(Clearwisdom.net) I first would like to make a statement: I'd like to use the story of "The Old Foolish Man Removes the Mountains" to share some of my personal views. However, since it's not a phrase in Dafa, we can't be restricted by its content. Our Dafa disciples should strictly take the Fa as teacher.
When clarifying the truth and eliminating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture, we often hear this: the CCP is too powerful. You are too weak. Just take it easy. Whenever I face situations like this, I think of the story of "the Old Foolish Man Removes the Mountains." The story was about the Old Foolish Man who had the Taihang and Wangwu mountains right in front of his house. The Old Foolish Man discussed this with his family and decided to build a road in between the mountains. Although it seemed impossible, they still started doing it. Another old man, known as the Aged Wise Fellow, didn't think they could succeed because the project was too big in scope. But the Old Foolish Man still believed in his own reasoning and continued working on it. His indomitable spirit moved the gods, who split open the mountains in the twinkling of an eye.
I think this story is very comprehensive. But the evil CCP destroyed the traditional culture and for the past decades the meaning of the story has been totally reversed. Through clarifying the truth, Dafa practitioners can restore its original true meaning to serve Dafa. Today's people often don't think we can be successful in truth clarification and our efforts against the persecution--just like the Aged Wise Fellow didn't think the Old Foolish Man could move the mountains. This is the limitation of the wisdom of non-practitioners. They don't realize the principle that those who follow the Tao will receive help from gods. We can help strengthen people's righteous thoughts. Because the Old Foolish Man had firm belief, the gods helped him accomplish the task. Currently, it doesn't seem like our righteous goals are easily reachable, but this is only a surface manifestation. In fact, there is gods' help. The human beings' efforts are just a small part of it. But the humans need to show their attitudes and make the effort, because it's all up to the heart.
When clarifying the truth, we often face some deceived people who use all kinds of excuses to refuse to listen to the truth. Some even try to make excuses for the CCP. Sometimes we might think about giving up. But if we think about the "Old Foolish Man" "removing the mountains," how could we feel discouraged, even with Dafa practitioners' power? Lots of these people are still savable. Through our experiences, we have gradually realized that it might take some people a long time to finally understand the truth. You might not see an effect immediately, but the truth was instilled into their thoughts. With the advancement of Fa-rectification, it will start functioning at some point. However, this is actually a process of testing Dafa practitioners' xinxing. When we pay attention to only the surface effects, we often feel that we haven't done our best when seeing they still haven't changed. This affects our confidence. If we firmly believe in the power of Dafa (not the human factors), even if we can't completely eliminate the buried factors right at the time, they will be eliminated later. We shouldn't be affected by people's behavior. If we act like the Aged Wise Fellow who laughed at the Old Foolish Man, and only pay attention to the surface form, we will be viewing what's in front of us as a huge mountain and it will be extremely difficult to eliminate it.
I'll use my own experience as an example. In the beginning, whenever I mentioned the truth of the persecution of Dafa, people didn't want to listen. In their opinion, it seemed that I was asking for persecution, and if I would just enjoy the "good life" there wouldn't be any trouble. Their thoughts were not open at all, and I was very discouraged. Later, my thoughts became determined and firm. Some of the people around me were sent to monitor me, so I took them as the breakthrough point and took advantage of the opportunities. I tactfully told them that this kind of monitoring was illegal and I could sue them in the future. If due to the monitoring my persecution worsened, that would mean they were committing a crime. So I clarified truth like this to them, once, twice, three times, and gradually I noticed their changes. At last, a co-worker said that next time any managers were approaching, he would tell them I was busy. Surely there is a critical factor in their changes. The Fa-rectification is advancing. But the efforts of Dafa practitioners to clarify the truth should increase as well.
I also realized that our Dafa practitioners' validation of Dafa in the human world has improved today's situation. On the surface, this seems to be due to Dafa practitioners' anti-persecution efforts and truth clarification, and that it is done by the Dafa practitioners. But essentially it is being done by Master and it is due to the Fa-rectification eliminating the evils in other dimensions, plus Dafa practitioners' cooperation in the human world. This is what has improved the overall situation. The more Dafa practitioners as a whole body comply with Dafa, the easier and faster Fa-rectification will advance. Each time Dafa practitioners advance, the old forces lose more of their excuses for testing the practitioners and Master eliminates the evil factors interfering with Fa-rectification. The contributions of Dafa practitioners and the essentials of Fa-rectification advancement are not proportional. How could it be proportional when you compare the Old Foolish Man removing the mountains and the gods removing the mountains? As a matter of fact, what Dafa disciples show is the heart (of course, from Dafa's perspective, in this process Dafa is creating the future Buddhas, Taos and gods). Although essentially it is all done by Master and Dafa, the mighty power is given to Dafa disciples.
As Dafa disciples, we should always clearly understand that all changes in the human world are taking place because Dafa practitioners' hearts are on Dafa. If it's not related to Dafa, Dafa practitioners' truth clarification and anti-persecution efforts would not change anything in the human world. Similar to our own cultivation, if we are not focused on studying the Fa, it would just be like doing exercises. I understand that on a higher level, Dafa is a celestial phenomenon. Dafa practitioner's activities in the human world are just the necessary changes led by the celestial phenomena. Lots of practitioners are taking on lots of projects and their schedules are very tight. Often, they find it hard to concentrate when studying the Fa, doing exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts. Once we sit down, lots of the thoughts and ideas will surface.
Based on my personal experience, when we are not able to concentrate, this must be the result of our putting ourselves into a overly important position and leaving the Fa behind. The focus is always resolving the urgent issues in this dimension. The result is, the more you focus on the reality here, the busier you get. If we can realize that essentially it is Dafa that is functioning, and our role is just to harmonize with Dafa, we will be able to put Dafa in the very first position and concentrate. Not being able to calm down is caused by viewing ourselves as too important. We hope to contribute more to Dafa or are afraid that we won't contribute enough (Note: This is all my personal view. This doesn't represent other practitioners' point of view).
If all of our thoughts complied with the Fa, would we care so much about the temporary mental states of non-practitioners? No matter how much changes in the outside world, I obtain wisdom from Dafa. Gold will shine no matter where it is. When we truly realize that our good ideas all come from the Fa, we will naturally put Dafa in the most important position and we will be able to calm down. Otherwise, if we only emphasize the momentary surface wisdom, when the situation changes, because we don't have the Fa to rely on, none of those good ideas will work. It would be like how people laughed at the Old Foolish Man. Without gods' help, how could he remove the mountains?
Relating this to our cultivation, essentially it is Master who helps us strengthen and evolve our Gong. We are like the Old Foolish Man who has a wish. Of course, it's not totally the same. We as Dafa disciples should follow what Master teaches us. When our xinxing improves, Master will help us. Also, our attachments are like mountains. When our xinxing reaches a certain level, Master will remove the attachments for us.
From just talking about the story of "the Old Foolish Man Removes the Mountains," for human beings living in this world, it's inevitable that some activities would impact the world and some of them would most likely have negative effects. However, the gods pay attention to people's hearts. If human beings respect nature and the gods and control themselves based on the laws, the negative effects will be minimal. If it accumulates to a level where human beings cannot resolve things themselves, the gods will help out. Because human beings in this world create karma, as long as they are not out of control and respect the gods the way they are supposed to, if the mistakes are not intolerable, the gods will be tolerant and protect the human world from the larger perspective.
However, the evil CCP deliberately created a culture of abandoning reverence for gods and created a culture with a fighting nature. They completely reversed the meaning of the story of "the Old Foolish Man Removes the Mountains" and made people think of "Changing Nature." The evil party utilized human beings' selfish desires, and human beings' selfish desires strengthened the evil party. The overall behavior of the Chinese people is going against the universal cosmic law and is disappointing the gods. If human beings do not respect gods, why would the gods help people move the mountains? If human beings want to forcibly change nature, and the gods do not dispel the negative factors in other dimensions, the accumulated huge karma would be reflected in this dimension as unprecedented destruction in nature, and human beings would eventually bear the horrible consequences.
In today's Fa-rectification, non-practitioners are easily confused by the surface manifestations. Lots of people think this evil party is too powerful. Even if a few of us became better, it's no use. So it's better to just go with the flow. They don't realize the benevolence of the universal Dafa. In Fa-rectification, the only thing that matters is one's heart. I realized that Master has borne all karma for sentient beings and is waiting for them to change their human thoughts. Only if they can treat Dafa positively will their karma be eliminated. However, lots of them seem trapped deeply and don't understand the true meaning of the "Old Foolish Man Removes the Mountains." They can't directly link their own future with how they think about and treat Dafa.
In our cultivation and Fa-rectification, we can't give up when we encounter difficulties because Dafa is most powerful. We should respond with wisdom and courage when we have achievements because it's Dafa that gives us the honor and confidence. When clarifying the truth, we can use the culture Dafa created to encourage sentient beings' righteous thoughts and courage. It's not hard to move a mountain. As long as we have the heart, the gods will help for sure.
