(Clearwisdom.net)
Master said in the "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.,"
"Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously: The evil in those dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause."
Master's words are the Fa and the Truth. They represent what is required of Fa-rectification particles. Then, if we are not able to do as required or even suffer the evil's persecution, don't we have only ourselves to blame?
Many recent strange persecution phenomena reported on Clearwisdom seem to indicate that the problem has become more serious. Here in China, fellow practitioners and I have also encountered various unusual tribulations. A practitioner wanted to rent a room, but the landlord turned out to be a crook and ran away with his money. Some practitioners got bad cases of scabies, while one developed a high fever whenever xinxing problems arose and had to remain in bed for several days. A rather old motorcycle that most thieves wouldn't want at all was stolen. I was hacked on the Internet. Furthermore, when I saw the arrangements made against individual practitioners by the old forces manifesting bit by bit, I felt helpless and couldn't send out powerful righteous thoughts to eliminate them. Due to a lack of upright understanding regarding sending forth righteous thoughts, all kinds of tribulations emerged, one after another. Although some hardships didn't happen to me directly, all particles of Fa-rectification are one body, so the persecution against other practitioners by the old forces is also persecution against all Fa-rectification disciples, including me. There is no difference.
Here are some examples. A practitioner who is in charge of printing Dafa materials could not get out of bed because of the persecution by the old forces. Then, the practitioners responsible for transporting the materials became too scared to leave home or were suddenly obstructed by family members. Practitioners in charge of layout and typesetting work became very slow due to the interference. Some practitioners who have access to Minghui Net became afraid to read the articles and see that the severe persecution is still taking place, believing that Fa-rectification has already reached its last stage or complaining that the Minghui articles assigned to them are too numerous. Practitioners in charge of distributing materials think that Fa-rectification is close to the end, so there is no need to clarify the truth any more, and it is not worth it to be arrested and take the risk of being brainwashed. Several older women practitioners are even preparing at home to celebrate Fa-rectification in the human world by making wind chimes. Some practitioners are busy extolling their own achievements. Some are so busy doing this that they unwittingly forget the fundamental mission of offering salvation to the people of the world. Some have even obstructed the Consummation paths of other practitioners in order to "establish their own achievements." The old forces are directly exerting physical as well as mental interference. In general, these all have negative effects, obstructing and weakening the power of Fa-rectification, and interfering with the salvation of sentient beings.
My understanding is that the remaining old forces are trying to exploit bad notions, karma and unrighteous thoughts that Dafa practitioners have not yet eliminated. The old forces are fighting against our cultivated side, in order to interfere with our main consciousness. While clarifying the truth in the human world, if we cannot identify what the arrangements and interference by the old forces are and if we do not take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously, then we will be manipulated by the old forces to follow a deviated path. This in turn will allow the old forces to control our main consciousness, and our main consciousness will thus do "bad" things to various degrees. For example, one might not cooperate in group activities, or one might become attached to the notion of self, take no notice of bad xinxing, stick to a rigid way of thinking, feel apathetic, and so on. However, at the same time our human side may still believe that we are in control of ourselves.
Master said in the article "For Whom Do You Exist? (Essentials for Further Advancement),
"If these acquired notions become too strong, their role will reverse by dictating a person's true thinking and behavior. At this point, that person might still think that they are his own ideas. This is the case for almost all contemporary people."
Dafa practitioners have already gone through the stage of personal cultivation. As we are now in the period of Fa-rectification, the degenerate, postnatally acquired notions that are manipulated by the old forces appear to be extremely rampant. If we are unable to recognize them, then not accepting the arrangements and interference by the old forces will become no more than empty talk.
The old forces have taken advantage of loopholes. They know that Dafa practitioners do not accept any external interference, so they have thought of other ways. From the perspective of the overall situation of Fa-rectification, I can see two phenomena: "Dafa practitioners unintentionally helping the old forces persecute themselves" and "the evil using Dafa practitioners' poor understandings to persecute other practitioners." The bad notions (degenerated beings) in our own field of matter know that they will be eliminated if we send forth righteous thoughts. So the old forces control them so as to prevent us from sending forth pure righteous thoughts, which leads us to help the evil persecute ourselves. Because we do not have righteous attitudes towards sending forth righteous thoughts, the impure elements in our own dimensions remain very rampant, resulting in a situation where we cannot do well in clarifying the truth, and this in turn obstructs other practitioners and the overall situation of Fa-rectification.
I have noticed that this phenomenon is all too common. While clarifying the truth, many practitioners have been interfered with and persecuted as a result of other practitioners' impure elements. When one practitioner has loopholes or an excuse to be persecuted, the old forces will use the uncultivated side of fellow practitioners to interfere with his truth-clarification work. This situation, of course, highlights the importance of improving and advancing as a whole body.
Master said,
"You know, when this evil sees that it's going to be eliminated it runs totally rampant. It is bad, it is venomous, and it is evil. And just like poison; if you want it not to poison people it can't do that--that's just how it is. So in the process of eliminating it don't be lenient at all--just clean it out!" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference")
"Even each Dafa disciple's every move, every action, every word, and even the questions you ponder, none of it is that simple. In the future you'll see that everything was very carefully arranged. But it's not me who arranged this, it's the old forces who did." (" Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A")
The only way to break free and eliminate the arrangements and interference of the old forces as a whole and to avoid being controlled by them is to establish powerful righteous thoughts. We should be vigilant at all times to check whether our words and actions conform as much as possible with the overall situation of Fa-rectification and offering salvation to sentient beings, and whether we are able to send forth righteous thoughts that are up to the standard for Fa-rectification particles.
Some practitioners wonder when the Fa-rectification will come to an end. I think Master has already given us a hint, "I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again--that's how important this is ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A")."
Let us examine ourselves and our fellow practitioners to make sure that we have reached the Fa's requirement and are able to send forth righteous thoughts that meet the standard and eliminate the attachment to time and to self.
