(Minghui.org) More than 30 Falun Dafa practitioners in the Fengren District of Tangshan, Hebei Province, were arrested on June 18 this year. Most of their homes were ransacked, and one practitioner died hours later in police custody.

What Went Wrong?

This is a serious lesson as the loss is profound. Each and every Falun Dafa practitioner in our area felt the need to seriously search within for any loopholes the old forces had taken advantage of. Was the problem caused by poor individual cultivation or something related to our lack of cooperation? We all struggled to try to discover what went wrong.

For some time, many fellow practitioners were dealing with “sickness karma.” Some studied the Fa more, summoned up their righteous thoughts, and corrected themselves according to the teachings and got better, while others got stuck in long-term “sickness karma” and felt helpless. Some even passed away.

When we looked for probable causes in those cases, most of us thought: They must have had attachments that were not eliminated and the old forces took advantage of their loopholes. Many practitioners were not clear about it and wondered what the attachments were and how did the old forces take advantage of them?

A Behavior That Blatantly Deviates from the Fa Teachings

Most practitioners in our area are aware of an odd situation that has gone on for over ten years. Someone named Yang claims to be a Falun Dafa practitioner and uses “supernormal abilities” to eliminate “sickness karma” for fellow practitioners.

The practitioners who were “cured” trusted him even more and brought other family members to him for “treatments.” Yang seemed very busy among fellow practitioners who had “sickness karma.” A group of practitioners admired him and followed him closely.

One practitioner noticed that Yang fell asleep during group Fa-study and while sending forth righteous thoughts and that he would vomit or cough right after “treating” a fellow practitioner. When the practitioner showed Yang Master's new article “Another Stick Warning,” he said that it was for the practitioners in Japan and had nothing to do with him.

Reflecting Seriously and Searching Within

Most of the practitioners that had been following Yang closely gradually awakened after reading Master's recent article. Since most of them had actively or passively asked him to solve their “sickness karma,” they might still need a process to completely understand which of their loopholes had been taken advantage of. They need to share and discuss with fellow practitioners, who should support them and help them to rectify the unhealthy elements and return to the path of cultivation.

What can we do to help those who still closely follow Yang and try to defend him?

Master mentioned in the recent article:

“Those practitioners who were heavily involved in this, could the old forces possibly let you off the hook?”

“You’ve already made it through the most difficult part of your journey; don't capsize your boat in a stinking ditch at the very end. I suggest you stay away from this person and don’t give this person an audience.” (“Another Stick Warning”)

Yang's behavior seriously disrupted the Fa and interfered with fellow practitioners—how could it have gone on for over ten years? We thought there were a couple of reasons.

Many of us realized his behavior was not based on the Fa and tried to point it out to him. But because he refused to pay us any heed, we just let him be. We did not do anything else to prevent things from progressing further. We thought that, since we did not get involved in it, we would be fine.

After we studied Master's new article over and over and discussed it and shared our understandings, we realized that we had made a serious mistake. We did not take responsibility for the Fa, fellow practitioners, and ourselves. Safeguarding Dafa is our unshirkable responsibility. By being indifferent to something that seriously disrupted the Fa, didn't we create a loophole for the evil to take advantage of?

Yang attended many activities that validated Dafa. He seemed active, enthusiastic, and diligent. His behavior seemed convincing to many fellow practitioners who were stuck in “sickness karma” and did not have righteous thoughts. They wanted to protect and defend Yang and that gave the evil in other dimensions a chance to do harm. Those fellow practitioners deviated from the Fa and suffered varying degrees of harm.

Dafa practitioners in our area have persevered in clarifying the truth about the persecution and persuading people to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Many practitioners participate, and the results have been good. But besides carrying out our responsibilities, we also have to cultivate ourselves. We should not be complacent just because we do well in one area and thereby overlook things that seriously deviate from the Fa.

What should we do from now on? How can we stop deviant behavior?

First of all, we need to follow what Master told us: “I suggest you stay away from this person and don’t give this person an audience.”(“Another Stick Warning”)

Next, we need to do our best to undo the damage this has caused Dafa. We need to learn on the basis of the Fa how damaging and ruinous such behavior can be to fellow practitioners.

We believe this incident has everything to do with behavior that is not in line with the Fa, as well as the indifference of fellow practitioners. After all, safeguarding Dafa is our non-negotiable responsibility as cultivators.