(Clearwisdom.net) The authorities in the Huludao area have continuously and regularly conducted brainwashing classes for quite a long time. Every now and then they abduct a new group of practitioners to send to their brainwashing class and attempt to force practitioners to give up their practice.
Teacher says:
"The students in regions that have been severely persecuted, or in places that have been seriously damaged, should really think about it: what's really going on?"
(From "Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
Reflecting inwards, it may seem that we have made progress along the path of Fa-rectification and that we have made improvements. If this is true, why have we failed to make a breakthrough in this regard?
I would like to take this occasion to present my preliminary analysis of what causes this problem. I hope that it will inspire everyone to reflect on this issue so that we can improve together and create better conditions for Fa-rectification in our area.
1. Insufficient Communication and Failing to Strive Forward Together
Judging from the overall situation in our area, practitioners who have advanced and progressed well are few in number among all those who have obtained the Fa. On the other hand, there are still quite a number of practitioners who are lagging behind in their understanding of Fa-rectification and who have not kept up with the progress of Fa-rectification.
What Teacher wants is "striving forward together" and "improving ourselves together". I personally think that the progress of Fa-rectification relies on the state of practitioners as a whole, instead of the diligence of a small group of practitioners.
I don't know if anyone has noticed a recent phenomenon: Practitioners who have been harassed or kidnapped for persecution are mostly those who have just stepped forward or who have not been so diligent. We have failed to "strive forward together" which is exactly where we have not done well.
Practitioners who are not as advanced should, of course, work hard to catch up. Practitioners who have done relatively better should take on even more responsibilities, and reach out and give practitioners who have failed to keep up a helping hand. We are often busy distributing truth-clarification material, when in fact maybe we should share experiences more often and motivate everyone to move up together.
For example, certain practitioners who are not that well-educated may not have a thorough understanding after reading a Minghui article, where a face-to-face sharing of understanding might have an immediate effect. Every practitioner wishes for improvement, it's only that we haven't quite fulfilled our responsibility in this respect and have not done well. Therefore the whole body has been affected.
Regarding the practitioners who stepped forward late, we should not think it is good enough that they return to Fa-rectification cultivation and then we stop talking or listening to them. We should have contact with them, show care for their state of being and communicate with them. They may not be mature in many areas and lack experience. In particular, they lack awareness or a clear understanding of elements that interfere with Fa-study and striving forward. As a result, they may be diligent for a while, and then slack off for some time under the influence of interference. Evil influences often make their move while they slack off. We should assume more responsibility with regard to this problem.
In terms of communication, we practitioners form one body. Therefore, we should be able to communicate and share experiences without obstacles. Evil interference prevents us from forming a cohesive body, communicating or sharing. They separate us in other dimensions. In this dimension they use force and great pressure to stop us from contacting each other. By taking the initiative to contact each other, we are actually breaking the separation created by the evil. Once we form an indestructible single body, the evil will no longer be capable of making their move on individuals.
The inability of those who were taken to brainwashing classes to resist the evil is also a reflection of our inability to form one body well in our area. In this case, gaps exist in other dimensions that we should have long eliminated and broken through. Even if practitioners in brainwashing classes are detained in solitary confinement, but we manage to eliminate partitions in other dimensions, we can still form together as one body in the other dimensions.
2. Busy Doing Things While Neglecting Fa-study, Sending Righteous Thoughts and Genuine Cultivation in Daily Life
Some of the practitioners who were kidnapped recently have done very well at clarifying the truth, but have not done the other two things so well, allowing the evil to take advantage of their shortcomings. Teacher has talked about the importance of Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts many times. Teacher stresses their importance in almost every lecture, perhaps implying that we have not been doing well all along.
Regardless of how much work we have done, if we don't study the Fa, we are simply completing a job like any ordinary person. Even if we have done a lot of work, it doesn't mean that we have assimilated to the Fa.
Genuine cultivation is also very important. After being kidnapped, a fellow practitioner summed it up: The level of his Fa-study and sending righteous thoughts seemed to be fine. However, he created a loophole by falling to an ordinary person's level and getting into conflicts with his family members and others. Recently when I studied Falun Gong, I came across the following words:
"Everyday people take insignificant friction and minor problems really seriously. They live for their ego and tolerate nothing. They will dare to do anything when they are angered to an unbearable point. Yet as a practitioner you will find the things that people take seriously to be very, very trivial--even too trivial--because your goal is extremely long-term and far-reaching. You will live as long as this universe. Then think about those things again: It doesn't matter if you have them or not. You can put them all behind you when you think from a broader perspective." (Falun Gong)
In fact, if our minds are on the Fa, personal tests and tribulations will not affect our minds so much or appear to be so difficult to pass.
Another very important aspect is to read the articles on the Clearwisdom website.
One of the important cultivation forms Teacher has left us is the Fa-conference. In addition, Teacher has many times affirmed the importance of the positive guiding role of the Clearwisdom website. The Clearwisdom website is just like a big Fa-conference and reading Clearwisdom articles is just like attending a Fa-conference and listening to fellow practitioners' understandings. Fa-truths that we have not enlightened to, fellow practitioners' touching righteous thoughts and actions as well as experiences and lessons they have gained at a great price can all enable us to better strive forward, and take fewer detours. Each article is the result of a fellow practitioner's painstaking effort. By reading the Clearwisdom articles carefully, we are demonstrating a correct state and realm of humbleness, as well as showing respect to others. There is no excuse for not taking it seriously.
3. Failing to Resist and Oppose the Evil Thoroughly
There are still some people who, upon being abducted, lack righteous thoughts and therefore are concerned with how it will affect their friends and relatives. Other reasons for the persecution's escalation may include that practitioners are scared that if they resist, their tormentors would be angry, or they may have an attitude of indifference to the persecution.
Every one of our righteous thoughts and every little bit of refusing to cooperate, bit by bit, will eliminate the evil that persecutes us and accumulate positive substances. Once these positive substances have accumulated somewhat, we will certainly be able to break away with righteous thoughts. Of course, not cooperating with the evil should come from the bottom of our hearts, and should not simply be a superficial pretense, or it will not have any effect.
4. After a Brainwashing Class Started, Practitioners Outside Did Not Strengthen Their Righteous Thoughts Enough
Upon hearing that a brainwashing class is about to start, everyone does their best to send righteous thoughts. However, once the class has actually started, practitioners stopped taking this task seriously. In this case, the real culprit is actually the selfish mentality. Their sending of righteous thoughts was mainly for their own good. Therefore, once they felt that they were safe, their sending of righteous thoughts was not as good.
From another perspective, does having avoided arrest mean that it is not our problem? If we always send forth our best righteous thoughts to help others in a brainwashing class, it would not be so easy to arrange brainwashing classes continuously and regularly. If we persist on continually doing so in this positive state, eventually brainwashing classes will close down. Wouldn't this be a victory for every one of us? Our inability to consider others' things as our own and to truly form one whole body is something our detractors hope to see most, because they will be able to persecute us one by one, at will.
Every time we try our best to consider fellow practitioners' things as ours, this in itself is rectifying ourselves, cultivating ourselves and enabling ourselves to gradually reach the standard of the new cosmos.
In the end I would like to call on all Dafa practitioners to send powerful righteous thoughts to completely eliminate everything that persecutes Dafa practitioners and to help practitioners who have been illegally kidnapped to break away with righteous thoughts.
I hope fellow practitioners can correct and supplement the above understandings.
