(Clearwisdom.net) Cultivators are at different levels and realms. I noticed an obvious trend by reading articles from disciples in mainland China on the Minghui website:
One person had a strong attachment to doing things, but his Fa study and cultivation of xinxing were not adequate. One day the police were waiting outside the door to arrest him. He thought that he had two choices, either to be arrested, or exile himself to avoid being arrested. He chose exile so that he might continue to validate the Fa. He left everything behind, including a Falun Dafa materials center that was in his home, and escaped. The path he followed has been very difficult.
Another person also had a materials center in the home, but studied the Fa well and cultivated very diligently. One day the police blocked her door. Fellow disciples encouraged her to escape quickly. Instead, this practitioner shut the door, and began to study the Fa. She studied the Fa for four days, and sought out gaps within herself. She realized that the old forces plan should not be allowed to exist. No matter whether it was being arrested or succeeding in an escape, both options would be persecution of a Dafa disciple, and this would cause these officers to sin against Dafa. She upgraded her xinxing, strengthened her righteous thoughts, and opened her door in a dignified manner after four days. The police had left.
Our region had a similar occurrence that aimed at upgrading our xinxing. How well we studied the Fa, looked inside, upgraded our xinxing to dissolve the problem with righteous thought instead of viewing the issue with ordinary human thoughts, determined how well we were able to validate the Fa. Therefore, to fundamentally insure our ability to aid Master in saving sentient beings and help Master in Fa-rectification depends on if we study the Fa deeply, constantly look within, and strengthen our righteous thoughts.
In the past several years, we had fallen into an unclear mindset. As a whole body we have put personal cultivation and Fa-rectification period cultivation in opposition to each other. Do we now have a clear understanding on this issue? Master pointed out during 2003 Lantern Festival Fa Conference that the first task of the three things is to study the Fa and cultivate ourselves. Recently, Master has reminded us again in "Greetings", to study the Fa and cultivate ourselves well. If we neglect personal cultivation, our Fa-study will be superficial, and what we do will merely be completing a task. For a long period of time, we would merely read the Fa during Fa study, then talk about the things we were doing, and share about the things that we were going to do. At this time in Fa-rectification, there still are many disciples who have not stepped out, and the state of the one body is good. But as the Fa-rectification progresses, the requirements will continue to grow higher and higher, and our bits of inborn quality and xinxing will no longer be sufficient, and our conflicts will stand out. If we want to meet the requirement for this stage of Fa rectification, we must break through personal cultivation and study the Fa as one body, and constantly upgrade our xinxing. Our sacred mission to assimilate with Falun Dafa, and save sentient beings must be done as one body.
This is my personal understanding, please correct any mistakes.