October 2001
(Clearwisdom.net)
I was suspended as a teacher by the school administration for close to a year after revealing the truth about Falun Gong during my classes. Even though I no longer had a teaching position at the school, I continued to do clerical and other odd jobs for minimum wage. Each day my colleagues urged me to wake up, face the reality, and finish writing my repentance affidavits. Doing this would mean either giving up Falun Gong completely, or practicing secretly without ever mentioning it. If I did not heed their advice, my career would be in serious jeopardy and I faced persecution at any time. I became puzzled and wondered to myself, "Was I doing the right thing?"
With more thorough and diligent study of the Fa, I finally broke away from my puzzlement. There should never have been any doubts in my mind about clarifying the truth. However, we must adopt rational, wise, pure, and peaceful attitudes while doing so. I could see that my mentality had not been that calm during the time that I clarified the truth in class, which I believe caused the whole incident to occur. Teacher said that compassion, tone of conversation, and rationality, could change people's minds. If we did not do well it was because of our lack of cultivation. After settling down I discovered that I really had not truly cultivated, but had become complacent. On the one hand I did not study the Fa often; on the other hand I seldom followed up with information available from the Internet, nor did I share experiences with fellow practitioners.
After discovering the cause of my problems, I became more diligent in studying the Fa. I also bought a computer so that I could access the Internet. I felt I was making some progress. During this time the school administrators had numerous discussions with me. The Public Security Bureau, too, contacted me. In either case, I did not spare any efforts promoting Falun Gong and clarifying the truth to them. Most of them had a change of heart. Soon, the school administration again contacted me, and warned me that without the "affidavit to repent," my original position would not be reinstated. I thought to myself, what I was doing was assisting Teacher to rectify the Fa in this world, and I was doing the most sacred task in this universe. I should not be subject to such unfair treatment.
Before I tried to straighten the whole thing out with the school administration, their Human Resource Department had already reinstated my salary to that of a full time teacher. Now my salary has been raised back to the original level. As a true practitioner, it is our Teacher who arranges our path of cultivation.
I discovered three issues while exchanging cultivation experiences with fellow practitioners: Lack of genuine compassion, the deeply buried attachment of fear, and failing to seek within when facing specific issues.
Lack of compassion was reflected by our lack of patience when sharing our cultivation experiences with practitioners who did not comprehend the Fa from the perspective of the Fa. We often failed to take care in providing guidance and assistance to them with kindness. Some practitioners shared their views with a stone face to fellow practitioners with a different understanding of the Fa, and did not cheerfully and openly consider whether their comprehension could be rational. Some practitioners did not care to respond to those who "enlightened" along an evil path, afraid of being influenced by them. They did not have the kind hearts to try to save those fallen practitioners with every possible means. There were practitioners who easily got discouraged when they encountered frustrations and setbacks while clarifying truth to ordinary people, and gave up their effort, thinking their target audiences were too stubborn and were adamant beyond salvation. They did not assess the lessons learned so as to better apply our reason, wisdom, and compassion to save people.
Many problems were caused by the deeply concealed attachment of fear. Teacher told us in his lecture on the Fa, "One righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils." "I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." (Zhuan Falun). Regardless what happens, if one can calmly face it with a calm mind, and carry out one's original plans, there would not be any tribulations brought on by the evil. "Though you find one that has practiced cultivation for nearly one thousand years, a tiny finger will be more than enough to crush it." (Zhuan Falun) "Indestructible righteous thoughts towards the cosmos' Truth form benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, Vajra Bodies; they frighten all evil, and the light of the Truth they emanate makes the unrighteous elements in all beings' thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is." (Master's short article, "Also in a Few Words") Isn't a deeply concealed attachment of fear asking for evil?
Based on our understanding of the Fa, we all know that every situation requires us to seek from within. Yet, we all tend to look for outside influencing factors when faced with specific issues. If a fellow practitioner was arrested, there were always reasons such as he or she was reported to the police by neighbors, or due to the carelessness of other practitioners. Those are just superficial reasons created by the evil to deceive and mislead us. They intend to fool us so that we will not seek the true cause from within ourselves. This then renders us unable to identify our own attachments, preventing us from consistently using our righteous thoughts. The evil would further exploit the loopholes created by us, produce more deceptive appearances, and cause endless tribulations. A practitioner must examine all issues from the perspective of cultivation. Generally speaking, most practitioners who experienced tribulations all demonstrated obvious or sometimes hidden attachments. Such long lasting attachments were the major causes of their lacking pure and calm minds at all times, which in turn provided the loopholes for the evil to take advantage of. If we can all identify our own shortcomings and impurities and purge them with our righteous thoughts, then we can surely eradicate the interference and revert back to our Vajra diamond like stability. Critical incidents will change for the better.
Above is just my own cultivation experience. I hope it can also help my fellow practitioners to improve themselves. I would appreciate any feedback you can kindly provide.
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