(Clearwisdom.net) After studying Master's 2008 greeting, "Again Wishing a Complete Success to the European Fa Conference," I understood that although Master wrote the message for the practitioners attending the European Fa Conference, this message also reflects Master's expectations for all Dafa disciples. Master said,
"I also hope that those students who have not been so diligent all along will be able to find where they fall short, step forward, and fulfill their historic missions. Time waits for no one!"
We cultivate ourselves amidst ordinary society, so our notions of self-interest, desire for recognition and emotions can affect us any time and at any place. Once we relax our righteous thoughts, we might very well drift along with the current of ordinary society and be dragged back into humanness. Even more seriously, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has relentlessly persecuted Dafa practitioners and tried to block our cultivation paths, exposing us constantly to tremendous pressure. All practitioners know that Dafa is good, and we should save sentient beings, but fear has stubbornly stood in the way of our cultivation path. If we cannot overcome this obstacle, we will be unable to forge ahead.
As I understand it, Fa rectification is about to end, and Dafa disciples are about to reach consummation. How could the old forces let Dafa practitioners smoothly reach consummation? As Master has reassured us--the number of evils is already low, so how could they still continue to stage such severe persecution? This means that all remaining evil has been mobilized to use their full powers to drag Dafa disciples down and attempt to make them fail in cultivation.
The frenzy that the evil displayed before its final demise indeed constitutes a profound test for Dafa practitioners. Are we genuinely cultivating ourselves, or merely faking our cultivation? "In the face of tests one's true nature is revealed." ("True Nature Revealed" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Master said,
"Dafa disciples, all the way until their last step to Consummation, will be tested as to whether they can make it. There could be very, very critical tests for you all the way until you are just one step away from finishing. That is because every step becomes more and more critical to your cultivation and your tests, especially toward the end. You know, those lawless gods of the old cosmos will try to maneuver things until the very end, as long as they are still around. When you are not up to par, they will surely try to find a way to bring you down. They know that Li Hongzhi won't abandon you, so they will use all kinds of methods to make you fall. Having just one single thought be off will make a person falter. So the closer it is to the end, the more serious and crucial the tests will be." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
Dafa practitioners definitely need to see through the old forces' plots. If Dafa practitioners do not step forward to validate the Fa, offer salvation to sentient beings and do what Dafa practitioners should do, are we still Dafa practitioners? Practitioners who are not diligent: the evil can control you and make you unable to step forward by simply aggravating your attachments. Practitioners who dare to step out but whose minds are not pure enough, for them the evil can use arrests and persecution to compel you to give up cultivation. Dafa practitioners need not only step forward, but also maintain pure and righteous minds to offer sentient beings salvation. With righteous minds and actions, and with Master's protection, nothing can derail Dafa practitioners.
From another perspective, how much effort and sacrifice has Master made to save us? Since there are still sentient beings who are longing for salvation, we have no reasons for not stepping forward. Seeing so many sentient beings on the brink of destruction, how could we not act to offer them salvation?
When one Dafa practitioner succeeds in cultivation, how many lives will have benefited? When I was detained in a forced labor camp, one practitioner whose third eye was open said that even his father, who had already passed away, was looking forward to his success in cultivation! Even if we do not want to cultivate ourselves, we still need to cultivate ourselves diligently for those beings that are longing for salvation! Do not consider the persecution as something scary. How many practitioners in China have not been persecuted? Tribulations cannot ruin genuine Dafa practitioners. Haven't all of us overcome obstacles?
The practitioners' human sides are cultivating during the process of cultivation. That means that practitioners are not yet free of their human attachments. As long as the old forces' elements still exist, these entities will do what they want to do. If we unknowingly conform to their arrangements, they will come to interfere and sustain the persecution.
What needs to be done? We must not be filled with fear! If fear arises, we must face it squarely. We should believe in Master and the Fa, and negate fear with righteous thoughts and actions and continue on our cultivation path. Even though we might be persecuted and our personal freedom is curtailed, we can still clarify the facts to police, guards and inmates we see, and send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil there. So, our path of offering sentient beings salvation can never be blocked. Persecution can only change the circumstances for saving people but is unable to change our will to do so.
The evil has exploited our human attachments. When we let go of the attachment to self, correctly position our minds, and wholeheartedly save sentient beings, the evil will be unable to find weaknesses to exploit, so it cannot harm us. No matter where we are, our paths to save sentient beings are always open.
The suffering we were subjected to during the persecution, no matter how severe, cannot be compared to what we will gain in the future. What we gave up is "a tiny bit of green," while Master will give us is a whole forest. We are the ones who benefited the greatest, while all the persecutors are under the control of the evil, as are people who are deceived by the evildoers' lies. They are also persecuted ones!
Once we abandon selfishness, fear will automatically vanish. When we treat sentient beings with the compassion of a divine being, the word "persecution" will not come to our minds, as all we have in mind is to save the sentient beings.
