards all the time, but instead, keep being dragged by external circumstances, we'll remain at a certain level and never proceed further on our cultivation paths. Then our attachments will keep the persecution condition here.
In the final Fa validation period, whether we remain stable or not will directly impact the Fa-rectification progress as a whole. Many practitioners saw in their dreams that when the Fa-rectification period ended, there were still many sentient beings that were not saved due to our sluggishness. How will we feel if that really happens?
Therefore, we should not be affected by negative situations. For example, the CCP started "visiting" practitioners in some areas and the persecution was intensified in some areas. So some practitioners felt the pressure and wondered if they should stop their work temporarily to wait for the bad situation to be over. This is exactly what the old forces expected.
By the same token, we should not be moved when there is positive progress at certain levels, either.
Teacher said,
"There once was a person who became an Arhat after much effort in cultivation. As he was just about to attain Right Fruit in cultivation and become an Arhat, how could he not be happy? He was going to transcend the Three Realms! Yet this excitement is an attachment, an attachment of elation. An Arhat should be free of attachments, with a heart that cannot be affected. But he failed, and his cultivation ended up in vain. Since he failed, he had to start all over again. He resumed his cultivation, and after much painstaking effort he again succeeded in his cultivation. This time he became scared and reminded himself in his mind: "I shouldn't get excited. Otherwise, I'll fail again." With this fear, he failed again. Fear is also a kind of attachment." (Zhuan Falun, 2000 version)
Therefore, both the positive and negative factors are just tests for us.
I understand Teacher suggested that when practitioners were facing bad things we did rather well but when faced with good things it was not easy for us to pass the test (not Teacher's original words). When we are stirred up by the human rights torch event, that's the reflection of our attachment deep in our heart longing for the persecution to be over.
No matter what happens, we should just do what Teacher told us - do well the three things. Our current task is to save sentient beings to the maximum extent. This is the most important thing. We should not deviate our direction due to any other thing.
