(Clearwisdom.net)
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, but for a period of time in my cultivation I did not study the Fa. I realized that because of this I was not able to elevate my understanding beyond the human level. I was worried. How was I to understand the Fa from the Fa? I often asked myself this question after I was persecuted and stopped studying. When I resumed practicing in 2003 I gradually found an answer to my question.
When I started to practice Dafa, I was in the personal cultivation stage. Later I came to realize that I needed to assist Teacher with rectifying the Fa and do well with the three things that Teacher asked us to do. I also needed to correctly position myself and distinguish clearly in my mind whether I was cultivating for myself or for other people. For example, in the beginning I only tried to let my family members, my employer, and my friends know that I was a good person. I didn’t really realize my true mission of assisting Teacher with Fa-rectification. I only had a superficial understanding of the Fa and I was actually safeguarding notions in everyday people’s society.
Teacher said,
"I have long noticed that a few individuals do not have the heart to safeguard Dafa, but instead intend to safeguard certain things in human society. If you were an everyday person I would have no objections—it is certainly a good thing to be a good person who safeguards human society. But now you are a cultivator. From what standpoint you view Dafa is fundamental—this is also what I want to point out to you. During your cultivation practice, I will use every means to expose all of your attachments and dig them out at their roots." ("Digging out the Roots" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Teacher also said,
"I don’t emphasize any specific approach; I use various means to expose your deeply-concealed attachments and get rid of them." ("Digging out the Roots" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Yet, even today, there are some fellow practitioners that think distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and other truth-clarification materials means we were getting involved in politics.
About getting involved in politics, Teacher actually explained this very clearly in his articles. He said,
"Dafa disciples’ cultivation surpasses what is human, they are cultivators who have grasped the truths in higher realms, and what they understand transcends the realm of everyday people. Any understanding below the realm of the higher Fa-principles is no longer the Truth of the cosmos. Every Dafa disciple is clear about this in his cultivation, so even less should he mix everyday people’s politics into Fa-rectification." ("No Politics" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Here I’d like to remind those fellow practitioners who are still not clear about what constitutes getting involved in politics to carefully study this article of Teacher’s.
I still felt I hadn’t completely understood the Fa principle of completely denying the old forces’ arrangements. I didn’t know how to completely deny the old forces’ arrangements. I knew it was because I didn’t understand the Fa from the Fa. Therefore, I shared with fellow practitioners and we studied the Fa together, but I didn’t try to find the answer to my question. Gradually, I came to know that the old forces had made arrangements for even every one of our thoughts and actions. Therefore, if we studied the Fa with everyday people’s notions, we would be walking down the path arranged by the old forces. In that case, we didn’t understand the Fa from the Fa and we could only know the superficial meanings of the Fa. If we can understand the Fa from the Fa, we will be able to completely deny the old forces’ arrangements and our understanding will be a rational one.
For example, I used to have thoughts come into my mind saying that the police would illegally arrest me. I knew it was not a thought from my true self. However, this thought often came to my mind. I knew I could only remove this thought by understanding the Fa from the Fa. Therefore, I continued to study the Fa. Then I came to know that the reason I had that thought was because I had read a prophecy, and I remembered one thing from it which said that Falun Dafa disciples were bound to suffer from illegal imprisonment. Therefore, I thought it was a path that Dafa practitioners were supposed to walk down. In this way, I recognized the old forces’ arrangement. Yet I didn’t realize that all the things that happened before were based on the old cosmos’ principles, while we are assimilating to the new cosmos’ Fa and denying the old forces’ arrangements. I was walking down the path arranged by the old forces without realizing it. How dangerous! If I hadn’t become enlightened to this, I might have wondered why I was being persecuted when I was doing things according to the Fa! I might have developed attachments and complained about Teacher, giving the evil more excuses to persecute me.
In fact, Teacher has repeatedly talked about this in his lectures. But I simply didn’t become enlightened to what He said. I understood the Fa at a very shallow level with an everyday person’s sentimentality instead of from within the Fa. Here I’d like to remind my fellow practitioners to study the Fa more and pay more attention to understanding the Fa from the Fa. We can’t try to cover up our attachments with shallow understandings of the Fa. Otherwise, it will be very dangerous.
I also have a suggestion. We are still cultivating and therefore we all have all kinds of attachments and notions that were formed in our previous lives. However, we shouldn’t try to cover them up with excuses. My personal experience is that as long as we truly want to get rid of them and keep a thought of removing them during our Fa study and solid cultivation, Teacher will help us uncover those attachments and improve ourselves.
The above is my recent personal understandings. I found it difficult to describe them in words. Please correct me if I said anything inappropriate.