(Clearwisdom.net) I read on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website that many places had reported incidents of fellow practitioners being arrested, particularly those who were involved in making truth-clarification materials or were coordinators. Some of these incidents have occurred in our area, where a number of practitioners responsible for Dafa materials, Internet contact information, and coordination work were arrested. This has negatively impacted the local efforts for validating the Fa and rescuing sentient beings. As one of the local coordinators, I am also responsible for quite a few tasks. Because I have not studied the Fa very well, I failed to share with fellow practitioners in a timely manner when I noticed some problems, and did not raise my understanding of the Fa. This has led to the repeated arrests of fellow practitioners. After seriously thinking about this with a calm mind, I have written some of my experiences and personal understandings to share with others. Please kindly point out anything improper.
Last August our house was to be demolished. This was why my practitioner wife and I closed our business and came to help with the materials production site. Along with the change in environment, I was determined to do well making these materials. I was deeply moved by fellow practitioners’ enormous sacrifices and the difficult lives they were living, what with loud machine noise all day long and dripping with sweat in summer from working in stuffy rooms.
Because we are short-handed and there are so many projects to be done, each of us has to give a lot. We quietly carried on with what we should do. Initially things went well. We started working at 6:00 a.m. after sending forth righteous thoughts and continued past 6:00 p.m. after sending forth righteous thoughts. Then we studied the Fa and did the exercises. However, as the demand for materials was constantly increasing and there were more and more projects to be done, our Fa-study became less and less. Sometimes we also had to deliver materials and coordinate other sites. We became busier and busier, and machine glitches also became more severe. Sometimes we did not take time to study the Fa for several days, let alone do the exercises. I felt utterly exhausted. Because I did not study the Fa enough, I did not handle things based on the Fa. I frequently tried to solve problems for the sake of solving the problems, unwittingly slipping into everyday people’s work mentality. When I studied the Fa, my mind wandered and I would start to think about work. I could barely calm down. In the evening, when I did study the Fa, I either felt sleepy or was interrupted by phone calls from other practitioners. I felt tired and found it difficult to break out of this weird cycle, having endless things to do, one after another.
I felt it was not right and that I could not go on like this. However, I could not stop making materials. Eventually I made a strong resolution, that I would calm down and study the Fa in the evenings. I also switched off my mobile phone in the evenings. As I increasingly studied the Fa, my xinxing also improved and things returned to normal.
Recently, a few coordinators in our area were arrested. One of the reasons seemed to be they had too much to do, and reduced the time for Fa study. When they sent forth righteous thoughts, their minds were not focused. In some instances this situation lasted for almost six months. They did not improve the situation, even after fellow practitioners reminded them numerous times. In the end they were captured.
Currently the situation of Fa-rectification is moving very fast, and [in my opinion] it has come to the very last stage. There are a lot of things to be done. Many practitioners, particularly those involved in making Dafa materials, or those who are coordinators, can be easily trapped by their attachments to doing things, if they are not careful. I have written the following to remind everyone:
1. "Things" are not on the correct foundation. Some practitioners put doing things first, cultivation second; work first, Fa-study second; solving problems first, improving xinxing second.
2. In order to make sufficient materials, many of our practitioners can keep going for 24 hours without sleep, but they cannot do the same when it comes to Fa-study. Many practitioners, in order to finish printing or type-setting, often stay up until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, or stay up all night. They often stay up until the small hours to fix their computers and sometimes even skip sending forth righteous thoughts. However, when they study the Fa they become very sleepy, and sometimes their thoughts wander as they read.
3. When something goes wrong with a machine (sometimes it is only a very small problem that he/she can easily fix), the practitioner may just superficially send forth righteous thoughts, thinking that it will fix the problem. When they see it did not work, they ask other practitioners to come and fix it. By doing this they have wasted other practitioners’ time and delayed the production of materials. They simply do not calm down and study the Fa or look within and truly improve their xinxing.
4. Whenever a practitioner was arrested, certain other practitioners busied themselves for days with exposing the evildoers and rescuing the practitioner, even moving to another place to avoid the persecution. When another practitioner was arrested, they started the same entire process again for days. They fell into this bad cycle and formed a pattern, and yet they did not think carefully about how to improve their xinxing or how to negate the arrangements of the old forces, [or that it might be a tribulation Master has arranged from them]. Master said:
"Cultivation in the three religions teaches inaction,
Using the mind improperly is with action;
Exclusively doing good deeds is still action,
Attachment discarded is true inaction."
("Inaction" from Hong Yin)
Of course, exposing the evil and rescuing fellow practitioners are what we should do and what we must do, as these are Dafa practitioners’ duty-bound tasks. However, we must have a righteous foundation and should not do things for the sake of doing them, or expose the evil for the sake of exposing it, without improving our own xinxing. We are cultivators who have come to cultivate, not to do things, and therefore we must first and foremost raise our xinxing. Only by raising our xinxing can we do well in exposing the evil and rescuing our fellow practitioners, and only then can we terrify the evil and completely deny the arrangements of the old forces.
Please think about it—in our efforts to rescue sentient beings we might merely earn accumulated virture and never reach consummation. This could happen if we only do a lot of things and make big sacrifices without genuinely cultivating ourselves and improving our xinxing. If this happens, where would the sentient beings, to whom we have offered salvation, end up? Wouldn’t what we have done be the same as that of everyday people's efforts? Then, wouldn’t everything come to nothing? Of course if we do not improve our xinxing, we cannot do things well either. We need to improve our xinxing and cultivate ourselves in the process of doing things instead of just focusing on doing things. It is not that we should not do things, that is not the point. Of course we must do things as part of our cultivation and must first and foremost cultivate ourselves. We need to position these two aspects properly. Fa-study, cultivation and improving xinxing come first. No matter what we do, we must first of all regard ourselves as cultivators and do things solidly and cultivate steadily.
There is also a kind of strange misconception in our area. If a practitioner is arrested and if you say that it is because that practitioner has xinxing problems, which were taken advantage of by the evil, others will say that you have acknowledged the arrangements of the old forces.
We all feel very sad when our fellow practitioners get arrested. But why are they arrested? Where are the loopholes? Shouldn’t we find them and fix them? If we do, the evil will have no way to take further advantage of our loopholes. We all say that we deny the old forces’ arrangements and do not accept them, but without seriously looking within, cultivating ourselves and steadily improving our xinxing, how can we deny the arrangements of the old forces? Our fellow practitioners were arrested due to certain attachments. Do we also have the same attachments? Have we eliminated them? How are we doing as one body? If the rotten demons are before us, will it work if we simply send forth righteous thoughts without improving our xinxing? Even if it works this time, if you do not improve your xinxing and still have the loopholes, then the evil will continue to take advantage of them. The key point is that we should keep improving our xinxing, and only then can we truly deny the old forces’ arrangements. Master had said that we must consider all tribulations as part of our cultivation experience and look for the reasons within ourselves.
I have drafted this message several times. It has taken a long time to finally finish, due to my own negligence. I have now finished writing the message. I will use it to encourage myself, to truly study the Fa well on the remaining path of my cultivation, and to fulfill the pledge I made in prehistoric times to assist Master in Fa-rectification. At the same time, I hope this message can be of some reference and help for fellow practitioners.
