(Clearwisdom.net)
After Jiang's regime illegally cancelled their visas, Dafa disciples went to the China Liaison Authorities and held a sit-in appeal in front of the building. From the perspective of everyday people, this was a special approach adopted under the repressive persecution by Jiang's regime to lobby for the right to freedom of belief and expression, and it was reasonable and lawful. From the perspective of Fa-rectification, clarifying the truth and exposing the evil, there was nothing wrong with it either. The court case in Hong Kong is the manifestation of the old forces taking advantage of practitioners' omissions because of their individual attachments and insufficient understanding of the Fa. They are thus interfering with the Fa-rectification, and persecuting Dafa and Dafa disciples.
Regarding the lawsuit, each practitioner involved has, after looking within from the perspective of individual cultivation, found attachments. These attachments include the competitive mentality, the mentality of showing off, and yielding under pressure rather then acting according to the Fa (insufficient understanding on the basis of the Fa for the appeal). Often when making decisions, we did not realize our responsibility to the Fa. Instead of using the Fa to gauge the situation, we dealt with it using our human notions. When deciding on how and when to do certain things, each person had his or her own reasoning. Therefore each of us should examine ourselves to see where we can elevate our xinxing (mind or heart nature, moral character).
Below we would like to share our understandings on individual cultivation, from our experiences in court over the past 15 days.
Background information:
We were charged by public prosecutors on two counts. The first was that we could have been a hindrance to the traffic, though in reality, we only occupied 1.5 meters of the 9.5-meter walkway and did not block the traffic. The second was that the banner we raised could offend some people. An appeal without any banner--could it still be called an appeal? There were also other charges, but they only involved particular fellow practitioners and will not be detailed here.
Based on the principles of the human world, we did not violate any law.
A fellow practitioner said that sitting in the court was like going to school. When we did not do well in an exam, we had to take it over until we finally passed. This lawsuit would continue until we reached the understanding that we were supposed to have. Such an opinion is reasonable for individual cultivation, but it is wrong during Fa-rectification. During Fa-rectification, Teacher is keeping an eye on the overall situation and everything about us. Even if we still have personal attachments and human notions, the evil is not qualified to test us. Therefore, when encountering such a meritless lawsuit, we must recognize the component of interference with the Fa-rectification by the old forces, eliminate it with righteous thoughts, and firmly base everything on the Fa-rectification.
In addition, during Fa-rectification we need to continually let go of our human notions and attachments and raise our xinxing at the same time. The following are some of our shortcomings that we have noticed.
- On the first day, when we discovered that we had a very good lawyer, our attachment of zealotry surfaced. Things then started to change. The lawyer appeared to lose focus and cross-examined the witnesses without a clear direction.
- The witnesses made many false statements, which could easily be refuted with photographic evidence. Even so, we were still quite perturbed.
- When the prosecutor appeared to be very capable and even crafty, we were worried that we might lose the case. We overestimated their strength and underestimated our own.
- When we yearned for the case to quickly conclude, the proceeding was extended. The witnesses also dragged on, giving irrelevant answers.
- When the judge responded favorably to the requests by our lawyer, we were ecstatic, hoping the judge would stand by us. As a result, he often favored the prosecution and even became quite aggressive towards our lawyer, warning him to stop his line of questioning lest it be detrimental to his clients. Our lawyer conceded and said that in his 30-year career as a lawyer, he had never encountered something like that.
- Since we had not fundamentally realized our problems, we were asked to keep watching the videotape recorded by the police at the site. For practitioners who watched the videotapes, it was very hard to keep their hearts unaffected when seeing fellow practitioners who did not handle things well according to requirements of the Fa.
Therefore, we realized that nothing should disturb our hearts, whether it targeted our individual cultivation or the Fa-rectification. We should steadfastly validate Dafa, clarify the truth, while at the same time continually raising our xinxing.
(To be continued)
