(Minghui.org) In Teacher's recent lecture “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” many practitioners in our local area were shocked and felt deeply saddened with the seriousness of Teacher's words towards certain practitioners. Teacher said:
“A while back, some Dafa disciples had not yet stepped forward, so we had to wait and do our best to have them come forth. But the time for this is running out. When I saw students who came out of China, I urged them to tell the students who haven’t stepped forward to quickly do so—to have them quickly find those lost students and spell the facts out for them, for what they otherwise face is a most tragic of ends.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
Teacher has repeatedly emphasized that practitioners must validate the Fa, and that He does not want any practitioners to be left behind. The time for practitioners to save sentient beings is getting less and less, and Teacher has told practitioners in China to find those that have not stepped forward to do what practitioners are supposed to do and to try to help them to do so. We should not hesitate or be afraid of difficulties that may lie ahead, and we need to devote our efforts to doing this task.
After more than ten years of Dafa spreading around the world, many practitioners have come to learn the Fa and have proceeded diligently in cultivation. However, there are still some practitioners that have failed to live up to Teacher's requirements. Among those who have not to come through, some of them still remember Dafa; some have forgotten how to do the exercises; some have lost contact with other practitioners; some have turned to other religions; some have been taken advantage of by the old forces; and some have stumbled and feel too ashamed to come back to study the Fa with other practitioners.
All practitioners have huge responsibilities and missions in life, and whether a practitioner cultivates well or poorly determines whether countless beings can be saved or not. Teacher said:
“Cultivation is no trifling matter. And that’s especially so for Dafa disciples, who shoulder such great historic missions. Bound up in that mission is the survival, the life or death, of simply countless beings. Wouldn’t you call that something major? It’s a huge thing.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
Helping one such practitioner, so that he or she can step forward and fulfill their vows, will lead to the saving of a gigantic cosmic body. With an impact so enormous, the corresponding difficulty is likewise great. It will require much patience and time in one’s own efforts. When one tells the facts to an ordinary person, that person will be saved as long as they understand that Dafa is good and agrees to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. But for a former practitioner, one needs to help them strengthen their righteous thoughts, overcome their attachment of fear and any other unresolved issues in their minds, provide them with a suitable environment to gain confidence in clarifying the facts to people and do what practitioners need to do. It may require a great deal of effort in order to change things. This is Teacher’s requirement, and is most likely the wish of those former practitioners when they first came to this human world. We need to work hard to save them.
Practitioners of one Fa-study group began to look at their own phone books, looking for the phone numbers of former practitioners, so that they can clarify the facts to them. In talking with former practitioners, we need to be considerate of their situations and their feelings. We need to first find out what truly caused them to stop practicing, and be patient and careful in our approach.
Teacher said:
“With human beings... when a being can obtain the Fa today in history, it's no ordinary thing--he's so fortunate! But as soon as he loses the Fa, do you know what he faces? It's really horrific, because when he fails to fulfill the major responsibilities and the huge missions that were bestowed upon him, then, accordingly, that's like the inverse of a being's Consummation, and he will truly have to enter the gate of no-life. You folks can't just go and abandon a person without trying hard enough. No matter what kind of mistakes someone has made, or what kind of a person he is, I still want to give him a chance.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference”)