(Clearwisdom.net) At the beginning of last year, a practitioner in our city, who has only cultivated for two years, was illegally arrested.

This practitioner had opened a clinic. When some practitioners heard that each day she persuaded 20 to 30 people who visited her clinic to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its related organizations, they developed the attachment of admiration. They frequently went to the clinic to see how she persuaded people. Some practitioners went to her clinic to work with her to encourage patients to withdraw. Other practitioners went to her clinic to see how she persuaded people, pretending that they were patients. Still others led other practitioners to the clinic to learn from her. These human attachments finally caught the attention of the CCP's secret agents, who arrested the practitioner.

In the middle of 2008, one very good practitioner passed away. This practitioner's third eye was open. Over the last several years, those practitioners who admired her had almost gone to the extreme in learning from her rather than from the Fa. They thought that everything she said was right. Before she passed away, a practitioner saw that she had already deviated from the Fa, pointed out her shortcomings to those who admired her, and also tried to persuade those practitioners not to have the attachment of admiring her. However, once those practitioners heard that this practitioner talked about the shortcomings of the practitioner whose third eye was open, they started to argue with this practitioner. Other practitioners, driven by jealousy and other attachments, had isolated the practitioner whose third eye was open and turned her away. In the end, she passed away.

Recently, another practitioner was illegally arrested. The practitioners in the city worked in a timely fashion to try to rescue her. However, several days later, she was taken to a forced labor camp. After the practitioners painfully examined the cause, they again found that her arrest was due to the attachment of admiration. This practitioner had gone out everyday to clarify the facts. Every day, she would persuade seven or eight people to withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations. After many practitioners heard about this, they developed the attachment of admiring her. Before the practitioner was arrested, some of her attachments had started to get worse. She even said, "What is the use of still preparing those materials to expose the evil persecution? Where are the evil elements? It should be fine to just let people withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations." At that time, she should have been alert to her attachment. But, on the contrary, she was invited to different areas to share her understandings. Rather than saying that she "shared her understanding," it would be more accurate to say that she gave speeches. The coordinators also arranged for some practitioners to go out with her to learn how she clarified the facts to people. Just as she led five other practitioners to clarify the facts, she was arrested.

The attachment of admiration is very difficult to recognize when it initially appears. For example, we wanted to file a lawsuit against a certain police department, so we needed to prepare a legal statement. Practitioner A mentioned that Practitioner B in another region knew the law very well, and we should go to consult B. After we came back, I wrote the statement according to B's viewpoints. After I finished the draft, I let Practitioner A review it. Practitioner A removed all the contents that reflected B's viewpoints and replaced them with some content from a pamphlet. I felt very uneasy when A removed that section, and I almost had a conflict with her. I searched within myself and sent righteous thoughts to eliminate my human notions. I did not know that this was a result of my having developed the attachment of admiring Practitioner B after talking with him. After one practitioner pointed out that I had the attachment of admiration, I looked inward and recalled the situation at that time. I did feel that I had had the attachment of admiration. Soon after that, the practitioners in my city invited B to our region to share understanding, and they wanted me to attend the sharing, too. When another practitioner and I shared our understanding on this issue, I suddenly came to realize one point: Every practitioner has what he or she has enlightened to from the Fa and what he or she has broken through. If a practitioner takes this bit of what he or she has understood and goes everywhere to tell others, this practitioner has already been validating him or herself. If others admire the practitioner and invite him or her everywhere to share understandings, these practitioners have already developed the attachment of admiration. If this attachment cannot be corrected in time, it is very dangerous; the practitioners may unknowingly deviate from the Fa.

After understanding what the attachment of admiration is, and after recalling the irrational behavior of those who admired that practitioner who had passed away, I saw the harm of having the attachment of admiration, which can make practitioners irrational, cause discord among practitioners, and is a very big hurdle on the path of practitioners' validation of Dafa.

Because the attachment of admiration has caused much loss to Dafa, none of us should develop this attachment and set ourselves up as a role model among fellow practitioners just because we might have done well in some aspect. Teacher said, "The desire to show off plus the attachment of zealotry are most easily exploited by the demonic part of your mind." ("Definitive Conclusion" from Essentials for Further Advancement) None of us should take another practitioner as a role model just because this practitioner has some particular skills or has done well in a certain period of time; otherwise, we are hurting this practitioner as well as ourselves. We should not assume that the persecution of other practitioners has nothing to do with us. We should have matured amidst the bitter lessons, and we should not keep making the same mistakes.

With the goal of rectifying the aspects that we have not done well in, I want to remind the coordinators of various regions of Master's Fa so that we may walk well the path from here on out:

"Also, in some regions people have organized so-called 'Fa-preaching groups' without permission, acting pretentiously among students and swindling people everywhere. There are people who also invite individuals to give speeches, thereby undermining and interfering with students' cultivation. On the surface these people appear to be spreading Dafa, but in reality they are promoting themselves. A student's cultivation is arranged systematically by my Law Bodies. It is only that some students don't know this or they remain unaware of it. So aren't these people causing interference? It is especially difficult for those who have just started learning the Fa to make a clear distinction. There are also people delivering so-called 'speeches' in conferences that are attended by thousands. What they say is all about themselves. They even define some sentences of Dafa or interpret Dafa, with their bodies emitting to the students black karma and attachment substances. I have stated explicitly in Zhuan Falun that this is forbidden. Why don't you think about this? This is especially so for those who are in charge of hosting and have invited people to do those things, for you might have inflicted some intangible harm to Dafa disciples, and you are no longer qualified to be in charge of Dafa disciples. Without listening to me or following the requirements of Dafa, how could you be my disciples? Isn't this going against Dafa? If this isn't an act of harming Dafa, what is it? My disciples, you shouldn't always be unaware of these things until I point them out. In fact, everything is included in the Fa. Why not read the books more? I suggest that everyone set his mind to reading ten times the book I wrote, Essentials for Further Advancement, which you call scripture. When your mind isn't at peace, studying the Fa is not effective. You should study it with a peaceful mind." ("A Heavy Blow" in Essentials for Further Advancement)

This is my personal understanding. Please point out anything that is improper.

January 9, 2009