(Minghui.org) From the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 U.S. election, there have been lots of ups and downs in world affairs in the past 12 months, which have affected many practitioners' hearts and minds.

During the pandemic, some practitioners who run their own social media used prophecies made by Liu Bowen (an ancient Chinese prophet), the Mars Boy, the Indian boy, or others, as a way to clarify the truth. Many practitioners also followed the content and cited such information in their truth-clarification to people.

Before the U.S. election, there were also some prophecies that predicted Trump would win the presidency again as the “Chosen One.” When the result didn’t turn out to be what we had hoped for and some other things we had told ordinary people did not come true, some people, as well as some fellow practitioners, felt disappointed and lost. Some practitioners even developed wrong thoughts about Master and Dafa.

Practitioners all know that we should look within. At this point, what should we look inward for?

Prophecies do play a role in enlightening the minds of ordinary people. As a Dafa disciple, we know that with Master's Fa-rectification, we cannot take the prophecies of the past verbatim anymore, and everything is up to Master.

When our hearts are moved, we should examine whether we have completely let go of our attachments to these prophecies or have we just used them as supplementary materials to our truth-clarification. No matter how we clarify the truth, the ultimate focus should still be on Dafa, not on any prophecies. When practitioners became attached to prophecies, they are already placing them before Dafa and Master.

The article written by a fellow practitioner last year about using astrology to make judgments about the development of the pandemic also stirred up attachments in some practitioners. Some talked about the prophecies as solid facts, which of course has caused some trouble for our truth-clarification.

When Trump lost the election, some fellow practitioners were upset and frustrated. Their cultivation state has hindered them from doing the three things well. But some fellow practitioners were able to look within amidst this chaos and cultivate themselves.

The article “Thoughts on the End Time for Fa Rectification and Prophecies” published on Minghui also had some impact among fellow practitioners: some of them may use the young practitioner’s vision of future events in their truth-clarification. It should be clear to everyone that what this young practitioner saw was at his current level, and as to how the reality will develop, that is Master's choice and only Master knows the detailed arrangement. Why should practitioners get upset about the young practitioner's predictions?

Master taught us:

“Only the future of this undertaking of mine can’t be seen. There was simply no future before I set out to do it.” (Teachings at the First Conference in North America)

How the future will be, only compassionate Master knows. Everything is in Master's control. As Dafa disciples, how can we or anyone else see the different levels of Master's arrangements? Some practitioners do see scenes in other dimension, but can we really tell which are the arrangements of the old forces and which are shown by Master, intending to improve our cultivation and for us to better save sentient beings?

Behind the attachment to prophecies, I realize that it is actually an attachment to the time of when Fa-rectification ends. Some fellow practitioners felt that they lived in the torment of the unknown, and time seems forever, and they found some comfort in the prophecies. Some fellow practitioners looked for future direction in the prophecies and even arranged their regular lives according to the prophecies. If a big flood was predicted, they hoarded food and bought waterproof supplies; if the second and third waves of the pandemic were predicted, they began to hoard all kinds of supplies.

When the pandemic occurred last year, some practitioners panicked, thinking that the Fa-rectification would end, that the great elimination would come, that they had not yet met the standard, and that so many people had not been saved. When the pandemic slowed down, such practitioners were relieved. When they saw the prophecy indicating that the pandemic would end around 2025, thinking that there was still time, they began to focus on their everyday lives again and continued to cling to whatever they were clinging to.

I realized that true faith in Master and Dafa is the cornerstone of cultivation. Without faith, how can we talk about cultivation? True faith in Master is unconditional and it runs through every bit of our cultivation. When we see the prophecies made by the ancients, the common people, and fellow practitioners, we should use the Fa to measure them. Calm down and think it through, and then make a rational judgment. The main thing is to rectify ourselves and eliminate attachments at all times!

The celestial body has undergone an earthshaking change. What we need to do now is to calm our minds, find our own shortcomings, measure ourselves against the Fa and walk back to the right path in cultivation.

This is my understanding at my level, please kindly point out any shortcomings.

[Editor's note: Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions, for which the author is solely responsible. Readers should evaluate the article's merits on their own.]