(clearwisdom.net) There have been quite a few fellow practitioners sharing their thoughts and opinions about how the evil old forces exploit the remaining attachments of Dafa practitioners to damage relationships among practitioners. In general, there are two arguments. One group of practitioners maintains that no one but Teacher has the right to examine us with our remaining attachments. Another group of practitioners thinks that if we have no attachments, the old forces won't be able to exploit them with the excuse of examination. They regard the former argument as irrational, or as a way to avoid seeking inward.

I am for the former argument. I don't believe the old forces have any right to examine us through our attachments, especially in the form of persecution or damaging the relationships among fellow practitioners. (I am by no means saying that we should be oblivious to our attachments, or that we should not seek inward for areas of improvement.) Teacher said, "Over the course of prehistory, everything of yours was being created, all along, according to how magnificent the disciples would be in the Fa-rectification period. So, it was arranged that when you reach the standard for ordinary Consummation, you still have, in the human world, all kinds of ordinary human thoughts and karma. The purpose is so that while doing Fa-rectification things you bring in, through your clarifying the truth and for the consummation of your paradises, beings that can be saved. As you consummate your own paradises you are, at the same time, eliminating your last karma, gradually getting rid of your human thoughts, and truly stepping forward from humanness." (From "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples." in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

I believe it is Teacher's very arrangement that we have ordinary human thoughts so that we may stay in the human realm to assist in Fa-rectification. The very reason why we can remain in the human realm doing Fa-rectification work is that we have some remaining human thoughts and karma. Without any human thoughts or karma we would have to leave the human realm for the more appropriate realms of enlightened beings. However, the old forces have been insisting on "examinations" for Dafa practitioners through our remaining human thoughts and karma in the form of physical and mental torture. Such examinations directly damage Fa-rectification work, and cause interference in the salvation of sentient beings. Such examinations are by all accounts persecution against Dafa and Dafa practitioners.

Everyone more or less has some attachments, or a demonic side. I consider the old forces brutal and evil in that they would spare no expense in magnifying Dafa practitioners' remaining attachments, to the point where the demonic side of a person fully takes over this person's entire being and makes this person go to the opposite of the Fa. Who harbors not even a trace of evil? Yet who out of his own free will want to succumb to the evil inside of him to the point where he is fully controlled by it, to the point where he stands on the opposite side of Dafa? Yet this is exactly what the old forces want to do. To me, this is clearly a manifestation of their brutal nature.

In the labor camps, the evil old forces spare no expense to dissolve Dafa practitioners' faith in Falun Dafa. The old forces force Dafa practitioners to commit such sins as cursing Dafa and Teacher. The brainwashed practitioners are then driven to spread poisonous deceit to determined practitioners in jail. I don't believe any type of attachment justifies this crime. As for the people who are attached to money, the old forces lure them to join the persecution against Dafa with the promise of economic benefits. Germany, the Icelandic government, and large U.S. corporations all fell victim to this lure. For people who are attached to social status or fame, the old forces threaten to remove them from their current positions in order to coerce them into joining the persecution against Dafa. Many of the officials in the Chinese Communist Party, whether they were high- or low-ranking, fell prey to this threat.

In a notorious labor camp in Northeast China, the police ordered a common criminal to train Dafa practitioners to march in military style. It was essentially a form of physical punishment and persecution. Prior to the marching training, this person learned many truths about Falun Gong, and agreed that Dafa practitioners had admirable moral values. Compared to other criminals in the labor camp, he was most promising in acquiring salvation. However, he found nothing wrong with administering physical punishment because he had been a military policeman before he was incarcerated.

In the Chinese military, corporal punishment is dealt out regularly, and whoever falls behind while marching is often kicked in the leg. From the perspective of an ordinary person, he did not realize that it was a form of persecution to force Dafa practitioners to march. Neither did he realize that he had committed a crime by kicking Dafa practitioners in the legs. [Note: In the Chinese military it is not unusual to apply severe physical punishment. Although he esteemed Dafa practitioners for their moral values, he did not think there was anything wrong with kicking whoever fell behind in the legs. Although kicking people in the legs is apparently a perverted practice in the Chinese military, it was the only practice known to him.]

He continued to kick a Dafa practitioner until the practitioner became crippled. As we all know, a most horrible consequence awaits him if he does not try to make up for his crime. On the other hand, does the punishment fit the crime? He was simply holding fast to the belief that one must march in a certain manner in military processions. The old forces exploited his attachment to order and use him to persecute Dafa practitioners. He was completely ignorant of the crime that he had committed. The old forces exploit each and every flaw in a practitioner or ordinary person to persecute Dafa and, therefore, forever ruin the chance of salvation for people with even the slightest attachment.

The person mentioned in the previous example was not the only being whose opportunity for salvation has been ruined by the old forces. A lot of seemingly vicious people were driven by the old forces to persecute Dafa practitioners. I am not trying to defend their murderous acts, though. Master said, "Actually, people have to pay for whatever they do. It's an enormous sin to do harmful things to Dafa." (From "Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference") During the Fa-rectification, Teacher offers an opportunity to all sentient beings to reposition themselves. In contrast, the old forces are trying to ruin all opportunities for salvation of sentient beings.

Let's talk about Liu, one of the two murderers of Chen Zixiu, a Dafa practitioner in Weifang. That very evening right before Liu beat Chen to death, Liu sat on a bench outside our prison cell smoking in sadness. Slowly Liu began to sob and begged us to renounce Falun Gong, "Please just say you will renounce Falun Gong. I really do not want to hit any Dafa practitioner. I really don't want to." He kept murmuring these words in tears. I saw the cigarette trembling in his hand. He kept begging us to make a compromise, and admitted he really did not want to hit anyone. He had to drink a lot to numb his conscience before he was able to lift a hand toward any Dafa practitioner. That evening he drank excessively until he was completely unaware of what he was doing --- then he beat Chen Zixiu to death.

After Liu beat Chen Zixiu to death, he fell into an agitated and terrified state. Once, a florescent light suddenly went off, and he began to tremble uncontrollably while sitting in the dark room. He had not originally wanted to persecute Dafa disciples. But the old forces saw his human sentiments, exploited his slavery mentality, cowardice, and viciousness, and sentenced him to hell. After Liu murdered Chen Zixiu, the Weifang Police Station fired him to avoid the legal consequences. Liu was not only fired by the police station, but was also fired from his regular post. [Liu had been temporarily transferred from a local factory to the police station to help persecute Dafa practitioners.] He lost his jobs and no one knows his current whereabouts.

These examples reveal the extreme brutal nature of the old forces. The old forces' selfishness and their attachments to the laws of the old universe are the reasons why they have become so cruel and heartless. In contrast to Master's determination to save sentient beings at all costs, the old forces are determined to ruin the opportunity of salvation for each and every sentient being at all costs. However, some Dafa practitioners even tacitly agree to a legitimacy of the brutal "exams" by the old forces, which manifest in the form of death threats, physical and mental abuses, economic extortion, and other means of persecution. These Dafa disciples usually think, "That the old forces are able to force persecution upon you indicates that you still have attachments. If you don't have any attachment, the old forces will not be able to exploit your attachments." This apparently condones the brutal nature of the old forces, or is in agreement with the laws of the old universe.

I have a question for those practitioners who agreed to such exams. Isn't the person who crippled a Dafa practitioner in the example I gave earlier pitiable? The old forces exploited his attachment by arranging for him to kick the practitioner's leg until the practitioner became crippled. The brainwashed Dafa practitioners are even more pitiable. It is a great sin when the brainwashing camp staff attacks disciples. However, it is an even greater sin when those brainwashed practitioners are driven by the old forces to attack Teacher. Forcing brainwashed Dafa practitioners to attack Teacher is much more brutal and insidious than having an ordinary person attack Dafa practitioners. What makes us criticize the practitioners' attachments, and consent to the old forces' persecution of Dafa practitioners with attachments? Is this not an implicit acceptance of the brutal nature of the old forces, or of the laws of the old universe?

With that in mind, we should stop agreeing to the laws [and arrangements] of the old forces. I concur with a fellow practitioner who said, "Even if we have attachments, the old forces are not entitled to persecute Dafa practitioners to examine our attachments. No one is entitled to examine us, but our Teacher." I don't find it irrational to deny persecution by the old forces even if we do have some remaining attachments.

A Dafa disciple should always search within for areas of improvement. We do not search within any less when there is no persecution by the old forces. There is no cause-effect relationship between the persecution by the old forces and our searching within. But I can tell that the "searching within" mentioned in some fellow practitioners' articles is not the true meaning of "searching within" required by the current situation in the universe. The current celestial situation does not use "searching within" as an escape from the mission to search within to deny the arrangement of the old forces to assist Master in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings.

Master has also said, "A person--no matter who he is--must himself pay for all of the bad things he has done in the world." (From "Drive Out Interference" in Essentials For Further Advancement II) I now have a new understanding of these words, as well as of Master's enormous compassion. Since Master has already pointed out the severe consequences for those people who damage Dafa, we should deny and eradicate the arrangements by the old forces in order to save sentient beings. We must destroy the old forces' arrangements to control the results of Fa-rectification. We should prevent those practitioners with attachments from being exploited by the old forces. We should deter them before they ruin themselves by damaging Dafa, to alter their fortune before the old forces get to them.

It is important to deny the old forces' arrangements in our mind. Without such understanding one cannot truly fulfill what Teacher requires of us, which includes studying the Fa, sending righteous thoughts, and clarifying the truth. If we fail to deny the old forces' arrangements, we will be forever limited to individual cultivation and will not keep pace with Fa-rectification.

(From: http://www.pureinsight.org/sci/sci/eng/newscontent.asp?ID=15035)