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Letting Go of the Attachment to Self, Looking At Things As One Body, and Doing Well In the Course of Validating the Fa

November 08, 2003 |  

(Clearwisdom.net) Looking back at the course of my own cultivation and that of my fellow practitioners, especially from examining past experiences and mistakes, I have realized that forming a flawless single body and advancing as a whole in a region is crucial for denying the old forces' arrangements and providing salvation to all sentient beings. At the same time, it's another aspect of letting go of the attachment to self and the mind-set of proving how well I have cultivated and how correctly I have enlightened, so as to harmonize Dafa with a pure heart.

Below are some understandings of mine drawn from what I have experienced. I submit this article hoping that in future truth clarification efforts, we can all leap out of the notion of self, and think more from the viewpoint of one body.

A practitioner I respect highly said a few days before he was arrested, "My righteous thoughts shine with golden radiance, eradicating all evil beings. The moment they arrest me will be the moment you'll see how I shall eliminate them! A true Falun Dafa practitioner will not be moved in the face of persecution until death." He was arrested and sentenced to some 10 years in prison. At the time I had been getting Falun Dafa materials, as well as Minghui news from him. For almost 6 month afterwards I was unable to obtain any Falun Dafa materials or Minghui articles, including Master's new lectures.

I believe that although practitioners' xinxing (heart or mind nature, moral character) levels may vary, if every practitioner is willing to put him or herself within the whole body, to cultivate and do things together, he will be functioning as a Fa particle. If everyone can become a Fa particle, everybody will be able to better validate the Fa, utilizing our abilities to the fullest, while denying the old forces and providing salvation to sentient beings. On the other hand, if you cannot get rid of the notion of self, even if, on the surface, the things you are doing are the same, from the viewpoint of the Fa, are you doing it for the purpose of establishing virtue, or proving to others that you are right? This will not only be a loophole that the old forces will exploit to persecute practitioners and make their arrangements, it also deviates from the entire progress of truth-clarification. Therefore, keeping a good mind-set of being one body will allow us to better utilize ourselves and eliminate any loopholes. The old forces will no long have excuses to arrange what they wanted to do.

Another practitioner whom I obtain materials from knew before she was arrested that her Falun Dafa material-producing site was monitored. However, she held that, "More than half of the cells in my body have been rectified (this kind of thinking is actually deviated from the Fa). I can sense any evil that is 10 meters away from me." And so she paid less attention to safety and relied completely on supernormal abilities to make a judgment. Consequently, this led to an arrest. I think that this is another way of not being able to step out of personal cultivation. It causes practitioners to loose the ability to rationally reason and to see from the perspective of the overall situation. This impairs the practitioner's ability to consciously make judgments, resulting in loopholes of relying on supernormal abilities. The result is that an individual practitioner was persecuted, and this negatively impacted the whole body.

Recently several practitioners and I noticed many policemen surrounding our building. Due to a variety of reasons, we didn't take immediate action, such as sending righteous thoughts, relocating materials, or eliminating the logs on our computers. At the time all I said was, "There's something wrong today, we should be watchful." However, a practitioner stated, "If in our minds we don't have a notion of whether we will be persecuted or not, and the righteous thoughts are strong, we shouldn't have any problems (This is also a deviation from the Fa, because they have forgotten that on the pretext of all this, they should, instead, walk the righteous path in Dafa, and try to look inward to rectify any incorrect factors in ourselves). Thus I carried some materials and went downstairs myself. As soon as I reached the entrance of the building, several policemen rushed past me and headed upstairs. Later on, I heard that the practitioners were detained in a detention center. This directly affected the source of Falun Dafa materials, as well as information from Minghui. The very night of the incident, I contacted several other practitioners related to this material site, but soon after another practitioner whom I had contacted was arrested and sent to the "610 office" brainwashing center.

These practitioners that were recently detained are those who did truth-clarification work at home. Almost all had, for many reasons after going astray, hesitated for a long time in publishing a solemn declaration. I think this is also a loophole in the improvement of the whole body. For themselves, they were not able to view the solemn declarations from the Fa's viewpoint, unconsciously believing that once you solemnly declare your intention to nullify your previous statement, so and so will happen, etc. The common excuse is, "I'll first continue doing truth-clarifying work. We'll talk about it later." And then they would put it off for a long time. When encountering problems, they often think from the perspective of an ordinary person, "The evil knows I'm 'reformed' and they won't trouble us anymore. I'll wait till the situation gets better and then solemnly declare my previous statement null and void."

As a matter of fact, this actually gives the evil more opportunities, creating unrelenting tribulations for you. How can it get better? When the Fa rectification is brought to a conclusion, there won't be any chance for you to do it. The losses caused by it to the whole body cannot be compensated. I know for a fact that there are many practitioners like this out there, using all kinds of excuses to try to conceal themselves, instead of getting rid of this blemish. I believe that sending forth righteous thoughts still won't be able to clean out the blemish. Master is benevolently providing salvation to all sentient beings, and Master taught us the Fa principles regarding solemn declarations. The purpose is to save us. Solemn declarations are the best way to validate the Fa and deny the old forces. So why be so reluctant to do it? I believe that after getting astray, one should immediately repent for those misdeeds, and once again become a Fa particle. This is also a major part of harmonizing the Fa and making the whole body flawless.

Other practitioners, in the rapid progress of Fa-rectification, for some reason have remained in the past, such as saying that in 1999 I was doing such and such, and during 7/20 of 1999, in 2000, 2001, and 2002 I was doing so and so, etc. What about now? These practitioners often say in conversations, "You have to harmonize the Fa in the ordinary level too, because this is also a level of Fa, because this is the future's only reference, etc." And yet when it comes to the three things Master requires us to do, they don't do so well.

They haven't been using the best way to validate Dafa. Not wanting to change themselves, they always find some passages from the Fa as an excuse to justify their actions, thinking that to conform to the human society as much as possible can replace validating the Fa and clarifying the truth. Oftentimes these practitioners seem more or less slanted against Minghui. Some are even reluctant to send forth righteous thoughts. This is another factor keeping us from advancing as a one body and harmonizing Dafa.

I think that to advance as a whole body and to eliminate loopholes, we Falun Dafa practitioners need to make efforts together. If we can really improve ourselves, the evil old forces will not only have no loopholes to exploit, but will be eliminated altogether, allowing us to better clarify the truth to everyday people. Whenever a problem occurs we must help out other practitioners. We have to expose the evil, look inwards more, and advance as a flawless whole body.

The above are my own understandings, please kindly point out any mistakes.