(Clearwisdom.net) Everything we Dafa practitioners do is for the purpose of saving sentient beings. But in the past months, some practitioners in China have been puzzled and did not know what "measurement" to use in order to judge whether sentient beings have been saved or not: would the criterion be how much they knew of the truth about Dafa? Or whether they have published the statement on the website to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Youth League and the Young Pioneers League (the "three withdrawal statements")?

These practitioners are thinking: If the sentient beings have already known the truth about Dafa, but have not yet published the "three withdrawal statements," can they be saved? If one can only be saved by publishing the statements online, then why do people need to understand the truth about Dafa? The practitioners who raised these questions think that once they have an answer to the issue of "how the sentient beings are counted as being saved," then it could be known who has been saved, and they could therefore better manage their truth-clarification activities. For instance, they feel that if someone is saved, then it is not necessary to spend any more time with them, or they will know which group of people needs more truth-clarification and which group of people can be put aside for the moment, and so on.

Some other practitioners said that until now, they still haven't been able to understand the true connotation, from the Fa, of Master's teaching:

"If a person doesn't withdraw from it, he is a part of it, one of its particles, and a part of its composition, and he will become a target for elimination by all gods." ("Turning the Wheel Towards the Human World")

How can one be counted as having withdrawn? What shall we do to help people to withdraw from the CCP?

Surprisingly, being puzzled in this regard has caused some practitioners to temporarily lose the motivation to clarify the truth about Dafa. Among them, quite a large number of practitioners have focused their efforts on distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party and helping people to withdraw from the party. Of course they did it rationally and identified themselves as ordinary people. They think that this is the most urgent matter at this moment, that it is no longer important to clarify the truth about Dafa. Some even have stopped clarifying the truth about Dafa.

Actually, more practitioners in China will know the answer to these questions when their hearts are calm, especially those practitioners who have a solid foundation in cultivation. Over the past few months, many articles have been published on the Minghui website [the Chinese version of Clearwisdom] for discussion concerning these questions and from different perspectives. But some practitioners' ways of thinking have been too rigid. For example, when something happens, they would regard only this thing as being important and other things as not being important; or, they even thought that other issues cannot exist at the same time as whatever new event or situation has just occurred. Alternatively, they always look at things in an isolated way. They were unable to find the direct answers that they'd been pursuing from certain words or sentences, and day after day, they would become more worried and nervous.

Actually, such puzzles could not appear if we would look at things with our divine side. It is our human way of thinking and our being inoculated in the CCP's culture for such a long time that has caused us to look at things in such a way. Since it has been exposed, we should let go of it, rather than continue to think and pursue by complying with such things. The Gods look at things in a harmonized way and beyond human notions; they look at things beyond human matters. When something happens, if we look at its fundamental nature, we will not change or get puzzled because the environment changes and new situations appear.

Concerning the question of how the sentient beings can be counted as being saved, it is not possible that a practitioner who is persistent in "Fa" study would not know the answer. From Master's teaching, I understand that a sentient being's attitude toward Dafa during the Fa-rectification is fundamental for people to finally be saved.

What Master taught is the Fa, rather than the specific answer to a particular human problem or task. Why did the Nine Commentaries appear and why are they being actively promoted through the overseas media and non-government channels in China? Isn't this a change of the cosmos? This is exactly what is needed for saving the sentient beings and letting people know that Dafa is good.

Dafa practitioners have been clarifying the truth for several years, and many people have understood the truth and have therefore built a bright future for themselves. But there are still a lot of people who have been deeply poisoned by the CCP culture and who have been heavily blocked; therefore they do not want to listen to the truth-clarification at all. Just as Master has taught in "We Are Not 'Getting Political',"

"That has resulted in Falun Gong students indeed seeing, as they go about exposing the persecution and clarifying the facts, that some Chinese won't listen one bit to what they have to say. Those people truly believe that what the Party says is surely correct, that what the Communist government says are surely correct, and they believe that Falun Gong really is as the CCP portrays it."

The number of such people is not small, and many of them have a very high foundation for cultivation. As we want to save them, we surely should spend more effort in targeting those specific obstacles.

Only after clearly realizing the CCP's control of people, will these individuals have the chance of making their own choices (instead of letting the evil spirit possession of the CCP make the choices for them). Isn't it true that the Nine Commentaries is a powerful weapon that breaks through the obstacles that prevent these people from knowing the truth? The withdrawal from the CCP also serves the purpose of urging these people to make the right choices. Therefore, having people read the Nine Commentaries is not the sole purpose of our clarifying the truth, neither is the withdrawal from the CCP. The purpose is to let people, through their actions of withdrawing from the CCP, express their attitudes of being determined to break away from the evil Party's control. After people really choose to read the Nine Commentaries and withdraw from the CCP, the gods will eliminate the evil party's elements in their minds and the evil Communist spirit that controls them. Then these people will be able to return to their original state. When they see the truth-clarification materials the next time, they will be able to make their own choice, based on their own conscience of whether to accept the truth or not, which is their own true choice.

After many people read the Nine Commentaries and declared their withdrawal from the CCP, without the need of further explanations, they can easily accept the truth of Dafa, assuming an attitude that is quite different from what they had before. This is the power of the Nine Commentaries. Therefore, having people read the Nine Commentaries is not the goal, but instead is an important step in eliminating the obstacles that hinder the salvation of people. If someone has read the Nine Commentaries and also has withdrawn from the CCP, but still does not acknowledge the fact that Dafa is good, is it that he or she is among those who, because of their own choices, "pass this disaster and fail to pass another one?" For these people, we can only try our best to save them but without being attached to the results. Master has mentioned the celestial phenomenon in which " the entire population is going to step forward to oppose the persecution" I believe that when the cosmic change reaches its climax, every ordinary person will need to make his or her ultimate choice in front of Dafa. As for the whole society standing up to oppose the persecution, this is a celestial phenomenon and it surely will occur when the time is due. By doing what we are doing now, that is, breaking through the obstacles and clarifying the truth about Dafa and the persecution, we are cooperating with the development of the cosmic change.

When new situations become known, it will increase our current workload in Fa-rectification but at the same time, make what we have been doing become even more effective. Whether it is clarifying the truth or breaking up interferences, all of this is not the work of ordinary people and cannot be perceived with the mentality of ordinary people.

In different periods of time, what Dafa disciples need to do will change. Dafa disciples need to do all the work at the same time, in different aspects, with different emphases, and in different ways.

In July 2001, Master mentioned in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference,"

"You are one body, just like Master's gong. Of course you and gong aren't the same thing, I'm just giving an example. It's just like my gong, which does different things at the same time. Some of it is continuously charging through the immense cosmos with tremendous force into the microcosm, toward what's higher and broader; the force is so massive and the speed is so fast, transcending all times as it rectifies the colossal firmament. Some of it, after this charging, eliminates the sinful karma of the beings at different levels and balances all the interwoven relationships among beings at different levels. Some of it assimilates beings, and some of it is repositioning beings. It's doing different things even at the beings' most microcosmic levels, at every level. Some of it does things in low dimensions, some of it protects the students, and some of it is cleaning out the evil--every facet of my gong is doing these things. In other words, one body doesn't necessarily do one thing. But no matter what you do, you need to be worthy of being called a Dafa disciple." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" in Guiding the Voyage)

Whenever we gain a new understanding of the Fa, it is because we have met the xinxing requirements for Dafa practitioners and have no pursuits. It is the Buddhas, Taos, and Gods in the book (Zhuan Falun) who have revealed the meaning of the Fa to us. It is not like we "became smart" or "know it after thinking about it," as is believed by ordinary people. So it is very important for us to always cultivate ourselves, pay attention and to search within ourselves in the face of conflicts. We cannot hold very strong attachments and human notions to pursue and gain more understanding of the Fa; when we hold such strong attachments, how could the gods reveal the meaning of the Fa to us? Only when we do not use our pre-formed ways of thinking, and when we let go of our attachment of wanting others to think of things according to our own mindsets, can we truly understand the nature of the issues.

April 12, 2005