(Clearwisdom.net) In the "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, USA," Teacher said,
"Then think about it: could the human society, and everything that we can see, exist by chance? Even each Dafa disciple's every move, every action, every word, and even the questions you ponder, none of it is that simple. In the future you'll see that everything was very carefully arranged. But it's not me who arranged this, it's the old forces who did."
If cultivators cannot let go of their attachments and their thoughts comply with the old forces' tests, then they can use this as an excuse to hold on to you. You will have to go through their destructive tests because they arranged this for you. Practitioners however, can negate the arrangement by following Teacher's request to do the three things well.
Practitioners have learned many lessons. For example, when a practitioner was brutally tortured in the brainwashing center and the guard asked her, "Do you hate me?" the practitioner replied, " No, without you, I could not reach consummation." By saying that, the practitioner consented to being persecuted. Similarly, some practitioners have said that learning Dafa is like having insurance. As a result, the old forces had a few practitioners killed in order to test their beliefs and to see how firm they were and what kind of attachments they needed to eliminate. Some practitioners signed agreements with the old forces long ago, and they only want to preserve their old universe according to their old principles—out of selfishness. Yet, what Teacher has arranged for us is to be totally selfless. This is the cultivation path for the new beings in the new universe. During the process of rectifying the universe, the old forces not only hold on tightly to their old principles but also prevent practitioners from walking their cultivation paths, which have been arranged by Teacher. Consequently, practitioners have to face those destructive tests presented by the old forces. In retrospect, we cannot to be sure whether all the incidents, which happened during our cultivation before the persecution started, were arranged by Teacher or by the old forces. Sometimes Teacher has also used the arrangements by the old forces to test whether we have steady hearts. For that reason, every test or tribulation we encounter is the key for our elevation or falling down.
After the persecution started, all the tribulations were arranged by the old forces, and this is in reality what we call "persecution." We have been confused life after life, and our human notions are also a tremendous burden. It is also the arrangement of the old forces that we cannot eliminate the root cause of our human notions, and at certain times we may acquire some bad thoughts. Due to various factors, the old forces may use the excuse of helping us to get rid of our attachments and then proceed to persecute us. Therefore, we are now aware that we cannot overlook any of our thoughts or moves.
At the present time, whenever someone is being persecuted, we will say, "That is the bad deed of the old forces. Let us send forth righteous thoughts and negate it." Why do some practitioners immediately realize the problem with the old forces and disintegrate them whenever they run into difficulties and manage to get out of the situation in a relatively short time, whereas others fall deeper into the evil trap? I would like to share my understanding from my own experience.
In human society, when we want to learn something, we talk about theories and definitions. We apply them to resolve a set of problems, and then we digest what we have learned. When we turn in our work, we then know how well we have learned it.
When we cultivate, we study the Fa, recite the Fa, and thoroughly understand the principles. Every day we run into problems, such as how can we deal with relatives, neighbors, and co-workers? How do we deal with fame, personal interests, and sentimentalities? What kind of notions do we develop under those various circumstances? Particularly after the persecution started, when so many different incidents occurred, how did we deal with them? Those were the questions, and we eventually found the answers one by one.
At the beginning, we used human notions to deal with them, but we slowly replaced human notions with the Fa principles and god-like notions. Without being aware of it, we became more and more compassionate, and even people around us told us that we were now quite different from the way we were previously. Thus, at the same time we also validated Dafa. Even though we have accomplished this, we are still far from reaching consummation. The requirements we have to follow according to the Fa are getting higher and higher. The lower level Fa can no longer help us cultivate, therefore, we continue to understand the Fa from the standpoint of the Fa. In other words, we need to continuously assimilate to the requirements from higher levels. If we don't have a thorough understanding of the Fa, we may not know how to look at a problem from the Fa's standpoint and not know how to solve our problem within the Fa.
Actually, Teacher told us a long time ago that whenever we have any problems, the answers can be found in the Fa. In the book Zhuan Falun and the chapter about martial arts qigong, it explains about warding off someone's attack, and Teacher said that when you punch someone, you do not need to direct qi or think about it as the gong will be there already.
Now when the guards in the prisons attack practitioners, if the practitioners have no fear in their hearts and think of what Teacher said, then they can ward off the attack with their gong. Not only will they not feel the pain but they also can restrain the guards. If they think that the attack will hurt, then they will surely feel the pain. It is like the story about a practitioner who carried a sack of books. When Teacher said that the sack would not sink if the practitioner believed in Teacher, then the sack did not sink. If we don't quite believe in Teacher, our notions will affect the end result. Some practitioners deny it when being told that they are not steadfast enough. Whether we are steadfast or not is measured not by what we say but by what we do.
If we do not negate the old forces with every thought but only from at a superficial level, the old forces will know it. They know that our notions do not come from the Fa, and they can take advantage of our loopholes and continue to persecute us.
I believe that this is the reason why some practitioners have to stay in the evil environment for a long time. If we just read the book every day but do not recognize our omissions and do not negate the arrangements from within, we are actually still in line with the old forces, even though Teacher totally negates the arrangements. As a result, we are controlled by the old forces. Since we want it, Teacher can neither interfere nor help us to eliminate those notions. Some practitioners realized, "Don't be fooled by the rampant evil forces in China, as what you see is only superficial, and it can only create an illusion for human minds. If practitioners have strong righteous thoughts, this illusion will vaporize in a brief moment."
In his comments at the Australia conference, Teacher stressed again the importance of studying the Fa diligently. Where do righteous thoughts come from? If we do not have a good understanding of the Fa, we will be confused when confronted with problems.
The old forces, however, still watch us around the clock, and they are waiting for any omission or confusion in our notions. They mislead us and create an illusion for us. It is easy to say we have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, but it is quite difficult to carry them out during our daily lives. In order to prevent the old forces from interfering with us, we must have a solid understanding of the Fa.
After more than ten years of cultivation, I realize that I seldom take detours because I have had a solid understanding of the Fa principles since before the persecution began. Furthermore, when I study the Fa, I am looking for a deeper understanding and not how fast I can read it. When talking about progress in our cultivation, we are actually looking at two things: one is our xinxing and the other our understanding of the Fa. If we cannot make progress in understanding the Fa, then we cannot upgrade our xinxing either. One practitioner said, "We need to think from within the standpoint of the Fa. It is not because we did not do enough, but because we did not cultivate enough."
Looking back, many practitioners who rarely took a detour share the same opinion. They have a solid understanding of the Fa principles: "Don't follow someone else, we need to take the Fa as our Teacher." I want to ask my fellow practitioners, "Have you studied the Fa today?" You say, "Yes." I ask you again, "You said that you studied the Fa, but have you gained more understanding of the Fa today?" So, now you know a few more things. You not only have to study the Fa, but also have to gain more understanding. Studying the Fa and gaining more understanding of the Fa are two different things. Only when you can study the Fa with a calm heart can you gain a better understanding. After you understand the Fa, you must apply it to your daily life and act according to the requirements of the Fa. Otherwise you are just studying theories.
Upholding our xinxing is another matter. We do not always live up to our expectations on everything, and we sometimes make mistakes, some big, others small. All those become excuses for the old forces to harm us. The old forces have put a well-designed dial within our bodies, and it is turning every minute. We need to negate their design and pay attention to our every thought. If we wait until they take advantage of our loopholes, we will then realize that it is too late for regret. We are facing the last critical moments on our cultivation path, and the old forces indeed want to destroy us. Some practitioners realize that the tidal wave of Fa-rectification has broken through the blockade of the old forces, and the evil forces even disrespect the old principles. That is why the CCP adopts such brutal measures like harvesting organs from living practitioners. The old forces want to persecute Dafa practitioners whether they have attachments or not, but practitioners can escape such harm if they eliminate any loopholes.
I hope our fellow practitioners will find ways to correct themselves and change their notions. The end of the persecution depends on our elevation and understanding of the Fa as one whole body. Let's move forward diligently!
