(Clearwisdom.net) When the persecution began in 1999, Falun Dafa practitioners in China lost their environment for group Fa study and sharing, became isolated, and had their efforts to cultivate, clarify the truth, and save sentient beings interfered with. Soon after, Master published a new article on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website to confirm the position of the website and to point out the sometimes inappropriate attitude we have when reading Minghui/Clearwisdom. After that, the website became a mutual sharing platform for all practitioners, and practitioners around the world became connected through the website.
Minghui/Clearwisdom has really helped practitioners to elevate in their cultivation, validate Dafa, and save sentient beings. In addition, Master has continued to publish new articles on the website periodically. Obviously, practitioners recognize the importance of Minghui/Clearwisdom. However, quite a few practitioners have gone to extremes and consider the articles on Minghui/Clearwisdom to be the absolute authority, even as great as the Fa. Some people consider the articles, the views of other practitioners, and news items to be absolutely correct and reliable. Besides that, such people even follow the authors of the articles, instead of their own understandings of the Fa. To do this, I feel, is an enormous mistake and must be corrected.
Reading experience sharing articles can greatly influence one's elevation of character (xinxing). However, these articles are not the Fa, and we should look at them rationally. Some of the articles express a certain viewpoint and have limitations. If a certain practitioner is at a different level in his or her cultivation than that of the author, and looks at it from a different angle, he may find that what is being said in the article is contrary to his or her understanding, and may even not be in accordance with the Fa at that level. I am going to cite an example.
"Righteous Thoughts in Heart, Unlimited Power of the Fa" published on June 18, 2006, (minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/8/16/135674.html) told about a practitioner who was being persecuted by an evil influence in a different dimension, which caused the person to have a toothache. This practitioner sent forth righteous thoughts, "eliminated the old forces, disintegrated the old Fa principles, cleaned up the karmic field, and totally eliminated the evil." After the practitioner recited the sentences three times, his toothache disappeared. He felt as good as new. This incident encompasses a lot of significant factors. Some who read that article might think only about the miraculous effect of simply sending righteous thoughts. They might neglect their cultivation and not work to improve their character. Instead, they might pay more attention to just saying the four sentences. Some Dafa practitioners wrote the exact words down and passed them on to others. As a result, some practitioners showing symptoms of various illnesses not only failed to get rid of their symptoms, but also felt worse.
When we look at those four sentences against the Fa, we will see the problem. We have never been told to use our righteous thoughts to cleanse a karmic field. Master said, "In fact, sending forth righteous thoughts, strictly speaking, does not put much emphasis on karma itself, and it's even unnecessary for cultivators to send forth righteous thoughts directly toward karma." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005") Master has never to asked us to "disintegrate the old Fa principles." In every dimension of the universe, before the Fa-rectification, the old principles cannot be disintegrated, otherwise serious problems could occur.
About two years ago, many sayings appeared on talismans (1) practitioners were handing out such as, "Recite 'Falun Dafa is good' and all illnesses will be gone, and joy and longevity will arrive!" "Recite 'Falun Dafa is good,' and natural disasters will not befall you." Many amulets had the image of a Buddha on them. Other practitioners felt that giving out amulets was not appropriate and talked with the practitioners who made them. Some practitioners didn't listen to the suggestions because such words had been published on Minghui/Clearwisdom. For an ordinary person, his fate is arranged by Heaven. If he recites "Falun Dafa is good," Master said that it could lessen the effect of karma. To say all diseases will be gone is not accurate. Master said words to the effect that reciting "Falun Dafa is good" can decrease the effect of the karma but not eliminate all the karma, so if ordinary people still have karma, how can we say that all the illnesses will be gone? In recent years, there were so many natural disasters, severe rainstorms, droughts, and sandstorms all over China. When the natural disasters hit, many people recited "Falun Dafa is good." How can we say that they will not encounter natural disasters? Putting a picture of a Buddha on the talismans is inappropriate, as Master mentioned in a recent New York lecture Question and Answer session.
Because of limited space, I will not mention every single example here. Dafa disciples should consider the Fa as the standard, not any other "authority." In everything, we should act according to the Fa. We should never do anything that fails to meet the standard. Some practitioners say that anything from the Minghui/Clearwisdom website should not pose any problems for us. True, by and large, its goal and direction should not cause any problems. However, because cultivation is involved, and we are Dafa disciples, no matter what we do or when we do it, we should not forget to use the Fa as our criterion. If we encounter troubles, we should be aware that those are the areas we need to improve in our cultivation.
Dafa practitioners should acquire the habit of using the Fa as a guide during the process of cultivation and saving sentient beings. This is indeed very important!
Note:
1. Amulets and talismans - In China, practitioners sometimes clarify the truth by giving people something small to wear or cherish, bearing a few words reminding them of the goodness of Dafa.